Hi First name / friend,
This past weekend I spent several days in Indianapolis at The Gospel Coalition's Women's Conference. Three of Every Woman a Theologian's team members - Heather, Kayla and Jessie - came with me. It was a joy to see friends, worship with Shane & Shane, and take some women's ministry workshops that inspired me to keep going in my own work!
My favorite part, though, is always the bookstore. I collected a stack of books I can't wait to devour. But I also grabbed something I've been waiting to buy: the Sing! hymnal by Keith and Kristyn Getty. It's not only beautiful, the music is exactly what I want to incorporate into our homeschool and the version I bought is spiral bound.
I was so pleased with this hymnal I immediately put it on our dining room table with the rest of our discipleship resources. We're reading through 1 Samuel right now with the kids and doing a hymn study, so what better time to add the hymnal?
Monday morning started as usual: Everyone making their own breakfast and sitting down for devotions. But I quickly realized this was a very a “Monday” Monday. No one was listening. I prompted narrations that quickly fell flat. And then, as if on cue, someone knocked my entire cup of coffee over, soaking the Sing! hymnal through all of its thin, white pages.
It took everything in me to control my anger. That hymnal was $35! I seethed. Not to mention I have to make a whole new cup of coffee! But then I remembered: the reason the coffee got knocked over was because the child who bumped it was cleaning up their crumbs. In trying to be helpful, the hymnal was ruined.
But that isn't the whole story, is it? The hymnal isn't ruined. I can still use it now that it's dry. The hymnal is marked by life in a fallen world. Coffee spills. People hurt us. Hardship comes. And in the midst of all this struggle, we keep singing His praise. A coffee-stained hymnal is, perhaps, more appropriate than a stainless one.
What I didn't realize is that the coffee spill was the least of my worries. Later that day we identified a serious tick bite on one of our children. When I went out to get antibiotics, a tent blew out of our yard into Farmer Jake's bull pen, knocking out the electric fence and loosing Mario and Luigi, his two gigantic bulls. While I was waiting in the Walgreens pharmacy line, Josh was trying to herd an angry, 2,000 pound bull back into its pen. Ivan wandered into the field at just this moment. Thanks to God, the bull redirected and Ivan was safe – but only a little while later, a large tool chest tipped over in the garage and he was nearly pinned beneath it.
As Josh and I reflected on the end of that day, I was tempted to focus on all that had gone wrong. But as we gathered the kids at dinner to read Scripture for yet another mealtime, I turned to Psalm 41:
"Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not give him up to the will of his enemies." Psalm 41:1-2
“Well, if this isn't a ”day of trouble", I don't know what is!" I laughed. And we could laugh – because “the Lord protected us and kept us alive”. Things could have been so much worse. In our past few years, they have been. But this day the Lord did not give us up to the will of our spiritual enemy. He guarded us, and we are grateful.
We ended Monday singing a lesser known hymn by John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace:
Though troubles assail us and dangers affright,
though friends should all fail us and foes all unite,
yet one thing secures us, whatever betide,
the promise assures us, "The Lord will provide."
I particularly like the third stanza:
When Satan assails us to stop up our path,
and courage all fails us, we triumph by faith.
He cannot take from us, though oft he has tried,
this heart-cheering promise, "The Lord will provide."
We triumph by faith, friends. The enemy cannot take from us, no matter how hard he tries – because we have the promise of a God who provides.
Thank you to all who shopped our summer launch. These launches are what fund the podcast, our staff salaries, and production of studies. The mug pictured above has been restocked! Click below to grab yours.
