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On Being Strong

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Around four years ago I wrote a post titled Don’t Tell Me I’m Strong. Just last week someone left a remark. It’s amazing the power of words, and the amplification by the Internet. Add the Jesus factor and the possibilities are endless.

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This is how that post started: “Don’t tell me I’m strong”, I heard myself say as I sat and talked with a group of people. “I’m not sure why, but it really pisses me off”. This became a new topic of discussion as we delved a little deeper, because others were identifying and agreeing that they weren’t that thrilled with hearing those words either.

You can read the entire post by clicking here.

Here is the comment that was left last week: Thank you. My child was stillborn nine weeks ago and I’m so f’ing tired of people telling me that “I’m strong.” “You’re so strong” it makes me want to punch them in the face. I mean, it’s definitely better than them not saying anything, I appreciate that they’re trying to be encouraging… but it makes me really angry. I actually had to look and see if anyone else felt the same.

I was struck with the fact that this woman had those same feelings but had never heard anyone else express them, so she did what anyone living in the twenty-first century would do…she Googled it. And she found my post. There is such a comfort in knowing that someone “gets us”, understands exactly how we feel, even if this person is halfway across the country or even the world.

The power of “Yeah, me too” is so impactful. It brings connection. What greater purpose is there in telling your story?

I was also struck with another thing…no man is an island. There is nothing new under the sun. We all think we’re so different (not in a good way), that no one else has ever felt the way we’ve felt, or experienced the things we have. To some extent this is true. Every story is different. Every life is unique. Human nature, however, is pretty universal.

The feelings of connection and belonging are huge. Don’t be afraid to tell your story. You never know who’s life it might touch in a way that no one else, or any other story could.

We have commonalities. If you have had a thought or feeling that seems different, chances are someone else has thought and felt the same as you.

People want, maybe even need to hear; “Yeah, me too”.

Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable with a person who has earned the right to hear your story. Vulnerability can dispel loneliness and bring a feeling of belonging and worth.

Let them be where they are. Don’t try to change or fix.

Instead, listen with the heart of the Father.

And pray.

 

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God, Then Change Me

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Marriage is an interesting thing to me. I am captivated by couples who look like they know what they’re doing when it comes to relationships. And not only that, it looks like they are actually enjoying what they have and each other.

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When I read Chapter 15, as I mentioned in Favorite Authors, in Richard Paul Evans’ newest novel; The Road Home, I was intrigued.  Here are a few excerpts that caught my attention:

“I enjoyed watching the two of them Interact. There was something intriguing about their relationship. Maybe it was something as simple as the fact that they liked each other.” 

That’s what I’m talking about. You can always tell when a couple enjoys each other. Not because they have to. Not because they are working hard to make it work. They simply enjoy being together.

“As the evening drew on, I asked Norm, ‘How long have you been married?’

‘Forever’, he said.

‘Judy reached over and slapped his leg. ‘Thirty-five years.’

‘Thirty-five years, I echoed. ‘You seem like you have a good marriage.’

‘I kind of like the guy,’ Judy said. Then she added, ‘Wasn’t always that way.’

He sighed. ‘That’s for sure.’

‘Really?’ I asked.

‘For years the wife and I struggled.’

‘That’s an understatement,’ she said, smiling slightly.

Norm groaned. ‘Seems the longer we were married the more difficult things got. The tension between us got so bad that whenever I’d go away on business it was a relief, for both of us. At least while I was gone. ‘Course, we always paid for it on reentry.’

‘I was on the road, in Toledo, when things came to a head. We had just had another big fight on the phone and Judy had hung up on me. I was alone and frustrated and angry.’

‘That’s when I turned to God. Or turned on God. Maybe shouting at God isn’t prayer, maybe it is–but whatever I was enagged in I’ll never forget it. I was standing in the shower of a Motel 6, yelling at God that I couldn’t do it anymore. As much as I hated the idea of divorce, the pain of being together was just too much.

Finally, I just sat down in the shower and began to cry. That’s when a voice said to me, You can’t change her. You can only change yourself. At that moment I thought, If I can’t change her, God, then change me. I prayed late into the night. I prayed the next day on the drive home. I prayed as I walked in the door to a cold wife who barely even acknowledged me.

That night, as we lay in our bed, inches from each other yet miles apart, I knew what I had to do.

The next morning I rolled over in bed next to Judy and said, ‘How can I make your day better?”

The dialogue goes on for a little longer. In a nutshell, Judy was skeptical, to say the least. Norm continued to ask her the same question every day until she got it. From that point on their relationship grew.

First of all, I get that this is fiction. I also understand how over simplified this is. Real life is way more complicated. But what if it wasn’t? What if it doesn’t have to be?

There are lots of marriages with lots of different issues, in varying degrees of severity. But what if it was as simple as treating others how we want to be treated? Just like the Bible states, only in different words (Mark 12:30-31.)

When my kids where little, I used to ask them what the most important thing was. The answer, which they came to know, was relationships. They came to understand that if they treated others how they wanted to be treated, their lives, and more importantly their relationships, would go more smoothly.

I get that this snippet from a novel is trite, but what if it carries some weight?

It could be a great mantra, a way of life, to put others needs above your own, especially when it comes to close relationships. But we can’t just try it. It has to become a way of life.

“God, then change me.”

 

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When We Don’t Understand

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As long as we have breath within us there will be times when we don’t understand.

Several weeks ago on a Monday morning I learned of two tragedies that had occurred to people I know. One was the heart attack and near death of a young man, a man who wasn’t even forty years old. And the other thing was about fifty-eight year old Greg. He had just learned that he had an inoperable brain tumor.

Today that young man, husband and father of four, has recovered and is doing well. This family now approaches life with trepidation but gratefulness for what God did in their lives and what He continues to do as they trust each day to His will for them all.

As long as we have breath within us there will be times when we don’t understand.

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Greg’s funeral was Thursday. It was well-attended. He was loved by many. He served faithfully and had the kind of laugh that was infectious for all of those around him. He would go out of his way to ask about your life and find words to encourage and inspire.

These are moments when we don’t understand-the life-changing outcome for both families, only different.

 

I read of the passing of Rachel Held Evans on Saturday morning. I didn’t know her personally, but I read a few posts on different social media sites that intrigued me to go find out who she was. This woman, wife and mother of young children, suddenly showed symptoms that were troubling to the doctors. She was placed in a medically induced coma where she stayed until she couldn’t stay any longer. As they took her off the meds that were keeping the seizures at bay, she began to seize and her brain began to swell and… there was nothing they could do.

More moments when we don’t understand.

Life is filled with times when we don’t understand. These are just a few of the latest. I could tell you about the brother who was a husband to an expecting wife, a father of young children and a successful businessman. He died of a business related accident.

I could tell you of a grieving widow who is raising her grandchild alone now. Her son, her only child, has entered her home to destroyed heirlooms and wreak havoc, and he is threatening to kill her. She doesn’t understand why or what is going on.

I could tell you of a friend whose fourteen year old child was just released from a stay in a hospital. He was there because he was contemplating suicide.

Those are few a happenings that I know about. You know about others. No sense or reasons can make the pain go away. No words can change the lives of those who have been affected by a sudden chain of events which leaves them in a realm of despair.

When we don’t understand we try to make sense. We try to explain. We try to reason. Futile acts. Nothing can change what has been done.

People survive. People go on to live in such a way that others marvel.

There is no explanation for any of this.

There is only Jesus and the hope of eternal life.

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About Grace

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This article appeared in The Southeast Outlook. I am humbled.

Have you ever struggled with grace? I do at times and I’ve been a Christian most of my life. I came to know Jesus as my personal savior when I was eleven years old. I was raised in church. I went to Sunday School, VBS and all the extra meetings in between. I knew all about God and Jesus. I heard all the Bible stories while growing up. I was well versed in the ways of churchdom.

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But don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to give you the impression that I was a saint. During my teen years, I was rebellious. I remember coming home many nights after partying with my friends. I would sit on my bed smoking a cigarette, flipping through the pages of my Bible-The Way -which was the Bible to read back in the day if you were young. I remember praying; thanking God for my salvation through Jesus. I told Him I loved Him, and I would serve Him…one day, but not just yet. I had parties to attend and friends to hang with, but not to worry. I would be all in…one day.

That paragraph may be the very definition of grace. God didn’t turn His back on me then in all my teenage audacity. That is unconditional, unfailing love from a compassionate and merciful Father. I could stop right here, grace defined, but let’s talk a little more about grace.

After all these years, I still don’t fully understand grace. I get the concept. I know that Jesus paid a price for all mankind; those who have gone before us, and those yet to be born. I know that grace is unmerited favor with God. I didn’t earn it. I don’t deserve it. Grace is a gift freely given by the Father, because of the sacrifice of the Son.
Wikipedia defines grace as ‘…the divine influence which operates in humans to regenerate and sanctify, and to impart strength to endure trial and resist temptation; and as an individual virtue or excellence of divine origin”.
That definition sounds very ethereal, like it’s not even attainable by humans. And that sort of makes sense to me because grace is in total opposition of how we live today. Our worthiness is based on what we do and who we are, or better yet, who others think we are and who we present to the world via our social media feeds. In a nutshell, our worthiness depends on us and has little to do with grace.

We learn at an early age that we need to measure up. There is a standard; an unspoken set of rules (or sometimes spoken) about what we need to do, or be, or achieve, to be worthy, to be enough to deserve all the things we have or are trying to become.

Even when I come face-to-face with grace, like those times as a teen, or these days, when I catch a tiny glimpse of what grace really is, when I feel the overwhelming love of God that leaves me in awe, my thinking eventually goes back to; “Am I enough”? Like my value depends on me.

I listen as others talk around the topic of grace. It almost seems as if we reserve grace for the “churchy” aspects of our lives, that it doesn’t fit into everyday living. I can only conclude that we don’t understand the magnitude of that one small word.

I read Grace is Greater by Kyle Idleman, the senior pastor of Southeast Christian Church when it was published. That book was a hard read for me. It’s grace, right? Why should that be a hard subject to read about? But it was. I would read a small section and then I would have to step away in order to grasp what I had just read and how it impacts my life as a child of God. Don’t get me wrong, Grace is Greater helped shed some light on the topic, but for me, I always (unconsciously) go back to core beliefs about who I think I am. And when that happens, I never measure up. There’s always someone better, stronger, smarter…

Sometimes I compare the other way. I might find a person who isn’t doing life as well as I did in one area or another. There’s danger in comparing. For one thing, it simply isn’t true. I don’t know what I think I know. I only know what I see, and I assume the rest. And for another thing, that’s not how my Father operates or wants me to conduct my life. He doesn’t compare me to someone else in a negative or positive way. If He isn’t comparing us to each other then why do we?

Maybe understanding what grace isn’t has helped me better understand what grace is. When I have questions about grace, I stop trying to figure it out and simply put my trust in the One who is Higher than I, the One who is Holy. The One who is all-knowing, and unconditionally loving– ALWAYS.
I once heard Chip Ingram in one of his broadcasts on Living on the Edge, say this about grace; “Perhaps it (grace) describes everything God is, in every work that Jesus did on the cross on our behalf”. It still doesn’t totally define grace, but it helps me to rest in Him.

I located Grace is Greater from my bookshelf recently and thumbed through it to see what stood out at me when I read the book in 2017 – what I had highlighted and underlined. Although Idleman doesn’t really define the word, what he says paints a beautiful picture of grace. I found these excerpts in the introduction of the book Grace is Greater. “I tend to think grace is best and most fully understood not by way of explanation alone but through experience.” And this; “Jesus, on the other hand, never used the word grace. Instead he showed us what it looked like.”

When I don’t totally get this thing called grace, maybe all I really need to do is look to the cross and see the pain and suffering Jesus experienced for me and for you, knowing that He chose to endure the shame and bare the sin of the world in that small span of time, so we could live with Him forever. I can choose to believe what the Bible says about grace and learn by experience. Looking at the cross helps me better understand how that one small word makes all the difference.

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Between the Cross and the Empyt Tomb

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Do you ever tire of other people’s junk? Yeah, me too. But if I’m totally honest, what I’m really tired of, is my own.

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Today I have a new struggle. It’s not new exactly. I’ve just become acutely aware of it. Perhaps that isn’t the correct terminology either. I’m aware of this acute mindset that I have never really owned. Today I want to own it. I want to accept it. I want to embrace it for all it’s worth and allow God to use it to weave me into His plans and purposes for my life.

In the book The Gift of Being Yourself; The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery by David G. Benner, he shared these words: “Thomas a Kempis said, ‘A humble self-knowledge is a surer way to God than a search after deep learning”. And “Augustine’s prayer; ‘Grant, Lord, that I may know myself that I may know thee’. It seems that self-discovery is God inspired. Why does that surprise me?

I trust my life to Jesus Christ, and the lives of those I love. I know I ultimately have no control over what happens to me or those I hold dear. I attempt to do the next thing that I feel I am supposed to do and trust God with the outcome.

But here’s the thing…I actually trust God with the outcome that I want, but not simply want or desire but expect. And if I don’t get what I think I deserve (for too many reasons to list here) then I am hurled into a maelstrom of emotions that engulf me and threaten my mental and emotional well-being.

I want what I want, and I want it now. It’s a common thing among mortals. I also want the outcome to be precisely how I envision….to bring glory to God, of course. After all, wanting to bring God glory is an honorable thing to strive for. How can anyone fault us for that?

Reading these words gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Writing them is even worse. Writing them makes them mine. Writing them causes me to see myself for exactly who I am, and exactly who I am at this very moment, doesn’t offer much peace or joy.

But there is reason to hope! Let’s not forget the Easter season and all that it represents. The very existence of spring, with it’s newness; it’s vibrant and lush facades, is what enables hope in the first place. But beyond that, way above all that we see and know with our senses is Jesus. Good Friday, the beginning of Hope Eternal, looked upon with such reverence and sadness for what the Savior of the World endured. But if not for Friday, there would be no Sunday! Neither of these acts are more important than the other. Both were necessary for the Redemption of all mankind. Both are reasons to celebrate.

No, I didn’t switch gears. These things go together. I have neglected to blend the two in my life–the redemptive work of what Jesus did on the cross and when He rose from the grave, with the way I conduct my life on a daily basis.

I am on a path, a journey that can sometimes bring more pain than I feel I can bare; the journey to let God write the story He wants to tell with my life. That’s not the hard part though. The most difficult piece of this puzzle is to not only be content, but to live in the freedom of the outcome He has planned for me.

And that’s where I often get stuck.

But not today. Because I have been made aware.

Our journeys aren’t really about the outcome. They are about how we respond, how we allow God to use us as instruments for His purpose, even if we don’t understand. Even if we don’t like it. Even when what we are experiencing are the results of the actions and choices of others. It’s always about allowing our lives to point to His grace, sufficiency and love.

Let this day mark the new beginning, this day between the cross and the empty tomb. Let today be known in my life, (and perhaps in yours too?) as the first step of not only letting God write His story with my life, but to give Him the ending as well.

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More on Don’t Give Up

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I was reading once again in Don’t Give Up by Kyle Idleman, Senior Pastor at Southeast Christian Church. He wrote; “Accidental lives seem fun and spontaneous to some—just throw the dice every day and see what you land on. But when the harvest comes due, you’ll likely wish you’d put time and thought into your future”.

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When you’re twenty years old and about to get married, you hope you know what you’re doing. You assume that the doubts and butterflies that feel more like bats-vampire bats- are normal. You pray; “Please dear God, let this be normal”.

I remember just weeks before the wedding date, a co-worker, a man who was a few years older than me was getting married a month or so after me. He asked me if I was nervous. I lied. I told him I wasn’t. I mean, I was a Christian. My soon-to-be-husband was a new Christian. We were friends. We loved each other. Why would I be nervous? I was, but I wasn’t about to admit it. He did. My co-worker admitted he was nervous. He voiced his very real and legit concern of how one really knows if one is marrying the “right” person?

I WAS scared but I never told a single person. My co-worker’s marriage only lasted a year or two and for that I was sorry. But my marriage? It was struggling right along.

This seems like “Accidental living” to me. Thought out but kind of spontaneous? How could a couple of kids really know what they were doing? Granted, it was 1980. That wasn’t too young to marry back in those days, but it definitely wasn’t the 1950s where home and hearth was more the norm.

I was born in the wrong era.

Hear me well…it is important who you marry! It’s not a practice run. It is until death do you part no matter how this generation chooses to view it.

I recently heard that there is a new thing. Brides, while planning the wedding often say; “It’s perfect for my first wedding!” Wait, what?!!!

God is the author and inventor of marriage. No matter if you believe in God or not, or the sacredness of marriage, it is what it is. Marriage is a covenant, a treaty, a contract between three beings. The bride, the groom and God. Make no mistake, God is in the marriage whether you want Him there or not. It belongs to Him and He has taken it upon Himself to be involved. He considers your marriage sacred and holy regardless of your opinion.

Don’t use “Accidental Living” as a way to get married. Do it once and do it for life. There is a caveat, however, if you are in an abusive relationship and either you or your children’s lives are endangered, GET OUT. SEEK HELP! That is your obligation and responsibility.

Accidental living has no place when it comes to who you marry.

#DontGiveUp

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Don’t Give Up on What?

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I have been immersed in all things Don’t Give Up, the newest book by Kyle Idleman, senior pastor at Southeast Christian Church. Not only am I reading the book, but Kyle is teaching a series based on Don’t Give Up. Our small groups are following a Don’t Give Up group curriculum. I’m pretty much surrounded by this Don’t Give Up message.

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I was thinking about the things I’ve been reading and hearing, and discussing around this Don’t Give Up theme, and it hit me that maybe there are people who don’t know what they’re not supposed to give up on.

Kyle talks about a few different things in the sermon, and group videos. He covers more in-depth in the book. But do you know what it is you, YOU personally, aren’t’ supposed to give up on?

It can look a little different for different people. Maybe you’re not supposed to give up on your marriage, but there are real issues that need real attention, practically speaking. Maybe you need help navigating this? Maybe you need to put some boundaries in place or some safe parameters, or maybe even some healthy distance.

If it’s your finances, I’m pretty sure there are practical steps that need to be taken and structure put in place. And again, maybe you need to ask for help.

Or an addiction, or religious belief, or work issues. The list of possibilities are only limited to the people who are experiencing them.

Do you know what it is you aren’t supposed to give up on? Do you know what it looks like not to give up? It’s not always cut and dry, and I think Kyle addressed that in his first sermon; Don’t Give Up on your marriage. You can click this link and listen in: Don’t Give Up on Marriage.

But I think the bottom line, for me anyway, is don’t give up on God. He’s not finished with you. He’s not finished with your story. He knows how He wants it to go, to end, and all that comes in between.

Once I came to that conclusion, I was able to embrace this whole Don’t Give Up message. I was able to lean in and perhaps let go of what I thought it would look like. Perhaps the biggest lesson for me is trusting God with the story, the story that is my life.

I’m still not exactly sure what not giving up looks like for me, but I do know that I won’t give up on God. In fact, I’ll go a step further and say He’s the only constant in the chaos. He’s the only One who will never leave.

Don’t give up. God is faithful to do what He says if you lean into His loving embrace.

Go to Don’t Give Up to get  your book and free bonuses before the book comes out on March 5, 2019.

#DontGiveUp

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What if We Believe It’s True?

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It’s been a tough day, mentally and emotionally. Have you ever had one of those? You know the kind; when you just can’t quiet the voices or still the replay of the scene. It seems to play over and over, growing with each lap made in the memory bank of your mind.

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That’s where I found myself as I was driving home from work. Thinking. Wondering. Worrying? Trying to figure it all out.

I did my thing. I spent some time with God, but I was honest. I told Him straight up that this was an exercise in faith. More of a sacrifice of my time. Acting on what I believe to be true, even though I’m not sure how true it is at the moment, but knowing in the grand scheme of things, it really is all that matters.

So I picked up my love-to-read but hate-what-it says copy of Don’t Give Up by Kyle Idleman. I began reading about the time the disciples were in the boat with Jesus and a big storm arose, making waves that threatened the very lives of those aboard. They went looking for Jesus and found Him asleep.

Mark 4:38 tells us the question the disciples asked of Jesus, and if I’m honest, I ask Him the same question on many occasions. “Don’t you care if we drown?”

Because, we reason, if He did care, then why did he let us take the job, buy the house, marry the person. We wonder why a loving, all-powerful God would allow us to do something that would cause us more pain than we could bear.

Kyle talks about casting your care on the Lord, in the section about anxiety. 1 Peter 5:7 says Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Easy peasy. We’re all done here, right?

Yeah, not so much.

Kyle went on to explain that the word Cast here actually means to transfer.

What if we were able to transfer all of our anxieties onto Jesus? What would that look like? How would we conduct our lives if we truly believed that verse?

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure it would change the way I think. Make my decisions. Move out of the pain.

Transfer my stuff over on Him because He loves me that much.

What if we believed it was true?

What then?

#DontGiveUp

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New Post-Bunker HQ

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My friend Trevor has published a new blog post! It is full of his personal journey and truth. Here are a few words of his post Pendulum on Stand: “In high school I didn’t understand how to grow as a man. The decisions I made put me into a heavy, deep “pit”. There were ladders to help me climb out, but I didn’t use those ladders. My freshman year I stepped into high school knowing very few people. My reputation was low, and I felt like I needed to conform to make friends and earn their respect. I felt forced to enter a door that I never should have accessed. This door is a swinging door that teeters back and forth between this world and Christ, it was like my life was a Pendulum on stand.”

To read the rest of that post click here: Pendulum on Stand.

wisdom, helping others, sharing stories, there is help in the story, faith, God, millennial, BunkersHQ

This kid…okay, he’s not a kid. He is a twenty year old man and he puts it out there. His transparency and vulnerability has a way to make you keep on reading, if for no other reason but to try to figure out why he would share his story with us in such a way.

So I asked him that. I said; “I’m very impressed with your openness. I’m very impressed with how vulnerable you write. Why do you?”

His answer; “I truly believe everything happens for a reason. Every situation can be learned from. Everything is a lesson, it’s just like our faith in God. We can either choose to let situations happen and learn from them or not learn from them. So with me, I was a screw up because I was not fully invested in God. But when I found God, a purpose of hope and success came into play. Even when I do screw up now, I still find the success in it. You have to fail to succeed! Everything I went through, someone else could be going through too! They just might be lost like I was and don’t know the way out. Which is where my story comes into play.”

That’s good stuff. In fact, it reminds me so much of the book I’m reading, Don’t Give Up by Kyle Idleman, senior pastor at Southeast Christian Church. Those are good steps to follow in. It looks like Trevor is doing just that.

You can read more from Trevor by clicking here: Bunker HQ. You will find a wealth of wisdom beyond his twenty years.

Thanks Trevor! Keep writing.

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Don’t Give Up-Second Book Review

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It happened again, just like it always does when I read a book by Kyle Idleman. His newest book, Don’t Give Up, has grabbed my attention in a deeply personal way, yet again.

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Kyle Idleman has an uncanny way of writing a book that reads like your life. He has a way of putting into words exactly what is going on in your marriage, your family, your job… in your mind. And he dispels the myths with the Word of God.

Speaking of Abraham Kyle writes: “He’s holding on to God’s promise, and he keeps right on believing even when the story doesn’t make sense”.

I haven’t even read a full two pages since I put the book down last night, and I must stop for an hour to digest that one little line; “When the story doesn’t make sense”.

Earlier, in the book Don’t Give Up, Kyle asks the reader a question. He asks if we have faith. He wrote, “Don’t just tell me you have faith. Tell me a story”. Because, he said in the book, faith always has a story.

I’m stuck here, really. I’m seriously talking to myself…out loud… ”You want me to tell you a story? A story of faith? Oh, I have a few but the one that comes to mind most, is the one I’m living now. Even when the story doesn’t make sense.”

Are you living a story that doesn’t make sense? Are you believing God to do something mighty but you’re not even sure what that would look like? You’re not even sure how to pray? Because from EVERY human possibility, it looks impossible. Every way you play it out, it doesn’t make sense. There is no way to rewrite the story you are living. There is no way to spin it to make it fit, to make it okay, to make it right.

It looks hopeless.

It looks like it’s too late.

There’s nothing humanly possible to be done. And even if there was, you wouldn’t know it if you saw it because it truly is that unfathomable.

Maybe this book isn’t for me, you might be saying. Maybe that message, the one about not giving up, is for other people. Normal people with normal lives, normal marriages, normal families.

When the story doesn’t make sense.

I kept hearing these words today while I was working…” But then God.”

And then I came home and began to read Don’t Give Up. That’s when I put these two statements together: He’s (Abraham) holding on to God’s promise, and he keeps right on believing even when the story doesn’t make sense” But then God.

Right there is where I choose to park. Right in between the two lines that state the story doesn’t make sense, and the line on the other side…but then God. Right smack in the middle.

And maybe that’s all any of us can do when we are living a story that doesn’t make sense.

That takes faith. Even if you don’t know what you are believing God for.

When the story doesn’t make sense, but then God.

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