Page 7 – All The More: Collective Blog

We cannot hate those He loves

March 26, 2021 TaKasha Smith 4 min read

All mine are yours and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. John 17:10-11 Many years ago, a friend of mine (father of 3 and long-time friend who I’d worked and done life within many different capacities) told me it meant a lot to him that I loved his children so well. He is not an incredibly emotional man so the strong feeling behind his statement struck me, and I never forgot the importance of the moment. I don’t have children, but I think I’m beginning to see the depth of what he felt. In recent years, I’ve seen a lot of […]

Living on Mission: Are you my neighbor?

March 19, 2021 Kathryn Pesyna 4 min read

This is the second part of my thoughts about Living on Mission. For its companion, read Living on Mission: What is it Anyway? What was your favorite Bible story growing up? Maybe it was the story of Noah and all the animals, David and Goliath, Joseph and his very colorful coat, or Jesus walking on water. For me, it was the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). (I actually called it The Good “Cemetery,” but hey, I was little, ok?) I’m not really sure why it stuck with me all these years, but I do know I was drawn to the person who saw a person in need and helped. When the Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest command is, the second part of His answer included: ”Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). It may lead you to wonder who your neighbor really is. This is the exact […]

Be Still and Know

March 12, 2021 Brittney Elizabeth 4 min read

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46: 10 (NIV) The word stillness is not my favorite word by any means. At some point in my life, I completely removed it from my vocabulary. Utterly resolved to venture into a life of productivity, and perfect it, I was prepared to ring in the new year with this mentality. Excitedly writing my hopes, dreams, and things I wanted to accomplish in 2021, I vowed not to hold back—to be proactive and watch the blessing flow. Then December 31st happened. You know that poem we love to quote? Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures.” In theory, it sounds great. In reality, it’s far from it. The keyword here is makes. This situation […]

The God Who Loves Us Will Hold Us

March 5, 2021 Sarah Steinmann 3 min read

I’m feeling a sense of sadness today. I work for Southwest Airlines, and I frequently have the chance to give out my buddy standby passes to those around me. So far, I’ve given them out to friends for adventures, mutual connections for birthday surprises, and refugees for their journeys home. This week, I gave out my first buddy passes to friends for funerals. There are no good answers for this, for why death comes to steal, kill, and destroy. There are no easy responses for why Jesus, who has come that we might have “life abundant,” doesn’t sustain earthly life for those we love. Does he not do so because he is unable? Because he is fake? Because he doesn’t care? We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of deaths due to COVID in America alone this year. More people have died from the coronavirus this year than from the flu the […]

God, why? > God, what?

February 26, 2021 Rachel Marissa 3 min read

If I’m being honest, there is still a part of me that wishes life would unfold the way I want it to. And I’m no stranger to the unexpected. I’ve spent the past six years in constant transition: I moved to the Netherlands for a year, serving as a campus missionary. Two weeks later, I married my college sweetheart where we fell in love, in Kalamazoo, MI. A week after arriving back from our honeymoon in Puerto Rico, we drove straight down from Chicago to our new home in Austin, TX. He began seminary; we both started new non-ministry jobs. After a few months, we joined a new church. Six months later, we both had to start new jobs (again). Two years later, we moved back to Michigan after his seminary unexpectedly closed. It took us a month to find new housing, and we lived with my in-laws. Those first […]

What lies have you been believing this week?

February 19, 2021 Natalie Mayo 4 min read

two sitting and one man standing near cliff taken during golden hour

At the time, I felt so confident, but now I feel like I missed my chance. Why on earth did I do that? That was so dumb…What am I going to do now? Recently, I found my mind spiraling towards anxious thoughts and regret about a lost opportunity. Feeling discouraged, I told my husband, looking for him to encourage me but instead he just listened and then went on with whatever he was doing at the time. All I wanted was for him to affirm me and the decisions that I had made, to tell me that everything would work out, to speak truth and life to me. Unfortunately, not even pastor husbands can read your mind and give you exactly what you want, when you want it, without having to say it. By this time, I had been dwelling on these thoughts for most of the day. After my […]

When Romance Falls Short

February 12, 2021 Mina Davenport 5 min read

As I sat on the couch recently reflecting on my marriage, I wept and cried out to the Lord wondering, “What has happened? Why don’t I feel as pursued by him as I once did? Why do I long for greater intimacy in my marriage?” This scene has not been uncommon in our five and half years of marriage. But why? Because my husband is selfish and unthoughtful? Absolutely not! My husband is genuinely a gift from the Lord. He is tender, compassionate, an amazing listener, and a man after God’s own heart. I am truly undeserving in many ways of such a companion! Yet, in nearly every season of married life, I go through bouts where I feel a deep ache in my soul, wondering what has happened to the romance and love we first felt. Why do I sometimes still feel lonely? These questions have driven me to […]

Healing when I’d lost hope

February 5, 2021 MJ Villatoro 3 min read

Have you ever gone through a trial that seemed like it was just too much to bear? I have. Seven years ago, I had hit rock bottom. My marriage had completely fallen apart, and as a result, after five “good years” I began to wrestle with self-harm again. To be honest, I was a complete mess. At that time in my life, I struggled a lot. The pain felt unbearable. I was having a hard time pushing through each day, and most nights I barely slept at all. I clearly remember one sleepless night when I was sitting at my kitchen table crying out to God, asking Him to help me get through it all. After praying about it for a while, I did what we all do when we can’t sleep and scrolled through Facebook. As it turned out, while I was praying for some words of hope to […]

Here I Am

January 29, 2021 Claire Raabe 3 min read

The stories of Genesis have filled my quiet times as of late. The complexity of these narratives never fails to leave me a bit speechless. How do I begin unpacking the historical context, characters, theology, geography, and original Hebrew definitions while channeling the Holy Spirit to see what I am to learn about God in order to increase my love of Him? A strategy I have employed and have found to be effective is to identify and cling to the simple, revealed truths. I encountered one of these simple but profoundly important truths the other day in Genesis 22. Many would argue that this chapter is one of the most important Old Testament chapters regarding salvation history. It is the chapter when Abraham exhibits a radical humble obedience through his willingness to sacrifice his promised son Isaac when asked to do so by the Lord. In the story, Isaac is […]

Crafted by the Master Artist

January 22, 2021 Sina Steele 3 min read

I sat down in my home office recently, excited to spend some time alone crafting. Immediately, I was struck by my view from home. My window looks out onto an open field, a typical countryside view here in New Zealand. It’s a view that looks different each time I gaze out—yet every time, it calms me. It reminds me that our God is spectacularly creative and a designer without equal. Last week, Bailey wrote about God’s design being everywhere, and it’s so true. When I look out my window and see the colors of the sunset, or when I reflect on the events in my own life, I see God at work. Our lives have God’s fingerprints all over them. Romans 1:20 tells us: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so […]

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