Want to write a letter to your younger self?
… grateful, grateful for Davis sharing their music for the DD Podcast. :)
Suffering from a lifelong disease, I’ve been told I can’t possibly be contented. Contentment happens to us because of circumstances, after all – right? But what if contentment found in Jesus is something that everyone can experience? Something we can chase and then catch hold of?
Meet Liz Carter. She’s an author and blogger who writes about life in all its messy, painful, joyous reality. She likes Cadbury chocolates and turquoise, in equal measure, and lives in the UK with her husband, a church leader, and two crazy teens.
Liz is the author of Catching Contentment: How to be Holy Satisfied. The book digs into contentment in difficult circumstances. I’m delighted to introduce you to Liz because she can talk honestly about “rejoicing in the Lord, even in the rubbish of life.” And we’ve all got rubbish in life, right?
I’m excited for you to meet her.
Here’s Liz!
Dear Younger Liz,
Here’s the thing I want you to know most of all, though: God hasn’t let you down. God’s not given up on you, or made you sick deliberately, or refused to heal you because you don’t deserve it. God loves you passionately within your illness, and something else, too. God feels your pain. Sits next to you and weeps with you when it hurts too much, holding your hand, saying ‘I’m here.’ God has never forsaken you or left you alone, even in those times you feel more alone than ever. It’s like David says in Psalm 139 – even our darkness is light to God, and God will be there wherever we go, whether to the heights or to the depths. And God’s right there in your depths, dear one, so hang on. Keep on holding on.
Want to write a letter to your younger self?
… grateful, grateful for Davis sharing their music for the DD Podcast. :)
Justin Whitmel Earley was just about to turn 30 when he had a complete anxiety collapse. The years that followed were extremely dark. He went from being a former missionary in China, to a few short years later, an anxious lawyer, medicating with alcohol. He felt like a failure as a father, husband, worker and human being in general.
In his recovery, Justin discovered that habits form us more than we form them. He believes the answer to our contemporary chaos is to practice a rule of life that aligns our habits to our beliefs. His new book, The Common Rule, offers four daily and four weekly habits, designed to help us create new routines and transform frazzled days into lives of love for God and neighbor.
These are concrete, doable practices, such as a daily hour of phoneless presence or a weekly conversation with a friend. These habits have been lived out by people across all walks of life―businesspeople, professionals, parents, students, retirees―who have discovered new hope and purpose.
I can’t wait for you to meet him. Here’s the interview on the Dear Daughters Podcast Episode 79.
Knowing what I know now, I would have first, gently told myself, there is SO much hope. Suffering and trials and personal failure are real but God’s grace and redemption means that EVEN those things will be used for his good. It doesn’t erase the suffering, but it does help in walking through those things differently.
Want to write a letter to your younger self?
… grateful, grateful for Davis sharing their music for the DD Podcast. :)