Voice

She was trying hard to get the verbs right.

He is tall.
I am tall.
They are tall.

It was a struggle. English is a difficult language to pick up as an adult.

But we kept working through our ESL lesson together.

I’m brand new at teaching English as a Second Language. This was only my second week. I was discovering there were many words I take for granted that she couldn’t understand.

Between her minimal English and my minimal Spanish, we were struggling to communicate.

A Different Tongue

When we speak different languages, it’s sometimes easier to just ignore each other and walk away.

And different languages don’t have to be tongues like Spanish and English.

• Our different language may be Christianese.
• It may be technical work jargon.
• It may be a series of private sayings within a family.

Within our own subcultures, these languages work. We can communicate well when everyone knows the same words.

But once we step outside our boundaries, we have to broaden our vocabularies.

Learn someone else’s language. Then teach them yours. Do it with intention. Do it with frequency.

The English lesson with my student may not have been super successful that night. She eventually called in her 8-year-old daughter to help translate and bridge the gap.

But we did have fun along the way. We laughed a lot. She tried telling me a story in Spanish about either her husband or her brother. Her speech was so fast I couldn’t understand the details, but maybe I got the gist of it. Body language helped fill the gaps.

I hope in weeks ahead we’ll be able to laugh more when we look back at how far we’ve come.

Because when we learn new words, not only are we picking up a new language, we’re also making new friends.

Three Questions

Here are our three questions of the day:

(1) Did you learn pig Latin as a child?

(2) What foreign languages do you know or are you around?

(3) How has God used voices from others to reveal a different part of his character to you? 

* * *

What are your answers? Please share in the comments.

My answers

(1) Esyay, igpay atinlay asway unfay.

(2) The foreign language I hear the most consistently in Alabama is Spanish. I’ve been trying to learn it for years, but I’m slow.

(3) Spending time in El Salvador and Guatemala showed me how God can inspire contentment in people who live on far less than I could ever imagine. If they can be happy with God in their lack, I have no excuses in my comparative wealth.

Get the whole Handmade series here

Together

We usually associate most comfortably with people who are similar to us.

Even if we want to meet people outside of our culture, it’s not always easy to do if they’re just not here and not available where we are.

Except. . .

Books! They can bring us together in unexpected ways.

Books introduce us to people we wouldn’t know otherwise. And places. And circumstances.

And who knows? We might later use our new knowledge even among the people we already do know.

The four books I finished this month brought me together with other cultures that I don’t live in and brought me closer to God.

Here are the 2 novels and 2 non-fiction books I recommend from what I finished reading in October. Once a month we share our current reading list at Jennifer’s.

Books I Recommend

FICTION

1. Mudbound
by Hillary Jordan

It’s 1940s in the Mississippi Delta. White city-girl Laura McAllan has had to move to farming country to live her husband’s dream. She befriends a family of black sharecroppers on their land. Each character in this novel has a unique struggle as they are forced to make a life together.

2. Stay with Me
by Ayobami Adebayo

Set in Nigeria, this book travels back and forth in time to tell the polygamous love story of Yejide and Akin. It’s painful at times as Yejide struggles with infertility, and as she learns her husband has taken a second wife.

NON-FICTION

3. How Not to Get Shot
And Other Advice From White People
by D. L. Hughley

This book is by a black comedian and satirist D. L. Hugley. He writes suggestions for how black people can avoid getting shot in encounters with police and white people. It has some rough language at times, and it is quite funny in places, but the message of danger and injustice is a serious one and it comes through loud and clear in between the laughs.

4. God of Tomorrow
How to Overcome the Fears of Today and Renew Your Hope for the Future
by Caleb W. Kaltenbach

Pastor Kaltenbach writes on a huge range of cultural issues. I don’t agree with all of his biblical interpretations, but I do agree with his tone of love and trust and hope. He invites us to respond to each other with more grace than we have been. He successfully repeats the truth again and again that relying on the God of tomorrow helps us live better today.

My review here of God of Tomorrow

READING NOW

• A Prayer for Owen Meany
  by John Irving
• The Last Ballad
  by Cash Wiley
• Raise Your Voice
  Why We Stay Silent and How to Speak Up
  by Kathy Khang
• 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
  by Yuval Noah Harari
• Resist and Persist
  Faith and the Fight for Equality
  by Erin Wathen
• Remember Death
  The Surprising Path to Living Hope
  by Matthew McCullough 

Three Questions

Here are our three questions of the day:

(1) Have you traveled outside your home country?

(2) Do you have friends who are very different than you in some way?

(3) Has God ever used a book to change the way you view something or someone?

* * *

What are your answers? Please share in the comments.

My answers

(1) El Salvador and Guatemala

(2) Yes, especially in the last 5 years. It’s been eye-opening and soul-growing.

(3) God uses books all the time to teach me new things and change my mind about old things.

Get the whole Handmade series here

Song

How do you describe “worship”?

In a secular context, we’d describe how fans worship a famous actor or sports star.

But in the church world, we’d typically describe Sunday mornings.

Sunday morning church is often referred to as a “Worship Service.” It is somewhat accurate; we do offer God our worship there. (Read Barbara’s excellent post on “What Is Worship?” here.)

But hopefully our worship extends past Sunday praise-singing.

• It’s Monday clothes-washing, and
• Tuesday dinner-cooking, and
• Wednesday pantry-serving, etc.

Power Start

Yet still, singing my worship on Sunday mornings starts the week with power.

In the midst of praising God, God pours grace on me.

• Through his promises we sing about
• Through melodious music he has inspired
• Through other people worshiping beside me

Because God is so worthy of worship, it’s easy to give him praise. We can temporarily set aside our own issues and focus on the wonder of Christ.

Self-forgetfulness and Jesus-awareness are heightened during worship.

“Worship is an end in itself. We do not eat the feast of worship as a means to anything else. Happiness in God [which is the heart of worship] is the end of all our seeking. Nothing beyond it can be sought as a higher goal.”
– David Mathis

Worship is a perfect way to start a day, a week, a life.

And a perfect way to end one as well.

Three Questions

Here are our three questions of the day:

(1) Do you have a favorite actor, singer, or sports hero?

(2) Do you sing or play a musical instrument as worship, either at church or at home?

(3) When are you most inspired to worship God?

* * *

What are your answers? Please share in the comments.

My answers

(1) My latest favorite artists are Matt Maher, Lauren Daigle, Cory Asbury, Tauren Wells.

(2) I sing with our church praise team (but I have no extraordinary talent). I play the piano only at home.

(3) Music, nature, people’s kindness to one another—these things point me to the wonder of God.

More here

• Be an Intercessory Worshiper
  God places us in community to be placeholders for hope, for prayer, for grace. Who can you be in intercessory worship for?
• Great Worship Study Resource
  This book by Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory, is an excellent compilation of scriptures and commentary on both Old Testament and New Testament scriptures on worship.
• Worship Different
  It was just a small change but a good change. May we never be too rigid to embrace change or too comfortable to try something different. Growing in worship is worth it all.

revised from the archives

Get the whole Handmade series here

Whole

It helps to see the whole picture.

A week ago I was busy cleaning house. Dusting. Vacuuming. Even mopping.

I don’t mop often, sorry to report.

But our granddaughter was coming. And she has learned how to crawl (sort of).

Because I knew she would spend time on the floor, I wanted the floors as clean as possible.

It’s the whole picture.

I don’t just clean the house because it’s fun (it’s not). Or because I need something else to do (I don’t).

I do it because I love the people who will be in it.

When we remember the big picture, it helps us stay motivated.

I still didn’t enjoy mopping the floor. But I did it with a lot more joy when I imagined my sweet grandbaby on it.

And later when I saw her crawling on it, I had the most joy of all.

Three Questions

Here are our three questions of the day:

(1) What’s your most dreaded household chore?

(2) Are you a skimmer of books and articles, or are you compelled to read the whole thing?

(3) Is there anything missing in your life that you wish God would give you right now to bring wholeness?

* * *

What are your answers? Please share in the comments.

My answers

(1) Cleaning the bathtub is one of my least favorite things.

(2) I skim articles. I sometimes skim non-fiction books if they get repetitive. I read every word of novels (I’m afraid I’ll miss an important nugget of information if I skim).

(3) My life feels very whole, but I do wish Morgan’s family lived closer.

Get the whole Handmade series here

First

There’s a first time for everything.

Sometimes the first time is the most exciting. (Sometimes it’s also the most frightening.)

I got to go with Victoria and Mason on their first field trip.

Neither had been to a pumpkin patch before.

This was an exciting first. For both of them.

There were many new things.

And because they were excited, I was, too.

When they smiled, I smiled, too.

While we can’t repeat a first ourselves, we can accompany somebody else experiencing a first.

After God created the first man and the first woman, I assume he didn’t get bored with every human thereafter. Because with each person, it was their first time coming into the world.

When we celebrate someone else coming to know Christ for the first time, we renew our excitement at knowing him, too.

If there’s a first you need to tackle—and you’re nervous about it—bring an old-timer with you. Not only will it be good for you, but it might be exciting for them as well.

There will be smiles all around.

Three Questions

Here are our three questions of the day:

(1) Is there a pumpkin at your house this October?

(2) Do you remember an exciting field trip that was a first from your own school years?

(3) What’s a first you have experienced with God in the recent past?

* * *

What are your answers? Please share in the comments.

My answers

(1) No, I gave Victoria my pumpkin to give to her youngest child.

(2) I remember my first helicopter ride with JROTC and also a fun math tournament in Montgomery with our high school Mu Alpha Theta team.

(3) God has been guiding me through the glorious wonder of being a grandmother for the first time this year!

Get the whole Handmade series here

Capture

I like to spread things out.

Don’t put too much emphasis on any one thing in case something falls apart.

But as I repeat my memory verses this fall, I’m reminded of this: There is one thing faithful enough for total dependence.

And I’m trying to recall it to mind often.

It’s the promise in these verses. This is part of our Fall Memory Challenge at Do Not Depart, Lamentations 3:21-26.

Lamentations 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

If God’s love for me never stops, and his mercies never end, and he promises to give me grace every morning?

Then he’s a sturdy basket for all my eggs.

I want the Lord to capture all my heart, all my soul, all my mind. Everything.

He is reason enough to stay hopeful, even when other things may fail.

Three Questions

Here are our three questions of the day:

(1) Do you take screen captures?

(2) How do you best like to capture a special moment? Photo? Journal? Souvenir?

(3) What promise of God do you often rely on?

* * *

What are your answers? Please share in the comments.

My answers

(1) I take screenshots of so many things both on my phone and computer. (I just checked my phone and I have 107 screenshots! lol)

(2) I don’t always like taking pictures, but I love having them to remind me of special moments. (Shout out to my sister Sandy and my daughter Jenna for being the family photographers and thus memory-keepers.)

(3) That the Lord is good and will always be good; I rely on that truth as a basic foundation of my faith.

More here

• Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
  There is one basket that is safe for all your eggs. Put all your hope in the Lord. Your soul is safe there.
• How a Christian Concert Affirmed This Memory Challenge
  How did this Christian concert affirm my decision to memorize this scripture? It’s how God works.
• When You Get Your Grace
  When will you receive a fresh supply of grace? Always today.

Get the whole Handmade series here

Brief

When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s baby is born next spring, it will automatically be royalty.

But it won’t know that. At least not at first.

Sometimes we think we have to know everything before we can do something.

But as believers, it’s more about who we belong to than how much we know.

So do you know enough already?

Read the whole thing here, “Do You Know Enough Already?”

Three Questions

Here are our three questions of the day:

(1) How often did you visit your grandparents when you were a child?

(2) How far back can you trace your family of origin?

(3) “But I don’t know enough yet!” Have you ever said that to God when he wanted you to do something? How did it work out?

* * *

What are your answers? Please share in the comments.

My answers

(1) We lived in Alabama and my grandparents lived in Mississippi. For awhile we drove there every 6 weeks to visit, but less as we got older.

(2) My siblings have a family tree somewhere. I only know names back to some of my great-grandparents.

(3) I say that to God probably every week about something. I never think I know enough. Then I tell him, “Okay, I’ll just show up—but you have to do the rest!” and it usually works out pretty good.

More here

• When “I Don’t Know” Is Good
  We’ll never have all the answers. Is this ever good? Should we make peace with uncertainty and “I don’t know”?
• Are You Good Enough to Witness?
  Wouldn’t I be a better advertisement for Jesus if I could get it all together? Then I remember: I am not the point. I am only the pointer. It’s about Jesus.
• When You’re Not Sure
  When you’re not sure, don’t be so scared of being wrong that you do nothing. Even if you make a poor decision, God’s grace can redeem it.

I’m writing at Do Not Depart today. Will you join me there? Do you already know enough?

Common

Most all of us have been to church before.

Some of us, again and again. And so, church can become common.

But occasionally, when we’re paying close attention to what God is doing, it turns into something else entirely. Something very uncommon.

This was not just another day at church.

Uncommon

I arrive at church a few minutes before it starts. Several seats are already taken.

I walk to the back and an older gentleman says, “Hi.”

We shake hands, and I say, “I’m Lisa.” He tells me his name—Walter—then suggests we take seats together.

Although it is my first day attending Outdoor Church, Walt obviously is an old-timer. He knows how to welcome visitors.

It is a hot morning with little breeze. Walt asks if Jenna and I would like some cold water. Before we can answer, he hops up, cane in hand, and brings back two bottles of water.

Walt tells me he is singing at today’s service. He likes to sing. “For the glory of God,” he says.

I already believe him.

The service begins. My new friend Walt knows the words to all the songs. Now it’s time for his a capella solo.

Can he sing?

Kingdom Life

Oh, yes, he can sing!

Afterward, Walt sits back down. He leans over to me, and grins, “Didn’t I do it?”

Oh, yes, Walter Baby Love, you did it.

He says he has a name like that for a reason. Now I understand.

After the sermon, I get in line for communion with Walter Baby Love and other poor and homeless brothers and sisters gathered on the hot asphalt. Maybe some don’t understand—can’t understand—but many do.

We hold the bread, dip it in juice, and take it in.

I take it in.

And take it in. And take it in.

This is kingdom living.

• Sounds of praise
• Goodness of Jesus
• Grace for all

Jeff is grilling when we round the corner after church is over. He and other volunteers from Manna House serve a feast of burgers, hot dogs, and all the fixings for the guests.

All free.
Full souls.
Forever friends.

The kingdom has indeed come.

It is right here. I’m glad to be in it.

And I’m glad brothers like Walter Baby Love are in it, too.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:10

[Click here if you can’t see “Walter Sings”]

That day happened in 2012.

My uncommon friend Walt has since passed on. We were able to worship together several times after that day, whether at Outdoor Church, in an elevator with other friends, or on the balcony of his apartment.

I still miss Walter Baby Love. He was an uncommon man. I’ve never met anyone else exactly like him.

And when I hear someone praising God with extra vigor and intention, I miss him the most.

Three Questions

Here are our three questions of the day:

(1) What’s the most unusual church you’ve attended?

(2) Is there a song that gets you every time?

(3) When have you had an uncommon day with God at church or outside of church?

* * *

What are your answers? Please share in the comments.

My answers

(1) Outdoor Church is probably the most unique and unpredictable church I go to.

(2) Even though it’s been played a lot, “Reckless Love“ still wrecks me every single time I hear it.

(3) Watching Jenna’s 1st graders paint and sing worship music in the background.

More here

• Ordinary Day, Extraordinary Story
  It was an ordinary day when little Aleesa met Walt. But it would lead to an extraordinary story. And book.
• Meet Travis 1. Meet Travis 2.
  I met two new friends, both named Travis. One was a pastor; one was homeless. What did they have in common?
• You’ll Always Get a Refill
  The wind blew. The grape juice spilled on the ground. But grace comes with free refills.

revised from the archives

Get the whole Handmade series here

Help

I need help.

When I’m working on my laptop, I prefer to use the keyboard instead of my mouse when possible.

And there’s a way to do that.

Use keyboard shortcuts. Shortcuts are great for minimizing motion and for speeding up a process.

Shortcuts Steal Time

But shortcuts in real life aren’t always helpful. Sometimes shortcuts get us in trouble instead. They can bypass a legitimate process we need to work through.

Such as spiritual growth.

Genuine evolvement rarely happens through a shortcut.

Granted, we can have flash-like moments of transformation. God is capable of anything.

But more often than not, strengthening a relationship, whether human or divine, takes time.

• It takes time to have long conversations with God.
• It takes time for God’s words to sink in deeply.
• It takes time to build relationships with God’s other children.

I don’t want to be short-changed on time with God and the things from God.

Move Ahead

So I save my shortcuts for things like typing. I try to learn a new keyboard shortcut every few weeks.

My favorite keyboard shortcut this year has been this one:

Command + Shift + T – Opens up the most recently closed tab in your browser.

It has saved me many, many times when I want to reopen a browser window that I accidentally closed and want to reopen.

With the quick keyboard shortcut, I can return to where I was.

But with God, I don’t want to just return to where I was.

I want to keep moving forward.

And if it takes time to do that, I want to invest in that.

I need his help to do it.

And with his help, I can.

Three Questions

Here are our three questions of the day:

(1) When online, do you keep a lot of tabs open at once? Or do you X out of a window after each use?

(2) Do you have a favorite shortcut, whether digital or in everyday life?

(3) Has God provided shortcuts in your spiritual growth or do you usually take the long road together?

* * *

What are your answers? Please share in the comments.

My answers

(1) I’m a chronic closer of tabs. Sometimes too quickly.

(2) Another online shortcut with a Mac: To go back and forth between open applications (like from email to Word then back), click Command + Tab. I use this ALL the time.

(3) Spiritual growth typically happens slower for me than I’d like. But occasionally God will give me a quick burst of insight or change to keep me filled with awe at his power.

Here’s a list of 20 top keyboard shortcuts. You’ll know several already, but you might discover some new ones.