These are the days of appointments and answers I don’t like. Of whispering hope in a waiting room to one anxious heart.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day Bible Reading Challenge, searching for names of God as I read like it’s some sort of treasure hunt. Never though to look for God in this way until I began journaling through Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer.

4. I’m also reading an early copy of Ann Voskamp’s newest book, Loved to Life. And maybe it’s the best of her work, if that’s even possible since every one of her books has deeply changed me.

It’s a hopeful whisper: soul-sister friendship.

Isn’t that what we long beneath the obligatory “I’m good! How are you?” and mustered-up smiles and silent sighs?

We want something more than surfacy talk about movies and weather, car lines and school projects. More than flighty friendship that unravels over bent feelings and assumptions.

Perhaps your heart-felt prayer is not for more friends but deeper friendship.

The kind that welcomes your crying face into the chaos of the kitchen and hugs you with flour-dusted hands.

The kind that pauses and makes space, knows before you say anything, loves fiercely when it’s inconvenient, remains loyal when it’s costly.

The kind we find between two would-be rivals–a prince and God-chosen king, Jonathan and David–in the book of 1 Samuel.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. “Ten Things You Might Be Doing That Keep Your Relationships Shallow" (FREE download).

4. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day Bible Reading challenge (and you can too!). Sign up HERE.

5. Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal is the one I’m using, and her questions gives space to record who God is, where we are in relation to God, and more. I find it dovetails beautifully with Mary’s challenge.

How would you talk with God if you knew He was walking around in your house?

I recently read a mandate God had spoken to the Israelites through Moses: “Treat your camp as a sacred place because the Eternal your God will be walking around in it” (Deut. 23:14, The Voice).

And I wonder, what would it change if we knew how paper-thin is the distance between God and us? If we knew He was right here when we’re worn from wonted rhythms? When loss hits and questions rise? When we have to make wretched-hard decisions in this busted-up world?

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. Watch/listen to Steffany Gretzinger - This Close [with Chandler Moore] (Official Lyric Video)

4. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day Bible Reading challenge (and you can too!). Sign up HERE.

5. Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal is the one I’m using, and her questions gives space to record who God is, where we are in relation to God, and more. I find it dovetails beautifully with Mary’s challenge.