This morning, wide awake way too early, I pondered how there’s nothing else I’d rather have running through my head when I can’t sleep than the weighty glory of God Himself.

Unless I proactively tell my thoughts where to dwell, they wander willful and easily distracted. I lean into lies that incite fear or unworth rather than lean on the One who knows every tender hope and unspoken prayer.

Maybe that’s you too.

And you’re ready to change the string of what-if’s and self-belittling on repeat inside your head. Ready to root deep in what you need to believe:

That God’s good in the middle of the story.

Capable even when it appears all’s gone awry.

Worthy of praise long before He brings redemption.

So I want to tuck a few ideas in your hand for holding onto truth–tried and true ones that I personally use. They all hinge on repetition, which I find to be the gentlest, most effective way to adjust trajectory.

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.

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.

I’m writing by candlelight while walking but I can’t stop. Here, another name. There, two more. I’m chasing the God I’m finding as I read.

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 (and you can too!). Sign up HERE.

4. 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.

You know that dismantling way a verse in Scripture can seem like it’s just for you? How you feel seen through in an instant by the kind gaze of Jesus?

That was me on day three of a 90-Day Bible Reading Challenge—overcome by “the God who answers me whenever I am in distress and who is with me wherever I go” (Gen. 35:3, The Voice).

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. Psalm 63 by Justin Rizzo. Watch on YouTube HERE.

4. Get the Song I Play on Repeat playlist from the resource library HERE.

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

6. 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.

Maybe New Year’s Eve feels like a celebration of endings. We get to bury what didn’t do well or go right and start over. Plant fresh seeds and forget the ones that never grew.

I get it. It’s wearying caring for seeds that haven’t sprouted yet. And your heart just needs a break, your lungs a moment to breathe.

But here, on the cusp of all a fresh new year has to offer, I want to share what I’m clinging to for my own unsprouted seeds.

Links mentioned:

1. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS monthly reflection sheets to amplify your growth HERE.

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

3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

In the midst of tinsel and torn paper tomorrow, may we remember the greatest gift ever wrapped is a baby in swaddling clothes. May our hearts thump with the excitement of a child when we behold Him, fully God even as a babe.

Links mentioned:

1. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS monthly reflection sheets to amplify your growth HERE.

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

3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.