Christianity – Page 4 – Laurel Luehmann

10 Blessings God Has Given Me

September 17, 2020by Laurel LuehmannLeave a Comment

Why do we have to wait until November to start thinking and sharing about being thankful?

Ooh… we actually don’t. So let’s do it!!!

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I tend to get caught up in trying to discern God’s will in the “big” things in my life… rather than obeying His clearly stated will in this small thing – giving thanks.

I’d like to share with you 10 things for which I’m thanking the Lord today. Some of them are huge things, and some of them are just those little blessings that He crams into my life, just because He wants to make me smile.

HIM!!! Truly the greatest blessing ever.
My incredible family
The gift of hearing
Words
Coffee 🙂
A wonderful church family
A job for which I don’t have to wear a mask 🙂
Clean water
The purpose He infuses in my life
The opportunity to throw my words all over the world

Whoa… I serve an incredible God. He doesn’t have to give me any of these things – I certainly don’t deserve them – and yet He pours them out freely. He is truly worthy of all the praise I can give!

It’s your turn now! What are 10 things for which you can thank God today?

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

life

First Things First… And Writing Isn’t One of Them

September 14, 2020by Laurel Luehmann2 Comments

And you thought you knew me. 🙂

Don’t get me wrong; I love writing. As a kid, I liked nothing better than curling up with a notebook and pen, crafting stories and poetry. My addiction to scribbling words and trying to encapsulate my crazy thoughts in semi-understandable sentences has only grown over time. My obsession with words was always just one of my weird little quirks. End of story.

But recently it came to a horrifying climax. It seemed like so much of my mental energy was going into writing and my future as an author… trying to figure out what it would look like, and how I would get to where I wanted to be in the writing world. I was so enjoying what writing involved that I was letting it become my life.

I was pouring into my stories instead of my siblings. I was investing in my writing courses instead of my friends. I was focusing on myself and my dreams instead of on my Savior and His dreams for me.

What started as a harmless little hobby began to devour every aspect my life.

The thing is, I’m not just a writer. I’m also a daughter, a sister, and a friend. Most importantly, I’m a child of God, a member of the body of Christ, and a representative of Him.

These other roles and responsibilities are even more important than writing. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to pursue a career in something I so enjoy, but I need to remember that there are so many other aspects to my life than writing.

I need to remember my identity in Christ, and let my priorities flow from that.

My relationship with God comes first. Next, my family relationships. Next, all other relationships.

Last, writing.

I’m not saying that it’s evil to work diligently at your job and seek to be good at it. Not at all. Actually, I’m really focusing in on that this week. But note the key word, job.

My job should not become a synonym for my life.

Balance, folks. Balance is key.

Let’s set our priorities in the right place and live them out.

life

On Seasons

September 7, 2020September 7, 2020by Laurel LuehmannLeave a Comment

Don’t you just love this time of year? The weather is cooling down, the flies’ days are numbered (hooray!!!) and I’m loving my sweatshirts, hot coffee, and afghans.

The seasons are changing, and I’m so looking forward to fall.

Spend enough time around me and you’ll learn that it’s my tendency to look forward to things – always planning and dreaming and scheming, picturing where I’ll be next year, in two years, in five years, in ten years…

But that means I can get so caught up in my dreams that I’m tripping over the important things I dreamed about yesterday. That’s a problem.

However, in my mid-teens I was encouraged by several sources – books, a blog, friends – to embrace the season of life I was in at that moment, rather than always dreaming, always planning, always waiting for what was around the corner.

And so I did. While still making my lists and dreaming my dreams, I wholeheartedly embraced a season that brimmed with family, schoolwork, cooking, music, writing, and spunky calves. I threw myself into the thick of it and loved it.

And then I looked up. I was turning eighteen and graduating. The season in which I had learned to delight was deteriorating before my eyes.

My first response? “NOOOOO!!!!!!!”

Seriously. I went into mourning for about a week.

My beautiful life was about to be changed… forever. I would never get back those days of being a crazy little farm kid, of doing school around the dining room table with my mom and siblings, of having the relatively simple and easy life of a child. Never.

(Whaaaaaaahhhhhh…)

What was happening to my life? I liked it just the way it was… why did I have to grow up and graduate, ruining and complicating everything? Couldn’t life just stay the same? Nice and normal and… safe?

I knew that if I was kicking and screaming (figuratively!) on my way to high school graduation, something was seriously wrong with me.

My mindset had become flawed.

Gradually, unwittingly, I had allowed my season of life to occupy a place in my heart that was never meant for anyone or anything but God. I had let it become my delight, my satisfaction and my identity, when only God can truly be those things for me.

This summer God’s been teaching me to embrace, not my seasons, but Him, the never-changing Creator of my seasons.

He’s been instructing me to work heartily at the projects the day lays before me, but to shift gears quickly if need be.

He’s been reminding me to appreciate the abundance of blessings He daily showers on me, but to allow them to turn my eyes to Him, not away from Him.

He’s been revealing to me the glorious truth that with Him, each and every day is brimming with opportunities for growth, productivity, and joy… lots of incredible joy.

He’s been encouraging me to to make Him the very center of my life – in the midst of every crazy, beautiful season and all it contains.

I want to encourage you to center your life around this incredible God.

You will not regret it.

Uncategorized

When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

September 3, 2020by Laurel Luehmann8 Comments

If you’re a human, you go through seasons in which you simply can’t understand why your life looks the way it does… why so-and-so said such-and-such… why such-and-such had to happen/not happen… why your life is so obviously falling apart, and will absolutely never be whole again. *sighs and sniffs dramatically*

These seasons may be a nearly everyday occurrence for some. They’re few and far between for the rest, but they’re still there. And hard. Really hard.

I think God wisely planted inside of us something that tells us that life is supposed to make sense… and so we get frustrated when life doesn’t make sense. We cry when life takes an unexpected – and completely undesired – turn. We weep as our most beautiful dreams rot and crumble before our eyes.

Because we can’t see what the Author sees.

I’ve not yet read the book, but I do enjoy the movie based on Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. It’s rather gloomy and sad, but the writer’s heart in me rejoices at the incredible intricacies of the plot.

At the beginning, it seems like there are just a lot of loose ends – several stories that don’t relate to each other very well. There are times when what’s happening is so confusing and incoherent. But as the story progresses, you see how every single person, place, and event is linked together in one massive, fascinating plot. In the end, you are left in awe of the creator of such an incredible story.

See, the thing about stories is that they don’t make complete sense – they aren’t supposed to make complete sense – to anyone but the author until the end.

We’re in the middle of our stories right now, and so naturally there are a few aspects of them that leave us scratching our heads in confusion… or, if I may be frank and a bit more honest, bawling on the floor in complete emotional disarray.

But God’s perfect plot is still there. When it seems like everything is falling apart, it’s really falling into place. Truly.

I haven’t lived that long, but already I’ve seen God weaving my story together, and believe me, He beats Charles Dickens hands down.

I have seen Him take circumstances that I despised and use them to draw me to Himself.

I have rejoiced at the way He laid the groundwork for my prayers to be answered before I even thought to pray them.

I have cried as He allowed my dreams to be smashed, and tearfully trusted Him to build and fulfil better ones.

I have seen that, through it all, He has been faithful, and that He will be faithful for the rest of my days. Oh, it will be a glorious day when He reveals to me the entire script of my life, with all the “loose” ends tied together.

If you are His child, He will do the same for you.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. – Romans 8:28 (emphases mine)

Be comforted… it will be worth it all when we see the end. ❤

Poetry

Once Again – A Poem

September 1, 2020by Laurel Luehmann6 Comments

Two natures fight within me

Clawing for complete control

And the evil one is winning –

Its dark reign I can’t o’erthrow.

For its grasp about my mind

Has left an imprint stiff as stone

And its chains about my heart

Into my flesh o’er time have grown.

And I can’t break from these shackles

That hold all my habits tight

For the rust of time has locked them

And I cry into the night

As I see the one You crafted

To be swift and strong for You

Melted to the mess I am –

How could my heart be so untrue?

Yet the dawn is breaking now

And in the early morning rays

I see the promise of the future

And new mercies with new days

And I see the power of Calvary

Making chains and shackles null

As Your faithfulness transforms me

And my shell falls, dead and dull

As new life is pulsing through me –

Though I’ve stumbled and I’ve failed,

Still You tell me that renewal

Is one humble step away.

Photo by Federico Respini on Unsplash

Journaling

The Journals That Changed My Life

August 20, 2020by Laurel Luehmann5 Comments

Every person in our lives influences us – whether it is an influence we recognize or not. Some people have a small influence, some people have a strong influence, and some people shake our lives forever.

For me, that was Jim Elliot.

I met him the year I turned sixteen. I spent a lot of time with him that year. He made me laugh, he challenged the way that I spent my time, and he lived his life in a way that made me want to live differently. He was strong in his faith, bold in his declaration of it, and passionately in love with Christ. He inspired me.

Wait, I forgot to tell you – he died over 40 years before I was born.

Shortly after Jim Elliot’s death at the hands of the men he was trying to reach with the gospel, his wife Elisabeth wrote Shadow of the Almighty. In this beautifully written biography, Elisabeth included excerpts of many of her husband’s letters and journals. Shadow of the Almighty had a profound impact on me.

What hit me most about the legacy Jim Elliot left in his writings was not so much the writing itself, but the heart, life, and dreams behind it. Don’t get me wrong – he had a rich vocabulary and a gift for powerful expression and humorous description – but that wasn’t all.

When you read his journals, you see a heart laid wide open before the Lord. He wasn’t afraid to proclaim the gospel and its implications. He didn’t shrink from confronting his peers about the condition of their souls.

Yet neither did he shrink from admitting his own faults and weaknesses. Some excerpts from the journals – “Oh, that I were not so empty-handed… I don’t love, I don’t feel, I don’t understand, I can only believe.” “Difficulty in getting anything at all from the Word. No fervency in prayer.” “Deep sense of uselessness this morning.”

Wait, what??? I’m not the only one who feels like this at times? Even the strongest and most passionate of Christians struggle?

Yes.

When I journal, I sometimes shrink from recording my struggles. I don’t always want to be honest with myself on paper. I start sweating when I think about the possibility of people cracking open my journal some day and getting a taste of 100% pure, raw, unfiltered Laurel. It’s scary.

But in reality, it’s not about me.

It’s about making myself available to God so He can display His power and goodness in me. If honesty in my journal entries may one day accomplish this by strengthening and encouraging others, I’ll swallow my pride and make myself available to God.

‘Cause that’s my purpose.

Have you made it yours?