Uncategorized – Page 2 – Laurel Luehmann

Carving legacies in souls

January 29, 2024January 27, 2024by Laurel Luehmann4 Comments

Hello, friends!

Today’s post is a repost from a couple of years ago that echoes what’s been on my mind lately. I hope you enjoy! <3

What will I leave behind?

It’s a question that’s tugged at my attention for years. As I read the stories of eternal heroes with short lives and stared at the caskets of people I held dear, the question haunted my mind.

so small and

insignificant

one breath will

blow this life away, and

what

will be the proof that

it was here?

mangled lives

and broken hearts?

friendships

that were torn apart by

hands that now lie still and cold?

oh, no!

forbid it, Lord!

A month or so ago a friend and I were wandering through a beautiful cemetery that sprawls over several acres of hills. (You know you have loyal friends when they smilingly join you on strange expeditions.) There were so many old gravestones – some tipped and sinking deep into the soil. Several were ridiculously tall and ornate, but they were so old that wind and water and time had wiped the sentimental words right off of the marker. Their attempts to leave an echo of their greatness were in vain.

Of course I hope that I leave behind me a trail of words that can point others to Christ and to truth decades after I’m gone, but paper burns. Ink fades. Files become corrupted.

If words are all I leave, I’ve failed.

For even if my words could surpass the masterpieces of Dickens and Shakespeare,

If I sang with the voice of an angel,

If the world remembers my name until the world stops turning,

But I have not love…

I am nothing.

oh, Father, keep me

on the sidelines with a loving heart

if I can’t champion the world

with outstretched hands.

Words fade. People don’t.

Let’s live our lives accordingly.

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God with us – a repost

December 18, 2023by Laurel Luehmann5 Comments

Hello, friends!

I wrote this two years ago and decided to reshare it because 1.) it was Christmas program weekend (!!!) and that absorbed my thoughts and enthusiasm more than blog posts did, and 2.) it says so much of what’s on my heart again this year. Why try to be original when something old will do? 🙂

Regardless of whether your joy is full or if it’s something you’re looking hard for this year, this post is for you. <3

Every year we talk about how the Christmas season is so hard for many people.

It’s always acknowledged, but all the acknowledgements in the world won’t change the fact that many of us will be crying inside at times this Christmas, even as we’re surrounded by family and friends who love us more than we know.

But don’t you know that this ache, this emptiness, this longing loneliness is the very reason Christmas even exists?

This world is broken. People fail. Hearts shatter. People hurt. People die.

So God wrapped himself in trembling flesh to heal that brokenness for eternity.

God with us.

Not God peering down on us from the heights of His holiness. Not God ruling over us. Not God commanding us from a distant galaxy.

No.

God with us.

God wailing with hunger and cold.

God being carried from His home country to safety.

God playing in the very dirt His fingers once molded to form the first of his people.

God trying to escape the exhausting press of a crowd.

God sleeping in a boat in the middle of a churning sea.

God weeping.

God making a meal for his best friends.

God sweating our blood, pleading with His Father for an easier path.

God dying.

God hurling away our sin and drawing us near to Himself.

God with us.

In our pain, in our sorrow, in our heartbreak, in our loneliness, in our brokenness, in our despair…

God with us.

God promising that the brokenness of this world is not the end. The end of the brokenness will come and seep into eternity…

Us with God.

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some more autumn-inspired poetry (pt. 2)

September 18, 2023by Laurel Luehmann8 Comments

Hello, friends! Here are a few more little poems that I wrote this week…hope you enjoy! <3

haunted

my rearview mirror

is covered in dust because

I won’t live haunted.

tea

like the tea she loved,

steeped in boiling water she

only grew stronger.

shadows

don’t let the shadows win…

they dance across my path and

try to smother me in darkness.

(oh, why am I so weak??)

Father, I don’t have the strength

(or light) within this heaving chest

to let the light shine brighter than

the fear they throw around me.

Father, p l e a s e

dispel this night

and hold me tight

within the light.

Stay the course!

<3 Laurel

Photo by Taylor Wright on Unsplash

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a rambling post on time and hurt and promises (perhaps with a couple of poems)

August 28, 2023August 27, 2023by Laurel Luehmann6 Comments

“…hurry up, God, if You please, and — I forgot.

Thy will be done.“

I seem to forget that

the Author of my story

spun a universe in six days, and

Adam’s bride in one.

Tell me I’m not the only one who tries to rush God…

I’ve started reading through the Old Testament chronologically again, and it’s incredible to me to see how God is not bound by time or hindered by the limits of human power and knowledge as we are.

Job spent nearly 40 chapters mourning and questioning and yet trusting God in the middle of a despair so deep that he wished he’d never been born…and in the 42nd chapter that Job never saw coming, God doubled his wealth and cheered his broken heart with more children.

Abraham, an elderly man with a wife who was barren, was promised what man deemed impossible when God told him, over and over again, that his descendants would be well-nigh impossible to count. Abraham clung to that promise for dear life, raising altars as visual reminders of that impossible promise…and in the end, he only lived long enough to see a glimpse of its fulfillment.

In Exodus we hear of how God provided manna in the wilderness to His hungry grumbling chosen ones. They called it manna (which basically means “what is it?”), and I find that intriguing because God’s provision was right there in front of them, looking nothing like what they had expected. When they realized what it was, they wanted to hoard and store it away for the days to come, but it rotted overnight…

And so they spent forty years surviving on God’s provision that looked nothing like what they had wanted or expected. They spent each day in the wilderness depending completely upon His mercy…

And how are we any different? God isn’t.

Can’t we, too, in our unspeakable pain, trust the Healer?

Can’t we, in our breathless impatience for miracles, trust the Maker and sustainer of time?

Can’t we, in our longing for more, trust the fulfillment of our desires to the Giver of all good gifts?

when I watch my dreams lie dying

while God’s healing others’ broken dreams,

give me the trusting heart of Jairus,

to open wide the door of my mourning soul

to the Master who tarried as

the light of my eyes slipped away.

(nothing…nothing is beyond His healing touch.)

And so, friends…here’s to trusting Him with each joy, each tear, each longing.

His shoulders are broader than yours and mine. <3

Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash

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Carving legacies in souls – a repost

June 12, 2023by Laurel Luehmann2 Comments

Hello, friends!

This week I wanted to bring back a post from last fall that really embodies what I’ve been considering lately…I hope it challenges you like it’s challenging me.

Click here to read the post!

Stay the course!

<3 Laurel

Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash

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May memories – 2023

June 5, 2023by Laurel Luehmann5 Comments

It’s another month, so it’s time for another memories post!

Things worth remembering

sister walks
piano recitals
sand volleyball in the dark
wandering the greenhouse
learning how to soil finish
running for tires and parts
getting roller skating lessons from my little sister (progress was made, but I’m still horrible)
ice cream and car watching on the hill with my sisters
making slow motion match-striking videos that were anti-climactic
late night sibling movie night
ice cream and poetry
chatting on the phone with my brother
more volleyball (much more successful than the volleyball in the dark😂)
getting the first cutting of hay chopped and packed before the rain

Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.
C.S. Lewis

What I’ve been reading

you’re not enough (and that’s okay) – Allie Beth Stuckey

When our reason behind our rest is to ensure better service to the Lord and to others, we don’t have to worry whether or not taking needed breaks is self-centered. It’s not.

I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since it came out, and I finally got my hands on a copy. Man, oh man. I’m really appreciating this deeper look at the subtle ways the self-love culture really works some lies into our mentalities.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Just finished reading this book for the first time…so very good. I love how the storytelling is light and easy to read, but the meanings are so deep if you look for them. For a while I was sad because I hadn’t grown up reading the Chronicles of Narnia and couldn’t understand the inside conversations of Narnia enthusiasts (ha!), but I think that approaching them as an adult has made me appreciate the books so much more than I ever could have as a child.

The Horse and His Boy – C.S. Lewis

I’m enjoying this next book in the series, as well!

For this is the will of God, your sanctification.
1 Thessalonians 4:3

From the journal…

There is no day I’ll ever live that You have not seen, no trial ahead that has not crossed Your desk. You know what You’re doing, God…teach me to see the way You see. Carry this pain for me, Lord.

May I lose my sinful flesh as I draw nearer to Your heart…may the passion of Your love torch away the dross, leaving a life that is more conformed to Your will.

Did May seem to fly by for everyone else, too? What were some of your favorite parts of May?

<3 Laurel

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

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Comfortable or Complete?

May 23, 2023by Laurel Luehmann8 Comments

Is it my prayer to be made comfortable, or to be made complete?

The topic of joy and trials linked together has been on my mind lately, and since I haven’t shared one of these “on my heart” kind of posts in a while (it’s been mostly poetry, life updates, and trying to convince you to buy my books! XD), I thought I’d try to gather my ramblings into a blog post.

Can trials seriously be an opportunity to rejoice?

In spite of having James 1:2-4 memorized for years, I’ve been reading/recalling it wrong this whole time. In case you aren’t familiar with it, here it is…

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
James 1:2-4

Honestly, whenever I read or recited this verse, most of the last part was drowned out by the first part: My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials… And to be honest, I pictured this joy as a “grin and bear it” sort of thing. A grimacing endurance of hard times because we know that good things are ahead for us as Christians (see Hebrews 12:1-2).

But in listening to this message and recent sermons and small group discussions, it finally hit me that joy isn’t just something that we’re supposed to cling to as we weather the storms of life. It’s something that can be found because of the storm.

“…count it all joy…knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”

Sure, the trial itself isn’t any fun. At all. (Unless you love pain.) But we can rejoice in the fact that the trial will refine us, revealing to us our weaknesses and showing God’s strength through us, and ultimately conforming us more purely to His image.

“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

I mean, if that’s not encouraging…

And this we also pray, that you may be made complete.
2 Corinthians 13:9b

Then this verse popped up in my Bible time the other morning, and it made me ask myself how often I pray to be made more mature, more complete, and then come crying to God when the very trials that will give me maturity slip (and sometimes pour!) into my life.

Quite honestly, it’s often.

Very often.

But I want to stop living that way.

I want to get in the habit of embracing the struggles. Of choosing to see the end result instead of simply wailing about the current mess, while somehow managing to delight in the lovely moments of now instead of being lost in an eternal chasing of the future.

So there it is…a sort of brain dump of what I’ve been processing lately. It’s by no means an exhaustive essay, but I hope it gets some wheels turning in your head and pushes you deeper into Scripture and prayer like its doing for me.

Stay the course!

<3 Laurel

Photo by Jonathan Ouimet on Unsplash

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In which Laurel Burgess interviews Laurel Luehmann

May 8, 2023May 8, 2023by Laurel Luehmann2 Comments

Hello, friends!

This weekend I got to answer some questions from a writing friend, Laurel Burgess! I ran into Laurel in online writing communities about two years ago, and have continued to enjoy her writing, her bubbly personality, and her hilarious sense of humor! I had such a fun time answering her questions about writing, farming, and my hopes for my writing future. If you’re interested…

read the interview here!

Laurel (the other Laurel! XD) is just so much fun, and I really enjoy her short story, Attack of the Gummy Worms.

ATTACK of the GUMMY WORMS

Tim Rodrey is a specialist in fighting creatures and saving the world.

What does he do specifically? Sorry, he works for the SCA. The “S” stands for secret. Next question? Uh no. The small girl with the tutu is not his sidekick. That would be his niece. He was sort of babysitting her before the gummy worms attacked the subdivision.

That really messed things up. Good thing he’s a professional and has absolutely no fear in leading people.

It had me laughing so much! If you need a good laugh and a quick read, you should definitely check it out. The best part is that it’s available for FREE when you subscribe to Laurel’s newsletter here!

So tell me…what’s your go-to when you need a book that will make you laugh?

<3 Laurel (Luehmann)

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It’s release day for Clarion Hope!

April 4, 2023by Laurel Luehmann6 Comments

Book number two is out in the world…you can find it here.✨

It wasn’t a coincidence that I chose this day as the release day…

It’s right before we celebrate the ultimate victory ever won: Christ’s victory over sin and the grave, and through Him, our own victory. That’s what this book is all about, folks.

It’s my prayer that, as you crack open this book, you are reminded of your insufficiency, Christ’s complete sufficiency, and the hope and the power He gives you through His victory.

Here’s a bit of Scripture I read this morning that I found really applicable to today…

Then comes the end, when He (Christ) delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.

For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

No more mourning.

No more tears.

No more grieving over the brokenness of a fallen world.

He has slaughtered death, and He will do it again.

Praise His name!✨

Happy release day, friends.

<3 Laurel

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One day left!! – an untitled poem and some Scripture

April 3, 2023by Laurel Luehmann7 Comments

Clarion Hope releases TOMORROW!!!

(Yes, this is what was originally meant to be yesterday’s post smashed together with today’s post. It was a full, wonderful weekend…and that means not full of writing blog posts.:))

The Scripture in Clarion Hope

When you open Clarion Hope and page past the dedication and table of contents, you’ll find a passage of Scripture…

Now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
Romans 13:11-12

I couldn’t have written a better introduction for this book that calls for courage and hope on sin-torn battlefields…for the casting off of the works of darkness and the donning of the armor of light. I was reading in Romans a few months ago, and this passage just jumped out at me, begging to be included in Clarion Hope in some way.

I couldn’t say no, could I?