Uncategorized – Page 3 – Laurel Luehmann

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?

the untitled poem

if I fear not death…

if the Defender holds my future…

if fear does not control me…

then what, pray, can steal my courage?

This simple gem marks the beginning of the third section of Clarion Hope: slaughtered fear.

A bit of a graphic title? Perhaps. But it drives home the point that I wanted to make: fear has no control over the redeemed child of God.

As a friend of the Death-Slayer, we can…

walk untrodden paths in confidence
ride out deadly storms
raise a solitary voice with no fear

…and so much more. Won’t you join me for the journey?✨

See you tomorrow for release day!!

<3 Laurel

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Clarion Hope’s dedication

March 31, 2023by Laurel LuehmannLeave a Comment

Four more days!!

For the windblown souls who have caught the notes of hope’s clarion call.
May these words be the hug and the shove that you need.
clarion hope’s dedication (laurel Luehmann)

Last July I typed out a dedication for Clarion Hope in the Notes app on my phone. This one is nearly verbatim.

As I wrote, gathered, and selected the poems for this collection, one of my goals was “to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable.” (That’s been attributed to a few different people, so I won’t even try.XD)

I want Clarion Hope to be a refuge of truth and encouragement for the ones who have been broken…the ones who have wondered if they are beyond healing and redemption. I want it to speak truth and life into hurting hearts, serving as a reminder that there is no wound Christ cannot heal, no sin He cannot blot out.

For the ones who have become comfortable with the walls they’ve erected around their comfort zones, I want it to be a challenge and a call to action. An encouragement to see the courage and calling that is ours in Christ. A reminder that eternity yawns beyond the grave, and that the blip of life we’re given on earth is screaming to be spent in a worthy way.

but what songs will not be sung,
and what tales will not be told
if I venture not outside my door
to burgle dragon’s gold?
from “wardrobe” – Clarion Hope

If that sounds like a reminder you need, feel free to snag your own copy of Clarion Hope here!

Do you have any favorite books that come to mind with these descriptions?

Stay the course!

<3 Laurel

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More haikus!

February 20, 2023by Laurel Luehmann11 Comments

Hello, friends!

Remember the haiku roundup I shared awhile ago? Here’s a sequel.:)

clumsy

what love it would take

to die to win a heart that

loves so clumsily!

effervescence

her effervescence

spilled from a deeper spring than

her frail emotions.

guitar

vibrating steel sings,

bouncing beauty through a void

and echoing joy.

laurel

You were crowned victor –

yet You placed the laurel wreath

on my guilty head.

starlight

starlight pricks the sky…

shatters the hold of darkness…

offers midnight hope.

diamond

diamond in the rough –

mere carbon turned gem by the

press of deepest pain.

Thank you to all of the Instagram friends who shared the prompts with me!

Did you have a favorite haiku?

<3 Laurel

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A roundup of old posts + poems on love

February 13, 2023by Laurel Luehmann3 Comments

Hello, friends!

I haven’t written anything specifically for Valentine’s Day this year, but I found some old posts I’d written along those lines and thought they were worth sharing again.

The Valentine’s Day Post – February 2021

Honest-to-goodness true love... The stuff that remains when all the beauty and romance of life is gone. When there are no happy emotions. When sin has left deep, open wounds on the heart and there seems to be nothing left but hurt. When everything that’s in you screams to leave it all and run…

Love is what picks up the pieces and painfully carries on when the road is so broken, life seems to have no direction or meaning anymore.

Love suffers long, and it’s kind.

I love it when my old writings come back and encourage me. XD You can read the full post here, if you’d like!

Straight from the Journal – Tough Gentle Love – January 2021

True love is to walk according to God’s commandments. “be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;” (1 Peter 3:8)

I want this tough gentle love for others, Lord.

Read the whole post here!

Love Song – A Poem – March 2021

I wonder what I did

with these dirty hands

to earn

Your faithfulness

how could I be so

vile

and yet so

loved

by the God of

holiness?

One of my earlier poems…read the full poem here!

First Love – a poem – March 2022

You haven’t changed…

my heart has calloused.

Read the full poem here!

So tell me – when it comes to Valentine’s Day, are you an Ebenezer Scrooge or a Bob Cratchit? And what are some of the ways you encourage yourself to love God and others with more sincerity?

<3 Laurel

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January review – 2023

February 6, 2023by Laurel Luehmann11 Comments

And it’s the first review post of 2023!

Things worth remembering…

skits on New Years Day
gingerbread house creation
“bowling” night
many intense games of floor hockey
Clarion Hope’s cover reveal!!
making dragon eggs (they “smelled something sinful” and I won’t be doing it again)
getting yummy breakfasts delivered to the skid loader
not losing my eyesight
hiking
discovering that stinging nettle tea is actually delicious

God reveals Himself in rearview mirrors.
Ann voskamp

What I’ve been reading…

Romanov – Nadine Brandes

“Revenge would have shattered us both. But you’ve given us the opportunity to be strong. To mend our hearts instead of break them further.”

I’ve been fascinated by the tragic story of the Romanovs for years, and I really enjoyed this fantastical take on it. While it was a bit more gruesome than I would have liked, I loved the characters and the epic plot twists so much.

The Magician’s Nephew – C.S. Lewis

“In fact, Digory, you are now talking to the last man (possibly) who really had a fairy godmother…”

“I bet she was a bad fairy,” thought Digory…

I’m rereading this book with several of my friends from Bible study, and it’s been so much fun!

The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Emmuska Orczy

The same deep, intense love was still there, on both sides, but each now seemed to have a secret orchard, into which the other dared not penetrate.

I’m really enjoying this story that takes place during the French Revolution!

Becoming Elisabeth Elliot – Ellen Vaughn

Her presupposition – that we are to die to self, and it is only in dying that we actually find real life – informed her views about life choices, time management, risk avoidance, public opinion…everything. This is why she was radical. This is why her life continues to be relevant today.

I’m really enjoying this deep look into the early years of one of my spiritual heroes!

The flesh must die though the heart may break – spare not the pain, oh, spare not the pain.
Ruth bell graham

From the journal…

Oh, God, help me to hold it all with open hands. Time and time again, you’ve set just the right people in my life at just the right times.

I find it so interesting that God asked the Israelites to go up to battle against Benjamin two times to suffer great loss. They came weeping to the Lord both times to ask His will, and still He told them to go up against them. Oh, strengthen me, Father, to fight boldly when You command and yet it ends in defeat.

“The Lord sat enthroned at the flood…” (Psalm 29:10) In the middle of mass destruction and the greatest catastrophe the world has ever known, the Lord retained His rule.

May I not let go merely because I hope to see You give back again. May I watch dreams burn to ashes, never to return, while still trusting the faithfulness of my God.

What were some things that you enjoyed this January?

<3 Laurel

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Thoughts from four years ago

January 30, 2023by Laurel Luehmann8 Comments

In going through some old papers, I found this little piece I wrote almost exactly four years ago and thought it would be fun to share here.

The sun was warm on my hair, yet the wind blew its frosty breath in my face as I walked through the browned grasses. The solid feeling of the frozen earth beneath my feet was so ordinary…yet so wonderful.

Wisps of cloud scudded across an ocean of powder-blue sky, hovering over the golden stubble of a cornfield lately reaped. A solitary cornstalk or two stood defiantly at the horizon, piercing the sky.

I filled my lungs with the frigid air and released it again. The vapor dispersed in the wind. I could hear the wind rushing through the grasses, swelling and fading by turns in its song. I had never been to the sea, but I liked to think that it sounded like the wind in dry grasses.

Maybe someday I’ll know.

But today holds so much. So much to love, so much to feel. So many things for which to praise God.

More things than the sand by the sea.

<3 Laurel Luehmann, January 24th, 2019

I find it pretty neat that exactly two years after that was written, I was staying by the ocean for the first time. God’s timing is incredible.✨

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Carving legacies in souls

November 21, 2022by Laurel Luehmann12 Comments

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.

<3 Laurel

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I have found the one whom my soul loves…

October 10, 2022by Laurel Luehmann5 Comments

This phrase, found in Song of Solomon, has always captured my heart with its beauty and the victory it implies.

I was excited for the day when I could finally say it to someone.

This summer, shortly after my grandma passed away, a dear friend gifted our family a mug that bears those words…

and it finally hit me.

I have found the One whom my soul loves.

He sought me out before I wanted Him, seeing the beauty that could be instead of the ugliness I was.

He could have cast me aside for something, someone far more worthy. But He didn’t.

He could have let the cup of His Father’s wrath pour out on me. But He didn’t.

He took it up in weary hands and drank its dregs, giving the last breath in His lungs to rend the veil that kept me from Him.

What love could be greater than this?

Yes, I have found the One whom my soul loves.

I won’t know the full meaning of those words until I step across the fine line of eternity and see His face for the very first time.

I’m certain I won’t be able to say it without weeping…

“I have found the One whom my soul loves.”

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Stolen words – a few poems and the thoughts that inspired them

September 12, 2022by Laurel Luehmann7 Comments

Hello, friends!

I haven’t shared much poetry on the blog lately, so I thought I’d share a few smaller poems here with you today, along with their backstories. Something about knowing the history of a poem just makes reading the poem itself so much more fun…at least in my book!

(I do share one poem a week over on Instagram, so if you aren’t following along there, click here to follow so you don’t miss a poem!)

voice in ink

I wrote this poem after reading a passage in Isaiah and wondering if I take God’s written Word as seriously as I would take a voice from heaven.

oh, soften my heart

to hear Your silent voice

and heed the ink

as though it were Your hand

bound

Oh, goodness, I love this poem so much.😅 This one was inspired by the song “Homeward Bound”, which (fun fact) my ten-year-old self sang as my audition for a part in a stage production of “The Sound of Music”! I didn’t get a part, but the song has a special place in my heart because of that memory, and also because it really does apply to my own story so well. <3

(I recommend listening to the song before you read.:))

you didn’t bind me to the pasture

never chained me to the plow

you set me free to find my calling…

I returned – for I bleed rain

the wind is in my heart and soul,

and I am restless

till I’m working, my feet rooted in this ground –

you set me free to find my calling…

I returned to you somehow.

mortality

This one I wrote after reading Francis Beaumont’s incredible poem “On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey”. This is one of my rare truly structured poems, and something about it makes me feel like it belongs in an old, faded hardcover!

the silence of the grave is roaring,

catching the ear of flailing man.

in the chaos of a crowd,

no voice e’er can speak as loud

and clear as death,

whose gasping song

alone can cause a man to see

the mist of his mortality.

Do you have a favorite type/style of poetry?

<3 Laurel

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What is that to you? – a hard look at comparison

July 25, 2022by Laurel Luehmann8 Comments

Whether we like it or not, comparison seems to be ingrained into our very souls…or at least, the very soul of our culture. I never thought I had a significant problem with comparison because I truly love my life and don’t obsess over what people think of me…

But the whispers still come…

I’m not doing what she’s doing. Does that mean I’m not doing enough? She’s writing so many more words than I am…and is doing it better than I am? What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I seem to keep up?

There are so many people in the Bible that fascinate me, but Simon Peter takes the cake. My soul has a good laugh (or sometimes a good cry) whenever I read about him because he’s just. so. relatable. I’m glad I’m not the only Jesus-adoring soul who talks too soon, too much, and too thoughtlessly. I’m glad I’m not the only one who has had to work through my own unfaithfulness to realize Christ’s faithfulness is unfathomable.

And I’m glad I’m not the only disciple Jesus had to call out of the comparison game.

In the last chapter of John’s account of the gospel, Jesus has just told Peter, “Follow me.” And what does Peter do?

What most of us do, honestly.

He turns around and looks at someone else.

John. The beloved disciple. The favorite. The one who didn’t deny his Lord three times after vowing to die for Him. The one whose seeming perfection likely made Peter feel more ashamed than he already was.

“But what about him, Jesus?”

I can just see Jesus turning to Peter, looking him straight in the eyes, and replying,

“What is that to you? You follow Me.”

Jesus doesn’t ask us to look to those around us for condemnation or validation. He simply calls, simply and clearly, for us to walk after Him.

What is it to me if my journey looks vastly different than the lives of those around me?

I’m to follow Him, and that is all that matters.

Let’s jump out of the comparison game, friends. Let’s take a hard look at ourselves in the light of God’s word and leave the clamor of the world behind. There’s only one Voice whose approval truly counts.

<3 Laurel