Jordan Stones Blog

There is a bareness and a clarity that is inherent in this newness of year. A bit more order and routine emerges from the bedlam. And we are left with room. And a bit of weight.  The weight of the things I know my heart needs to change. And I bear the fear that it might not change. Again. As I take in this devotional, Ann Voskamp ( www.aholyexperience.com ) makes me think. After she mentions how we wear our routine behaviors, I keep thinking.  Like a nun wears her "habit" so we wear our customs, our rhythms, our patterns. We dress ourselves.  We trend toward an appearance We express ourselves and are experienced by others by those behaviors we create a trend from.  Not so much the outliers.  The habits. So, little by little the adage comes true..."we will soon be what we are now becoming"... I have to keep my heart wired in straight around this or I move toward doom and gloom and panic. “ I have got to change this! Repattern that! Determine to do it diff...

As I start to recalibrate for a new year, I am so thankful for the fresh start.  God, in the journey this year will be thank you for the description of Your Way as a highway.  It is open and nourishing, progressing toward spirit and depth that are the only things that will make me “ me ” in the face of troubles and trials.  Thank you that it is not a way that holds worry, confusion, wrong turns, mistakes. I don ’ t have to make every step correctly. I don ’ t have to turn left or right or make sense out of directions.  Despite “ external evidence ” in the landscape of my surroundings, it is a path that is safe. Untouchable from things that would decay.   I see a picture in my mind's eye of an aquarium, where there is a moving sidewalk under a tunnel of clear glass, a strong bubble protecting me from the sharks and harm on the other side. I am free to observe and move past without fear of injury. I see them, and I know they desire to harm m...

I have been thinking how similarly we veil our true selves throughout the year like we also sometimes find the message Christmas veiled to us. The twinkle of the lights and bows of Christmas can distract us from the unwrapping and unbinding of our hearts that God would have for us at this time of year.  You may have heard one of my favorite descriptions God gives us for our inner world, our true self. He uses the most lavish language he has access to in our English language. I will include a verse before because I love how it speaks of God’s promises: Isaiah 54 10 “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My loving kindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” Says the LORD who has compassion on you.    11 “O afflicted one (fill your name here), storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I will set your stones in antimony , And your foundations I will lay in sapphires .  12 “Moreo...