Mary E. DeMuth

He created us for adventure, not ease.

Our task shouldn't be punishing the villains in our lives, but enlarging the God who heals us from all wounds.

Growth comes in the aftermath of failure, not wild success.

We grow when the walls press in. We grow when life steals our control. We grow in darkness.

I understand true life doesn't happen when I constantly gaze backwards, mulling over all the injustices others have done or I have done to others.

Jesus wastes none of our stories, even our tales of woe. He transforms them into epic adventures where we dare to face our past for the sake of our present.

To become more like Jesus we must understand that the only growth we can be in charge of is our own.

My stubborn, self-savvy heart will not reach for the sky if my earth becomes everything I need. If people fill me up then where is my need for the transcendent? If everything is glory and beauty and sweetness and light, will I be the type of soul that reaches to Jesus?

Pain can either thrust me into the arms of Jesus or make me turn my back on Him. Either way, it's a choice.

Money is a cheap but powerful substitute for Jesus, and wielding money is intoxicating, but it won't usher in the kingdom of God, nor will it ensure eternal treasures.

When Jesus isn__ our everything, our enough, we pursue every other thing that fills.

As I look back over my mountains of growth and compare them to the molehills where I stagnated, community often made the difference.

The more we love, the more it hurts, and the more we have to let go.

Jesus often calls us to risk. He asks us to be vulnerable, to be authentic, so others can see Him in and through us.

Dare to be brave today, and trust that when you extend your wings, you will fly.

We may not understand the pathways God lays out before us. We may not even like walking the journey. But even in failure, we can trust that He__l do more than we expect.

A broken person understands she needs rescue, and she depends on God to resurrect and deliver. And she also understands that even if God chooses not to deliver, His ways are higher and more amazing then what we can fathom.

When the world careens out of control, we can rest in the fact that God spun this world with a simple word. Matter from emptiness. Beauty from void. Community from chaos.