Category Archives: give aways

Me and Beth E., her Bill and my Billy

Me and Beth E., her Bill and my Billy

I don’t why certain events in my life move me so profoundly, but this past weekend has been one of those occasions, and today my heart is hurting. Thankfully hurting. Seems an odd contradiction, but the “hurting” signifies that my past weekend meant more to me than simply an enjoyable weekend between friends. A thankful hurt signifies something far deeper. It means that there is love attached to my heart, and, right now, I’m not quite sure what to do with it. I’ve been trying all day to get my thoughts down on paper, but the words are mostly vacant. Not because they’re not there, but rather because I can’t seem to pen them with the justice they deserve. Some memories just write me rather than me writing them.

This past weekend deserves more than a few words. It deserves a chapter all its own. And while this chapter in my life known as “Elaine and Beth E., her Bill and my Billy” may never make it to print, it certainly has scripted its remembrance into my heart for always.

I like knowing that my “life book” now includes a chapter specifically designated to the companionship I shared with my husband and a Virginia couple on a beautiful November weekend in 2009. It cannot be changed, altered or tweaked to read any differently than it lived. It simply was and, therefore, continues to be because it is now a part of my history. A history that I am better for living through because of the beautiful friendship that was birthed in the end.

Beth and Bill are the real deal. I already loved Beth for so many reasons (even though we’d never met face-to-face), and Bill quickly warranted my genuine favor as well. He’s funny, laid back, talkative, and very kind to his wife. Very kind. It’s obvious to me why they’ve made it to almost thirty-one years of marriage. Kindness in a marriage does that. It births longevity, and as I watched them interact with one another, I couldn’t help but hope for the same in my marriage with my own Billy.

And for more weekends with them. Lots of them. In fact, if we lived closer to one another, I’m confident we’d spend lots of nights eating Hillbilly Salsa together and allowing our “Bill’s” plenty of time in the man-cave to do, well, whatever Bill’s do in a man-cave. Some friendships just seem to arrive automatically, genuinely and without a lot of effort on the front end.

That’s the friendship me and my Billy now share with Beth and hers. Our lives are similar in too many ways to chronicle here, and our hearts deeply connected because of the love we share for our Lord. I’m not sure what that means for the four of us down the road, but my heart tells me that another trip to the mountains or to Montana or to the movies would be just fine with me. I know that heaven will be filled with fellowship akin to this past weekend, but until I get there, I wouldn’t mind a few reminders like this past weekend to “hold me” until then.

Only God could dream this up, friends—these cyber connections culminating into weekends and retreats and all manner of gatherings that he intends to endure for all eternity. I imagine he’s dreaming now and that, before long, those sacred dreams will birth deeper friendships in many of us. Until then, let’s keep connecting, keep opening up our hearts to one another, keep praying for one another, and keep writing the truth of the One who threads all of our hearts together with the single chord of Calvary’s love.

It’s my privilege to be in community with you all here. And while it sometimes hurts to love so much, I wouldn’t miss a good hurt for anything. A good hurt is the foundation for a good growing, and this past weekend, I grew at least an inch. Thank you, Beth and Bill, for fueling my heart’s development. Until next time…

peace for the journey,

~elaine

PS: Leave a comment for a true mountain give-away… a Christmas dove ornament, hand-crafted by Liza Bach and showcased at the Highland Craft Gallery and a pair of earrings, hand-crafted by me at the Smoky Mountain Bead Bar and Gallery. I’ll draw a winner later in the week.

And now, meet two blogging friends who had an idea not long ago… (I apologize in advance for the quality of this video/slide show. I don’t know what I’m doing, so if anyone knows how to make a slide show using a specific song as background… would love some tips!).

DJ Coles and "Your Grace"

DJ Coles and "Your Grace"

Over the past couple of weeks God has been ministering to my weary soul with the music of DJ Coles. Most of you aren’t familiar with his work. I wasn’t either until early May when DJ was the guest worship leader at our church’s spring revival. DJ serves as the youth pastor and “praise and worship” leader for Sunday worship services at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, which is located in within our community.

From the moment he took the microphone in hand, I was keenly moved by DJ’s giftedness to not only sing, but also to write some incredible music that moves a heart into an immediate posture of worship. I sat and wept through most of his selections. In particular, DJ favored us with many of the songs off of his first full-album release, Your Grace.

 


Your Grace is a collection of songs written for an audience in search of healing, inspiration, and God’s grace. The project is meant to inspire the human spirit beyond what may seem impossible or what may appear unbearable. After an agonizing year of uncertainty and loss, DJ was inspired to write songs that would help others through life’s challenges and triumphs.

From the title track, “Your Grace” to “Good Morning, Lord” to “Only a Prayer Away” and every song in between, you will sense and hear DJ’s desire to persevere and to relate with everyday people. Also peppered within the album you will find what Barry Weeks has called, “Our nation’s next anthem”—referring to DJ’s song, “A Prayer for America” (a personal favorite). You can get a brief listen of it by clicking here. Trust me when I tell you that not one song on this album is wasted. I love every track (how often can you say that?).

How thankful I am to have come across DJ’s ministry in this season of my life. God timed this “sacred intersection” with perfect precision. I couldn’t have appreciated the depth of DJ’s gifting had I not been in this posture of deep need.

Perhaps you understand. Maybe this day your heart is also in deep need of a touch from God—a touch that will penetrate through your pain and your weary in order to soothe the ache within. Your Grace offers that touch, and DJ has offered three copies for me to give away via the blog. One of the copies is reserved for Runner Mom (you all do know that she is making a road trip next week to come and visit with me…); the other two will be given away to those of you who leave a comment on this post.

In addition, if you’d like to order your own copy of Your Grace, you can do so through amazon.com (click here) or at cdbaby.com (click here). Further, if you would like to contact DJ regarding leading a time of worship at your gathering, you can email him at: [email protected] .

I am reminded again today (thanks for the call Joanne), that we all have a story to tell; some of us will write it. Some of us will sing it. Some of us will tell it, but all of us are commissioned with the task of living it! I won’t live it exactly as you do, but by God’s grace, I will walk the rest of my earthly days on purpose and with a heavenly end in mind.

Life is a precious gift. His grace … all the more. Live it like you mean it, friends. As always,

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Leaving Seasons

“‘ … Come now; let us leave.’” (John 14:31).

 

Leaving seasons.

Have you had one lately? A moment when you’ve distinctly heard the voice of your Savior calling out his command for you “to come and to leave”?

They go together … coming and leaving. Moving on to a “next” requires the relinquishment of the “prior.” Obedience is the bridge that stands between the two. Otherwise, we remain stuck—trapped in the comfortable, wrapped in the familiar. Little does it matter if that familiar is draped in difficulty; often we reason it better than the risk of the unknown. Accordingly, we’re stuck.

Staying stuck is a deliberate choice; we may think differently. We may conclude our options as limited; it’s a rational response when our walls begin to shrink and our resources know depletion. Rather than move beyond our safety zone, we choose the confinement of its comfort, hoping for a better outcome; believing that in our hiding and through our tearful pleas we will be able to manifest a change in the situation.

The problem with this thinking is that change almost always initiates from another location. Another direction and another understanding. Change comes with a knock on the other side of the door and offers its voice of invitation and hope.

Come now; let us leave.

Not, come, it’s time for you to leave, but come now; let us leave.

There is a difference between the two; so often we miss the mark in the matter. We forget that when God issues his command for us to the leave the cloaking of our current, he does so with an “us” in mind. Never does he vacate the process; rather, he initiates it and asks us for faith enough to open up the door and to walk through to the other side.

For the disciples it meant leaving the confinement of a holy moment—a night’s long dialogue and final meal with the man they called friend … Jesus … Christ—the Son of the living God. It would be a difficult leaving; the uncertainty about what awaited them on the other side of the door was enough to warrant their concern, at least some confusion.

As far as their minds could reason, the situation wasn’t matching up with their imagination … with how they envisioned this journey with their Jesus to end. The painful resignation to the truth of what they were hearing was a difficult swallow. Talk of death and sorrow and returning to a Father’s glory sounded heavy and weighed fully upon their hearts.

Jesus understood; it weighed fully and in heavier measure upon his. Like the disciples, Jesus wrestled with the conclusion. Still and yet, he came to earth to do what his Father asked him to do; everything else—every feeling, desire, fleshly want and temporal satisfaction—fell prey to this overriding mission.

Accordingly, Jesus opened that door, and in doing so, made a way for us to mirror the same. Jesus walked his faith; he intends for us to follow his lead.

Come now; let us leave.
Come now; let us get on with the “getting on.”
Come now; let us be about the business of our Father.
Come now; let us take to the road of faith, believing that as we go and while we trust, we will behold the truth of a better moment.
Come now; let us not be afraid of an unseen obedience.
Come now; let us move forward, leaving the past where it remains.
Come now; let us believe in the One who made us, who loves us, who shapes us, and who keeps us.
Come now; let us take hold of all of that for which I have taken hold of you.
Come now; let us hope. Let us live the truth of our salvation. Let us move beyond the comfort of our today to embrace the wide and the wild of a trusting grace that was always meant to walk; not hide.

I don’t how if you needed to hear this today. I did. I’m experiencing my own sort of “leaving season” right now. I thank God for the courage that he has given me to walk through a pretty heavy door. My comfortable “difficult” was no longer a cup I could abide; it was keeping me stuck, friends, and I don’t like being stuck inside when there’s so much life to live beyond its confinement.

Can I clearly see the road ahead? No. In fact, very little. But there is someone who visions quite clearly. My Jesus. My companion. My faithful friend whose gentle knocking was recently replaced by his firm command.

Come now, elaine; let us leave. It’s time for the “getting on” and the moving forward.

Maybe today, you’re hearing his voice more clearly than before. Maybe today marks the beginning of your leaving season. If so, I walk it with you. I understand the amount of faith that’s been required to get you to this point of trusting our God; I applaud your confidence in his holiness. So does he. Nothing pleases God more than watching your faith blossom into an intentional obedience. This is what the “ancients” were commended for—believing when they couldn’t see, but always certain that, one day, they would see.

They have seen, friends, and so shall we. Come now, and let us leave our “prior” and move on with our God to his next. His intention for our lives exceeds our own. May we all have the willing trust and the certain faith to take him at his word. Thus, I pray…

Give us courage to move beyond our shut doors, Father. May the unexplored and promised vistas of a forward faith be the anchor that moves us outward in obedience. Clearly sound your voice so that we might be able to discern your truth. Where we are comfortable, prod us. Where are complacent, poke us. Where we are fearful, calm us. Where we are weak, strengthen us, and where we are faithless, show us … teach us what it means to walk in sacred trust. Shape us, Lord, for we are a people longing for more. Amen.

Copyright © May 2009 – Elaine Olsen

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PS: In honor of all the women that we will be celebrating this upcoming weekend, I will be giving away a copy of Celia Whitler’s “One Wish for You”–a beautifully illustrated book paying tribute to the women in our lives, along with a CD that includes five songs written and performed by Celia. You can click here to listen to a sample of Celia’s music. She’s new to me, but I love her earthy, raw voice that beautifully weaves its tender chords into the accompanying music. Celia also has a book/CD combo for graduates and others. Please take time to visit her website and leave a comment here to enter the drawing. Have a blessed and “full of Jesus” kind of weekend. I love you, friends. Shalom.

Paying Attention

“While he [Peter] was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up,’ he said. ‘Don’t be afraid.’ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.” (Matthew 17:4-6).

I didn’t want to go to sleep last night.

Not because I was scared of the dark but because in doing so … in succumbing to a night’s slumber … I was concerned about missing something. A Jesus kind of something. A something that sometimes comes to us in the deep of night when the rest of the world has kindly found its quiet so that we can find our God.

Last night I tossed and I turned and I thought about God. He was there, ever present before me and stirring my imagination in incomparable measure. I couldn’t shut him down. I didn’t want to, so I fought it. Vigorously. Painfully and willfully, until I could no longer force my flesh to the contrary.

My sleep was fitful; I had the “groggies” and the dark circles to prove it this morning as I rolled out of bed to prepare my heart for worship. But it was worth it. Who needs sleep when Jesus is on the brain? Who indeed?!

I’m not sure how I arrived at my late night wrestling, but I have a clue. Prior to going to bed, I spent some time perusing some of my favorite blogs. I came across this one. Its author always makes me pause. She’s eloquent in her delivery of her heart and never ceases to stop me in my tracks and make me think. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I laugh, but most of the time, I simply read and absorb and speak my whispered “yes” to her pen and to my God.

It’s not that her life is overly fantastic. Like most of us, she’s a “day in, day out” kind of person. Her life doesn’t live on the stage nor does she wear a title of fame and fortune. She simply walks her days and writes her thoughts and allows her readers to join her on the road. Even though we’ve never met, I feel the tug of the thread that ties our hearts together despite the miles and choices that separate our journeys.

I thought a long time about my friend last night … about the connection that we share and why her words strike a chord within me. And in the midst of my pondering, just as clearly as I’ve ever sensed the voice of God speaking to me in my spirit, I heard him saying this…

Laura pays attention to life.

“What? Could you say that again, Father? I’m not sure I heard you correctly.”

Laura pays attention to life.

“What does that look like, Father?”

Like details. Like pausing long enough to consider the noises around her. Like being willing to bend to those noises and to pay homage to the moment. Like wrapping up all the truth of a single encounter and writing its worth with all the tenderness a heart can hold. Like finding me in the details. Like…

paying attention to life.

“Well then, Father, teach me to pay attention. Teach me what it means to bow to the moment and to live my life with a richer understanding that you can be found in each one of them.”

And with that, friends, my night’s contemplation began. A conversation with God. A face to face encounter with the only God who can be known and who longs for us to feel the rhythm of his heartbeat as we go and while on the road.

Paying attention to life. It starts for us even as it started for the Apostle Peter.

“Listen to him.”

When we do …

when we stop our mouths from running and our selfishness from needing,
when we refuse our agendas their consumption and our preferences their pleasure,
when we silence our minds from chaos and our determination from willful control,

then we, like the privileged three, will look up and see our exceptional and only Jesus in all of his glory, knowing that we have stood in the presence of sacred moment.

Paying attention to life. Stopping long enough to pay homage to a single moment. That is when we will see our Jesus unfolding his extraordinary kingdom into our ordinary everyday. And to hold that? To walk the soil of that kind of sacred sowing?

Well, for that, my fellow pilgrims, I will labor to fight sleep. I will entreat a night’s wrestling in hopes of receiving a Father’s beholding. I will toss and turn and struggle to override my flesh so that I can take hold of the face of God and carry his glory with me down the mountain into the valley below.

Oh, that we would fix our gaze in intentional pause before our God this day. How he longs to show himself faithful to each one of us when we do. Thus, I pray…

Father, help me to pay attention to life; stop me, pause me, push me and prod me to my knees and to my silence until I can no longer see me but only you in your extravagant splendor and holiness. Embed your glory within my frame. Splash the truth of your living witness all over me until I’m dripping wet with you, Jesus. Forgive me for thinking that my words, my agenda and my needs, are more important than your presence. Break through the clouds this day for my friends, and show them your glory. Penetrate the enemy’s schemes to steal, kill, and destroy, with the awe-inspiring and conquering witness of who you are. Surround our lives with your presence, and then move us forward in obedience to share your truth with a world that needs to stop talking and to start paying attention. You, alone, are worthy of our heart’s pause. Humbly, I concede mine to your revelation this day. Amen.

Copyright © May 2009 – Elaine Olsen

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PS: In honor of my friend, Laura, I would like to honor her with one of the give-away books, “Finding an Unseen God” by Alicia Chole. The other two winners (randomly drawn by my youngins’) are Joanne at Blessed and Sharon at Sit With Me Awhile. Congratulations ladies. Please send me your snail mail via my email, and as soon as I receive the books from Alicia, I will send them to you.

"Finding an Unseen God" by Alicia Chole (a book review)

In January 2008, I had a problem. Not a big one, mind you, but one large enough to force a fix-it. The problem? Not being able to leave a comment on Alicia Chole’s blog regarding her incredible book “anonymous: Jesus’ hidden years and yours” (you can read about “anonymous” by clicking here). At that time, her blog didn’t allow for “anonymous” comments. The solution? Create a blogger account so that I could leave a comment.

There you have it. The sole and initial reason for my entering into this land we call blogosphere (I’m not kidding). It was a simple doing motivated by a simple desire—to be able to communicate with an incredible author whose words had literally changed my heart, almost overnight. There was no immediate desire within me to create my own blog; I just wanted to express my thanks to Alicia for writing her heart so profoundly. Who knew that in doing so, the beginnings of my own “writing of the heart” would surface in a very public way?

God knew. And now you know, and I suppose I have Alicia to thank for that. So thanks, Alicia. But that’s not the fullness of what I want to share with you today. It only scratches at the surface of a deeper sharing. A sharing that springs forth from the treasure of Alicia’s newest book, Finding an Unseen God: Reflections of a Former Atheist.

I received an advance copy last Friday around noon. By 3:00 PM, I had finished my first consumption. I have since read it a second time so as to more fully absorb its truth and, therefore, be able to offer you a few reasons about why this book resonates with me. I’ve decided to take a “cue” from Alicia as to how I might most effectively put my thoughts into words.

Alicia concludes the book with the “five things in particular that this former Atheist really likes about God.”[i] I would like to share with you the “five things in particular” that this avid fan of Alicia’s writing really likes about Finding an Unseen God.

#1. The author.

Alicia is a woman on a mission to serve her God, her family, and her world through her many giftings and graces, in particular … her words. She doesn’t waste a one. She doesn’t write fluff; she simply writes the truth in a way that precisely cuts through the layers to root at the issue of understanding. As I’ve said before (at least a bagillion times), Alicia makes me want to be a better…

writer.
thinker.
mother.
seeker.

God hasn’t grown a more authentic and genuine story-teller than Alicia Britt Chole. She lives what she writes. She writes what she lives. That alone, is enough reason to read anything she’s authored.

#2. The subject.

Our reading choices are mostly mandated by personal preferences, many of them worthy for many different reasons. But as for me, I prefer the non-fiction truth of Jesus Christ over any other genre of literature. I’m not a big reader; for me to read an entire book in one sitting, the subject matter must be compelling. Finding an Unseen God is chock full of compelling and truth.

The “behind the scenes” coming about of Alicia’s faith speaks to the power and providence of a God who is ever-present and profoundly willing to weave the threads of a single life into a strong and powerful conclusion. Alicia’s life is a living-witness to that conclusion. For readers who are struggling with the “bigger picture”—with desperately wanting to trace God’s hands within a murky that currently clouds personal perspective—Finding an Unseen God sheds light and hope toward that end.

What God has done and is continuing to do for Alicia, God is doing for us … shaping perspective and hearts for his kingdom purposes.

#3. The needful knowing.

Many Christians balk at the word “atheism” and are tempted to run in the opposite direction when presented with its position. Why? Well, atheism is sometimes an “odd” fit with our religious speak. We are offended by it because it rubs against the grain of everything we hold sacred—our belief in Jesus Christ. Confronting the truth of Jesus Christ with the antithesis of that truth isn’t an easy swallow. Does that mean we should forego the discussion?

I don’t think so, nor do I think that our Father would have us avoid the confrontation. The Apostle Peter admonishes us toward that end…

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,”. (1 Peter 3:15).

You and I are the keepers of an extraordinary kingdom. Accordingly, we are commissioned with its worth, with its telling, with its defense, and with its love. How can we properly dispense its grace without confronting its contrast? Finding an Unseen God beautifully explains that contrast without all the academic trappings that can sometimes confound the process of understanding.

#4. The permission to unpack

I really like this one. Finding an Unseen God gives us the permission to unpack our faith before our Father. It quietly encourages us to examine our own foundations of truth—how we arrived at the point of believing what we believe. By following Alicia’s spiritual sketching along these lines, we, too, are confronted with the underlying challenge to frame our spiritual history.

#5. The conclusion of truth.

Finding an Unseen God leads to a convincing conclusion:

That in fact, there is an unseen God intent on being found.

Alicia arrives at that conclusion after many years of struggling through the questions that voiced to the contrary. I’ve arrived at the same conclusion. And although our journeys have walked through different strides to get there, both of us have conceded our hearts and lives to the One and Only God whose truth sows certain. Whose love measures endless. And whose grace weaves the threads of the most “unlikely” of us into a masterpiece worthy of the throne room of heaven.

The author. The subject. The needful knowing. The permission to unpack. The conclusion of truth. Five things I like about Alicia’s Finding an Unseen God.

Alicia’s life started with questions that led her to faith. My life started with faith that led me to questions.

Both of us (at 43 years old if I’m correct) have landed here, at this moment in time, applauding and lauding the Lover of our Souls and desperately desiring for you to know the same. We’ve been fashioned for the find, friends. God has commissioned our interior with a “need to know.” And one of the things that both Alicia and I find most likeable about our Creator is that he is the only God who can be known. This sets him apart from every other “god” in the universe.

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this:

that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

Find your unseen God this day while he still may be found, and know him. He is the only worthy boast of our lives.

As always,

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[i] Alicia Chole, Finding an Unseen God (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2009), 141.

PS: The winner of the bronze pearl earrings by Lisa Leonard is … Mary at Refreshmoments. Congrats Mary; please send me your snail mail via my email. But wait…

I have 3 autographed copies of Alicia’s book to give-away. Leave a comment, and I will announce the winners next week! Shalom.

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