Welcome to summer and to the quarterly (ish) list of things I'm learning. As we welcome summer, I’m reflecting on what I've learned in the past 12 months of writing a book.

If you're new to my writing or my public blog space, welcome! In the words of Emily P. Freeman, I’m sharing “in-process considerations, not necessarily fully worked out narratives.”

Thanks for reading!

What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.

What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.

What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.

What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.

What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.

What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.

Welcome to autumn! I share a list of things I learned once a quarter. As we welcome fall, I’m also reflecting on what I learned during our three-month sabbatical this summer.

If you're new to my writing or my public blog space, welcome!

Throughout the past three months, I’ve learned a lot about the nature of deep rest, and hopefully, I’ll be able to put some of it into words here and in the book I’m writing. Some of it, I imagine, will be kept quietly between Brian and me, and a few things will be kept only in that center space of belovedness with my friend Jesus. There’s no way I could synthesize all that we’re holding in our hearts from the past 13 weeks, so I’m sharing 13 journal entries, one for each week of the sabbatical. In the words of Emily P. Freeman, I’m sharing “in-process considerations, not necessarily fully worked out narratives.”

Thanks for reading!

What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.

What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.

LOOK: Image: life-new life (1966), Sister Corita Kent - Source

LISTEN: The Sun Will Rise, a playlist for Eastertide 2022

READ: Isaiah 51:9-11; Psalm 118:14-17, 22-24; Acts 10:34-43; Luke 24:1-12

PRAY: Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

DO: Share a photo for the photo-a-day challenge!

I wept for days. And just when the crushing weight felt like it might reside, it overwhelmed again. In the past, I’d operated under the “pick yourself up and move on” method of life. You know the times when you press forward suppressing all the emotion, all the hurt because it’s easier.  But as I wept I felt invited by the Spirit to sit with the grief. To allow myself to feel the deep sadness of her brokenness and our unmet expectations. To not push through to happier days, but sit with the why’s. …

Into the hands of Christ, I commit my sad, angry, frustrated, weeping spirit. Welcome grief. 

I had a black mother who gave birth to five perfectly healthy babies and lived to tell the tale. Given the disproportionately high maternal mortality rate of black American women that still plagues us today, I am nothing short of a miracle. My daughter is a miracle. Therefore, it shouldn’t be hard at all to believe that Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross given the extraordinarily high rate of crucifixions in His day. However, when I read that He cried out from the cross, “It is finished,” do I believe Him? Is this it? Is this how it all ends? What kind of man is this? 

I want some satiating, magical potion to restore those years to me.

Jesus’s last words “I thirst” remind me that He - the most satiating, life-giving, Living Water - also thirsted. What did he thirst for, hanging there on the cross? In the midst of excruciating pain, I find it hard to believe those words were merely asking for a drink. Maybe He spoke those words for me so that I would remember that my Savior also felt pain and grief. And that He knows my thirst and weeps with me in the midst of mine.

As our family learned how to navigate grief, bellies around us continued to swell with life, and children were adopted seemingly with ease. I started to become acutely aware of the obsession in Christian culture with having lots of children (more equals blessed). I began to reckon with the fact that we had one child, and we may only ever have one child. Did that mean God wasn't pleased with us? Was there some sin we weren't aware of that He was punishing us for?

But I’ve also seen what it looks like when true community is forged from shared surrender to God, and it has ruined me for ersatz versions. Compelled by the self-giving love of Jesus, it always looks just like one disciple opening the door to another to welcome them in fully and completely as family – because in him, that is what we are meant to be for one another.

Jesus gave us a litany of last words, known as the Seven Last Words of Christ. The deathbed words of the Suffering Servant provide a framework for Holy Week. Each day between now and Resurrection Sunday, seven friends will share their own stories to help us retrieve lament and to keep vigil with Jesus. Their stories have helped form my understanding of cruciform suffering and I believe they could also encourage you too.

Each short story will be paired with an image, a Scripture passage, and a prayer. This year I’ve curated a series of contemporary icons from Ukrainian iconographers. As we hold space for each other’s stories, we take shelter under the outstretched arms of Christ for every story of suffering around the world. In order to lean toward the suffering in Ukraine, one of our storytellers is giving us the opportunity to send help to two organizations on the ground in Ukraine and neighboring friendly countries, and to receive a special thank you gift from Michelle Van Loon in return.

Would you read our friend Art's story with an open heart for any words Christ might be speaking to you?

Dear friend,

This post kicks off a week of guest posts to help us keep vigil with Jesus, each other, and our own hearts through Holy Week.

Jesus gave us a litany of last words, known as the Seven Last Words of Christ. The deathbed words of the Suffering Servant provide a framework for Holy Week. Each day between now and Resurrection Sunday, seven friends will share their own stories to help us retrieve lament and to keep vigil with Jesus. Their stories have helped form my understanding of cruciform suffering and I believe they could also encourage you too.

Each short story will be paired with an image, a Scripture passage, and a prayer. This year I’ve curated a series of contemporary icons from Ukrainian iconographers. As we hold space for each other’s stories, we take shelter under the outstretched arms of Christ for every story of suffering around the world. In order to lean toward the suffering in Ukraine, one of our storytellers is giving us the opportunity to send help to two organizations on the ground in Ukraine and neighboring friendly countries, and to receive a special thank you gift from Michelle Van Loon in return.

Thank you for sitting with me in my own story today. May you listen with an open prayerful heart and know the shelter of Christ for all that you lament this week.

Peace,

Tamara

p.s. Would you invite a friend to join us to read the stories with us?

April brings the tenth annual blog series for Holy Week and a Zoom conversation to meet this year’s guest storytellers and we’d love for you to join us. Sign up inside to receive the Zoom link for April 7 and one story each day of Holy Week to your email inbox.

What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.

Welcome to a Lent daybook for these 40+ days of prayerful repentance.

Is this your first time to practice Lent? Here's a simple introduction.

Look: A house sits covered by a deep blanket of ash from a volcano erupting on La Palma, in Spain's Canary Islands, on October 30. After 85 days and eight hours of destruction, the Cumbre Vieja volcano in Spain's Canary Islands finally finished erupting on December 13, 2021. The volcanic eruption - sending lava into neighborhoods and raining ash downwind - was the island of La Palma's longest active eruption on record, according to Canary Island government officials. Emilio Morenatti / AP - Source

Listen: From the Dust, Paul Zach - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube

Read: Isaiah 58:1-12; Psalm 103; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for Ash Wednesday

Do: Attend an Ash Wednesday service