What’s the hardest thing God has ever asked you to do?
Maybe it was leaving something familiar, stepping out in faith, or trusting God when his plans didn’t make sense.
Nearly 30 years ago, I left the US for the UK to start married life.
I reflect with Lydia Bennett on Premier Christian Radio on navigating a new culture, finding home, and discovering God’s faithfulness through every twist and turn. We draw inspiration from Still Finding Myself in Britain, the 10th anniversary edition of this award-winning book.
I confess, I never thought I’d be living in Britain for nearly longer than my native USA… I haven’t surpassed that mark yet, but only just!
Finding myself in Britain has been a surprise. Some challenges, many joys, some surprises – such as the 10th anniversary edition of my first book!
My publisher asked some good questions about why this book, such as:
As you have looked back on the original book to revise it for this edition, how did you feel? Were there things that surprised you / had changed about yourself since you wrote the original?
To be honest, it was hard looking back! I think for a lot of us, the past ten years have been challenging, with the pandemic, cost of living crisis, and more global changes of people becoming more suspicious and fractious. Our own family has had its fair share of travails, so I sought also to remember how God has brought us through those times, and how he never abandoned us while we were in them. I continue to find myself in Britain!
Jesus said, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39, NIV). But these feel like hard words – self-sacrifice for ultimate gain? How can we even embrace this invitation, even if we want to?
It’s one of the upside-down truths of the kingdom of God that he gives us the ability to lose our lives and then to find them through his love. As Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, observed, When we look for God, he’ll sow during every moment of our lives, grains of his life that one day will spring up in a tremendous harvest.
Join me on the shores of the south coast of England (near Milford-on-Sea) to pray through Jesus’ startling invitation to find ourselves when we lose ourselves in God. We’ll incorporate some of Merton’s insights from his book, New Seeds of Contemplation. Feel free to pause the video at any point as you ponder and reflect with God.
These themes of losing ourselves to find ourselves are those I explore in my award-winning book, Still Finding Myself in Britain. Please consider joining in my through-the-year look at life in the UK as we engage with themes of faith, home, and identity.
We’re so close to Christmas, but I’m only making my first batch of Christmas cookies today! That’s just been the state of our Advent. In searching through my online filing system, I came across this article that appeared in the 2014 Woman Alive December issue, with a few recipes of our favorites at Christmas. Complete with photos of the CutiePyeKids.
For more recipes, and to hear about my sad first Christmas in England, check out the 10th anniversary edition of my first book, Still Finding Myself in Britain.
On this launch day for Still Finding Myself in Britain, I find myself unsettled and lonely for local friends. We moved a couple of months ago, and the house isn’t sorted yet and I don’t have a new gym or local connections.
As I consider my needs, I remember how God has met me in the past, namely when I moved country! As I found myself in Britain, I found myself in God. Yes I made blunders and gaffes, but my new countrypeople accepted me, even while poking fun at me in a lovingly British way! And I learned more about who I am in God, how God has created me, and who I am becoming in him.
God didn’t fail me before, and I believe he won’t now!
How do you need God to meet your needs today? How can you find yourself in God?
Find out more in the wonderful new tenth-anniversary edition of Still Finding Myself in Britain, with a fabulous new foreword by Paul Kerensa and published by Authentic Media.
It’s the Easter season! We’re in the time in the church calendar marked off for celebration – after all, Jesus is risen and lives!
Mind, I’ve not felt very celebratory. Both Nicholas and I came down with covid on Easter Sunday, and I’ve only left the house a few times since. The virus left with me fatigue, although I’m gaining in strength each day and managed a gentle pilates workout yesterday. So although I’ve not celebrated much, I’ve been aware of this season set aside to give thanks, to wonder, to delight. Sometimes that’s how we have to celebrate – while acknowledging the pain we’re also in.
And how do we do so? With the presence of the risen Christ, of Jesus with us. I love this photo that Janet Nielson took, which I share with her permission. She was one of the pilgrims to Iona on the wonderful McCabe Pilgrimages trip at the beginning of April I got to lead. To me this photo reeks of the glory of God in our midst… it’s almost like I can see Jesus’ outline in the light.
How might you celebrate today? Through gritted teeth or not…
As we approach Holy Week next week, the culmination of the season of Lent, we can be gentle to ourselves, however we’re feeling, whether tired, weary, hopeful, or perhaps wishing that we’d kept more rigorously to the practices we chose at the start. Whatever has gone before us, know that God welcomes us to journey with Jesus in the here and now. God’s loving invitation to deepen our faith during this holy week stands.
One way to approach this week is to consider what Jesus experienced each day of his life that week. To help imagine what was happening at various moments, I invite you to download an outline of the events, which I’ve adapted from the NIV Application Commentary: Matthew by Michael J. Wilkins (Zondervan, 2004), pp. 709–10.
I also invite you to join me on Tuesday for a half-hour of prayer via zoom as I lead an engagement with Jesus’ journey via Coracle’s Space for God. More information here.
Lord Jesus Christ, as we enter into the events of this Holy Week, I come to you in humility, confessing my wrongdoing and receiving your forgiveness. May the events of this last week of your life be brought alive to me, that I might know you more intimately and be more grateful for your sacrifice, which gives me life. I join the crowds to shout out with joy, “Hosanna to the King of kings! Blessed are you who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Jesus, the true light, shines into the world as he is born a baby and is God with us, Emmanuel. I invite you to enjoy two short videos I made during the Advent retreats I led at glorious settings, Waverley Abbey, the lovely house and the historic ruins of the Cistercian monastery, and Mulberry House in High Ongar, Essex.
A nighttime blessing and considering of the wonders of Jesus, for whom we wait in Advent:
“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world…” (John 1:9, NIV)
During Advent, this time of darkness in the northern hemisphere, we wait for the True Light who vanquishes the darkness. We embrace the gift of God who came to earth as a baby, who lived among us, who died and rose again, living with us now through his Spirit.
As you ponder the Light of Christ, I offer a poem that I’d forgotten, which someone brought to my attention last week, one I penned some years ago based on Isaiah 9:2, focusing on the True Light:
If you can set aside some time for a retreat this Advent, I know God will bless your time with him!
One way is for anyone who has an internet connection and just under two hours – join my Advent retreat sessions via YouTube and a downloadable journal. Just £15.
OrI have two in-person opportunities for an Advent retreat day:
Join me for an Advent reflection to refocus on Christ from the comfort of your home or in person at the atmospheric Waverley Abbey or beautiful Mulberry House. Through three sessions, using words and pictures, we will look at Jesus from the start, Jesus in the darkness and Jesus with us. We’ll enjoy time together as a group, and you’ll have space for your own prayer and reflection.
Waverley Abbey, Farnham, Surrey, on 14 December. Find out more and book your place. You’ll have time to explore the ruins and enjoy a the wonderful house, decked out for Christmas.
Mulberry House, High Ongar, Essex, on 16 December. Crazily wonderful price of £25 with a 2-course lunch (their food is hotel standard and REALLY nice). Find out more and book a place.
Enjoy the mist and ruins of Waverley Abbey in this Advent-themed video:
Join me in practicing the presence of God on the beautiful shores of the island of Iona, in the inner Hebrides in Scotland. God loves when we welcome his presence in our lives – he’s always there with us!
In the video I share this gorgeous Celtic prayer, as collected in the Carmina Gadelica:
Come I this day to the Father, Come I this day to the Son, Come I this day to the Holy Spirit powerful: I come this day with God, I come this day with Christ, I come this day with the Spirit of kindly balm.
God, and Spirit, and Jesus, From the crown of my head To the soles of my feet; Come I with my reputation, Come I with my testimony, Come I to Thee, Jesu – Jesu, shelter me.
