Devotions

That's right - did you know the Bible likens followers of God to donkeys? These verses really stuck out to me recently and I've been noodling on them for a while now... These are God's words, speaking to Job in his distress: "Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied its ropes? I gave it the wasteland as its home, the salt flats as its habitat. It laughs at the commotion in the town; it does not hear a driver’s shout. It ranges the hills for its pasture and searches for any green thing." -Job 39: 5-8 I feel like the donkey in this passage is me - or what I aspire to be, anyway. God has already freed her from ropes and given her a home where she can "laugh at the commotion in town" and drown out the shouts of a driver. It's this beautiful picture of God's creature being freed from physical bondage but also freed from worry and concern for those that used to control her- she is free to range the hills and search for the good (green) things around...

 Here I sit, months after blogging about how I need to learn how to rest... with pneumonia. Forced to "rest" at home for about a week now, too weak to get out and do anything. I haven't been to work in 6 days, and I haven't had this awesome, rejuvenating period of rest, either. I just feel light-headed and nauseous and I have this annoying, gargling fluid in my lungs. It's not been any sort of "break" or "rest" from work, but instead, a forced period of doing nothing because I physically can't do anything. Walking up stairs feels like I ran four miles. And I'm not a runner. All of this is to say that if God wanted to force me to rest, He's accomplished that. I get the message. If I won't prioritize rest for myself, then rest was going to come and find me. I get the message. I must admit, all of this is coming at a rather strange time in my life. I've felt for several months now that I'm at a "crossroads" in my ...

  God, I don't even know how to title this post.  And when I say "God," I'm not using it as an exaggeratory phrase. I'm talking to you, Jesus. That's right -- the Creator of the universe who for some reason chooses to have a relationship with little old me. Wow. That sheds some perspective.  Here's the thing, though-- I'm still feeling super directionless at the moment. You told me to rest and I still don't know how. I know from past experience what it feels like to be chasing after a calling You've placed on my life, and I don't feel like I'm really doing that right now. Especially because you told me to rest . How can that be my "calling?" You're always challenging your children to grow, and MAN does it feel like a challenge for me to stop doing things. To stop running hard. To sit down. To rest.  I heard very clearly from You about the need to rest, and so I tried to be obedient. I cut out a few things from my crazy sch...

If you know me, you know I'm not the best at pivoting from "the plan." I wanted to title this post "Go with the Flow," but it felt too weird for me to write. Unnatural. I'll get to the "dancing" bit in a minute... The phrase "go with the flow" has just been stuck on the brain and felt the need to start out that way. As I'm learning to trust God more, the more I'm finding that His ways are not only better for me, but stronger than mine... He's going to get His way regardless. His good and perfect way. And since I'm still stuck on this whole "calling" thing (thanks, John Mark Comer's  Garden City ), I've been meeting with trusted friends and mentors to speak some truth over next steps in my career. I'm excited to share that after countless coffees, phone calls, texts, and root beers, I think I've found the answer! Are you ready?  Are you sure? The answer is: just go with the flow. ... ...WHAT?! Th...

When I was 12 years old, I learned how to do a round-off back hand-spring. It took me months of private lessons at the local YMCA and many, many awkward moments of trying to do a standing back hand-spring with my instructor "spotting me," only for me to chicken out at the last minute and come crashing into her... the full weight of my body... plummeting onto her as I apologized and said, "I'm sorry... I just can't do it!" It was so embarrassing-- with her holding her hand under my back and supporting my awkward pre-teen body while I continuously failed, over and over, somewhere between 10-15 times a lesson. Nevertheless, I persisted. I was able to do the thing eventually - literally once - all by myself. For a panel of cheerleading coaches during 7th-grade try-outs. And once I didn't make the team, I never did it again. You may be asking, " Why did you do that, Carly? Why did you try so hard at something you never even kept up with? Wasn't tha...

The air smells like rain. It rained much earlier today, but ironically, in the heat of summer, the air seems frozen in time. It is warm, but not hot. Evening. On a Tuesday... my last Tuesday of summer break.  Something was drawing me outside tonight... the way the sun's rays were entering our home and dancing on the piano made me wonder what the sky must look like from our front porch. I caught glimpses of what I had imagined it must look like outside... on our now-pink tinted walls, through warm, orange cracks in the curtains. I had to see what the sky looked like, in all of its full glory. The tiny glimpses I caught through the glass pieces in our door just weren't cutting it. And so, I opened the door, breathed in the rain-air, and stepped outside.  I've been sitting out here for about twenty minutes now, and it's already dark. I caught the last look at the orange-pink sky setting behind the houses across the street. There's heat lightening flashing across the ne...