by Sadie Robertson Huff | Apr 4, 2021 | Life Advice, Testimonies |
What a sweet time it was having my new friends Emma and Stella on the podcast this past week. (LISTEN HERE!) We had the best conversation about God and all that He’s done in our lives and I couldn’t help but think that Easter was the
perfect time to share this blog with all of you. So, let’s dive in!
I’ve never personally met Emma and Stella but the reason I wanted them on the podcast is that I believe their story represents so many people’s story from the last year. When I asked them their story of this past year they began
with their experience from last Easter. My post I’d made about Passion City Church the Saturday before Easter crossed Emma’s Instagram feed and it sparked an interest in her to watch Passion’s Easter service! Emma watched
the service tearing up the entire time, and afterward, called her friend to let her know that Jesus had SAVED HER.
WHOA!
Stella then chimed in with her experience. She had actually already planned to watch the service herself because she’d heard that I would be speaking.
Well clearly God can speak through anything, but I am so thankful He chose to speak through my message that day because it gave these sisters hope for their own family to come to know Christ. This sparked immediate conversation among Emma, Stella, AND their brother about having a personal relationship with Jesus!
What I love about their story is that on that day Emma and Stella both took the Gospel personally. And that’s what we all should do in our lives. I think a lot of times people see others having this radical transformation with Jesus but doubt that it could happen for themselves because of x, y, or z. But when you open your heart you see that the Gospel is for everyone, you see that nothing is too big for the cross.
I’m confident that Emma and Stella’s decision to follow Christ will impact generations to come. My grandfather was a wild man at one time, definitely not a christian, and a preacher came in to talk to him which led to him giving his life to Christ.
Without this encounter, it’s likely that my dad or even I might not have a relationship with Jesus. This is why I believe my two friends have potential to impact generations to come.
I asked them what life had been like for them in the past year. Emma and Stella said it’d been so cool to see God doing a work in them over the past year since last Easter. They also mentioned that they’d started a snapchat story where they talked about all that God was doing in their lives and had almost 100 people from their school join! I love this because so many people put social media in a bad light, but in reality, it can and should be used to promote the Gospel, which is exactly what these girls have done. Stella added a little about how their snapchat had sparked so many to reach out and be inspired in their personal walk with Christ. PRAISE GOD!
A lot of times when people come to know Christ, their immediate response is “now what?” But I once heard someone say that obedience is a natural response and that stuck with me. Once you follow Jesus, you don’t have to do anything crazy. You just have to use what you have.
We see time and time again in the Bible where Jesus uses what people have. Even in the story of the woman at the well, she went back to everyone and shared her story, which is what I see my friends Emma and Stella doing. They’re allowing God to use their story to change others’ lives.
We went on to talk about a mutual friend, Britt, from the Passion City Church team. They spoke about a few of the questions they asked Britt in their conversation with her. At one point Emma mentioned a question she’d asked
that could have sounded ridiculous to some people, but I admired her so much for not feeling ashamed for asking. I think that if people would just willing to ask their questions without embarrassment, we’d see a change in a lot more lives.
I asked them if there’s one thing they’d want to say to people who are listening who might be where they were a year ago, before God transformed them. To that, Emma replied with telling everyone to just do it. Just say yes to that relationship with Jesus. Each day is no guarantee so why wait? Stella added that she’d suggest talking to someone and ask the hard questions.
These new friends are so wise in their thoughts and advice. And get this….they’re only 17 and 14. Whoa! Seriously wise beyond their years. But I think that’s what Jesus does. He equips those who He’s called with wisdom and knowledge.
I’m so excited these two were able to make it on the podcast, because did I mention, they literally took the ACT the same day!? Now that is what I call dedication. Their story makes me so fired up and I know their family will be blessed by all that God is doing in their lives. I cannot wait to see where all God takes them!
Emma and Stella’s miraculous experience is so encouraging and makes me want that for everyone reading and listening.
So, I wanted to walk through what it means to truly give your life to Jesus. And I couldn’t think of a better person to do this than my husband, Christian! Friend, you might have never stepped in a church building before, but just know that does not limit your ability to have a relationship with Jesus. Your relationship with Him isn’t based off how many religion boxes you have checked off.
Christian began explaining the Bible by introducing the 66 books within it. Now, there’s an old and new testament made up of those books. Jesus is physically present in the New Testament but not in the Old Testament. The Gospel translated simply means good news. How awesome is that?!
The good news is that Jesus died and He rose again. This is good news because His death symbolizes the
forgiveness of sins for us and His resurrection means that if we put our faith in Him then we’ll be raised to live a new life with Him. In the Old Testament, in order to have a relationship with Jesus, a sacrifice had to be made. But in the New Testament, Jesus is the perfect sacrifice and He makes a way for all our sins to be cleansed so that we can be in relationship with God.
Christian goes on to read in 1 Peter and talks about what the beginning steps of a walk with Jesus look like. It all starts with repentance. We know that Jesus died for our sins so we ask forgiveness and turn from our sinful ways.
Then comes baptism. Baptism is symbolism of Jesus washing our sins clean. It’s a public declaration that we are no longer who we used to be. It’s also a marker in your life to remind yourself of how different your life will be. That doesn’t mean that you’ll be perfect, because repentance is a constant thing.
In the book of Acts, Jesus says that He knows people are sad He’s leaving, but they should actually be glad because the One who God was sending was better for them to be with than Him. The One who God was sending was the
Holy Spirit. The Spirit walks and dwells with us and quite often we feel the Spirit leading us toward a direction or decision.
Jesus died, was buried, and raised, and we just have to believe that. All the time people will say they want a relationship like Christian and me, but the truth is, without our relationships with the Lord, we wouldn’t have a relationship at all.
I was once speaking at a Juvie center and this girl came up with me and said she appreciated everything I was saying but she couldn’t believe in God because she couldn’t see Him. I then asked if she believed in fear, to which she was puzzled. Well, fear is the belief that something has the potential to harm you. But faith is similar in that you have to have faith that God is potentially there to save you. Yeah you can’t see it, but faith is believing without seeing. So, you really have the choice to believe one over the other.
The upside of faith is that we have a whole book dedicated to it and filled with instruction on how to live out a life full of it. This girl ended up giving her life to Christ and I had the opportunity to baptize her. Seeing her start a new life was incredible!
I say all that to say, if you’re drowning in fear and the things of this world, give Jesus a try. He might be your only option and He’s definitely your best one. And let’s just say if He’s not real, which I strongly believe He is, what are you losing? I don’t think you’ll regret living a life walking in love, joy, peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit. You will live such a better life by the principles in the Bible.
Yes, I’ve never seen God, but I also can’t unsee the things I’ve seen and experienced with God in my life. And that’s enough evidence for me to hold onto this Truth and Gospel and believe in it. So, I hope this encourages you and that you have an amazing Easter! There is so much meaning behind this holiday. It’s not just a day we should show up at church. Let this be a day you encounter Jesus and get to know more about Him. Go start your new life today, friend. You’ll never regret the day you did.
We would LOVE to hear how this blog post landed on you! Share in the comments below or message us on Instagram!
Want more encouragement from Live Original? Follow us on Instagram @legitsadierob and @liveoriginal.
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Mar 30, 2021 | Life Advice, Testimonies |
I am so excited to share a snippet of my piece from the Powerful Workshop launching April 1st! Body Image is something we’ve all most likely struggled with at one point or another, and this workshop is here to combat all the lies the enemy feeds us. It’s not too late to sign up, friend. Do yourself a favor and join HERE! Now, I pray these words encourage you today!
When I was little my dad used to be the king of nicknames. He literally had a nickname for everyone. Except for me. I would beg him for a nickname and he would always say the same thing to me when I would ask. “Sadie, you are just the Original.” There is no one like you and essentially nothing to compare you to. He would often call me the original and I know now telling you this story how beautiful that is that my dad would say such a thing. But as a young kid I was like… “the original” … really … that doesn’t really have a ring to it.
I wanted to be something else because honestly everyone else’s was just a lot cooler the mine.
What I once thought was lame all the while was actually my father speaking Truth over my life. I think too many times we do the same thing. God has spoken something over us and calls us by name, wanting us to walk into the fullness of the miracle that we are, but we look around and just think, “eh, if only I was them then I would be something great.”
If you follow me in life at all you can see that at some point something shifted in me and I started to actually believe what my father said was true and I wanted everyone else to believe the same thing, so I started a ministry called… Live Original. Crazy how who we are is always tied to our purpose. You see, so many of us are trying to figure out what our purpose is, but it would be near impossible to figure out what your purpose is if you do not even know who you are. You may think, “well how do I find out who I am?” I want you to start by knowing that you too, are an original.
Let’s look at a couple definitions of original.
Original –
- Present or existing from the beginning; first or earliest.
- Created directly and personally by a particular artist; NOT A COPY.
These two definitions actually tell a lot about our identity. The first speaks to who God is and the second speaks to who we are.
- Present or existing from the beginning; first or earliest.
- God is your original designer. He is the original creator. He is the first and the earliest creator. The word used for Him as the creator in the old testament is Bara. That word is never used for humans in the bible, because that world is reserved for the original creator. Although man has made many things, all of them could be credited to God because God made the man who made the thing.
- Created directly and personally by a particular artist; NOT A COPY
- This is you. You were created personally by God.
You were created personally by the original creator and not to be a copy. And you may say, “Well Sadie this is like 1st grade learning level. How is this going to help me with my body image?” and to you I would say, “If it is so 1st grade then why do we struggle with comparison so much?” I mean, seriously? If we know that we are an original, we know that we are not a copy, we know that God makes all creation good, and we know that we have a unique purpose then why are we all in the same boat of insecure, disorder, comparison, and complacency? Let’s look at what comparison actually is and try to break this down.
The definition of comparison – a consideration or estimate of the similarities or dissimilarities between two things or people.
The truth is you could look at someone all day long and there will be similarities because you’re a part of the same creation, but there will also be dissimilarities because you are not a copy!
You say she’s so pretty, she’s so skinny, she’s so curvy, she has the curliest hair, she has blue eyes – YESSS she does because that is how God made her! LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE!
Yes, there will be things people like about her that you don’t have and things people like about you that she doesn’t have if you start living who you are to the fullest instead of trying to be a less version of her.
Psalms 139:11-16 says,
“For you were formed in my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; my soul knows that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance…”
I love that David wrote this. His soul knew full well that he was fearfully and wonderfully made. You might say it was easy for him – he was a king, a hero, a musician, and he killed lions and bears with his own hands. But if you remember the story, that same David, was the last pick of all of his brothers.
And If I know anything about insecurity it’s that it doesn’t matter how far life takes you or what you achieve. You can still hold on to things people said about you in the past and compare yourself to other people. Even when I was modeling at New York Fashion week I was insecure because I still saw myself for what people had said about me and it was so easy to compare myself to every girl walking beside me.
How hard is Psalm 139 to believe? Let’s be real. How hard is it to believe that for our self and about our self?
Do you believe that God formed you?
Do you believe He knit you together?
Do you believe that you are wonderfully made?
I mean does your soul KNOW full well that you are wonderfully made?
For the full version, video teaching from me and all my favorite mentors (this lineup is UNREAL), visit thepowerfulworkshop.com to read more about this body image workshop (launching 4.1.21!), and get signed up TODAY!
by Bethany Beal | Mar 2, 2021 | Life Advice, Testimonies |
I’ll never forget the moment I first “noticed” David. I’d just spent the day with David and a bunch of other friends at a local event. The evening was coming to a close. I made my rounds and said my goodbyes to everyone…except for David. I couldn’t find him.
I headed to my car without another thought. As I was about to close the door to my car, I heard a voice call out my name. I looked back towards the parking lot and saw David running towards my car. He was coming to say goodbye to me. To me! What? Why? I looked at him through the rain and noticed him in a way I’d never noticed him before. “This guy is hot!” I thought to myself. I felt butterflies in my stomach. Something was different between us.
So let me ask you this: Were my feelings a sign that I had met my soulmate? Did cupid hit me with one of his arrows? Was I “in love?”
Well…not exactly. My feelings for David were very real, but they weren’t necessarily signs of true love.
What I was experiencing at that moment was a physical and sexual attraction to David. That attraction could lead me towards true love (and it did eventually), but in and of itself physical attraction isn’t the primary ingredient for true and lasting love. Romantic love is wonderful in the right context, but it’s not the type of love that will sustain a marriage for decades on end.
If you want a marriage that thrives beyond the honeymoon phase, you need a better vision for what true love looks like.
Thanks to Hollywood and our selfish hearts, most modern romantic relationships and marriages are built upon the belief that true love should always create happy feelings. That romance should always be at the center of every interaction. That sexual attraction should be the primary fuel for keeping your marriage alive. But if this is true, why are so many “hot celebrity marriages” fizzling out after a year or two?
If we, as Christian women, want better results for our romantic relationships, we have to get to the root of what genuine, true love is. We have to build our romances on God’s vision for true love and lasting relationships.
When we open up God’s Word, we quickly see that love defined by God is the polar opposite of most everything we see in our secular society. It also goes against every fiber of our being.
Love defined by God runs completely contrary to our self-centered hearts. In the Bible, there are actually 3 different Greek words to describe love. We can use these Greek words to help us determine which type of love we’re building our relationships on.
Eros (sexual and romantic love)
Phileo (friendship love)
Agape (unconditional, self-sacrificing love)
A lasting and vibrant marriage needs all three types of love to thrive. However, most of us place the largest amount of weight on the first one. Eros. We try to build our relationship on the foundation of romance and sexual attraction. But that doesn’t work long term.
God has a better plan. If you were able to read your Bible in Greek, you would see that the word “agape” is mentioned 259 times.
This should clue us in on how important this type of love is.
When we break down the original meaning of the word “agape,” its definition is earth-shattering. “The essence of agape love is self-sacrifice.” Did you catch that last part? The essence of agape love is self-sacrifice. This type of love isn’t built on sexual attraction, feelings, or romance—it’s built on choosing to serve someone else unconditionally.
Self-sacrifice.
God defined love isn’t built on romance alone but on a foundation of serving and sacrificing for another person. True love is an action, not an emotional feeling. Self-sacrifice is the action that best displays true biblical love.
Here’s a powerful story from my book, Love Defined: Embracing God’s Vision for Lasting Love and Satisfying Relationships that illustrates this type of agape love:
“I heard the story of a couple who had been married for over seventy years. As they entered their early nineties, the wife began to lose her sight. By the time her ninety-third birthday rolled around, she was completely blind.
Knowing how scary and hard this was for his wife, the husband stayed by her side every hour. He gently talked with her, prayed with her, sang her songs, cooked her meals, and combed her brittle hair. Wrapping his wrinkled hands around hers, he would softly whisper, ‘I love you more than life itself.’
Unable to look back at him, she would smile and say, ‘And I love you even more than that.’
Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. He stayed by her side. He served her. He loved her. His unselfish love was fueled by his deeper understanding of God’s faithful love to him.
Having experienced God’s sacrificial love for him for over ninety years, this older gentleman was compelled to love his wife in the same way.
One day the man’s grandson was visiting and asked, ‘Grandpa, don’t you get tired of just sitting with Grandma all day?’
Staring off into the distance, the grandpa paused for a moment then slowly said, ‘Son, she’s been faithfully by my side for the past seventy years, showing me the sacrificial love of Christ. Now it’s my turn to be faithfully by hers.’”
True love. That’s it. Right there.
If we, as Christian women, want to experience vibrant marriages that last until the very end, we must pursue this type of self-sacrificing love. We can’t build our relationships on eros love alone and expect it to last.
We need something more powerful.
When we look at the life of Jesus on this earth, we see a beautiful demonstration of agape love at work. His life was the ultimate example of sacrificial love and He calls us to love others in the same way.
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love [agape], as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV).
Agape love is God’s solution to vibrant, lasting relationships.
That’s God’s good design for us. In my marriage with David, agape love is what has sustained us as newlyweds and new parents. I still think David is smokin’ hot (and sometimes I still get butterflies), but that’s not what keeps us going. Choosing to love and cherish one another selflessly has been the key.
If you want to discover more about God’s vision for true love and lasting relationships, grab a copy of my book, Love Defined. Inside this book, I unpack a radically better and refreshingly biblical approach to navigating your love life. Covering topics such as true love, purposeful relationships, sex, boundaries, and singleness, this book will take you on a journey to discovering God’s good and original design for romance!
Let’s chat!
First, I have a question for my single sisters out there! In what ways has our culture’s “fireworks version” of true love influenced your personal view of love?
Now I have two questions for my married sisters! In what ways have you put true (sacrificial) love into action in your marriage? What advice do you have for single girls on how they can practice showing agape love now?
Bethany Beal is head-over-heels in love with her best friend and husband, David, and is the super proud mommy of Davey Jr. She is the cofounder of GirlDefined Ministries (www.girldefined.com) and the author of Love Defined: Embracing God’s Vision for Lasting Love and Satisfying Relationships. She is passionate about spreading the truth of biblical womanhood through writing, speaking, and mentoring young women. To her family and close friends, she is simply a tall blonde girl who is obsessed with iced lattes and can’t get enough of her sweet baby Davey Jr.
by Lydia Dozier | Feb 25, 2021 | Life Advice, Testimonies |
About a year and a half ago, I was feeling completely broken and empty on the inside. One morning during this difficult time, I woke up, and for a split second, I actually felt a sense of peace. It was that peace that is felt in the moment you begin to open your eyes. It’s also that peace that disappears as soon as your eyes adjust to the sunlight coming in and reality suddenly sets in. Reality sets in, and you immediately just wish that everything could be a dream. You wish that you could just go back to sleep and never have to face real life. Has anyone else ever had a morning like this before? As I took a moment to face my reality that morning, I decided to scroll through my pinterest to look for a new lock-screen. The first picture I came across read, “Today I choose joy!” For some reason, that picture felt like a message from God. It felt like God was telling me, “Hey! You’re going to be okay! All you have to do is CHOOSE ME!” That morning, through my tears and sobs, I downloaded that picture with the message “Today I Choose Joy” to make it the new lockscreen on my phone, and it is still the same today.
Have you ever considered the possibility that someone can be considered a happy person, yet they may actually be completely empty on the inside? For years, I believed that my ultimate goal in life was to be happy. I set this goal for myself years and years ago after sitting down and writing a letter to my future self. I strived every single day after that to be the happiest person around. It was an everyday battle that I faced until around one year ago. That goal I had set for myself, in completely honest terms, was just setting myself up for complete failure for the next 7 years of my life. I could make sure to smile at every person that glanced in my direction. I could be involved in all of the different social groups. I could attend all of the best parties. I could be dating some of the most popular, best looking guys in town. I could be posting all of the ‘perfect’ posts on instagram. I could even LOOK like the most happy girl around, but the truth is, none of these things ever satisfied and fulfilled my goal to always be “happy.”
The truth is, happiness is just an emotion that is based upon all of the little things that are going well in our lives around us. The hard truth is, it is impossible to feel happy 24/7/365! The smile that I made sure everyone saw when looking at me eventually fell into a dull frown. The social groups that I was a part of eventually came to an end. The parties that I attended always left me feeling more alone than ever before. The boys that I put all of my hope in would eventually let me down. Many of my instagram posts were staged, and reality would hit every time I hit “post.” The truth is, happiness is fleeting. Happiness is an impossible feeling to feel all day everyday! It is the hard truth that I eventually had to come to terms with after years and years of striving for something that can simply never be achieved.
Joy, on the other hand, is not like this. No, Joy found in the Lord is nothing like the happiness that I, along with so many others, search for for so many years. Joy in the Lord remains even in and through the trials that we face. What a difference!!! The happiness that the world tries to hold onto can never even begin to compare to the joy that we can CHOOSE to find in the Lord.
When we look around at the world surrounding us, it is so easy to become caught up in all of the negativity. It is so easy to be distracted and discouraged by the trials and persecutions that take place on a daily basis, but it is in those moments of doubt and distraction that the Lord calls us to cling onto the truth that is only found in Him. The word of God says that God is GOOD and that He works all things together for His divine purpose. (Romans 8:28) I don’t know about you, but if there’s one thing that I’m 100% sure of, it is God’s word to His people. When you begin choosing to see things in a different perspective, you will also begin to recognize that maybe the trials that we are faced with were never meant to break us. Maybe the trials of this world are given to us as a gift to make us more like Jesus! In James we are told to consider it ALL joy! (James 1: 2-3) This statement made by James is the same truth that helped Jesus face the most cruel and evil, yet equally beautiful and world changing trial to have ever existed, the cross, with a heart of joy. ( Hebrew 12:2) It is when we begin to shift our focus to what God is actually doing through the trials in our lives that we can also begin to see these trials as joy knowing that Jesus ultimately wants good for us!
The truth is, you cannot fake joy. Joy is something that you either have or you don’t have, and I promise you, you can tell a difference! The bible actually tells us throughout scripture that joy is the very essence of who God truly is! (1 Chronicles 16:27) If the Lord is filled with joy, and the Lord is shaping His children to become more and more like Him, why would we not desire to be filled with that same joy? Why should we not recognize the difference between a world that is full of circumstantial happiness and an everlasting joy that is being offered to us?
About a year and a half ago, the day that I opened my eyes and struggled to face my reality, turned out to be one of the best days of my life. It was that day that I realized that I have a choice to make every single day. I wake up every morning, and have the choice to choose joy that can only be found in the Lord. God has taught me that joy is a gift from Him that cannot be taken away. I do not have to depend on the circumstances of life anymore when I have the joy of the Lord living inside of me. Today, my satisfaction is found in a new life that I have been given in Christ, and my prayer is that everyone can find that same everlasting satisfaction in Him.
This same joy that I have experienced is available to everyone; all you have to do is start by making that choice!
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11
Lydia is a part of Team LO and a 7 on the enneagram. Some of her favorite things include coffee dates, hanging with friends, and spending time with Jesus. She plans to pursue a career in counseling when she graduates in the spring!
Follow Lydia on Instagram @lrdozier
by Ryanne Gordon | Feb 23, 2021 | Life Advice, Testimonies |
As challenging as this post was to write, so much healing and celebration came from it. I was asked to share “What does black history month mean to me”?
I thought I had something to say right away, but I couldn’t answer. I asked myself “why”? Truth is, up until this year, Black History Month was just another month. Yes, I learned about my history, but it always felt like the world and my community always went through the motions when it came to February. I personally never really felt proud of being “black”. I just existed as a black woman in America.
Yes, I saw myself as beautiful, but I personally never felt understood in my community enough for me to be proud of being a black woman in America. Which, in my early years, had me wishing I was another ethnicity.
Majority of my life I was often told by other black men and women that people that I “acted white”. Which meant, in the black community, that that individual’s vernacular and pronunciation of words was of the Caucasian race. That made me feel like an outsider with my race and I went where I was more accepted.
My mother and father raised my siblings and me to never mumble, enunciate my words, and learn new ones! We looked at it as a form of respect and means to make sure we communicated effectively, but hearing that I “acted white” still made me feel secluded. I just wanted to be accepted and just fit in.
Though I came from a multi-ethnic town, I was bullied by a few classmates. I was called names like “darkie,” “n-word,” and “ugly.” I didn’t understand why that group perceived me as unattractive, but their words unknowingly shaped the perception of my own beauty and increased my wish to fit in and be left alone.
In the year 2000, my family and I moved to Tulsa and since then up to 2020, I’ve learned so much about the black community. I’ve come into contact with incredible women and men, but in those same 20 years, I still only existed. I was still racially bullied, but this time it was indifferent. A guy breaking up with me because his parents gave him an ultimatum. Women saying I’d never have a boyfriend or be married because I’m black to guys rejecting me because their family wouldn’t approve. The only difference is I began my walk with God in 2011 and grew thick skin as I gained understanding in my identity through Christ.
In my walk with God, He has shown me that in my adolescence, I had trained myself to just fit in and go unnoticed. He instilled in me, that:
I am set apart. (Deut 14:2)
I was intentionally created with Love. (Jere 1:5)
I am beautiful and Resilient. ( Ps 139:14, 2 Cor 4:8-9)
I wasn’t alone because He’s been with me. (Heb 13:5)
He accepts me and in Him is my rest/peace. (Matt 11:28)
I am called to carry on the works of Jesus! (John 14:12)
July 2020, I saw a rise of the black community coming together and championing one another in leadership and life. Though summer was highly triggering, God saw an opportunity to heal the broken places, forgive those who hurt me, and rise.
December 2020 at the Live Original retreat, I arrived cautiously, but still eager to meet these other phenomenal women! And I’ve never felt so free to simply be Me. I’ll never forget how 2020 ended. I was fully respected, accepted, heard, loved, and valued…. as a Black Live Original Ambassador.
So, What does Black History Month mean to me? This month meant honoring those who paved the way with their very lives to fight for mental, political, social, and spiritual equality. Because of them, I get to stand on their shoulders and represent a new America…and I’m not alone. I have God backing me. Today and forever, I celebrate ALL of me and my ancestors!
Ryanne Gordon is an Oklahoman Native who currently resides in Tulsa. There she designs homes for a new home builder. She also owns her own jewelry line called “RYANNEMARIE”. You can find her enjoying time laughing with her family and friends. Though she’s passionate about a lot of things her goal is to help people know/discover their worth and ultimately point people to Christ in whatever God has her doing in that season.
Follow Ryanne on Instagram @iamryannemarie
by Lisa Harper | Feb 18, 2021 | Healing, Life Advice, Testimonies, Wisdom |
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:20-21
Although I never heard “God will be disappointed in you if you don’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps” in a sermon ~ at least not verbatim ~ I’d seen it demonstrated so often by adults around me that by the time I was in the first grade the scaffolding of my budding theology included a misplaced admiration for self-sufficiency and false optimism. I sincerely thought sad = bad. So, I learned how to wear a happy expression and speak with a happy inflection even when sorrow or fear were lurking beneath my emotional surface like Great White sharks in a cold, dark sea.
Of course, sometimes emotional predators aren’t content to slink around without biting. Which happened when I was sophomore in high school and the migraines I’d been having for a year or two worsened to point of causing me to have blackouts and get violently sick every couple of weeks. After I lost consciousness at track practice one afternoon, mom raced me to a neurologist who immediately had me admitted to a hospital because I had multiple symptoms of a brain tumor.
Fortunately, after several days and a battery of tests, I was diagnosed as having a build-up of cerebrospinal fluid behind my optic nerve, not a brain tumor or anything life threatening. Other than dealing with the awkwardness of several relatives sobbing uncontrollably in my hospital room after hovering outside the doorway and talking with mom in hushed tones (my family isn’t always adept at dealing with grief, but we are quite gifted at drama), my teenage medical issues were a minor hiccup.
I’d all but forgotten about that hospital stay until I was in my early forties and my counselor and I were excavating some of the bigger hills of my adolescence when I remembered an alarming, thoroughly-dismissed-at-the-time, symptom from that long ago health scare. I recalled it vividly because I’d heard Mom tell this story numerous times. While I was in the hospital a child psychiatrist met with me ~ as part of their normal protocol at the time when treating a minor ~ to ascertain whether he thought there were any signs of child abuse.
Following our two-hour visit, he sat down with Mom to go over his evaluation. Once he explained that he found no signs of physical abuse or psychosis, he closed my file, took off his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose and said soberly, “Lisa is either the most happy, well-adjusted child I’ve ever met in my life or she’s in deep emotional pain.” Every time my dear mama got to the end of that story at a family gathering or while chatting up a grocery store clerk or a saleslady at the make-up counter in the mall, her voice would rise triumphantly because she regarded the psychiatrist’s statement as proof that I actually was the happiest, most well-adjusted child in the history of the universe.
It took me two and a half decades to realize that compassionate doctor was trying to tell Mom that I was a pretty little liar. That my mirth was mostly a mirage. And while young adulthood brought with it the growing awareness that the painful knots in my soul stemmed from childhood wounds ~ my parents had a very acrimonious divorce, and I was sexually molested by several different men after Dad left our family ~ I had no idea how to deal with them. So, when I graduated from college, took a job in youth ministry and became a “professional” Christian, I felt like I had no choice but to suppress my vulnerability and pretend like everything was okay. Eventually I became a master happy doppelgänger.
You’ve probably heard the platitude “Fake it til’ you make it” and perhaps like me, adopted it as a strategy to survive difficult seasons. But I can promise you from decades of personal experience that the only thing faking makes is more of an emotional mess. Much like that old-school arcade game, Whack-a-Mole, pretending you don’t feel something doesn’t get rid of it. Instead, like those pesky moles, pushing what we perceive to be sad, bad, scary or shameful deeper into the recesses of our hearts and minds causes other problems to pop out. Things like insincerity and isolation and depression and the inability to experience true intimacy with others and with God. Pretense may effectively camouflage our true feelings for a season but ultimately it only serves to exacerbate our ache.
Trusting in God’s compassionate sovereignty means hiking up the hills and down into the valleys of life all while hanging onto the firm belief that ultimately everything will work out for our good and His glory. Faith in the immutable kindness of our Creator Redeemer eliminates the need for a facade. It means that like Job, we learn to shoulder disappointments, grief and loss honestly…with hearts tender enough to be broken and worship pure enough to remain intact. It means realizing that in the economy of Glory, scars can actually become beauty marks.
Speaking of scars, I got to hang out with Wonder Woman recently. Well, not Wonder Woman exactly. Her name is Lori, not Gal Gadot. But she’s incredibly brave despite her lack of knee-high red boots and a cape. Because Lori just passed the three-month mark of being clean from methamphetamines after an eight-year addiction that culminated in a conviction for illegal drug possession and armed robbery charges.
Unlike most of the women I meet at The Next Door (a faith-based program in Nashville that provides recovery support services for women conquering their addictions to alcohol and drugs), Lori looks younger than her age of twenty-three. The first time we met she was wearing a hoodie with a popular logo emblazoned on the front, torn jeans, and metallic nail polish. If I’d seen her strolling through the mall or giggling with her girlfriends at Starbucks, I would’ve assumed she was a happy-go-lucky college student. It wasn’t until she pushed up the sleeves of her sweatshirt, and I noticed the ragged scars from shooting up, that the tragic reality of her former life became apparent.
Because I’ve had the privilege of volunteering with several addiction-recovery programs, much of Lori’s story is sadly familiar. She grew up in a very poor family in a very small town. One of her parents moonlighted as a mean-spirited bully, who claimed to be “knocking the stupid out of her” when smacking Lori around. Of course, she wasn’t stupid at all. Despite the regular beatings she endured at home, Lori excelled in school. She made the honor roll and the cheerleading squad. After putting her hope in the unconditional love of Jesus Christ at a youth rally, she also became an outspoken Christian leader on campus. However, when her parents divorced and she became the sole possession of her abuser, Lori’s world caved in. She eventually ran away from home and moved in with her boyfriend. He introduced her to meth, which numbed the searing pain of the compound fractures in her heart. And the rest, as they say, is history. Horrible, awful, gut-wrenching history.
That is until God intervened with a team of federal agents wearing flak jackets. Lori’s voice brightened when she got to the part in her story where those law enforcement officers burst into her trailer to arrest her. She looked up at me through her bangs and grinned. Then she proclaimed with genuine gratitude, “Miss Lisa, I know God ordained the exact timing of my drug bust, because I’d planned to commit suicide that afternoon. If those cops hadn’t come when they did, I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”
The older I get the more convinced I am that admittedly flawed sinners are the most credible witnesses of the Gospel, because blemished believers can’t fake moral superiority. Our scars make it glaringly apparent that we couldn’t protect ourselves from harm.
Authentic Christ followers with scabby knees, bruised hearts, and even track-marked arms, who sometimes stumble yet always grab onto the arm of His Spirit in order to stand up again, exemplify the redemptive power of divine grace. We prove how miraculous and restorative the love of God really is. We know we can’t make it by ourselves and can only keep it together because of the amazing grace Jesus provided for us through His sacrificial death and glorious resurrection! And with a Prince like that who needs pretense?
“On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars.” Brennan Manning
_______
Lisa Harper is an engaging, hilarious communicator as well as an authentic and substantive Bible teacher that many enjoy hearing in person, or on countless TV and radio platforms. She holds a Master of Theological Studies from Covenant Seminary, and a doctorate-in-progress at Denver Seminary. She’s been in vocational ministry for thirty years and has written fifteen books and Bible study curriculums but says her greatest accomplishment by far is that of becoming Missy’s (her adopted daughter from Haiti) mama! They live on a hilly farmette south of Nashville, Tennessee, where they enjoy eating copious amounts of chips, queso, and guacamole.
In her new devotional, LIFE: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional (B&H, Feb. 9, 2021), Lisa provides readers with a deep exploration of Scripture that proves God’s grace is more than sufficient for both the massive and minuscule things in life.
Whether we deal with personal loss, ongoing trauma, global crisis, or simply a super bad hair day, the Gospel is more than enough to handle every single thing. LIFE reminds us that God’s faithfulness really does follow us into all the difficult, painful, crazy, and even humorous moments of our every day.
“Whether you’re having a great day or a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad one, the lavish and always-accessible affection of our Heavenly Father enables us to hang onto authentic peace, hope and joy and rest securely in his embrace!” – Lisa Harper.
Visit https://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/life-devotional/ for more information on LIFE!
