Thursday Things #87
Book pies, shorts because #ohmygoshtheheat, Maundy Thursday words and a giveaway.
Welcome! Every other Thursday, I share a handful of things I'm loving, reading, watching, listening to or just discovered. In other words . . . what I'd text you about if I had your number or mention if we met up for coffee! I'm so glad you're here. :)
It’s a heavy Holy Week, isn’t it? I won’t fill this space at the top with a lot of words, and I’m intentionally keeping today’s email short, but I do hope that as you sit in the weight and the grief of Good Friday, you find that Jesus is there with you—never rushing you through, never saying “yeah, but don’t forget about Sunday!”—but drawing close and bending low to wash feet, to weep, to carry every ounce of what we owed so that He could carry us Home.
Yes, Easter is indeed coming. Praise God, Sunday is on the way. But I’m so glad He meets us here, too. So thankful that He weaves joy and hope onto every single page, that He keeps His promises on all the days, that somehow Friday and Saturday turn out to be good, too.
May the rest of this week be beautiful even in its heaviness, and may you find that in your darkest night and deepest grief, He is ever near.
Below: Two lighter things, two more meaningful things, and a giveaway.
Book pies.
Just . . . wow.
Prepare to be amazed.
“Come for the pies, stay for the books,” she says.
I will.
Shorts because summer is upon us.
I know you’re all here because you’re looking for the latest in fashion inspiration (insert the biggest eye roll ever), and I’m happy to help. My friend Mel and I went to Sam’s Club last week and I left with two pairs of shorts.
From Sam’s Club.
The amount of shame I have about this is exactly zero.
The Heat and The Shorts are high on my list of Things I Do Not Like At All, but heat is worse and so we wear the shorts. So if you find decent shorts, you buy them. That’s just my rule.
I’m almost positive these are the same ones, but if you have a Sam’s near you, it’s worth running by because they had multiple colors for $15.
Jesus didn’t run.
It’s the part about torches of fire in the darkness, weaving like a snake toward a garden. It’s the part about the 6-story veil, tearing top to bottom. It’s the part about how scholars say it would have looked like the temple itself was bleeding out due to the Passover sacrifices, coinciding with a solider piercing His side. (“But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.” John 19:34)
It’s the part about how Jesus is the true and better . . . everything. Temple. Veil. Passover Lamb. Sacrifice. High Priest.
But mostly, tonight, it’s this that I can’t stop thinking about:
There was plenty of time to run. Jesus wasn't taken by surprise. Knowing with absolute certainty what was ahead, He chose to stay.
God is ridiculously good at the details. Nothing is lost to Him. Something I didn't realize until I spent time in Israel: Jesus likely already had blood on His feet by the time He reached Gethsemane. I wrote more about that here, if you’d like to read a reflection on Maundy Thursday.
But of all the things I could say in this email, I hope you hear this: It might be dark, what you’re facing might be entirely overwhelming, and there may seem to be absolutely no way out, no chance things will get any better. That can be true, but this is too: we have a God who stays. Hope does indeed get the final word.
You’re Not Finished Yet.
Fro today and all the days . . .
You don't play games, it's not who You are
You're not the type to mislead my heart
I can trust You here, I can trust You here
and now I've only known You to keep Your word
I've only found love at every turn
I can trust You here, oh I can trust You
I won't forget the things You've done
For I know that this is just the beginning
And You're not finished yet, You're not finished yet
Until I see Your promise come
God with all I am, I'll keep believing
That You're not finished yet, You're not finished yet
Get Your Hopes Up.
And then there was that time words written in May ended up in Target nearly a year later?
Wild.
If you have any interest in watching me try to be normal about it (🙃), or if you’d like to hear Get Your Hopes Up read over you, I read the edited version in the video linked above.
A promised in the caption, I have a few extra copies to give away here in Thursday Things! Click the box below to leave a comment and you’re entered. 💛 Share an Easter tradition, what you’re making for Easter brunch/dinner, a current favorite thing, whatever!
(I’ll leave a comment on 4/11 after randomly selecting the winners that morning.)
I've been in a flare for the last 2ish weeks and haven't been tolerating solid food - THRILLED to be eating real food (not broth) for Easter tomorrow.
Looking forward to spending time with family.
Celebrating Easter is a family time. Amazingly almost all of us can get together for at least a little bit. I still hide a basket for my daughter, who is now 27, and now for her boyfriend. We always have my mom’s coffee cake and do egg wars with hard-boiled eggs. It’s a wonderful time to celebrate all that Jesus did for us.