The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz

Some days you get in a slump and maybe you don’t truly believe there’s a place for you. You dismiss somewhere way down inside that God would actually want you next to Him. That He seeks your presence. 

Then you read John 14:2 and it hits hard: you are in the front of God’s mind. You’re not a last thought. Not unfilled potential. Not looked over in the slew of everyone else.

Links mentioned:

Underneath my slouched posture and avoidance of eye contact was the belief that my voice didn’t matter. I left speaking up to those whose words were more effortless, less awkward. I thought that meant they mattered more.

Perhaps you can relate.

You dismiss the value of your voice because someone else can articulate it better, say it with more confidence, or couch it in more credibility. You secon...

I think of how less light around me works almost like blinders on a horse. Blinders are the piece on a horse’s harness that blocks their vision–not entirely, but so they see only what’s straight ahead. It’s a built-in focus mechanism. One I often resist but deeply need.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

...

I was a keep-to-myself neighbor for most of my life. A scarcely-seen neighbor. A door-locked-unless-I-expected-guests neighbor.

But I was also a lonely neighbor.

I thought it was normal to drive across town every time you wanted to meet up with a friend. To close the garage door as soon as you pull inside and gaze at the ground when you walk to the mailbox. To nod a cordial hello if you see a nei...

And I want to know his secret. 

What compels the psalmist to pursue the teachings of God regardless of the hour? To chase after God’s will with urgency and love God Himself wholeheartedly?

It’s not perfection, because the unnamed author of this Psalm openly admits failure to fully follow God’s decrees. “Oh, that every part of my life would remain in line with what You require!” he exclaims (v. 5)...

Just imagine what might happen if the words we say breathed life, ignited hearts, and amplified hope when they were overheard! If what came out of our mouths was laced in humility and grounded in our God-identity. If our words repaired breaches and lent hope and lit a candle for someone else.

Someone listening over our shoulder, curious how to trust God when life doesn’t make sense.

Someone obser...

We get both–the imposter syndrome and the subtly-inflating self-impression. We shame and doubt ourselves, wondering who we are to think God can use us for His grand purpose. And we’re also guilty of esteeming ourselves too highly, as if our value has anything to do with us and not the One who breathed undeserved worth into our lungs just because He loves us so.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a shor...

What if we let go of the “metrics-based growth” Jennifer Dukes Lee cautions will “[hurry] our hearts,” and lean instead into the two heart cultivators Jesus offers?

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. Jennifer Dukes Lee's books.

4. Get a FREE Names of Go...

After a rich, tear-wet journey through the Old Testament searching for who God is on every page, resting in His endless love felt like a bear hug. Again and again and again the truth that God’s love never runs out and is always meant for us brought strength to my soul, filling me for another day of pouring out.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you ...

It hits like the curled top of an ocean wave: every name I’ve penned in Bible margins, in answer to Ann Voskamp’s question in Sacred Prayer–”Who do I say that God is today? (Mark 8:29)”–is who God is in the right-now. Not a single descriptor is merely a past-tense attribute of God’s nature. Each name spans as far back and reaches as far beyond as endless eternity.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a s...

We don’t have to be more or less of anything. Our presence alone blesses Him. I’m sitting with that as I ponder how we best serve God and minister to the people in front of us on His behalf.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90...

It begins to connect as I pause at the word ‘name’ at the end of Psalm 91: because we know God by name–by His many names–we know TO call on Him, HOW to call on Him, and WHAT to call Him.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day...

It begins to connect as I pause at the word ‘name’ at the end of Psalm 91: because we know God by name–by His many names–we know TO call on Him, HOW to call on Him, and WHAT to call Him.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day...

This morning, wide awake way too early, I pondered how there’s nothing else I’d rather have running through my head when I can’t sleep than the weighty glory of God Himself.

Unless I proactively tell my thoughts where to dwell, they wander willful and easily distracted. I lean into lies that incite fear or unworth rather than lean on the One who knows every tender hope and unspoken prayer.

Maybe ...

These are the days of appointments and answers I don’t like. Of whispering hope in a waiting room to one anxious heart.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day Bible Reading Challenge, searching for names of God as I read like it’s some s...

It’s a hopeful whisper: soul-sister friendship.

Isn’t that what we long beneath the obligatory “I’m good! How are you?” and mustered-up smiles and silent sighs?

We want something more than surfacy talk about movies and weather, car lines and school projects. More than flighty friendship that unravels over bent feelings and assumptions.

Perhaps your heart-felt prayer is not for more fr...

How would you talk with God if you knew He was walking around in your house?

I recently read a mandate God had spoken to the Israelites through Moses: “Treat your camp as a sacred place because the Eternal your God will be walking around in it” (Deut. 23:14, The Voice).

And I wonder, what would it change if we knew how paper-thin is the distance between God and us? If we knew He was right here wh...