Lisa notes

It’s Time to Linger in His Words
—Invitation to Memorize Matthew 7

By LisaNotes August 31, 2020 Linger, Memorization 12 Comments

Linger to Listen

Linger.

It’s been my One Word theme for 2020, even before Covid-19 twisted it into a theme for all of us.

And for the month of August? I concentrated on lingering to listen, specifically, listen to pain. My own and others. 2020 has been an appropriate year for that, too.

Last week, one of my best friends was in pain. I wasn’t able to be with her in person. That hurt. But as much as possible, I still tried to linger with her in her pain by listening to her words.

It’s what I’m about to embark upon with Jesus in September through November. Specifically, I’ll be lingering in his words that ended the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7.

Linger in Jesus’s Words

A few times a year, I take on a Bible memory challenge with Do Not Depart. We’re starting again September 6, taking 1 to 2 verses at a time.

To linger.

We’ll be lingering in the red letters. The words of Jesus 2000 year ago. I look forward to it.

I know some of the words will sting. They’ll be painful.

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye” (verse 5)

Other words will be full of hope.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find” (verse 7)

And yet other words will be an encouragement to love others better.

“So whatever you wish others would do to you, do also to them” (verse 12)

With the slow pace, I’ll get to linger with Jesus in each word, in each circumstance of my life, in each relationship I encounter.

Linger for Spiritual Exercise

Whether in pain or in silence or through experience, lingering is a spiritual exercise that has benefited me more than I could have predicted. It keeps me from moving ahead too fast. It forces me to be little more patient, to wait a little longer on God.

Because part of me wants to move on. To be finished with 2020. I want to return to normalcy. I want to be able to sit with my friends when they’re sick and listen to their pains and linger in their joys in person.

But I know God still has us in 2020 for good reasons. So I need to linger here with him, with his words, in his presence.

If memorizing scripture is something you’d like to try or return to, we welcome anyone to join us in this challenge to memorize Matthew 7:1-14.

Get all the details here. And if you’re on Facebook, you can also join our private #HideHisWord facebook group here for extra accountability (but not required).

You’ll receive lots of resources to print and encouragement along the way when you sign up.

And if consistency is an issue with you (it was our #1 reported hindrance in our unofficial Facebook poll), read here for 5 ways to be more consistent in memorizing scripture.

Lingering isn’t always comfortable. But lingering helps you notice things you wouldn’t notice otherwise. It affords opportunities to immerse yourself in deeper ways, in deeper places.

I can think of no better place to linger than in the truths of Jesus.

How are you doing with lingering in 2020? Share your thoughts in the comments.

“So, What Do You Do?” When You Don’t Have an Answer
—Grace & Truth Linkup

By LisaNotes August 28, 2020 Grace & Truth Link-Up 16 Comments

What Do You Do?

“So, what do you? Where do you work?”

These are typical questions we ask new people we meet. I understand it. I’ve asked these questions of others.

I just don’t know how to answer these questions myself.

When my daughters were in the house, the answer was easy: I homeschool. People knew what it meant, that I was purposed, that my time was occupied with family.

But in 2007 Morgan graduated from our homeschool and left for Auburn University. I was down to one student. Then in 2012, Jenna also graduated and moved to Auburn. Jeff and I were left at home as empty-nesters.

Now what? How was I to answer the questions: What do you do? Where do you work?

I didn’t know.

When You Can’t Nail It Down

I knew I was happy still being at home. I was still involved in the lives of my daughters, driving back and forth to Auburn to visit. I was involved with church. I became even more involved in my community to volunteer here and there. In 2018 I became a grandmother and was regularly involved with our new two granddaughters. I was learning new things about myself, about others, and about God.

And then this pandemic struck, and all my volunteer activities disappeared.

And once again, I was mostly at home. Still happy at home, granted. (Being an introvert is a handy quality during a pandemic!)

But once again I was left with no direct answer to the questions: What do you do? Where do you work?

The truth is I do lots of little things, here and there, online and in person. I can’t nail it down to a one-word title or to an office address.

This is what I know:

I know I am here by God’s choice. I know I am here for a purpose. I know God delights in WHO I am, more than in WHAT I do or WHERE I do it.

If that’s good enough for God, it’s enough for me.

That’s the only answer I need.

Featured Post

When I read Patti’s post last week, I understood. I get what she was saying about being an empty-nester.

“While other empty nest women may be returning to college or embarking on a second career, it’s okay that I’m not. All of us have different callings—there is no single right way to live out these post-raising children years.”

I definitely agree. And her conclusion? I doubly agree.

“We women need to extend grace to one another and not condemn each other for doing something different than we ourselves do—after all, different doesn’t mean wrong!”

Whether empty-nester or college student, married or single, paid employee or not, I encourage you to read Patti’s post, too, at PatriciaGardner.com. She’s a new blogger in our community. Give her a hearty welcome. I look forward to hearing more from her.

Read her post here:

“Different Doesn’t Mean Wrong“

Thanks for sharing, Patti! Here’s a button for your blog.

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

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3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

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We’ve Come to the Bridge—Let’s Cross It
Review of "Be the Bridge"

By LisaNotes August 26, 2020 Book reviews, Discrimination 5 Comments

Where’s the Bridge

We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

That’s what we often say.

Well, we’ve come to it.

Before yet another Black man or woman, girl or boy, gets caught in the crossfire of racial injustice (and we’re already woefully late again this week), we need to not only see the need to get to the other side, we need to start running hard to reach the bridge. And cross over.

LaTasha Morrison lays out steps for us to get to the other side in her book, Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation. But not only to cross the bridge, but to BE the bridge:

The bridge to lament
The bridge to confession and forgiveness
The bridge to restorative reconciliation (includes repentance, making amends, and reproducing)

LaTasha speaks from her Christian worldview. She talks about Jesus and the Bible and love. It’s talk we know. It’s actions we need to take.

Her personal experiences are sprinkled throughout the book. This incident took place at a community basketball game . . . .

And then she offered the boldest of statements. “It wasn’t all bad, you know. Many loved their slaves in the South,” she said. “They were treated like family.” Heart racing, emotions all over the place, I didn’t know whether to scream, cry, or shout.

. . . Practically speechless, I couldn’t find all the words to give her a brief inductive history lesson. Instead, I told her I’d read the slave narratives and that there was no love or care in slavery. “Love,” I said, “brings freedom, and slaves didn’t have freedom or choice. Family doesn’t leave family in bondage.”

This is a powerful book, a necessary book. I highly recommend we read it.

Then do it. Be the bridge.

Excerpts from Be the Bridge

Here are some excerpts from the book.

We can come to know the true facts, come to recognize our brokenness, yet not do anything about it. Awareness of the truth is useless without acknowledgment of our complicity or its effects on us.

~ * ~

Though a remnant desperately clutches to the fantasy of a “post-racial society,” every credible indicator confirms a deep and entrenched fracture along racial lines. Pick any index—education, economics, health—and the results make starkly apparent our racially stratified society.

~ * ~

The Black table. If there’s one thing non-White students know, it’s that the school cafeteria is the second-most-segregated place in our country, behind only church.

~ * ~

Some of my White friends thought color shouldn’t matter in the body of Christ, an easy thing for them to say. I’d ask them to imagine themselves in an all African American context, attending services where they never heard music by Hillsong, Bethel, Chris Tomlin, or Elevation Worship.

~ * ~

Imagine the pain this causes Black Americans when we’re invited to plantation weddings, the very place where our people were so thoroughly dehumanized.

~ * ~

In the love of the family of God, we must become color brave, color caring, color honoring, and not color blind. We have to recognize the image of God in one another.

~ * ~

Without looking back, without understanding the truth of our history, it’s difficult to move forward in healthy ways. And even though it might be painful to recount our history as a country, denying it leads us nowhere. Truth is the foundation of awareness, and awareness is the first step in the process of reconciliation. Jesus said as much: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

~ * ~

But you can identify racial wrongs in the world around you and take one step toward making them right. That’s the work of reparation. That’s the work of the gospel.

~ * ~

If this book serves to highlight just one truth, I hope it’s that real beauty can come from the ashes of our country’s history with racism.

Share your thoughts in the comments.

My thanks to Net Galley, WaterBrook
& Multnomah for the review copy

5 Books I Recommend—August 2020

By LisaNotes August 24, 2020 Books I Recommend 26 Comments

“The only difference between a nonreader and a reader is that a reader has a plan for future reading and a nonreader does not.” ⁠
— Donalyn Miller

Books Beget Books

How long is your to-read book list?

Mine is a bottomless pit.

I had a goal this year to read through the Kindle samples I’ve had sent to me from Amazon (in addition to reading whole books). But before I get one sample read, I’ve already sent myself two more. Not to mention the actual books themselves. The list will never decrease at this pace.

Books beget books, yes? Books are contagious. Reading one leads to another two or three. The R number is above one. (Did we even know what “R number” meant before the coronavirus?)

So we do what we can; we read what we’re able. And if our list outgrows our lifespan, oh, well.

Here are 5 books I recommend from those I finished in August. Maybe you’ll find one to add to your to-read list. My apologies. See all my recommended books here.

Nonfiction

1. Be the Bridge
Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation
by LaTasha Morrison

This racial reconciliation book is specifically targeted toward Christian believers. LaTasha Morrison does an excellent job leading us through a step-by-step healing process that, if followed, would result in a transformation in race relations today. Her roadmap taken from scripture principles isn’t a quick and easy one, but it is a critical one. It’s up to us what we do with it.

Be the Bridge is also the name of the nonprofit organization founded by Morrison to equip the church in practical ways. Find it here and its Facebook page here. I would love to find an in-person group to join locally.

My review here of Be the Bridge

2. A Way with Words
Using Our Online Conversations for Good
by Daniel Darling

If you’re on social media at all, you know we need this conversation. Daniel Darling shows Christians why and how we can redeem our online communication to make it God-honoring instead of harmful to other people. I picked up quite a few take-aways I hope to apply. Full book review coming soon.

My review here of A Way with Words

3. Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints
by Daneen Akers

If you want to see an unorthodox list of faith heroes that you might not find grouped elsewhere, you’ll find 50 such people in this book. Some you’ll know from ages gone by; some are current to our times. They come from a range of faith traditions, but each one shines a light in our world in their own unique way.

My review here of Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints

4. The Four Laws of Love
Guaranteed Success for Every Married Couple
by Jimmy Evans

This uplifting marriage book reminds you to Pursue, Prioritize, Partner, and Purify your relationship with your spouse. Jimmy Evans is a pastor and the founder of Marriage Today. Even though I’ve been married almost 28 years, I like to read a marriage book periodically to stay on top of things. This is a good one.

Fiction

5. The Giver of Stars
by Jojo Moyes

This novel is set in the a small Kentucky town in the 1940s. The local Bennett Van Cleve brings home a British wife, Alice, who has trouble assimilating to American culture. Until she joins the new traveling library. The plot involves five strong women of the library and an interesting storyline that pulled me in quickly.

Reading Now

Stamped from the Beginning
The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
by Ibram X. Kendi
The Color of Compromise
The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism
by Jemar Tisby
Ask Again, Yes
by Mary Beth Keane
Beyond Your Bubble
How to Connect Across the Political Divide, Skills and Strategies for Conversations That Work
by Tania Israel
The Enneagram for Spiritual Formation
How Knowing Ourselves Can Make Us More Like Jesus
by A J Sherrill
Love Matters More
How Fighting to Be Right Keeps Us from Loving Like Jesus
by Jared Byas
After Evangelicalism
The Path to a New Christianity
by David P. Gushee
Can’t Even
How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation
by Anne Helen Petersen

What good book are YOU reading this month? I love to hear (as if my to-read list isn’t long enough already…). Please share in the comments.

My books on Goodreads
More books I recommend

7 Healing Steps for Relationships
—Grace & Truth Linkup

By LisaNotes August 21, 2020 Encouragement, Grace & Truth Link-Up 18 Comments

I heard my friend had a “Karen” moment. Ugh.

While it was a vague incident with no one person harmed, it still harmed the reputation of the Black community in general, which hurts a lot of people collectively.

Including, well, all of us.

Oppressive words and actions are bad for everybody, regardless of which side of them you’re on.

So I was troubled.

When other people do things we don’t think are right (according to us), what do we do?

Should we say something?
How far does our responsibility extend to confront it?
When is it better to just forgive and forget?

7 Healing Steps for Relationships

I just finished reading The Four Laws of Love, a book on relationships (marriage in particular, but much of it can apply to any relationship). My daughter Jenna read it first, then loaned it to me.

Here are 7 steps mentioned by the author Jimmy Evans when issues arise in relationships.

1. Take responsibility for your own behavior
2. Do not return sin for sin
3. Admit your faults
4. Forgive
5. Speak the truth in love
6. Pray for each other
7. Seek healthy friends and fellowship

These steps helped me clarify my own motivations concerning my friend’s Karen moment.

And they also reminded me I have blind spots too. I say things and think things that harm other people.

I want others to give me grace. And I also want others to confront me about my issues so I can grow.

We all need to keep learning from our weaknesses. To become more aware. To repent. To change.

And to do it surrounded by love.

Featured Post

Are you having more trouble making decisions these days? Joanne Viola mentions these:

How do we know we are making the right decision?
Essential or non-essential?
Mask or no mask?
Three feet, six feet, or ten feet?
In person or online?
Vacation or not?
Hybrid, remote, or homeschool?

We’re also questioning the decisions that other people make, which can be dangerous.

Joanne concludes this:

“As we weigh options and seek God to help us make right and good decisions, let’s trust that He is guiding each one of us. The decision may look differently for each of us, but it may still be the right one for each.”

Read all of her wonderful post here at her blog, JoanneViola.com. Her words can help us all be a little less judgmental and a lot more gracious toward each other.

“Right” by Joanne Viola

Thanks for sharing, Joanne! Here’s a button for your blog.

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

HEATHER HART & VALERIE RIESE – Candidly Christian
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LAUREN SPARKS
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LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
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Now Let’s Link Up!

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Don’t Hate Her—She’s Been Good to You

By LisaNotes August 19, 2020 Book reviews, Encouragement, Linger 10 Comments

When We’re Incompatible

I’ve said ugly things about her. I occasionally look at parts of her with disgust. I think of ways she needs to change.

I’m taking her to the beach next week (abiding by all the proper coronavirus precautions, of course!). She’ll put on a swimsuit and out we’ll go, walking together into public spaces.

I’ll try not to be embarrassed by her.

Because she’s done and continues to do so much for me.

I’m talking about my body.

Wasted Time

She’s been with me since birth. And even though I feel she fails me at times, she’s been my constant companion, taking me into the world to do things I enjoy and hug people I love and eat food I treasure.

She’s been good to me, even when I talk bad about her.

Here’s how Jen Hatmaker puts it in Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire:

“If I had every second back that I’ve spent thinking about my weight and age, my belly and my crow’s feet, I could have cured cancer with all the extra time.”

Do you struggle with this, too?

I try to do better about it. To accept my shape. My numbers on the scale. My inches on the tape measure.

The ugly self-talk is wasted time. It’s poisonous. It’s disrespectful.

Honor Her Instead

This is a battle I’ll continue fighting to win. Because when I think of all the beautiful ways my body has served me—just as she is, including a few extra quarantine pounds—I am grateful.

Again from Jen:

“She walks and cooks and lifts and hugs and types and drives and cleans and holds babies and rests and laughs and does everything in her power to live another meaningful, connected day on this earth. She sure does love me and my life and family. Maybe it is time to stop hating her and just love her back.”

So when I walk her onto the beach next week (keeping 6-foot distance from others), I want her to revel in the sand between her toes, the sun on her skin, and the waves in her ears.

She deserves it. I honor her for housing me and God. Just as he made her.

Just as she is. Just as I am.

This topic was from Chapter 3, “I Am Strong in My Body” in Jen Hatmaker’s new book, Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire. All the chapters are worth reading about who we are, what we need, and how we connect.

How do you keep a healthy body image? Please share in the comments.

Thanks to Net Galley + Nelson Books
for the review copy of this book