Tag: Mark Batterson

Faith

A Crazy Word For 2021

Michele Kearns

(Author’s note – I know I said this post would be publishing tomorrow but I changed my mind as there is another post I want to publish on Tuesday so I needed this one to be published today .)

Some people pick one word or even 3 words to use as they navigate life through the year.

In 2019 my word was Hope.

In 2020 my words were Believe, Abide, Stand and Bloom. (Like Lays Potato Chips, I could choose just one.)

While I was indecisive about 2020’s word, I am not indecisive about my word for 2021. It came to when I was reading Mark Batterson’s Draw the Circle, The 40 Day Prayer Challenge. I got to day 10 which is about a widow and a judge. After reading that day’s verse and the first paragraph, I had my word for 2021 and that word is…

CRAZY

The title of the devotion for Day 10 is Crazy Faith and the accompanying Bible verse is

It is the story of a widow with crazy faith that she will get the justice she seeks if she keeps showing up at the judge’s house. (Spoiler Alert – she does get justice)

Batterson writes:

I love the parable of the persistent widow. I don’t mean any disrespect, but I think persistent is a nice word for crazy. This woman is crazy, but when the cause is a righteous one, it’s a holy crazy!

Draw the Circle, The 40 Day Prayer Challenge by Mark Batterson, Day 10 Devotion – Crazy Faith

So that is what I aim to have this year – a crazy faith, a holy crazy faith.

What does crazy faith look like? Well being persistent is part of it. Being persistent means showing up, never giving up, never surrendering (except to God’s will). Crazy faith also means:

16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NLT)

and

4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!

Philippians 4:4 (NLT)

Won’t you join me in having a crazy faith this year?

Bio: Michele Kearns is the founder and HUG© (Hope Unites Globally) Award-Winner of JoyReturns. She shares her widowhood adventures hoping to inspire widows to move through grief and rebuild their lives. A graduate of Kent State University with a Bachelor’s degree in communications, she’s currently using those skills as a virtual logistics contact center representative for a Fortune 100 company. She’s also managed call center teams, co-facilitated a grief support group, and helped small businesses with various writing assignments. Michele is a bookworm, and a lover of history, music, chocolate, red roses, and golden retrievers. She is also the amateur photographer behind the blog OgleOhio.com.

Weekend Wisdom

Weekend Wisdom: Every Thought

Michele Kearns

While playing catch-up on reading my devotions, I came across this quote.

We are blessed to live in a country where we are able to do something about any idea that pops in our head whether we are in or out of the shower.

Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets our of the shower, dries off, and does something about it who makes a difference.

Noah Bushnell (Atari video game creator). Quoted in Day 9 Dream Factory devotion in Draw the Circle, The 40 Day Prayer Challenge by Mark Batterson

What thought will you take captive and make obedient to Christ this week?

Bio: Michele Kearns is the founder and HUG© (Hope Unites Globally) Award-Winner of JoyReturns. She shares her widowhood adventures hoping to inspire widows to move through grief and rebuild their lives. A graduate of Kent State University with a Bachelor’s degree in communications, she’s currently using those skills as a virtual logistics contact center representative for a Fortune 100 company. She’s also managed call center teams, co-facilitated a grief support group, and helped small businesses with various writing assignments. Michele is a bookworm, and a lover of history, music, chocolate, red roses, and golden retrievers. She is also the amateur photographer behind the blog OgleOhio.com.

Weekend Wisdom

Weekend Wisdom: Germinating Faith

Michele Kearns

Happy Saturday and Happy Sweetest Day!

We are experiencing our first taste of cold weather as temperatures dipped into the 30’s overnight. Currently, at 6:45 a.m., it is a “balmy” 35 degrees. Boy does it feel wonderful to hold a hot coffee mug, a mug that seems hotter than normal.

Today’s post is based on the devotion Sow A Seed (day 12) in Mark Batterson’s Draw the Circle, The 40 Day Prayer Challenge.

In this devotion Mark writes about sequoia, watermelon and mustard seeds and the power of their seeds.

If you have faith as small as a mustard seed…

Matthew 17:20

Our dreams need faith, even faith as small as a mustard seed, to germinate. Faith steps out and prays bold prayers and then takes steps to make the dream come true, after all faith is an action verb (devotion for Day 7).

My dream is for this country to stay as the founding fathers envisioned – a country run by it’s citizens who had the freedom to make decisions for their lives. They did not want a country run by a tyrannical big government who told the citizens where to live, work and play.

My dream is not a small dream but I have buried that dream in my heart and am watering it with prayer. I have faith that if it is God’s will, this country will remain as a glorious light visible to all the world. (Matthew 5:14-16)

So go sow a seed and use your faith, even if it is as small as a mustard seed, to grow your dream.

Seeds of Faith (original artwork at the end of the prayer in my prayer journal.)

Bio: Michele Kearns is the founder and HUG© (Hope Unites Globally) Award-Winner of JoyReturns. She shares her widowhood adventures hoping to inspire widows to move through grief and rebuild their lives. A graduate of Kent State University with a Bachelor’s degree in communications, she’s currently using those skills as a virtual logistics contact center representative for a Fortune 100 company. She’s also managed call center teams, co-facilitated a grief support group, and helped small businesses with various writing assignments. Michele is a bookworm, and a lover of history, music, chocolate, red roses, and golden retrievers. She is also the amateur photographer behind the blog OgleOhio.com.