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Welcome to a becoming-space. A place for imperfectly ready people to say yes to more Jesus and actual friendships with their neighbors. A place for introverts and workaholics and people-pleasers and self-doubters. Welcome, welcome, if that’s you! I get that pull you feel to go deeper. Find purpose, meaningful conversations, community. I also get how you think you’re not ready. Want to know a secret?! None of us are, least of all me! Also true is that we BECOME ready after, not before, we say ...
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We give self-talk its own category and unreined license to belittle and badger. Under labels like inner critic, perfectionism, and people-pleasing, these self-directed lies appear safe. But maybe we’ve normalized lying to ourselves about who we are and what we’re worth. Perhaps we’ve underestimated the impact of repeating self-condemnation and shar…
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Set out to reflect Jesus like a mirror and you come face-to-face with your list of what you lack. Your squabbles and squeamish fears, your flat-out insecurity and sneaky pride. The features you’d change. The less-thans and not-likes and labels confirming your unworth. Links mentioned: It’s not too late to join the #ReflectJesus challenge! Grab the …
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I find what works on a mountain also applies to our relationships with our Enneagram opposites and how we approach an election. Links mentioned: Discover your Enneagram number and how it helps you love your neighbors well HERE. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here. Read the written…
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David finds himself in a spot many of us do today, sandwiched between the ugly and awful repercussions of a severed relationship with God and the invitation to find oasis in the here-and-now as we wait for full glory. Links mentioned: Check out Begin Within: A Gratitude Series. Get the weekly story in your inbox to cultivate year-round, ripple-effe…
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With-ness. Could there be a word that sits closer to the tender heart of God? It strikes me while praying for North Carolina, Chaing Mai, and Florida how God’s promise to join us as we gather in His name (Matthew 18:20) reveals His desire 1) to be with us and 2) for us to be together. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every …
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A reflection is a mirror image. It captures the slightest tilt of the head, a shift in posture, merriment in the eye, or sorrow squeezing eyebrows together. It’s not static, but fluid, transcribing in real-time every stray hair and sigh, every question etched in a facial expression. The fullness of emotion, the details of dress, the way we slump or…
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What if I were a bit more like her? Noticed details and demeanor, presence and absence? Gave others a glimpse of how we each matter to God? Links mentioned: Discover your Enneagram number, what we love about you, how your Enneagram strengths help you love your neighbors well, and how to best love your neighbors with different numbers HERE! Around t…
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When we’re walled on every side by insurmountable, when the odds aren’t in our favor, when there’s no action or inaction that’s risk-free, what do we do? Because sometimes it appears there isn’t a way out. Maybe you’ve been there, or that’s where you are today: pinched between bad and also bad. You need an immediate and miraculous rescue. Let’s tur…
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When we feel welcome, we come back. Kids know this instinctively. As adults, we might have to unravel what we’ve learned about hospitality because we’ve somehow begun caring more about keeping our house clean than putting our guests at ease. Our efforts, though good-intentioned, may sabotage what we truly want: for others to feel at home in our hom…
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When we feel welcome, we come back. Kids know this instinctively. As adults, we might have to unravel what we’ve learned about hospitality because we’ve somehow begun caring more about keeping our house clean than putting our guests at ease. Our efforts, though good-intentioned, may sabotage what we truly want: for others to feel at home in our hom…
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Are you longing for soul rest too? Grace that holds? Peace that lasts? Let’s name it together. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here. Read the written version of this episode HERE.Kirjoittanut The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
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Consider this: What if the multi-faceted masterpiece of your God-given strengths and life experiences helps you reflect Jesus in a way that literally no one else can? Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here. Read the written version of this episode HERE.…
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As I remember my dad’s calm presence in the passenger seat, I think of Jennifer Dukes Lee’s nudge to see Jesus as a driver’s ed coach rather than a chauffeur. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here. Read the written version of this episode HERE.…
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As I hold the decisions I want to delay and the ones I’m tempted to rush in open hands, here’s what’s helping me tune in to God’s voice right now. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here. Read the written version of this episode HERE.…
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When I’m tempted to make assumptions about something that’s likely not about me, I ask myself a question: Is my reaction opening my heart or closing me off? Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here. Read the written version of this episode HERE.…
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It’s been one year since the biggest, littlest miracle happened. As I stand on this side, thankful for now, and also knowing not a single tomorrow is guaranteed, I think of you. Maybe you’re begging for it to all make sense. You might be white-knuckling a prayer because time is short and you’re scared. Or you’re looking backwards, grieving somethin…
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I was the kid my parents would regularly remind to stand up straighter. Because I’d slouch. If that was you too, you know how you sometimes feel like you never outgrew the label of insecure adolescent. Links mentioned: The worship songs I love best. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up …
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I’ll walk you through the key habits in my current morning routine, not to tell you what to include in yours, but to show you how to use a framework that can flex with the time you have available on any given day. Here’s what I’m believing for you: hunger to know God more fully and grace for what it looks like in your actual life. Links mentioned: …
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Ever feel like you’re on the operating table? Like all your wound-tight knots and woundedness are under scrutiny? That’s where I was just the other day—asking a brave question in my journal then heading outside to work through it with God while I walked. When you find yourself turning well wishes for the weekend into “leave me alone,” assuming genu…
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The very spots that deplete us of our rightness and self-sufficiency open us up to truth that frees and a God who redeems. The fractures sting, but they deflate pride, make more room for God inside. They help us get out of our own way so God can have His perfect way in us. I’ve been one to pray it’s behind me soon. Figured out fast. Healed fully an…
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Trees arch overhead, like God bending towards us. Distance thins and glory pools—and I am drenched. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here. Read the written version of this episode HERE.Kirjoittanut The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
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Let’s talk tips for adding positive voices to our list and giving more attention to the ones we already listed. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here. Joyce Meyers’ “Knowing Who I Am In Christ.” Grab the Songs I Play on Repeat playlist from the resource library! My …
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That’s what I envisioned for the rest of my life—overseas missions. I wanted to follow Mother Teresa’s footsteps to India. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here. For Enneagram insight into how you can lean into your strengths as a missional neighbor and best love yo…
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If you’re like me, you’d rather re-live the happy moment before the scar formed. The day at the waterpark with your 4-H club or the bike ride with your boyfriend or the ease of slicing vegetables with a Cutco knife. The untainted dream, memory, relationship. But what changed you is the pain. What changes all of us is the things that give God open a…
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Maybe you’re overdue an exhale also. I see it in your face with its tired lines and clenched jaw. Your crammed calendar and the gas light on your dashboard. It’s been you trying to figure it out for long enough. You worrying about it late into the night, blaming yourself for being behind, criticizing your honest hard effort. Links mentioned: Neighb…
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