When we cannot find the words
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Luke 1:30 reads “Messenger: Mary, don’t be afraid. You have found favor with God.”
I love this passage - like I love absolutely everything about the Christmas story - but in particular, how this passage is not just for the Christmas period. This is relevant to us at any time when we are feeling surprised by unknown circumstances or taken aback by curveballs in our worlds.
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We finished our takeaway coffees and headed back to the ward to wait. It was quiet, there weren’t a lot of people around. The room was nice, it even had a little view of the city parks.
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Whether we want to admit it or not, each of us has faced the blow of rejection at some point in our lives — whether personal or professional. No one in history has been spared the bitter taste of this (Jesus included; His rejection was something else altogether! See Isaiah 53:3.) and sometimes, it can feel like a real struggle to move past it.
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The state that I live in has just entered a week of full lockdown restrictions in the wake of the Delta strain being found among local Covid tests. It was both annoying and stressful to receive the news just one day before school holidays were due to end but, in another way, somewhat timely.
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This month, I wanted to take a moment to pause and spend some time sharing about prayer with you. We’re over halfway through this year now, and lots has happened. The seasons have been ticking by, and depending on which hemisphere you find yourself in, you’re either rugging up and enjoying the grey, cold days over steaming cups of coffee, or you're shimmying into your swimwear and heading to the beach for summer holidays.
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“Having children is like a walk in the park. Jurassic Park, to be precise.”
Before I had kids, this was a quote that I laughed at but didn’t really understand. Now, it’s something that I laugh at because it can feel so true. It doesn’t matter how many of your friends or family have kids before you and offer their advice and experiences to assist you on your own journey, there is truly nothing that can prepare you for what lies ahead. Much like the crew that John Hammond assembled in the first of this movie franchise - not a single one of them knew enough about dinosaurs despite all the books they’d read and bones they’d assessed to face them in real-time.
In Happy Valley, South Australia, Travis and Pixi Johnson call 72 Candy Road their home-away-from-home. Built in the 1800s, the little old church sits proudly on the corner, sheltered by peppercorn trees and besides a grassy hill often dotted with kangaroos.
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Friendship is something we all know, experience, and offer, but rarely is it something that we stop to truly think about. When was the last time you looked up a TED Talk on how to be a better friend or bought a book on improving your friendship skills?
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When I first stumbled upon Wall Street Journal bestselling author Emily P. Freeman, it was on her podcast. I saw it linked and shared somewhere that my mum brain can’t recall, and the title of it resonated with me. I was in a space that I’d never been in before, unemployed in the traditional sense of the word and at home with two littles. I finished up my paid ministry role in 2019 knowing that I wouldn’t be returning, so I was at a loss as to the ‘what now’ for my life. I was looking to find my Next Right Thing - I was looking for a new beginning.
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Valentine’s Day is just a day. It’s February 14th every year. It has 24 hours in it. The sun rises at the start of it and the sunsets at the end. We eat. We drink. We go about our lives. Valentine’s Day is just a day. The ‘day of love’ has passed us by yet again and still, there is something deeply ingrained in our concept of this day that leaves quite a lot of us feeling a little more ‘lovey dovey’ than usual.
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Christmas is usually the time of year when we open our Bibles to the gospels and we read through the accounts of Jesus’ birth. Sometimes we read them quickly, taking in the flow of events that culminated in a baby’s cry. Sometimes we read them slowly, looking for the bits of gold that maybe we have never noticed before. Sometimes we read them purposefully, seeking to be quiet and to be at the feet of the Author of the Story, hoping to hear something.
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