Posts
Hannah Morrell
Will You Jump?

Our dreams as children of being athletes, astronauts, doctors, superheroes or princesses seem to hit a giant wall somewhere in adolescence as we are told they are impossible, require too much money, require too much school or aren’t going to lead us to a successful life (whatever that is defined by someone who is older and wiser at the time). Instead of paying attention to what these dreams tell us about ourselves, we shut them down and tell ourselves to toe the line and be conformed to the formula of what our culture dictates is our future. That might mean making lots of money, having a marriage and family, being powerful in society, or any other number of definitions that spell success in our culture’s eyes.

I wonder, though, where we listen to God in all of this. The Bible is full of stories of people who were given an identity by God but didn’t believe it. They tried to fit into the identity that society was giving them, which really was just believing the fear when it told them they couldn’t make it. I know that sometimes I get stuck listening to the “wisdom” of the world and dismissing any thoughts of following some of the crazy things God might be calling me to do.

Will You Jump?
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Hannah Morrell
Be Still

When the world is spinning and feels like you are in a tornado,
When the stress ramps up and starts to choke you.
When the pain of loss and grief threatens to drown you in tears.
When the overwhelm and anxiety threaten stagnate you in everything today.

Be still. Know that I am God.

When I can’t figure a way out of the mess I’ve created.
When rejection is close and the fear of more governs my relationships.
When my finances are bleak and the outlook bleaker.
When I watch my loved ones hurt and hurt each other. 

Be still. Know that I am God.

When I feel like I’m moving through mud as everything is in slow motion.
When I can’t make things stop as they spiral and whir by my eyes.
When all of the plans I had made fall apart and wither away.
When I can’t see a future or a hope, and feel that the painful present is all there is. 

Be still. Know that I am God.

Be Still
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Hannah Morrell
God's Great Reversals

What do we do with pain? I really believe we only have two options, although the way these present can look different. The first option is to allow it to control us, whether by trying to deny or ignore it, or by focusing on it entirely and allowing it to tell us who we are. The second option is to allow God to bring life from death, creating the Great Reversal in our lives.

When we decide that we are no more than our pain, it controls us. It tells us we are worthless, rejected and hopeless. We believe it, and receive messages from whoever caused this pain in our lives. We basically allow these people who have done damage to completely define us, and thus continue to have power over us. We may be in complete denial of the way the pain has affected us, but it still controls us. It’s sort of like a dry drunk—instead of continuing to focus on alcohol by drinking it, the focus is on alcohol but abstaining from it instead. The obsession is still there, and the addiction still controls.

If we are trying to explain away our pain or pretend it’s not there, we live as a distortion of ourselves. We want to believe that we are free, but having never faced the pain and pushed through it, we continue to be controlled in a different way. I can tell you how many people I talk to who still believe messages that were given to them by rejecting or abusive people 30, 40 or 50 years ago. If we never recognize who is speaking these lies, we assume they might be true because they are in our heads and run freely in our thoughts.

God's Great Reversals
Posts
Hannah Morrell
A Posture of Receiving

Many times in circles of Christ-followers, we obsess on what we are doing “for” God and how much we are producing, trying desperately to make Him happy with us. I find this stems from an incorrect concept of God, one who is angry and sets unrealistic standards for us, waiting to punish us when we don’t measure up. This is not the God I see in Scripture, as He pursues people constantly to lead them to repentance. Repentance is a change of mind, a turning that leads behavior. God is always walking with you, but repentance means you recognize it and ask Him for His perspective. Sin is separation from God. As Mike Wells used to say, “You fall out with God before you ever fall into sin.” But we obsess on sin as the problem, rather than a break in relationship with Jesus being the problem.

If we are constantly trying to measure up to whatever standards and expectations we believe are important, we basically become just like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, whom He warned against often. They ended up demonstrating their hatred for God when they crucified Him. They would not be led to a change of mind, but were determined to follow the rules they had set for themselves and to judge everyone around them who was not measuring up in their view. It became a competition among the religious leaders to see who could be more religious. Interesting, isn’t it, when we sometimes do the same thing in the body of Christ?

Over and over again, Jesus told people that He had come as the Savior because we all needed one. That means that we couldn’t save ourselves. We couldn’t come to relationship with the Trinity because we kept trying to achieve and appease instead of receive. We often continue to make it about behavior rather than heart.

A Posture of Receiving
Posts
Hannah Morrell
Bringing Fear to the Light

I have been reading a book recently that has made me think deeply about my greatest fears. (It’s Living Fearless by Jamie Winship in case you want to read it. I highly recommend!) Most of the time in the past, I try to push fear away, just telling myself to deny it and move on anyway. I think it’s sort of like when you are a child and you hide under the covers from the monsters in your closet—we believe that will keep us safe from the things we fear. Denial becomes the bed covers, and we keep hiding under it hoping that the fear will go away.

Instead of this, though, Jamie recommends confessing fear to Jesus and letting Him free us from it. I have to be honest, when I first read this, I still really struggled with the idea. I don’t want to talk about my fears. But then I also realized that God already knows my fears, so it’s no surprise or disappointment to Him. I haven’t achieved anything in terms of being free of fear by ignoring or denying them. Instead, I spend a lot of time trying to stomp them down again, hoping they will go away if I just muscle them into submission.

So, I was walking and thinking about this, and I finally took the mental barrier down to really bring my fears out and discuss them with Jesus. And in the spirit of vulnerability opening up vulnerability in others, I’m sharing them with you too.

Bringing Fear to the Light

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Joy in Times of Trouble

Joy in Times of Trouble

I have noticed in my own life that I will look at circumstances as “bad” or “good” depending on the outcome and how I feel about it. Especially recently, though, I have been challenged to look for the good in every situation—to find God in it. This doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily happy or comfortable in whatever is surrounding me, but I want to push through that discomfort to see what God has for me. I do believe there is always beauty that He can bring from ashes, that He is always bringing good even out of really yucky stuff. This doesn’t mean that He causes the yucky stuff or that we change the suffering by positive thinking, and I think that’s sometimes where we get tripped up. We don’t believe a god of love could watch us go through difficult things because that’s not loving—but perhaps the most loving thing to do is to allow the difficult things but still to bring hope and joy in the middle.

I just finished reading The Watchmaker’s Daughter, a newer book about Corrie ten Boom’s life during and after World War 2. If you know me, you know that Corrie is one of my heroes, so a new book about her life was right up my alley. One of the themes that comes through repeatedly is the way the ten Boom family all tried to find joy and hope in extremely dire situations. Whether hiding Jews and working with the underground, enduring prison, or dealing with the torture and horrific conditions in a concentration camp, they all realized their relationship with God got them through and allowed them to see the good in terrible situations. Her sister Betsie, who died while in the concentration camp, told her sister Corrie that people would listen to them because they had been through such awful conditions. And the message was clear—no matter how deep and dark the pit in which they found themselves, God’s love was deeper still and carried them through. Corrie went on to travel the world speaking about forgiveness and God’s love, and she had earned her place to do so as she worked with communities who were forsaken and abandoned by all other help.

Dismissing Distractions

Dismissing Distractions

Every day a thousand things clamor for our attention, yelling to us about how important they are. Almost everyone in our lives are happy to tell us what should matter to us, what our focus should be. We can so easily live distracted, which also means we live exhausted as we get judged from every side about what should be our primary focus and how to make it so.

I have been rejected and beat up by religious people more than nonreligious. I know it’s because they have decided that the religion they hold is what’s saving them, what’s making God happy and they are terrified I’m doing it wrong. I have often said (as my mentor and friend Mike Wells taught me to do) that I will say things that are wrong, even downright blasphemy. God will allow this because He wants to draw people to Himself, not to follow me. It also keeps me in a place where I know my weakness, and I know I need Holy Spirit to interpret the very words that come out my mouth or my laptop.  He is the great interpreter, and He is able to translate and speak through whatever is said to bring His message to the person.

I will be the first to state that I can get it wrong, and I never want to stand up as someone who has all the answers. Because I don’t. All I have to offer is Jesus—a Life who gently invades our hearts and heals us from brokenness. I don’t want to get distracted by whatever program or theology someone has decided is preeminent. I want to be the person with the one-stringed banjo who keeps playing that one string over and over, because it’s the only string that matters to me. There are days often where people accuse me of being affiliated with all sorts of broken people. Isn’t that funny? We are all broken, but have arguments about who is more broken and judge and condemn others to try to make ourselves feel superior.

Freedom in Love

Freedom in Love

Especially around holidays like July 4th in the United States, I think of all the sacrifices that have been made over the years for our freedom to do all the things we are able to do. No, the United States is not perfect, but we do enjoy much freedom that so many other countries do not. I get teary often as I think of others laying down their lives for complete strangers to them. I could never deserve or earn that gift. This thought always leads me to an even bigger sacrifice of love in which God engaged to free us from slavery to sin and death.

I was reading Titus (which I honestly haven’t read in quite a long time) and found this gem of a few verses that stood out. Apparently this is believed to be a part of an early church hymn or poem, and it sums up the story so beautifully.

When the extraordinary compassion of God our Savior and his overpowering love suddenly appeared in person as the brightness of a dawning day, he came to save us. Not because of any virtuous deed that we have done but only because of his extravagant mercy. He saved us, resurrecting us through the washing of rebirth. We are made completely new by the Holy Spirit, whom he splashed over us richly by Jesus, the Messiah, our Life Giver. So as a gift of his love, and since we are faultless—innocent before his face—we can now become heirs of all things, all because of an overflowing hope of eternal life. How true and faithful is this message! Titus 3:4-8

In this passage, the whole Trinity—Father, Son and Spirit—are involved in this great rescue plan. I love that this idea was birthed in extraordinary compassion and overpowering love. This was not motivated by guilt or fear or duty. God wanted relationship with us, and that love reached out to save us, no matter what that cost.

We can’t deserve or earn this sacrifice because we can’t be virtuous enough to earn it. Instead, He had extravagant mercy and saved us, birthing us again as a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). We have been made new, and are being made new. I think this refers to the renewing of the mind and sanctifying us that happens by the Holy Spirit’s work in us. We are new creations through Christ’s sacrifice and blood, and now we are constantly being freed from sin’s effects and control through the Holy Spirit’s constant splashing on us.

Birds and Pavers

Birds and Pavers

One of my favorite parts of summer mornings is sitting out on our back patio with my coffee before my kids get up, enjoying the bird songs and the smell of the flowers as they bloom. This particular morning, however, was a bit different because they had decided to repave the street that runs behind our house past the neighbors’ houses. The only thing I could hear or enjoy this morning was big rumbling trucks and beeping pavers, while the smell of asphalt permeated the air. I was less than impressed. I am grateful for the road refreshing, but couldn’t hear any birds or smell the flowers that I usually so enjoy.

As I sat there, I suddenly realized that the birds were still there, and still singing, but it was hard to make out their songs because of all the mechanical noise. I originally thought they were all gone—headed to somewhere more peaceful and less noisy. I could just barely make out a few songs, though, and was surprised to hear them. And I thought about how often distraction and confusion are the greatest tools of the enemy (along with shame of course) as they make us believe that maybe God has left.

When there are big, smelly, loud problems in our lives, it’s very easy to focus on them and feel as if hope and joy have gone. Anything from financial stress to health problems to relationship issues can be the things that demand our attention in the worst possible way—being louder in our heads and more all-consuming than anything else. I’m not for a minute arguing that they aren’t big, smelly and loud. That’s why they are so distracting. But I do want to fight for focus as I listen for the bird songs and get up close to the flowers so I don’t forget how they smell.

The truth of God’s presence is still there, but sometimes it’s really hard to see or hear Him. Sometimes it feels like we are surrounded by yucky things and are staring down the path of scary, awful futures. It’s in those times that I most need to refocus and ask for the ability to see and hear Jesus standing with me. He never leaves, but I can convince myself that He does. He never checks out, but I can feel as though He probably should. He never gives up on us, but I can give you all the reasons He really ought to.

Breaking Free From Religion

Breaking Free From Religion

You may think that living the Christian life is either extremely boring, or nearly impossible. Waves of guilt and shame combine with a constant feeling of inadequacy to create a life of judgement and self-condemnation. At every turn, you encounter another reason that you don’t measure up or need to be doing more. You obsess on what you see as your failures and think that this mental self-mutilation will somehow make a difference next time. You heart lays bleeding and torn after you’ve beaten yourself with all the messages you have received throughout life from those who have done you wrong. Comparison and self-righteousness hasn’t provided any relief, and you just want something real. Yuck!

I hope, in the pages to come, to show you the contrast of this outlook with the life I believe Jesus intended us to live when He died for us in the in the first place: a life of joy and overflowing love that fills us up with acceptance and belonging. That acceptance and belonging then spill over to those around us as mercy and grace pouring out over every step.

The Christian life doesn’t require us to do more or be more; rather, it provides an exchange of our junk for God’s perfection, strength and peace that allows us to live in a completely differently. This life is about rest, not more striving. It is about love and belonging, not more rejection. It is about being able to live in the impossible while accessing the strength of the God of the universe to move forward. It is about living in the faith of Jesus, rather than condemning ourselves for not being able to drum up enough faith on our own.

God created us for relationship, first with Himself and then with other people. But these relationships often bring trouble as pain and discouragement result from their messiness. Relationship, in its proper place, provides the foundation for living. The order must be right, though, for us to enjoy it. Relationship with God is the basis for love, acceptance, rest, peace, joy, and everything else we need to live. Relationship with humans can be wonderful, but it must follow a relationship with God in order for us not to be mangled and torn up by the crazy humans we encounter through life.

Throwing Off Shame

Throwing Off Shame

Have you ever considered that when you condemn yourself for something, you are saying that the blood of Jesus wasn’t enough? And when you take on and wear shame, you are saying Jesus’ sacrifice didn’t cover this particular thing for which you feel shame? Unfortunately, several religious communities have preached with great conviction that we must earn the love of God by good works and avoiding the bad stuff. But I don’t believe that is Scriptural or true.

The love of God was demonstrated when He sent Jesus to die for us, even while we hated Him, didn’t know Him, and didn’t care to. The one sacrifice Jesus made took on all the bad stuff—there is nothing that is too much or wasn’t covered at that point—past, present and future. If there was, Jesus would have to die over and over again to cover it.

When we agree with condemnation, we are negating Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are saying it is not enough, and I must really beat up on myself before I can be stamped “approved” by God. I must wallow in self-pity, in condemnation and in shame in order to earn God’s love. Yuck.

Priceless Treasure

Priceless Treasure

One of the most often repeated lies people share with me in terms of what they think about themselves is that they are worthless. This has been communicated by various people in their lives, or by their own definition time and time again. Sometimes they feel they should be at a different place in their lives and that would give worth. Sometimes they believe if they had worked hard enough to make people like them that this would give them worth. Sometimes they have been told that their only worth lies in their being used for whatever purpose the user desires, and that they will lose worth if they stop allowing someone to use them.

Worth is not transactional. It is not given when we earn it. A person doesn’t gain worth the more they achieve, relate to others, or give. Some people try to convince themselves they have worth, but it is usually based in something they have to believe about themselves. When someone communicates they are not worth their time, the façade is gone and we struggle to believe we have worth apart from what others communicate.

When we experience rejection while trying to find someone to communicate worth, any sense of having worth is obliterated as we have placed the definition on a person or place in this world. It is gut-wrenching, and feels like death.

God of the Storm

God of the Storm

We had a crazy windstorm last week with almost 24 hours of intense wind gusts and the resulting damages—trees falling, fences knocked down, various lawn chairs and trampolines blown away. I’ve never been through a hurricane on the coast, and I realized what people talk about with the sheer noise wind can create. My husband had to wear earplugs to sleep, and the howling and crashing went on all night.

At some point during the night, I woke up and listened to the wind for a bit while lying in bed. It dawned on me that this was what the disciples felt when they were out in the boat with Jesus, except they were on a boat tossed by the waves rather than a warm bed in a safe house. I imagined the fear and panic that would govern in a situation like that. They were pretty sure they were going to die out there in that storm.

Jesus had been teaching about faith prior to this story told in Mark 4. When the storm comes up, he is SLEEPING. This makes no sense to us when we don’t realize that God is enough in a storm, but Jesus knew His Father was watching out for Him and didn’t need to worry or stress about anything.

God's Love

God's Love

God loves you. That phrase has gotten trite and feels shallow sometimes. And yet, it is anything but trite and shallow. While we hated, mocked, spat on Him, God loves us. While we ran from Him and fought any call of His to come to Him, God loves us. While we rebelled and invited more and more darkness into ourselves, God loves us. While the selfishness took over to distort us into maniacal narcissists, God loves us. While we postured in false humility and rode ego trips for our “good” deeds, God loves us.

God reached through the darkness with which we had surrounded ourselves, calling our names and extending His hand to pull us out of the pit. We didn’t know Him, but He knew us. He knew every bit of us and still chose to love us. He loved us to death, and to resurrection in power. Jesus walked the road of ultimate sacrifice, knowing what was in each of us and how we chose our own way. He looked past it and loved anyway. He never stops loving. We simply need to accept the love.

Being a Snail

Being a Snail

I have been thinking about how cool it is that we take a safe place with us no matter where we go. We are similar to snails—they carry their home on their backs, ready to pull into a shell whenever things get scary. The difference is that our safe place is within, and we can access it any time without physically moving. God no longer dwells in a temple made with hands, but in His people. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) He has given us His Spirit, and His very Life within.  

We are in Christ, and Christ is in us. We contain the wrap-around presence of God within us all the time. It’s kind of a cool picture, isn’t it? We carry Him, and He wraps around us and shelters us as well. So many things with God’s kingdom are both/and. His Life is in us, and we are in Him.

Breathe & Rest

Breathe & Rest

You don’t have to keep running.
You don’t have to keep fighting.
You don’t have to keep searching for the “cure.”
You don’t have to keep trying.

I know you are tired,
And ache for something more.
I know you just want to sit down,
Letting the weight you’re carrying fall.

The idea that you will get a place
Where it makes sense to rest
Is a fallacy and will continue to drive you
Crazy and exhausted and weary.

Expecting the Unexpected

Expecting the Unexpected

Have you ever noticed how backwards Jesus’ way of doing life is compared to how most of our cultures and worldviews communicate it should be? The first shall be last. The foolish will confound the wise. Weakness is required for strength.

I love how when Jesus walked the earth, He did everything in a way that was unexpected. He didn’t come as a war hero who was going to break off the rule of Rome from Israel, but rather a humble baby who grew up to work as a carpenter and then travel as a poor teacher. He didn’t lead a conquering army into Jerusalem but rode a donkey and submitted to death on purpose. Jesus didn’t brush shoulders with the religious elite, but instead went to find the hurting, the sick, the demon-possessed, the lost and the rejected. His followers were not great minds or incredibly pious people, but fisherman, tax collectors, prostitutes, and those who belonged to a disrespected class.

Isn’t it interesting, then, that so many who claim Jesus as Lord seek wealth, power over others, status and use manipulation, spiritual abuse and evil to try to gain it? This was never His way and continues to be an affront to His Life when His name is claimed in this awfulness.

The most impacting people in my life have not been the showy, “important” spiritual leaders, but rather those who lead in humility, with love and grace extended over and over. One of these was a pastor who just died, and in remembering him and his kindness to me, I was amazed at the tenderness God displays to us through people who are willing to be humble and go where He sends them. This pastor was willing to lead a tiny church of rejects who met in the basement of a coffee shop each week, and teach that messy bunch to do family and Church in a way we had never experienced before. He wasn’t famous, or rich or leading the helm of a powerful group of people. This man saw people as they were, not as they were posturing to be, and offered kindness. He was called to a humble walk, and did it with eagerness.

Dealing With Insecurity

Dealing With Insecurity

As I prayed through our theme for the annual women’s retreat this year, my first thought was “Walking with the Shepherd”. My second thought was, “How stupid is that—how many people have done Psalm 23, sheep, shepherd, the whole thing. Been there, done that.” The voice of criticism and accusation came quickly, and I almost scrapped the whole thing because of it.

Insecurity and doubt are companions of mine quite frequently, especially when it comes to creativity and leadership. I think of all the people who could do such a better job at whatever it is than I could, all the work that will go into the thing and how inadequate I am for it, or how no one should ever follow me anywhere because I’m lost most of the time anyway!

But then, Jesus faithfully reminds me that we aren’t relying on my ability, but His. He works well through my uniqueness when it is surrendered to Him and the power He brings to the situation. When I first started counseling again after my mentor Mike Wells died, the first thing anyone said in sitting down with me was how they wished it was Mike sitting there and not me. My response inside my heart was, “You and me both!” I felt there was no chance of being the counselor or discipler that the person needed because I was not Mike.

Deep Roots

Deep Roots

When we look to the world and the circumstances around us, we can easily get discouraged and frustrated. It may seem like we are alone in trusting God, and it’s quite ludicrous to do so. I also get discouraged in trying find something to do to change the circumstances, as I feel that’s often quite limited and unproductive. When we feel stuck or like everything is going wrong, our initial response is often to run away, or to try to change the circumstance. 

I like Jeremiah’s metaphor when he is told by God that those who trust in Him alone are like a tree planted by the river, with roots that go so deep into water that it doesn’t fear drought or heat. It has no anxieties. Well, a tree can’t get up and move, so that isn’t necessarily what it means to find happiness in trusting God. Instead, a tree’s roots go deep into the sustenance and water it needs to continue to make leaves and fruit.

Deep roots which grow into a River of Life—that’s what I need to get through the hardships of life. When I see a problem and turn away to Jesus, I acknowledge that He alone is trustworthy. Not my strength (or lack thereof), not my brains, not my friendships. In trusting Him to continue to get me through, I also remember that He often does these things in the face of seeming impossibility. What He calls me to sit in might seem so overwhelming. But with deep roots growing into a constantly flowing River of Life, I have what I need for the day.

Simple & Humble

Simple & Humble

So many things over the last few months have felt complicated, stressful and downright scary. I find some humor in the fact that the answers God keeps giving me about each of these situations is very similar—keep it simple. I’m grateful He doesn’t add the “stupid” as some do, but He does remind me repeatedly that trying to figure out a way through these things on my own is only going to bring more headaches.

I don’t generally even pray for a word of the year as some do, but there is always a theme that starts to rise above the rest towards the end of one year into the beginning of the next. I welcome it now, as I realize God is giving me some insight into what He is growing in me. I love that this isn’t a task I’m supposed to complete or a lesson I’m supposed to learn well and check off. Instead, it is what His Life in me is going to achieve and guide me in to as we walk together.

Simplicity, I have noticed, is related to humility. If I feel I must know the way ahead and I can handle it on my own, I end up making things more complicated every time. Humility means that I recognize my lack of ability, and then faith allows me to rely completely on God’s ability within me. Corrie ten Boom said, “It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.”

Satisfaction

Satisfaction

I had been experimenting with intermittent fasting a few years ago when my husband and I went to look at a car I was thinking about buying to replace my old one. As anyone who has bought a used car knows, this process is not known for being quick, and we ended up sitting for hours and hours after test-driving the vehicle and deciding we wanted to purchase it. My choice to not eat for many hours became more and more frustrating, as my stomach growled across the used car dealership while we signed paper after paper.

When we finally left the lot, we drove straight to a Vietnamese pho restaurant that was only a few blocks away. I’m not sure exactly how much time it took me to consume the entire bowl of delicious soup and noodles, but it must have looked hilarious to see me vacuum it up at top speed. The satisfaction of a good meal when you are very hungry is a wonderful feeling.

I am not for one second complaining about my lack of food for the paltry amount of time I was without—I know there are many around the world and in our country that starve on a daily basis, and never know the satisfaction of being full and content after a good meal. I do, however, want to tell you what God has been teaching me about satisfaction recently, and where we go for it.

 

Embracing the Bulb

Embracing the Bulb

I am absolutely a fair-weather gardener. I prefer my time outside to be sunny with a comfortable temperature that doesn’t require my fingers to freeze or my face to hurt. Spring planting, summer tending and fall harvesting all fit into this comfort level most years. One of my favorite days of the year is when we go buy flowers to plant in the early summer, for that’s when you can plant here in Colorado with less chance of random snow or freeze that will kill them.

This year, however, I am doing some things differently. I’m trying to embrace the bulb.

Bulbs are planted in the fall, and often late fall when the weather is not quite as pleasant. Thankfully, our weather has been nice, but the ground is still a bit tougher than it is during the summer. I got my shovel out and started digging many, many holes in the flower beds. As I dug, some things struck me.

I prefer flowers because I can see what they are going to look like. It’s instant gratification, as I can look out at my flower beds and see the beauty right after planting. But with bulbs, you bury them deep in the ground, hoping they will look like you are anticipating when they come up in the spring. Bulbs are probably more similar to the work I do with people, investing time, love and hope in them without any idea what will come of it. I love that God empowers us to do this without knowing the end of the story. How many times has God asked you to reach out in love to someone without knowing the response, or if they will reject or betray you? But the end of the story doesn’t determine if you should love them—Jesus loves the unlovable, the enemy and the betrayers. He can be enough love for us to do this also.

Peace in Trouble

Peace in Trouble

When my friend Mike Wells was alive, he traveled a ridiculous amount of time every year all around the world. He encountered problems with planes, baggage, car travel, reservations and all sorts of other things as he was going to visit people. He used to call this being “Wells’ed” as it meant that unusual problems would be encountered constantly for himself and those who traveled with him. I have adopted this phrase for myself, and now call it being “Morrell’ed”. It’s not something you want to happen to you, let me tell you!

This last weekend we hosted our women’s retreat in Golden, Colorado, and there were plenty of examples of getting “Morrell’ed” as things seem to go wrong at every turn. The hotel messed up the booking entirely, and so didn’t have rooms for any of the ladies upon arrival on Friday (but did have some for Sunday which we did not need). You can imagine how fun it was to get that phone call Friday afternoon, only hours before everyone was supposed to be descending on this hotel, telling me they did not have any rooms. They rebooked us in rooms at a different hotel, and provided shuttles for those who didn’t have cars to go back and forth from the sleeping rooms to the original hotel for the meetings.

Right after we checked into the replacement hotel, my mom called me from her room, saying the bathroom door had fallen off the hinge, missed hitting her by inches, and fell down in front of her door to the hallway, blocking her exit. I ran downstairs to get the hotel employees to come get her out of her room, and thanked God profoundly that the bathroom door had not fallen on my mom and knocked her out.

Power Over Fear

Power Over Fear

I have spoken to many people recently who are dealing with fear, especially as world circumstances get crazy again. I, for one, often get stuck living in my own little peaceful bubble until that bubble gets popped by one thing or another. Then, it’s very easy for fear to take over. I remember when COVID started, standing in the middle of a grocery aisle trying to get air through a mask while I looked at empty shelf after empty shelf. The fear of not having enough was suffocating. These days, I can watch the news and have the same fear rise up in me, watching as people are murdered, tortured, raped, bombed. I ache with sadness for the loss, and run through all the worst-case scenarios of what is next.

I realized during COVID that I have no idea how to prepare for things, and it better be up to my kind Father to prepare me. Who would have thought that people would have been fighting for toilet paper? We often believe, though, that fear somehow prepares us for the unknown. Yet, it actually does nothing to make us ready.

God obviously knows we will struggle with fear, as He addresses it over and over throughout the Bible. Fear can be the most strangling distraction, as we obsess on so many things of which we can be afraid.

Walking with the broken to find hope in Jesus