Home > Work > Atlas Girl: Finding Home in the Last Place I Thought to Look
1 " Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself. Madeleine L’Engle "
― Emily T. Wierenga , Atlas Girl: Finding Home in the Last Place I Thought to Look
2 " Behind all of your stories, is your mother's story, because hers is where yours began "
3 " God’s love for us often looks like suffering. It often looks like the silhouette of the cross, when in fact it is the sun beyond that silhouette, rising on the third day. "
4 " Begging God, then, today, to show me how to make wobbly steps in this walk of the Spirit. To know when to move and when to stand still. "
5 " I wait for forgiveness to find its place in me. To root its deep, beautiful tendrils within the dirt of my soul because there is no justice in forgiveness. There’s only grace. And grace makes way for peace. "
6 " And the more I chose love, the more I experienced Jesus. "
7 " I know God is here in the nature and the people, but more than that, he is within me. The kingdom of heaven is where I belong. It is where all of my journeys have been taking me. And no place on earth can match the welcome that is found in God’s arms. "
8 " It just takes one person, believing in you. It just takes one person, loving on you. That's all it takes to change the world "
9 " Reading Hannah Whitall Smith’s book, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life. Our task is to trust God to be working in us; to make us gradually more like Jesus. So that we don’t grumble about what happens, we work with God in that we allow him to mould us. He directs our paths and if we accept his will with peace and thankfulness he will transform us into his Son’s image. Therefore—I’ll try not to grumble when things go wrong; when life gets difficult; when people misunderstand me or don’t agree with our "
10 " This is marriage; to be the stronger, when the other is weak. And so, a beautiful tug and pull; a dance in the wilderness, two lovers leaning hard into each other in black air, leaning on all that is good and faithful, and seeking the light—the morning light—in each other’s eyes. "
11 " That’s all we ever need, isn’t it? To know how much we are loved. To know the lengths to which someone will go. It just takes one person, believing in you. It just takes one person, loving on you. That’s all it takes to change the world. "
12 " To be born again; to become like infants in God’s womb, entirely dependent, utterly quiet, never alone. Wordless communication, unspeakable love, cushioned against the world’s blows. Grace within the belly of our Maker. "
13 " It’s an honor—not a chore—to serve someone who reflects the very face of God. "
14 " And maybe suffering on behalf of another is the greatest gift of all, because it offers a kind of love that sacrifices. That sees beyond today. This, the hardest thing for a parent to do. To not fix. To just let. For then we have to trust God to do the healing, while we simply hold. But in the end I know my children are worth the feeling, that they are worth this moment, and that love is real in a painful kind of way, the kind that makes a person double over, the kind that puts a Savior on a cross. "
15 " The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knows us before we are. Before knitting us in our mother’s womb, and it’s this knowing that keeps us from getting lost. It’s this being known that is the compass that guides us home. "
16 " take a vacation from my worries. I was going to watch as God took care of me. I would live in the moment, thinking only about current events and choosing to enjoy myself, to rise above my circumstances and simply “be.” Why, I wonder, does God make us capable of fear and worry? Why does he let us go through such pain? And then it comes to me. It takes going through hell to appreciate heaven. And on earth we have a choice. We can experience heaven on a daily basis; we can surrender our worries and let our minds and souls be flooded with peace, knowing someone divine is taking care of us. Or we can hold on to control, for fear of letting go and letting God. It’s not about dying and someday going to heaven, it’s about inviting heaven into our everyday existence. Forgiving. Redeeming what is lost. Trusting. Letting go. Living now. "
17 " God was saying I had chosen not to hear him. I had chosen not to listen. So I came home and decided to take a vacation from my worries. I was going to watch as God took care of me. I would live in the moment, thinking only about current events and choosing to enjoy myself, to rise above my circumstances and simply “be.” Why, I wonder, does God make us capable of fear and worry? Why does he let us go through such pain? And then it comes to me. It takes going through hell to appreciate heaven. And on earth we have a choice. We can experience heaven on a daily basis; we can surrender our worries and let our minds and souls be flooded with peace, knowing someone divine is taking care of us. Or we can hold on to control, for fear of letting go and letting God. It’s not about dying and someday going to heaven, it’s about inviting heaven into our everyday existence. Forgiving. Redeeming what is lost. Trusting. Letting go. Living now. "
18 " I often use the voices of people that humans trust to convey my message, "
19 " I think of Jesus’s legs cracked and bleeding on the Easter-cross and I see in him the foolishness of a weak God, then, three days later, legs strong and whole, standing in the garden before Mary and Thomas and the disciples telling the world to touch and see, he is God. And he is power. And he is trustworthy. In spite of appearing foolish and weak. "
20 " choices; and to be patient with the children’s questions and exuberance, and let Ernest make mistakes. "