Normal, PDM.

 

There's a Catholic shrine not far from here. Though I'm not Catholic, I go there a few times a year to pray and read the Word. I walk down the paved path, venture through the woods and, as the leaves part, look up at a 50 foot tall crucifix. The iron Jesus hangs in perfect silence, the stations of the Cross circling to His right, rows of benches scattering out before Him like rays of sun.

 

And every time, I think: This is what holy feels like. 

 

As I sit in the perfect quiet, Bible open on my lap, I sense the sacred.

 

But moments like that don't make up the majority of my life. Most of my life is spent filling breakfast bowls, folding laundry, dry-shampooing my greasy hair, writing emails, forgetting deadlines, driving to meetings, and writing words. Especially in choosing to live where I do - removed from the hub of a city, traveling less and less for ministry - there is not a lot of glamour here. I am the one scrubbing chicken poop off the eggs we collected. I'm changing diapers. I'm vacuuming crumbs out of the sofa. No matter what Instagram makes it look like, I live a normal life.

 

But the wild adventure of this walk with God is that normal is His holy. It is IN these normal places and spaces that God does His deepest work. Our mountaintops with God (as I wrote about last week) cast vision and give us foresight, but in between those mountains are the little steps that make such a vision real. Normal is where holy people are born. Normal days, normal marriages, normal jobs. The people who live for high points will never have the strength to sustain them because they don't do the faithful work in between.

 

 I believe, to the marrow of my bones, that these normal days are sacred. What doesn't feel like Eucharist does not diminish the presence of God, who is always at work to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose (Phil. 2:13). This means that every act of every day can be done in view of His goodness (to His glory). 

 

As I sit in the perfect cacophony of little kids, Bible open on my lap, I sense the sacred.

 

This is where sanctification - the molding of my heart to His - happens best. 

 

(More on the process of sanctification in my new book, Every Woman a Theologian)

 

Yes! We have 3 spots left. This retreat is for writers and creators who want to work on a project in the beauty of Italy and connect with other Christian creators. The retreat is in April and is all inclusive except for flights. Duende Retreats is handling all logistical questions and details! 

 

 

Josh and I were in college ministry for 3.5 years and loved working with college and career students! This question came from someone who it sounds like is leading a group of peers (as opposed to us old married people leading). Either way, we found the best success in simply going through books of the Bible chapter by chapter and discussing. This way we got in the Word and prayer while also addressing all the big topics the Bible speaks to. We did Revelation, Colossians, the gospels and more. A few more tips are in this post.

 

 

The Holy Spirit indwells us upon our salvation, but He also speaks, calls, and convicts prior to that too (otherwise we would never come to Christ at all!). Our conscience is a reflection of this. We all have a conscience; God's Spirit, His common grace to tell us what is right and wrong. We can sear that conscience by habitual sin (1 Tim. 4). This means our kids, even while unsaved, CAN learn to identify and obey the Spirit's voice. This is a skill they would need whether they choose Christ or not. If they choose Christ, it's a foundation for a healthy pneumatology (theology of the Spirit) and if they don't, they will still remember what they were taught later on. I have shared extensively about this in the Obedience highlight on Instagram and in Raising Tiny Disciples (ebook is $5 only through tonight). 

 

When teaching this to our kids, we say: “When you are tempted, God always offers a way out (1 Cor. 10:13). If you pause, you will probably hear a still, small voice telling you the right way. That is the voice of the Holy Spirit telling you the best choice, for you and for others. If you need help in that moment, come to us and we will pray with you.  Ask God to help you count to ten, breathe in and out, and calm yourself. Then, choose the thing that honors God and others." 

 

When kids feel like they CAN'T do this, it's a great opportunity to talk about the gospel! “If you feel like this is too hard, that's because you aren't meant to do it alone. The Spirit will dwell with and help you when you choose to let Jesus be king of your life. Until that choice is made, being ”good" will always feel hard. That is why we need Jesus!" Erasing the hard from choosing right also erases the gospel. It was my own inability to do “right” that brought me to Christ at 15. 

 

 

Because Catholics believe, doctrinally, that the only true Church is the Catholic one, it is highly unlikely a relationship like this could work if you remain Baptist. They will expect you to convert to Catholicism. While I definitely believe there are Christian Catholics, there are enough significant theological “jumps” within Catholicism to make this a relationship I would discourage if I were talking to a young woman in my life. I am currently studying Catholic theology using Scott Hahn's book Signs of Life and it has only confirmed this. I know the dating world is hard, friend, but you definitely want to be completely unified (as far as possible) on what church you'll be in and how you would raise future children. Don't make that road harder than it has to be! 

 

(And if it helps, I let go of a lovely Catholic young man in my single days and it was very hard. But it led to me meeting Josh, and I have never been more grateful to be yoked to someone who truly shares my theological values. It has proven essential to our finances, parenting, and current ministry.)

 

 

I assume this question is asking why I did not begin Every Woman a Theologian as a nonprofit and choose to fundraise support. This was one of the things I definitely did NOT want to do when beginning our ministry/business. I wanted it to be self sustaining. My primary reason for this is: there are thousands of organizations that really need your generous donations to survive and I don't want to take away from those. Secondly, I would rather you receive a good or service (book, mug, shirt, class, course, etc) for your hard-earned dollars, to have something in hand that you can use. Some of what we sell, like books, is obviously spiritual content, which always feels a little muddy from a ministry perspective. But we would either be supporting the ministry and team by asking for money or supporting the ministry and team by letting you choose what you want to buy with your money. We do our best to constantly evaluate the cost of our items, how we can make them affordable as possible (especially for small ministries and small rural churches).

 

 And for those who can't afford them, we have a scholarship fund that renews each month (money we have set aside to provide resources to individuals, but especially for ministries/disciple makers) who can't afford them. 

 

 

I homeschool daily from about 10-12 PM. Part of that time is spent outside, if we can, and if it doesn't work in the morning we go out around 4 PM. Some mornings I will break things up by going to the library to do schoolwork there, moving some of our tasks to evening and doing a “field trip”, etc. The girls can do all their work in about 2 hours, and some of that can be listened to on audio in the car.