jesus calling
Tending My Piece of the Garden
Sometime decades ago—so long ago that I don’t remember when—I knew my purpose in life was to tend to my little piece of the Garden. Watching my mother, it’s no wonder I felt like this. When she left a campsite, Mom would ensure it was meticulously clean. She wanted us to always leave things better than we found them. Hours before leaving for Christmas dinner at her parents’ home, Mom would find out that our cousins were bringing a stranger. She always had general gifts ready. Mom’s way of wrapping family warmth and love around a stranger was to make sure there were presents under the tree with that person’s name. She included a stranger in our family for the evening. How could I have a different approach to life? “I am the Light of the world…the Holy Spirit who lives in you can...
3 Ways God Lightens Our Load
There’s nothing like the feeling of a fresh, clean home. The floors are swept, the bathtub is scrubbed, the furniture polished till it gleams. Perhaps the biggest chore of cleaning your home is getting rid of clutter. Whenever something comes in, something needs to come out. Otherwise, you’re left living in heaps of things you don’t need. There are also things that clutter our lives, things we carry out of habit or familiarity—our baggage, if you will. I wrote a novel called The Baggage Handler to help people deal with things clutter their lives. For many, getting rid of their baggage is the same process as cleaning their house. They take a look at emotions or situations they no longer need but still hang onto without knowing why, or find they’ve accumulated far more than they realized. Cl...
Waiting for New Beginnings
Have you ever found yourself at a new beginning? As summer quickly comes to an end, school is about to begin, offering students and teachers a fresh start. Even if you aren’t anticipating a new school year, perhaps you’re waiting on the next big thing to happen, or maybe you’re so caught up in this fast-paced life that you can’t keep up with where you have been or where you are going. You may not notice something new happening around you or within you. I have been that person, the one who was unaware. But in recent years, I’ve learned new beginnings deserve our attention, even if we have to wait on them. “Hold My hand and walk joyously with Me through this day…Don’t worry about what is around the bend. Just concentrate on enjoying my Presence.” –Jesus Calling, August 4 My journey of new be...
Finding Your Purpose
Do you wonder what you’re supposed to be doing with your life? Do you wonder if you’re in the right job or following the right career path? You’re not alone when you think about things like that. Many people wonder about the purpose of their life and their vocation. But it can get a little disheartening if you start entangling your life purpose with the job where you work each day. Because while jobs come and go, your life purpose is set inside of God’s specific and beautiful design for your life. It’s easy to mix your life purpose—or identity—with your vocation. For many people, myself included, the two get so intertwined that they seem like one big thing. But they’re not. One is about your God-gifted value, and that has nothing to do with work. It has to do with your personality, your pa...
Enduring Life’s Toughest Moments
Endurance isn’t exactly a fun word, and I bet you know what it means: it’s the power to go through an unpleasant or difficult situation without giving way. And at some point or another, we’ve all been pushed to the brink. Recently, I was too. The constant pressures of work and family and navigating endless logistics had left me worn down. My endurance level was at an all-time low, and I hit a breaking point. I didn’t know if I could continue this way. My raw emotions were all over the place. All I knew was I felt weak and drained. Then I read something that put everything into perspective: the words of the daily devotional, Jesus Calling, on February 27th entry: Keep your eyes on Me! Waves of adversity are washing over you, and you feel tempted to give up. As your circumstances consume mor...
Kindling an Ignited Faith
As summer moves to fall, I’m reminded this new season invites all of me—my heart, my soul, my mind—to adjust to change. When a new season arrives, it brings along new demands, new responsibilities, and a growing awareness that time is a truly precious resource, one we can never get back. And sometimes I find that as the seasons change, so do the flames my faith. “Thus begins your journey of profound reliance on Me. It is a faith-walk, taken one step at a time, leaning on Me as much as you need. This is not a path of continual success but of multiple failures. However, each failure is followed by a growth spurt, nourished by increased reliance on me.” Jesus Calling, January 5 Building the fire In the past ten years, I’ve had seasons where I felt my faith had no option but to stay ablaze. I’...
Giving Thanks through the Pain
“When you approach Me with thanksgiving, the Light of My Presence pours into you, transforming you through and through. Walk in the Light with Me by practicing the discipline of thanksgiving.” Jesus Calling, April 6 A few years ago, when I finished speaking at a ladies’ retreat, a dear woman approached me with tears in her eyes. I could tell by the sweet smile shining through her tears that she wanted to share something from her heart. “I could relate to your stories about your daughter’s illness.” She looked down for a moment and then began again. “I have recently been declared cancer-free. Last summer, the sun was shining beautifully through my bedroom window, but I was in the worst pain I’d ever experienced. My throat was on fire from the cancer treatments, and the pain medication ...
Plan for Grumble-Free Holidays
by Tricia Goyer “Thank Me frequently as you journey through today…When your mind is occupied with thanking Me, you have no time for worrying or complaining.” Jesus Calling, November 25 The holidays ring out with jingle bells and the laughter of children. But too often they often ring out with something not so jolly: grumbles. As a mom of ten kids, the complaints and whines seemed to slide in with the season, until my husband and I decided to try something different. We invited our kids (and also my grandmother, who lives with us) to attempt a Grumble-Free Year. We knew our family’s grumbles pointed back to a serious heart-issue: discontent. It took a full twelve-months to dig out the roots of dissatisfaction. Along the way, I also discovered a few ways each of us can plan to go grumble-fre...
Our Superpowers
Leave outcomes up to Me. Follow Me wherever I lead, without worrying about how it will all turn out. Jesus Calling, November 19 Where I work, we have an ice-breaker question we ask every new person joining the team: If you could have any superpower, what would it be? The answers, as you can imagine, vary. One colleague told us her superpower would be to become instantly dry as she stepped from the shower. My own superpower—as my fellow introverts will understand—would be to turn invisible the moment I walked into a cocktail party. A New Superpower But more recently I’ve thought of a new superpower, which would be this: I would want the power to know, with complete certainty, that Everything Is Going to Be Okay. I’m not talking about the moment-to-moment stuff. Intellectually I know, for ex...
God’s Invitation to Peace and Joy
Adapted and edited for the Jesus Calling Blog. You can find Pastor Nicewonger’s original post, The Road to Peace, here. As you grow closer to Me, I open your eyes to see more and more of My Presence all around you. Jesus Calling, December 28 How do we find peace amid chaos? When turmoil reigns, anxiety rules, and worry is winning, how do we find the road to peace? My Journal Talks I came across something I wrote after meeting with my spiritual director. As we closed our time together, he invited me to live and move with the spirit of the Jesuits: seek first to discern God’s invitation, and do what you discerned wholeheartedly. Thus you find joy and peace. I was struck by his words. They voiced the way I have sought to live and move through a significant portion of my life. Notice the word ...
Finding True Satisfaction
I am the culmination of all your hopes and desires. . . . I have lifted you out of darkness into My marvelous light. – Jesus Calling, October 11 What is your heart longing for? It’s the time of year we start pondering our New Year’s resolutions, and all the things we want to gain, achieve, and experience in the months ahead. We dream about how we could be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled 365 days from now. It’s easy to create that resolutions list and think, If I could just have this or do that, I’ll finally be happy. We think if we could lose those pounds, get that job, buy that car, then we’ll experience lasting contentment. But the problem is, we confuse our current desire with our core longing, the message each of our hearts so desperately longs to hear. We hope, plan...
