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Welcome, friend. I know that this life can be heavy and hard. My desire is that my words would bring you hope, healing, truth, and rest; that my words would be a reminder to you that God is good and you are not alone.

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What an incredible privilege to worship with our Italian brothers and sisters in Trieste. We might live across the world from each other, but we are united by the saving work of Christ on our behalf. We might speak different tongues, but we have the same joy and hope and faith. The global church is a truly beautiful thing.

Too often this is true of me. My thoughts get anxious and my mind gets worried and my heart feels burdened...and I realize at the root if it all is the disbelief of what I know to be true about God. I may be able to say that I know God’s character, but my burdened heart and my anxious thoughts reveal that I’m forgetting his merciful and kind character. I’m not remembering that he is sovereign and he has promised to be faithful. I need to be reminded again and again who God is and of who he has promised to be. Let’s believe and remember today.

We sat outside the café by our hotel, within view of Notre Dame, one of the world’s most famous Catholic cathedrals. Its rising buttresses and sweeping architecture intended to draw both the eye and the heart upward. A man came and sat at our small table with us. He was a local Parisan (a rarity, we were told), and he struck up a conversation. The subject turned to religion (as it often does when people ask what we do and Matthew shares that he’s a pastor), and the man talked on and on about his experience with Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. I didn’t understand all he said on the topic, but as he spoke and as I watched countless faces pass our little spot at the café, my heart grieved a bit. So many people. So many souls. How many of those faces have a certain and lasting hope? How many of those souls are secured in Christ? How many are searching for something, anything, to fill the void they feel? The population of evangelicals in France, I found, is only about 1.2%. I prayed silently for the evangelical church to continue to grow in France. I praised God silently for the work he is doing here through his church. What a privilege to be a small part of something so large and beautiful and wonderful. We stood up to leave, the burned roof of the cathedral catching my eye, and I remembered the words of my friend @jenoshman on the burning of Notre Dame in April: “Perhaps the Lord will allow beauty to rise from the literal ashes of Notre Dame. Perhaps our weeping will be turned to rejoicing. Perhaps as the cathedral is rebuilt, the true church will be revived. Perhaps our resurrection God will bring life from death in Paris, France.” Let it be so.

Who can help me convince Matthew that we need to move to Europe? 😆

Landed outside of Paris after a long sleepy flight, took a train to Notre-Dame, found a hotel with this dreamy view where we can hear a young man playing a violin on the street below. Now we’re grabbing some espresso at a local cafe so we can somehow keep our eyes open as we ride some scooters down to the Eiffel Tower tonight. Can somebody pinch me? I think I might be in a dream.

@makayla_emahiser and her husband have been such GIFTS to Matthew and I since we’ve moved to Colorado and now they’re welcoming a sweet new life into their family (aka our family - I’ve decided I’m unofficially going to share custody of her 🙃). What a joy to celebrate this wonderful little lady! 👶🏼💕

I'm realizing that gratitude starts with a small shift of the mind. It starts with a shift towards noticing. It starts with clearing out space in your mind and in your schedule for slowness and stillness. It starts with seeing, really seeing, and recognizing the gifts around you for what they are. Every breath in your lungs. Every color you see. Every smile from a stranger. Every sip of coffee. Every laugh. Every moment you've been given. They're all gifts. Beautiful intentional gracious gifts from a good God. Let's see them, savor them, and offer thanks to the One who has orchestrated it all. Some short and sweet thoughts on gratitude on the blog**

Just us. ft. a self timer, a new haircut, and a spontaneous date night.

I’ve been spending Monday nights for the last year with this group of women as we study the Bible together and it has been the most wonderful thing. The group has changed over the year as people have come and gone, but I’m so thankful for the place of safety and truth and love that I’ve found here. Tonight was my last night with this group since we’re shifting our focus from Parker to Castle Rock, where we’ll be church planting in September, and my heart is aching from all the bittersweet feelings. Truly, there is nothing more beautiful than studying the Word and growing in the Lord together. What a gift. Also ** peep our littlest and cutest member (and also the only boy we’ve ever let attend our study) **

Happy Friday morning! I read some books this month and posted some short reviews of them on the blog. The top two books in this picture were both SO GOOD and I recommend you read them RIGHT NOW. That’s all. ☺️

I guess I’m on a Hannah Hurnard kick lately. Maybe because her words just so beautifully sum up the surrender and beauty of the Christian life. Maybe because they say exactly what I’m needing to hear. But the high places of victory and union with Christ cannot be reached by any mental reckoning of self to be dead to sin, or by seeking to devise some way or discipline by which the will can be crucified. The only way is by learning to accept, day by day, the actual conditions and tests permitted by God, by a continually repeated laying down of our own will and acceptance of his as it is presented to us in the form of the people with whom we have to live and work, and in the things which happen to us. Every acceptance of his will becomes an altar of sacrifice, and every such surrender and abandonment of ourselves to his will is a means of furthering us on the way to the high places to which he desires to bring every child of his while they are still living on earth. #hindsfeetonhighplaces

Oh that I would be soft and moldable, like wax, able to shape to the imprint of God‘s name and character. May I be able, ready, eager, available to be made more like him.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”

1 Peter 1:3-4

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