Amanda Lewallen

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Archives for December 2020

Light in the Darkness

Walking through the darkness feels like the weight of a hundred unanswered prayers pressing down. Ever noticed that life marches…
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I’ve been in an intense season of waiting for th

I’ve been in an intense season of waiting for the past few weeks, and I’ve only just made the connection that here we are in Advent. Waiting. There’s a rhythm to it, no? Every year darkness falls at about the same time anticipation rises, and there’s a flicker of joy as I remember. Yes. Here I am again. I’d forgotten where I’m going, but I’m steady now. It’s a bit of a brave thing to step on that path to Bethlehem. There’s presents to be bought and dinners to be planned and candles to be lit, and the honest truth is I’ve fallen behind on all of it. But walking that dark path, following in the grooves left behind by Mary and Joseph and wise men and shepherds and all the faithful who’re just aching for Him- who would want to be anywhere else? My feet finally fall in line, shuffling behind yours, looking for my Joy too. We’re headed where all the unspeakable things lead to the Word that changes everything. We’re headed home. Hope, Joy, Peace, and Love are a Person and the bravest and best thing you’ll ever do is make your way to the manger and the cross where dying is living and Joy always comes alive. Waiting for Him with you and walking beside you,
Amanda #christianmentalhealth #Emotionallyhealthyspirituality #faithandmentalhealth #advent2021 #christiscoming #immanuel #waiting #learningtobeloved #ptsdrecovery #cptsdrecovery #abuserecovery

I am so grateful for this truth today. Wherever y

I am so grateful for this truth today. Wherever you are going, He goes before you. Whatever hurt you’re standing in, He’s standing beside you. Whatever pain you’re feeling, He will not leave you in it. You and me both. #emotionallyhealthyspiituality #christianmentalhealth #faithandmentalhealth #abuserecovery #seekingchrist #learningtobeloved #hopewriterlife #hopewriters #belonging

A little spoken word to start your Advent off. Lis

A little spoken word to start your Advent off. Listen here, or follow the link in bio to listen and read. #hopewriterlife #hopewriters #advent2021 #hope #christmas2021 #spokenword #spokenwordpoetry #incarnation

What are you doing here, Elijah? (1 Kings 19:9).

What are you doing here, Elijah? (1 Kings 19:9). The question holds all the depth and mystery that we imagine it to. Elijah running for his life, weighing hard decisions and next steps, fighting to serve God in a world stacked against him. What are you doing here? Here, at the end of your rope? At the end of what you can endure? At the very last place you expected to be with all your strength drained away? When the only thing you can find to say is: I have had enough, Lord (1 Kings 19:4). How many times have we said it to Him? How many times have we collapsed before Him, spent and weary, and swore to Him with all the fibers inside us that we’re just done? The tenderness of this story of Elijah is that God didn’t even ask him the question until He’d met his needs. Sleep. Food. A gentle touch. A kind word. A safe place to recover. Only then did He begin the conversation with a still, small voice that brought Elijah to his feet. We’re waiting on change, for God to rearrange all the circumstances around us, but what we really need is a God-encounter. What we really need is to be reminded that in the midst of everything, right here in the heart of all the hard things, is where we get encounter the greatest mercy, the sweetest sound, and the knowledge that He is a care-taker
A life-sustainer
A soul-healer It is still well. #emotionallyhealthyspiituality #christianmentalhealth #itiswell #hopewriters #hopewriterlife #faithandmentalhealth #traumarecovery #youareloved #learningtobeloved #abuserecovery

Today is the LAST DAY to enter!!! I am so grateful

It’s mid-week, God, and here we are again, wonde

It’s mid-week, God, and here we are again, wondering how it’s all going to work out. How will we get our needs met? Where’s that healing? How is the crisis going to work out? And suddenly we remember that we’re a people who trust You. All that we’re hoping for will happen in Your timing because there is no other time. It’ll all unfold according to Your plan because there is no other plan. And we don’t have to wonder about Your will because there is no other will. We’ll go ahead and relax into you today because You’ve got this. Your time and Your plan and Your will are always, always good. We’ll tell Your story back to ourselves until we remember the empty grave and the astonished apostles and the women who came with myrrh expecting to weep over You, but instead they walked right into all-consuming Joy. And so now we get to live in the knowing that all our roads, no matter how hard they are to tread, lead back to Your empty tomb. #emotionallyhealthyspirituality #christianmentalhealth #faithandmentalhealth #hopewriters #hopewriterlife #seekingchrist #soulcare #Godstime #Godswill #GodsPlan #compeltraining

"All you have to do is write one true sentence. Wr

"All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." -Ernest Hemingway Like all writers, Hemingway struggled with writer’s block and in this little quote, he describes his path out of it. “So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew…” One true sentence, then another, then another, and then suddenly a great work is finished. Truth makes for a good path forward, don’t you think? Writer’s block is no different than any other block in life. Sometimes we can’t see what to do next. Sometimes we can’t see through the veil of pain and shame. And sometimes we just get so caught up in the mess of life that we’ve forgotten what’s true. But Truth doesn’t move. It’s there when the veil lifts and our eyes shift into focus. One true thing becomes another true thing, then another and suddenly we have a string of truths like stepping stones leading the way safely back to the Author of all the truest sentences. What is one true sentence that you know today? #emotionallyhealthyspirituality #christianmentalhealth #learningtobeloved #hopewriters #hopewriterlife #faithandmentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters #seekingchrist #soulcare #hemingway #truthtelling

His Love is timeless. Linear. Concentric. His L

His Love is timeless. Linear. Concentric. His Love wraps Itself around the past and stretches wide into the future and so the present, with all the mystery of it’s-already-happened-but-also-not-yet, well, it can just be enough. Hope, fear, relief, pain- they can all coexist comfortably because they’re all contained in the Joy of an uncontainable God. #christianmentalhealth #emotionallyhealthyspirituality #faithandmentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters #soulcare #hopewriters #hopewriterlife #compeltraining #complexptsd #abusehealing #traumahealing #learningtobeloved

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