Recalibrating Practices: Live a Life of Wonder

My bucket list has shortened as the years go by. Maybe no marathon or New York Times best-seller. But hold me to this goal: I want to keep clapping until the very end. I never, never want to lose the sense of wonder.

We recently returned from a trip to Seabrook Island, SC, one of the three places in the world where dolphins “strand fish.” The mama dolphins teach their calves to herd fish and push them up on shore. I got to see it. I clapped and hugged strangers. (Yes, they backed away. Yes, I apologized.)

If I had to choose only one word from my acronym G.R.O.W.L (Gratitude, Resilience, Obedience, Wonder, Laughter), it would be wonder. Because I shiver when I consider what’s the opposite of wonder: boredom, cynicism, apathy, joylessness, weariness.

Wonder is a choice.

“Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!” Matthew 6:21-23 MSG

Wonder = Worship.

How can you make living a life of wonder a spiritual practice? Think of “wonder” as both a noun and verb.

Wonder as a noun: Live in wonder. Slow down, pay attention and observe the world around you. (At least once a day.) Clapping is optional but find your own way of saying “Wow!” back to God.

Wonder as a verb: Ask yourself (with a stress on curiosity, not doubt), “I wonder what God is doing here?” Breathe in a God bigger, more beautiful and better than you, whose ways are not your ways, whose timing is not your timing. Practice wonder-worship in all your waiting rooms. A wonder which embraces mystery and lives in the questions, not the answers.

In this midst of these dark and despairing days, Wendell Berry shows me how to practice wonder so I can “for a time I rest in the grace of the world.”

The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendell Berry 

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Pray that the gospel will never lose its wonder for you. Sing “And Can it Be?” and other hymns to remember the wonder of it all God has done for you through Jesus Christ. Scripture shouts of the wonder of God and his world.

“We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. . . . He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.” Col 1:11-12, 18-20 MSG

Apostle Paul never lost the wonder that Christ saved him. It reminds me of this quote from John Newton, the former slaver and writer of the hymn, Amazing Grace. “Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” I’ll be the one clapping as I follow Christ leading the Resurrection Parade.

(Photo credit: Bill Carroll)

II Corinthians Study Now Available!

What is Real?

“What is real?” asked the Velveteen Rabbit. The Skin Horse said, “Real isn’t how you are made, it is a thing that happens when you are loved for a long, long time. Generally, by the time you are real most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are REAL you can’t be ugly except to those who don’t understand.
Once you are real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.” 
Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit 

“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”

II Corinthians 4:16-18 MSG

What Does it Mean to Be a “Real” Christian?

Pandemics. Politics, Social struggles. Global tragedies. These past years have felt unreal. But what has been most crazy making for me is the deep divisions in the Church. How can we find our way back to loving each other and our neighbors and seeking His Kingdom? I need reality checks: Scripture; honest, diverse community; prayer. I need to continually recalibrate back to the Christ revealed in Scripture.

Now Available!
Reality Christianity: A Study of II Corinthians

Radiating Christ in Our Cracked Lives

It's a perfect time to sink into II Corinthians. This epistle presents what "reality Christianity" is and how a "real" Christian lives, loves, and ministers. (P.S. It's hard and messy.) It is Paul's most personal letter to one of his most difficult churches. It reveals the paradox of living out the Christian faith.

Reality Christianity: A Study of II Corinthians / Radiating Christ in Our Cracked Lives is now available on Amazon. (If you would like bulk orders, contact me at nancy@nancywcarroll.com) 

Through this study in II Corinthians, I pray you will:

• Know and love the real Christ, and relish and radiate Him.

• Know and love the real “you,” and drop veils to reveal yourself to others.

• Embrace the reality that “real” ministry is through Christ’s power in your brokenness and weakness.

How do we live in the tension of the “both/and” life Christ offers us? In this 13-week study, you will discover how God enters into your hardest realities. 

• The Reality of Suffering/The Reality of Our Comforting God

• The Reality of Failure/The Reality of Our Faithful God

• The Reality of Our Inability/The Reality of Our Covenantal God

• The Reality of Cracked Pots/The Reality of Our Radiating God

• The Reality of Brokenness/The Reality of Our Reconciling God

• The Reality of REALationships/The Reality of Our Redeeming God

• The Reality of Reaping/The Reality of Our Enriching God

• The Reality of Spiritual Warfare/The Reality of Our Powerful God

• The Reality of Weakness/The Reality of Our Sufficient God

• The Reality of “REALigion”/The Reality of Christ IN Us

Ephesians Study Also Available!

I'm thrilled with the different groups around the country studying Ephesians  God's Great Mystery Revealed: In Christ, In His Church.  It is available on Amazon or by contacting me at nancy@nancywcarroll.com. Here's some of the feedback on the study: 

"Nancy does such a great job of making the study very 'user friendly.' She has an amazing ability to communicate and teach that is applicable for all spiritual ages. Thoroughly enjoyed the Ephesians study and can’t wait for her other studies to be published!"

"This study was an answered prayer. I was looking to dive deeper in the word & WOW did this exceed my expectations. The prompts allowed for personal reflection & growth. It is a great reminder of who we are in Christ and how to live as a believer. Nancy has a wonderful gift for words and creating the image of how each of us fit into the bigger piece of God’s masterpiece. I thoroughly enjoyed it."

"A great tool to dig into Ephesians verse by verse. Wonderful morning quiet time; the questions relating to the Scriptures were relevant and applicable. Great for a discipleship group."

The Ephesians and II Corinthians studies are part of the 10-book  "Beholding-is-Becoming" series which connects people to the love of Christ through intimate, intelligent, and accessible Scripture studies using an integrated head/heart/hands rhythm with:

• 10-minute daily devotional questions (and an “express” version for those overwhelmed by life)

• Discovery sheets for deeper, personal connection with Scripture

• Concise commentary

• Guides for teachers and facilitators

Recalibrating Practices: How Will You G-R-O-W? Obedience=Love

“If I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God.” Oswald Chambers

Every year I pick a word to recalibrate me. But, as a woman flooded with words, it’s swollen in the past years to an acronym:

G-R-O-W.

Gratitude. Resilience. Obedience. Wonder.

(In 2021, I’m making it G-R-O-W-L because we all need some laughter. Every day.)

These words guide my “rule of life,” a spiritual practice that helps set a sacred pace and path for life’s journey. (More on developing a “rule of life” in an upcoming newsletter.)

In this post, I’ve finally gotten to “O” for obedience.

I do not want to focus on obedience (even though it made a terrific anagram). I want to sidestep that word—perhaps not blatantly rebel—but rationalize that there’s got to be a better way to love and please God than simply listen and obey him. It was because of my resistance I knew I needed to wrestle with this word.

The biblical definition of obedience is “to hear God’s word and act accordingly.” (Holman’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary) At its root, to obey means to hear, trust, submit/surrender. It is the activating ingredient of love and worship.

Me? I want to play “religion” by my own rules or make excuses that those rules don’t apply to me. I can think of dramatic ways to impress God, but he has answered that with “to obey is better than sacrifice.” I Sam 15:22 ESV

I long to love Jesus more but avoid annoying truths and difficult commands. Jesus makes it clear that “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15 ESV

Pre-obedience is the worse. The more I procrastinate or distract myself, the more I live a foggy and fearful life. Post-obedience is best described in James 1. “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.” James 1:22-25 MSG

All of the gospel is so counterintuitive. The obedient life is the free life, a delighting life.

My Utmost for His Highest has been my go-to devotional for decades. One of Oswald Chambers’ favorite topics is obedience.

“If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. . . If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.” My Utmost for His Highest, November 2

For me, I am recalibrating myself to pause, listen, and ask what obedience would be in a situation. And then try not to overthink it, but just do it. I keep coming back to this hymn:

Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

It sounds so quaint and simplistic. But as someone who’s tried “other ways,” I hum this hymn a lot more now. (Although I’d love for someone insert the word “wait” after trust and obey.)

Next entry will be on Wonder! (An easier word to live out than obedience for me!)

Recalibrating Practices: How Will You G-R-O-W? Practice Resilience

Every year I pick a word to recalibrate me. But, as a woman flooded with words, it’s swollen in the past years to an acronym:

G-R-O-W.

Gratitude. Resilience. Obedience. Wonder.

(In 2021, I’m making it G-R-O-W-L because we all need some laughter. Every day.)

These words guide my “rule of life,” a spiritual practice that helps set a sacred pace and path for life’s journey. (More on developing a “rule of life” in an upcoming newsletter.)

In my last post, I focused on gratitude. 

Now it’s time for resilience. If I want to keep following this wandering and winding path of writing, leading a non-profit arts organization, and “soul tending,” I need to be resilient.

What is resilience?

“Psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress—such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors. As much as resilience involves ‘bouncing back’ from these difficult experiences, it can also involve profound personal growth.” (American Psychological Association)

Resilience is the willow tree of attributes. It flexes, stretches, and bends. The winds blow, failure hits, rejection hurts , loss and grief and disappointment happen. I can break, give up, or sway in the breeze and sink my roots deeper into God.

Resilience is in my genes. My dad survived three different kinds of cancers, hepatitis C, and heart disease for three decades before dying at 88. He wanted to be with his grandkids that much. After my dad passed away, my mom resisted leaving her beloved Amelia Island. When it became clear she needed to move close to me, she grumbled but flexed. A few weeks after settling into Birmingham, she suffered a massive stroke. She recovered most of what she lost by being the model patient for her physical, speech, and occupational therapists.

Then COVID-19 hit.

She went into lockdown and her recovery slowed. She lost the sight of her left eye through the stroke and the sight in her right eye became blurrier which made reading more difficult. We went to nearly every eye subspecialist in Birmingham and she put our saint of an optometrist on speed dial. She was convinced if she only got thicker lenses for her eyeglasses, she could read again. When it finally sunk in that it was macular degeneration and not a faulty prescription, she nearly gave up.

But she didn’t.

Once she accepted that her eyesight wouldn’t improve, she began listening to the rehabilitation specialists who gave her tools to adapt and keep on reading. It’s not what she wants. But she has grit and is trying to learn new technology. Accept. Adapt. Endure. Hope.

I wish I could “inherit” resilience without experiencing the suffering and enduring and changing that goes with it. But it doesn’t work that way.

So, how do we build resilience into our souls?

Recalibrate

No path to our eternal home is linear. That road is filled with roadblocks, detours, and delays. We can train ourselves to keep turning our eyes back to Jesus who is the way (our direction), the truth (our destination), the life (our desire). We remember where we’re going and why it’s worth it. We acknowledge the reality that this path we’re on is a broken road and filled with suffering.

 So, no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day. We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison. 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 TPT

Build Endurance

Scripture is essential to resilience. The Bible speaks of enduring with hope and reminds us of God’s faithfulness to those who’ve passed before us. More than anything, it shows us the resilient joy of Jesus and what he endured on our behalf.

For all those words which were written long ago are meant to teach us today; that when we read in the scriptures of the endurance of men and of all the help that God gave them in those days, we may be encouraged to go on hoping in our own time. Romans 15:14 Phillips

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message

Find Community

Make it a priority to plant yourself in life-giving, mutual relationships. A community of people where you can laugh and weep together. Where you will ask for help. Seek a church which focuses on grace and vulnerability and accepts that everyone is on a broken road together.

Think of the Alternative

What if you stay stuck, go numb, or give up? You may need to adjust your goals. Maybe you’re past parachuting, winning the Olympics, or running for governor. But you’re not past the desire to try new adventures or impact your world. Think of resilience as buoyancy in the storm with Jesus as your anchor.

Here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Don’t give up; don’t be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting—for he will never disappoint you! Psalm 27:14 TPT

Remember Who Will Never Let You Go

Here’s the best news of all. God will never ever let you go. So, hang on, knowing his grip on you is sure and forever. He is the God who holds you. That’ll give you the courage to keep taking those wobbly baby steps of resilience on your way home.

I give to them the gift of eternal life and they will never be lost and no one has the power to snatch them out of my hands. My Father, who has given them to me as his gift, is the mightiest of all, and no one has the power to snatch them from my Father’s care. John 10:28-29 TPT

One definition of resilience is about the power of an object (or person) to return to its original form or purpose after being bent, compressed, crushed, or stretched. Jesus was crushed for us and we are assured that God will restore us to our intended shape and purpose in Him.  

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun. Romans 8:29-30 The Message

 Link here to read practical ways to build resilience into your life. Link here to listen to the resilient truth that God will never let us go.