Posts
Hannah Morrell
Sweet Dependence

This year has not gone like I thought it would in so many ways—probably many of you have experienced the same. But today God reminded me that He has been teaching me about dependence, and kind of gave me a heads up that was where we were going this year! My verse for the year was Proverbs 3:5-6, and it’s been on repeat throughout the year.

I keep forgetting, though, and assuming I can do this life by myself. I realize I often don’t trust God, and do rely on my own opinions (even though that’s never helped me). I don’t rely on Him to guide me, and don’t look to Him as my Shepherd throughout decisions. But He is faithful to keep putting me in impossible situations where I remember.

None of us can do this life alone. We don’t have the wisdom, strength, patience, or love to walk in loving enemies, having hope in hopeless situations, or experiencing peace that makes no sense given the situation. God has all of that, and He is the one we get to depend on for this to blossom and grow in us. Whenever I get overwhelmed, it’s because I have decided it’s all up to me and God isn’t doing a thing about it.

Sweet Dependence
Posts
Hannah Morrell
The Surrounding Battles

I was thinking about David the other day, you know, the kid who took on a giant and won? I was thinking about how without human support he was as he faced down impossible odds. His dad sent him to take food to his brothers, implying he wasn’t strong enough to be a warrior and was only good for delivering food. His brothers mocked him for his curiosity about why everyone was hiding. He hadn’t forgotten who he was, or who their God was, but when he brought it up, he was met with dismissal and derision. His king tried to give him his armor, once again a demonstration that he was too small and insignificant to do any of these crazy stuff he was threatening. But he went anyway. He knew who God had made him to be, and he knew who his God was through him. Don’t let the rejection or scorn of others define who you are or who your God is.

David didn’t fight Goliath like the giant wanted him to do. Jamie Winship pointed out in a talk recently that David didn’t try to go wrestle him or fight him with a sword. He didn’t let the enemy determine how the battle was fought. He stood in his identity and the training God had led him through as a shepherd on the hillside with his sheep—he needed a sling and some rocks. Don’t let the situation dictate how the battle should be fought.

The Surrounding Battles
Posts
Hannah Morrell
Not Growing Weary

One of my husband’s firefighter friends had a terrible accident a couple of weeks ago, falling 50 feet in a training exercise and suffering traumatic brain injury along with lots of other wounds. One of the crew has been sending out updates on his status as he remained in the hospital and they evaluated spinal cord injuries, brain function, etc. He is on a positive trend, but the wins are so small that you can miss them sometimes. The thing that struck me was the update from the firefighter in which he said that the doctor had told him they need to compare things week-to-week rather than day-to-day. When we examine the wins and losses for one day, it can seem negative or nonexistent. But when we compare where he was a week ago to where he is today, there is a positive trajectory that displays growth and healing.

Not Growing Weary
Posts
Hannah Morrell
Battling Discouragement

Several years ago, I received an email from a brother in Christ reprimanding me for saying that followers of Jesus could be discouraged or anxious. He tried to tell me that I was wrong for suggesting it, and that couldn’t be part of the believers’ experiences. I wanted to respond in anger, maybe trying to fight back for all the amazing people I have worked with who struggle with these things and not because they are messing up. Instead, God directed me to sit in the Psalms for a while, seeing the pattern so often with David of despair and hopelessness turning to new hope and encouragement.

Psalm 42 is a great illustration of this pattern, and I recently went through it again to look for David’s process in dealing with his own discouragement. I think so often we see discouragement as the end, rather than another place to hear from God and walk back through His faithfulness to a place of encouragement. Here are the steps that I see David taking in moving from darkness to light.

Battling Discouragement
Posts
Hannah Morrell
A Jungle from Barren Ground

Pain in the summer is never fun. Not that pain is ever enjoyable, but the summer just seems to compound the frustration. Everyone is supposed to be enjoying life and the weather, and you feel like crawling in a hole and never coming out.

During the summer of 2016, I sat on the back porch with a couple of friends after my kids had gone to bed and my pain spilled over to them. I looked at my life and wondered what on earth I was going to do moving forward. Generally I like to keep a tight lid on my stuff—opening up seems vulnerable and raw. But this night was one where the honeysuckle smelled sweetest, the warm air wrapped me up in its hug and the crickets sang from their little homes under the grass. It all came pouring out, and was received in such a gracious, loving way.

After I was done talking, my friends prayed for me, asking for direction and hope in the days ahead. And the most powerful piece of that was when one of the girls popped her head up and remembered the story I had told her earlier in the evening about my back yard.

A Jungle from Barren Ground

Casting Your Cares

Casting Your Cares

Sometimes my purse gets incredibly heavy while I’m lugging it around day in and day out. When I finally decide to figure out what is making it so weighed down, usually it’s a random toy or some other heavy object that I don’t need to be carrying around, but have forgotten is in there. One time it was giant rock that my son had slipped in there for me to carry for him! After the troubling object was removed, I felt so much lighter and my shoulder quit hurting!

Contentment

Contentment

I recently watched a TED talk in which Shawn Achor discussed happiness and success. He pointed out that if we measure happiness by successes in our life and external determiners, we have to keep upping the ante. Thus, we are never really happy. If we reach the goal that determines success, we have to push the standard higher or come up with a new goal. We start over and are always lacking. If, however, we turn it around and learn to be content in our circumstances, we can be happy before we become “successful” in whatever terms we use for that. 

Endurance & Perseverance

Endurance & Perseverance

Last year, my sister-in-laws convinced me to try to run a 10K for the first time in my life. I was running a bit, but only short distances. Six miles seemed ridiculously far away. I often found myself running too fast in the beginning couple of miles, and then I was totally spent and couldn’t go further. I had to slow myself down so I could run for longer, increasing my endurance. 

Letting Go of Perfection in Favor of Love

Letting Go of Perfection in Favor of Love

This morning I realized one minute before we walked out the door for school drop-off that it’s 50’s day at school. And I have nothing to make my son look “50’s” at all. He tried to be gracious about it, and for that I’m thankful. But his disappointed look made me run smack into the wall of my own desire for perfectionism in all things. My standard for myself was not met. 

Religious Performance vs. Life in Christ

Religious Performance vs. Life in Christ

I think one of my greatest struggles in life has been to break free from the “religious” performance and recognize Christ’s Life as the source of every good work. I used to obsess on how I was working so hard to make God happy, when that was not His desire at all. In fact, I failed a lot and was completely miserable in my quest to be a perfect child of God on my own. Not to mention I judged a lot of other people in order to try to make myself feel better. Of course, it didn’t work, and I just ended up being a judgmental, miserable human with a prettied up exterior to show off in an attempt to prove I was something else. So much work for nothing!

The Blood of Jesus & Confidence for Today

The Blood of Jesus & Confidence for Today

Often I want to skip the suffering of the cross and go straight to the glory of Easter morning, when Jesus rose from the dead and presented Himself in victory to those who surrounded Him throughout His earthly ministry. I want the celebration without the fight. I want the promises of God to come to fruition without having to wait for them. Basically, I want the easy way out.

Kara Tippetts and Suffering With Hope

Kara Tippetts and Suffering With Hope

I hate being sick. The weakness, the pain, the feeling of being behind on everything while simultaneously feeling like you can’t get out of bed. As with every seemingly negative thing in life, I try to see Jesus in it. I have realized that the last week or so I’ve been praying for those with chronic pain and illness much more than I usually do. Something about the reminder of what those people feel every morning when they get up makes me come before the Father with the realization of how hard that must be. 

Baby Steps

Baby Steps

There was a movie many years ago called “What About Bob?” in which the two main characters are a psychiatrist and patient. The patient proceeds to drive the psychiatrist totally crazy by following his “baby steps” right into chasing the therapist down on vacation. The idea of baby steps for everything—small movements or decisions in life that add up to bigger strides to a goal—were supposed to help Bob (the patient) to overcome some of his anxiety. As funny as that movie was about the whole thing, there is something to be said for baby-stepping your way through life.

When God's Plan Seems Crazy

When God's Plan Seems Crazy

I was listening to Lisa Jo Baker today as she talked about a story in 2 Chronicles in which God told King Jehoshaphat to do some crazy things when faced with enemies bent on the destruction of his people. God told him not to fear, to stand still and to watch the Lord fight for him. So, he sent the choir out front of the army and marched down to meet the other armies. The singers sang praise to God and as they did this, the Lord defeated the armies and had them kill each other. When the Israelites arrived on the scene, nothing was left but corpses. It made me laugh because of how often God asks us to do the thing that doesn’t make sense, that makes us feel or look like a fool, or that is the opposite of what we would think we should do. 

Living in a Broken, Messed-Up World

Living in a Broken, Messed-Up World

It’s easy to feel that evil is swallowing up the world. Take one look around you and find pain, lies, brokenness and the overall feeling that we might be drowning without even realizing it. But perhaps what we see is what doing life without God looks like. It has happened many times before throughout history, this distancing from God and His ways. The results are never good. Governments, countries and powers that seem invincible and brilliant fall by the wayside as they implode. People convince themselves and each other that they are smarter than all the others and no longer need God.

Women's Retreat 2019

Women's Retreat 2019

I am excited to announce we are having a women’s retreat this year on November 1-3 at Table Mountain Inn in beautiful Golden, Colorado! We will meet from Friday evening through Sunday lunch, enjoying a few wonderful speakers, worship time, good fellowship with other women and also a chance to benefit from the giftings of some of the ladies who will be there like coaching, counseling and personality testing. 

Walking with the broken to find hope in Jesus