Posted on by Dr. Tammi Love

The Unexpected

The beauty of our journey is often found in unexpected moments. The stranger who pays for our meal, the “good” report after rounds of hopeless health updates, the sudden promotion, a serenade on our birthday from coworkers we thought didn’t like us, the discovery of $5 in a jeans pocket. If we sit still and ponder the moments we didn’t see coming, we’ll realize the hand and whisper of God reworking our delicate journeys to reflect His goodness and glory.

Ms. Mary was someone I didn’t see coming. She approached me after a worship service where I preached one of the seven last words of Christ. During my sermon, I shared prophet Jeremiah’s message of the Potter and the Potter’s House, as an encouragement to the weary and broken. After the service, in a brief introduction, Ms. Mary identified herself as a potter. Among other things she shared with me, she said my message was for her. Ms. Mary shared details about her pottery ministry and alerted me of her visit to my area in a couple of weeks. She said she would bring me a special gift.

Days passed, and so did my recollection of her anticipated visit. Until, of course, one Sunday morning, I drove into our church parking lot and saw an unfamiliar car. I was rushing to get inside for Sunday School, and Ms. Mary got out of her car to warmly greet me. She then presented me with a gift bag. She said, “I told you I was coming.” I instantly remembered our conversation after that worship service. I put aside the things I had in my hands and carefully opened the gift bag. As I removed the surrounding paper, the gift was revealed. The gift was a custom-made pot with beautiful curves and designs adorned with a matching lid fashioning a slight bend. As tears began to flow down my face, Ms. Mary said this was the pot God led her to for me. Ms. Mary’s ministry of pots is dependent on the direction of God. She sculpts them, and God instructs her on who to bless. She embraced me as I wept. I was overwhelmed by her kindness, by God’s mindfulness of me, and by a wound within that was being healed precisely at that moment.

God has a distinct way of getting our attention. While we seek to plan our future, we cannot escape the unexpected moments of life that command our attention and response. Does the impact of unforeseen moments darken your perspective on the journey you hope to travel, or does the unexpected encourage your adventurous path? Are you prone to see damaged outcomes, or are you determined to trust in the promise and work of the Potter? I pray you see the latter. God is inviting us to His house to peek at what He’s working on. What do you see?

“So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” – Jeremiah 18:3-4

Posted on by Dr. Tammi Love · 2 Comments

Be Still and Know

I live a pretty demanding life. It’s liberating to confess I don’t practice self-care well. That is, well enough not to feel like I’m moving about life with warnings from within that I’m a few miles to empty. I’ve failed at making myself a priority. Until I finally heard God. He said, be still and know.

Our callings to serve others, to work wholeheartedly in all we do as to the Lord and not man, are guiding principles of the heart. They are the beacons of light that direct us home when we question, become weary and wander. 

God’s might delivers us from our troubles. God’s love leads us beside still waters and refreshes our soul. God’s concern for us directs us to the beginning of time, amid the busyness of creation, God’s wisdom made room for rest (from His work) on the seventh day. Be still and know He is God.

We dream and pursue; we explore the unknown with great anticipation. Our creative minds and motives drive us to experiences that prove to be exhilarating, exhaustive, and hurtful. With all God allows for His creations, He whispers, be still and know I am God.

I started this writing expressing the freedom of confessing what was. I conclude with a confession of what is. I now carve out self-care moments in my life. 

  • I intentionally schedule my lunch break on my work calendar and lessen the number of times I eat lunch at my desk; 
  • I no longer stay hours in the office after business hours; 
  • I spend more time dreaming and strategizing our family’s legacy with my husband; 
  • I began meditating using visualization techniques and breathing exercises;
  • I have scheduled sessions with my awesome therapist (I love her!);
  • I started learning yoga at home; 
  • I avoid negative energy; 
  • I don’t engage with persons or things that trigger unhealed hurt; 
  • I cut off all appearances of evil; and 
  • I’m still when God tells me to be still.

Stillness has allowed me to see the work of God in my past, present, and future. Stillness has allowed me to experience the joy of living free, knowing who God is. God continues to save me from my foolish self. The Maker of heaven and earth, the Mastermind of creation, has proven He’s a promise keeper in the midnight hour and in the uncertainties of my “meanwhile”. 

Finally, I’m committed to trusting God when He reminds me to pay attention to “me”, to make myself a priority, knowing the world won’t crumble because of it. I can’t give 200% of me to others and devote nothing good to myself. I’m free of that!

I recently took a work trip out of the country. After completing full days of recruiting and networking, I gave myself permission to concentrate on me. I took walks on the beach, played in the rain, laughed with strangers, wrote passages in my journal, and stood under the promise of a complete rainbow. And I felt God smile.

Be still and know.

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

Posted on by Dr. Tammi Love

The Blessing

Today I was the guest reader for young scholars attending Covenant United Methodist Church’s Freedom School in Springfield, Ohio. I read the book Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed. The book celebrates the perseverance and imagination of the first African American woman astronaut, Mae Jemison, as a young girl. I love the book and the experience it provided while reading it to a room of young people. In fact, I realized about halfway through the reading, I was being blessed by the simple yet powerful arrangement of words in the book. A moment structured to bless someone else, in turn, was blessing me in ways I did not expect.

The blessing was sudden and sweet. The blessing was also amplified by the expression of my own voice. By reading the words aloud, I allowed the power of words to fall fresh on me as a recipient of God’s incredible grace that showed up right on time. The words of the book that produced such might were the reminder, “If you can dream it, if you believe it and work hard for it, anything is possible.”

Certainly, these words are appropriate for young people exploring the possibilities of who they want to be when they grow up. However, I’m learning that the encouragement to dream, believe, and work hard for the purpose God has implanted in us, no matter our age, is also appropriate. We’re not robots. We’re flesh and blood, wonderfully made in the image of God, designed to feel Him moving within us throughout our season changes. I was gracefully reminded today that God is ready to deliver what I once thought in my spiritual infancy was impossible. My dreaming, continuous belief that God is who He says He is, and my all-in work ethic to give Him glory in everything, was not practiced in vain. I’m now living in a new season where I know anything is possible. God is making it so, and He provided a safe space and an opportunity for me to profess the blessing for myself.

Have you recognized that you are experiencing a shift in your life? A change where things, as they are, no longer fit with the ‘good trouble’ God is instigating within you. A shift where being in the company of antagonists is offensive to the new thing God has revealed within you. A change where you are now willing to fully participate in the healing God is presenting before you.

I encourage you to embrace the gift of the new season God is gracing on your journey. He’s traveling to the guarded space within you to deliver the reminder, “If you can dream it, if you believe it and work hard for it, anything is possible.” Speak your blessing. Receive your blessing. God is making the impossible so.

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;” – Numbers 6:24-25