I am not one to sit still. Anyone who steps into my shadow for a day needs to rise early and lace up their most comfortable running shoes. From the moment my feet hit the floor, my to-do list begins cycling in my head. I would be the first to admit that I like filling my shoes with capable and self-sufficient. But what I've experienced is that my strengths can quickly become my downfall. Simply put, I struggle with being still long enough to let God work. I wrestle with not taking things into my own hands, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. As I write this, the struggle continues. In my core, I know I shouldn't take back what I've surrendered at least 100 times. But in my head, it plays out differently, and harnessing those thoughts chomping at the bit to take Continue Reading
Made to Brave a Wanting Heart
Wanting. It's a condition of the heart we are all too familiar with. Perhaps you've been wanting something for a very long time. Perhaps in all your waiting, you've experienced great disappointment. The kind that makes you question your faith. If so, you'll find strength and comfort in the words of our guest writer, Koki Oyuke, who shares a bit of her Made for Brave story, all the way from Nairobi, Kenya. There are times you know you should burst out crying. Times when you're fighting tears as they stain the white of your eye because it's not a good time. There are people here. It's not dark yet. There's always a reason to cover, but when tears don't release they dive in deep. And you can feel your heart getting heavy―insides too full, tinged with pain that wants to Continue Reading
How to Find Brave in Seasons of Unanswered Prayer
Newspaper headlines all over the world recently featured an amazing answer to prayer: my friend Andrew Brunson was freed from imprisonment in Turkey. My family cried tears of relief when this innocent pastor, persecuted for his faith, went free on October 12, 2018. What no newspaper could document was the anguish of prayer that seemingly went unanswered for two years. My family and I served in Turkey for 16 years, and Andrew’s case struck a chord with us because we lived in the same city. We also knew the nightmare our friend was living could have just as easily happened to us. We could hardly believe it when we first received news of Andrew’s arrest in October, 2016. We prayed each day, confident that God would free an innocent man. Yet the situation worsened rather than improving. Continue Reading
We are Made to Brave Disappointment
Have you ever come to a point in your walk where you questioned your beliefs? Where you've felt the very fibers of your once solid faith unraveling? I sat there that Sunday morning, unsure I wanted to stop the unraveling. As others stood, hands lifted high in praise, I sat, arms crossed, wondering if the God I clung to all these years had abandoned me. Was I standing in this fire alone? The last four months were riddled with the loss of my brother, my oldest daughter renouncing her faith in Christ, and the diagnosis of my husband’s cancer. I felt like the dry bones of Ezekiel 37 – cut off, dried up, all hope gone. Sown seeds of faith much bigger than a mustard seed wilted like flowers of a rose. One by one, the big prayers I prayed fell, from a budding rose of hope to the parched Continue Reading