Hello, friends! Just wanted to let you know before we begin the discussion thread that I am running a giveaway over on Instagram this week. Three winners each get a 90-day subscription to my paid content for FREE! I’m announcing the winners on Friday, so if you’re interested, click the button below to head to Instagram!
Welcome to The Wildroot Parables weekly discussions! This is where we can come together as a community and have real talk with one another: open, honest, gracious, and curious.
This is YOUR space to discuss with each other, not just engage with me! Because of this, SAFE SHARING is my highest priority. If you are not engaging safely and with grace with others, you will have to leave. Period.
Thank you for entering this space with care!
On Monday, we talked about how the things we love are gateways to the heart of God. When I wrote those words, I couldn’t help but think of the famous line from the classic film Chariots of Fire. In the film, Eric Liddell is struggling with whether to become a missionary or pursue his true passion: Olympic-level competitive running. In defense of his dream, Liddell says, “God made me fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure.”
So our question this week is this: what do you love that leads you deeper into the heart of God? Is there anything you do that when you do it, you feel God’s pleasure?
I feel God's pleasure when I write, for sure, but I also feel it when I lose myself in something. We can be so unfocused (I know I can), kind of drifting through a day. But when I lose myself in garden tasks, or a walk in the woods around our house, or even doing the dishes...it's like I can tap into a depth of sensation and experience that I usually can't when I'm "drifting". And I find that God speaks to me there, in the little things. Not sure if that's a common experience, but it's definitely something I love. <3
When I use my gifts at work, I feel this. Working in the financial industry, there’s not a lot of heart - and the little there is often is sales pitchy. But one of my jobs is communication with our firm’s clients. Helping make the process of opening an account or getting started with Medicare efficient but also PLEASURABLE. It’s clear clients & prospects deeply appreciate this and I feel God’s pleasure every time I take a few extra minutes with someone or take the time to write clear and helpful instructions.
Sometimes I feel like this job in this industry can’t be doing much good, because Medicare & retirement plans don’t matter in Eternity. Thank you for this reminder that EVERYTHING we do matters for eternity, no matter what the actual activity is.
When I dance outside in nature, I am sure God made people so that God could feel alive through us in this way. We are the hands and feet and fleshy hearts of God not only to help with regular human needs, but also to radiate God's joy throughout Creation and to allow God to FEEL this through us. We are danced by God, breathed by God, held in place and moved and utterly transformed by God, all at once. And when I dance I feel both my singularity and my oneness and interconnectedness with Life and God.
I love to sing the songs that are created in my mind. Melodies and lyrics play in my head and I know it to be God’s pleasure when I use the breath He gives me to sing them. They are almost always in praise to Him, but sometimes they are words to help my son with transitions or to understand what’s going on around him.
I also feel God’s pleasure when I slow down to hold space for the pace of life to be different than expected.
I set out to read The Chronicles of Narnia to my son this year. Currently, we’re rereading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader per his request as The Silver Chair got too slow for his liking. I wanted to hold to my plan, but also I like that he is interested in a chapter book at three years old, so I said yes, thinking that, well, we can come back to the plan/that book when he’s older, but also feeling a bit disappointed about not finishing it. Then a thought floated across mind— I can pick up Silver Chair when I do get a moment to myself. This is a big thing for me… I prayed just in May— God, I need adventure! We’ve only one vehicle, my husband works 13-hour days, it gets tense living with my parents.. I’ve felt stuck where we live now, even with all of God’s gracious emotional healing. I miss the opposite coast where we use to live before the initial Lockdown when housing & work were lost. It’s been a good kind of hard to raise my son in a place where my parenting is met with this pushback. Not only has my God heard my cry over the big things, but this seemingly small thing too!
Friends, our souls are refreshed by the rest He gives in His Love for us. Our needs are never too much for the One Who made us.
I feel God's pleasure when I write, for sure, but I also feel it when I lose myself in something. We can be so unfocused (I know I can), kind of drifting through a day. But when I lose myself in garden tasks, or a walk in the woods around our house, or even doing the dishes...it's like I can tap into a depth of sensation and experience that I usually can't when I'm "drifting". And I find that God speaks to me there, in the little things. Not sure if that's a common experience, but it's definitely something I love. <3
When I use my gifts at work, I feel this. Working in the financial industry, there’s not a lot of heart - and the little there is often is sales pitchy. But one of my jobs is communication with our firm’s clients. Helping make the process of opening an account or getting started with Medicare efficient but also PLEASURABLE. It’s clear clients & prospects deeply appreciate this and I feel God’s pleasure every time I take a few extra minutes with someone or take the time to write clear and helpful instructions.
Sometimes I feel like this job in this industry can’t be doing much good, because Medicare & retirement plans don’t matter in Eternity. Thank you for this reminder that EVERYTHING we do matters for eternity, no matter what the actual activity is.
When I dance outside in nature, I am sure God made people so that God could feel alive through us in this way. We are the hands and feet and fleshy hearts of God not only to help with regular human needs, but also to radiate God's joy throughout Creation and to allow God to FEEL this through us. We are danced by God, breathed by God, held in place and moved and utterly transformed by God, all at once. And when I dance I feel both my singularity and my oneness and interconnectedness with Life and God.
This is all so lovely!
I love to sing the songs that are created in my mind. Melodies and lyrics play in my head and I know it to be God’s pleasure when I use the breath He gives me to sing them. They are almost always in praise to Him, but sometimes they are words to help my son with transitions or to understand what’s going on around him.
I also feel God’s pleasure when I slow down to hold space for the pace of life to be different than expected.
I set out to read The Chronicles of Narnia to my son this year. Currently, we’re rereading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader per his request as The Silver Chair got too slow for his liking. I wanted to hold to my plan, but also I like that he is interested in a chapter book at three years old, so I said yes, thinking that, well, we can come back to the plan/that book when he’s older, but also feeling a bit disappointed about not finishing it. Then a thought floated across mind— I can pick up Silver Chair when I do get a moment to myself. This is a big thing for me… I prayed just in May— God, I need adventure! We’ve only one vehicle, my husband works 13-hour days, it gets tense living with my parents.. I’ve felt stuck where we live now, even with all of God’s gracious emotional healing. I miss the opposite coast where we use to live before the initial Lockdown when housing & work were lost. It’s been a good kind of hard to raise my son in a place where my parenting is met with this pushback. Not only has my God heard my cry over the big things, but this seemingly small thing too!
Friends, our souls are refreshed by the rest He gives in His Love for us. Our needs are never too much for the One Who made us.
He takes pleasure in our rising.
He takes pleasure in our being.