We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Showing Up

Red Umbrella

Jonathan Kos-Read via Compfight

Shauna Niequist over at  Donald Miller’s Storyline blog shared some thoughts on Why You Should Stop Waiting for Life to be Perfect. She points out that sometimes this waiting for perfection gets in the way of noticing the goodness that is already here for you.

Show up to your life today, even if it’s imperfect and messy. God is here.

From Shauna’s reflection:

What I saw in her was a vision for how I want to live: in the midst of one her darkest seasons, twisted with uncertainty, bruised by the words of former friends, she sat with me, present and unarmed by busy-ness. She looked in my eyes and told me they’d be fine. She told me funny and sweet things about her kids, asked me about myself.

She wasn’t waiting for the good part. She knows that these are the good parts, even while they’re the bad parts. She wasn’t shut down, going through the motions. She wasn’t holding tight till this season passed. She was right there with me, right there with her kids, right in all the glory and pain and mess and beauty of a spring night in between everything.

That’s how I want to be. That’s who I want to be: deeply present in the present, in the mess, in the waiting, in the entirely imperfect right now.

Related Reading

On Hacking Off Our Own Limbs

Nadia Bolz Weber posted this weekend on The Sarcastic Lutheran, and we thought you’d enjoy her thoughts on hacking off our own limbs for Jesus. Don’t worry, you won’t have the urge to find an axe after you read this. Or at least not a real axe. From the post: And here’s the thing…that story? The…

Quotes to Chew On: Desires

Marcos de Madariaga via Compfight Here’s a quote that comes to us via Andrew Sullivan’s blog: “We are rarely presented with an authentically fulfilling trajectory for our desires… If we are created for infinite satisfaction, we really only have three choices about what to do with our desire in this life: We will become either…

Approaching Chronic Illness with Wisdom

CNN posted this article on what to say and what not to say when someone you love is suffering with chronic illness. Sometimes our best intentions cause more harm than good, and we need to approach people in pain with a great deal of wisdom and sensitivity. From the article: When people we care about…

What, Father, Do You Desire This Minute?

Frank Laubach, a 20th century missionary to Philippines, wrote about the challenge of being continually aware of the presence of God and learning to respond to God’s promptings. He wrote, “I feel simply carried along each hour, doing my part in a plan which is far beyond myself. This sense of cooperation with God in…

Jesus Said a Lot of Weird Stuff. What If He Actually Meant it?

Our friend Shane Claiborne has a way with words (and deeds). In this article from a few years ago (sent to us by a reader: thanks Jason!) he asks the question, What if Jesus meant all that stuff? How would the rest of the world see us if we actually did what Jesus did? From the…

Enemy Love

 Rob Hogeslag via Compfight Zack Hunt over at The American Jesus shared the story of Paul Keane who offered his own burial plot to Tamerlan Tsarnaev if his family could not find a cemetery that would accept his body. You’ll remember that Tsarnaev was one of the men who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings and…