The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
Welcome to a becoming-space. A place for imperfectly ready people to say yes to more Jesus and actual friendships with their neighbors. A place for introverts and workaholics and people-pleasers and self-doubters. Welcome, welcome, if that’s you! I get that pull you feel to go deeper. Find purpose, meaningful conversations, community. I also get how you think you’re not ready. Want to know a secret?! None of us are, least of all me! Also true is that we BECOME ready after, not before, we say yes. Yes to baby steps that deepen relationships and let God spill out everywhere. Yes to becoming more curious, more approachable, more moldable in the tender hands of Jesus. It’s a process. A beautiful, becoming process where we look less and less like we used to and more and more like Him.
Episodes
You’re a rock that steadies others, die-hard strength that looks out for the weak, focus and grit that helps the rest of us show up more fully in our own endeavors. But beneath your tenacity is a tenderness that can feel unnerving. Some days you struggle to find grace for yourself within your sky-high personal standards. Can we talk about it?
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If ever you’ve wished for a fast forward button through the painful seasons of your life, this is for you.
You’re full of spontaneous energy and fun ideas. You help the rest of us lighten up and enjoy the adventure of life. You’re bold and bright and brilliant. We’re grateful for your contagious optimism, your eager yeses, your enthusiastic encouragement.
Because of you, we try new things that ...
You’re the hands holding everything for everyone, the arms keeping us safe, the backbone of community, the feet that stand for the good all. You prepare for all the things we miss or underestimate.
Rarely do you rest.
Even when your hands are still, you’re working out potential issues inside your head. Researching the safest option. Eliminating the unknowns.
How long has it been sin...
This is for the planners. The methodical. The curious. The articulate.
This is for those of us who prefer a little more time to process, who sometimes (maybe most times) want to blend in, who run out of words before the day is done.
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Some days you feel like you don’t fit in. At times, you worry you’re flawed and broken. Often, you fear you’re too much. And we hate that for you, because what we see is someone who reflects Jesus’ tender emotions, His genuine care for us, His reassuring presence.
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The insecurity you’d do about anything to keep hidden, the way you’re always on a 10 but still feel behind, your fear of rejection–leave it with Him. You don’t have to carry it anymore.
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There you are. You’re quick to see the needs in front of you, but sometimes it feels like no one sees you.
You are more than the warm, smiling face greeting us at the door. More than the volunteer we count on for an enthusiastic “yes.” More than the way you welcome both friend and stranger with the hugs we all love.
Sometimes your worth gets all tangled up in what you can do to serve others. Yo...
To you, exhausted from trying so hard to be perfect, weighed down by feeling worthless, worrying about what others think of you–let’s take a big exhale together.
It’s time for a trade: The intrusive anxiety, the dreaded insufficiency, and the battle in your mind–for acceptance that doesn’t hinge on your perfection.
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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.
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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...
We want there to be good reason for the delay.
Want to know the waiting will one day make sense.
Want assurance that God’s best will be worth all the angst and surrender.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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...
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