WELCOME BACK …
and
HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY, ECHOES OF GRACE!!

Who is this crazy lady who pens Echoes almost every week?

As Echoes starts its 15th year, I thought I’d share with you a significant part of my story. I recorded this video earlier this summer. It’s about a 21 minute listen and I hope you’ll find time to tune in. And as always, feel free to share it with your friends.

If you haven’t already signed up to “follow” Echoes of Grace,  please do. That puts you with a group of friends who I also send a more personal brief devotional email to once or twice a month. I’d love to have you join us; it’s my birthday gift to you.

Here’s the link for my video …

https://collegiatenavigators.org/heart-of-discipling-women-collection-4/

Under the heart, click “Explore” and scroll down to find my interview.

Now it’s your turn. I’d love to hear more of your story.

Copyright: Sue Tell, summer 2024

Do you see the butterfly?

I love summer. Time to rest; time to read and journal; time with friends. And it’s not over yet!

I love fall. The cooler days; the colors; the celebrations; and more opportunities to be with friends. And it’s just beginning.

This fall I’m returning to facilitating a small group Bible study at our church. It’s been a while and I’m excited to be back.

For me, September has always marked new beginnings.

It started with school days, then teaching days coinciding with collegiate ministry, and church ministry. That’s a lot of years of September beginnings. My calendar, a 9-month, 3-month schedule kicks off (pun intended) every September. Old habits die hard.

I bet many of you are also blessed to lead small groups.

As this September new year rolls around again, it’s good for me to remember … and I’ll share with you … my top 10 lessons of small group leading. Perhaps these will help you too.

1) Don’t go to my closet and pull out my leader hat. Be who I am. Share vulnerably. Everyone is growing.

2) Keep peeling the layers of the onion in my life. No matter how many times I’ve been through the material, approach it as if it’s the first time.

3) Partner in leading. Invite your friend to lead with you; take advantage of her strengths. Affirm her often.

4) Communicate regularly. Invite the people in your group to meet for coffee or come for lunch. Call, text, email – let them know you want to be a friend.

5) Share other resources you happen upon freely. Learning doesn’t always initiate with me. Blogs, magazine articles, you-tube videos. The resources never end.

6) The value is in the group! Listen and learn from the others. If I don’t, I miss out big time. Give them the pedestal.

7) A leader, no. God gave me this group to help facilitate what we are all learning. We’re in this together.

8) Pray, pray, and pray again. For yourself, for your friends in the group. For wisdom, for ears to hear, for the Word to truly be living and active for each group member.

9) Set up anticipation. I’ll share how I heard from God next week. Or something similar.

10) Know when to take a semester off to re-charge your spiritual batteries.

Copyright: Sue Tell, August 2024

Echoes of Grace plans to return September 5, 2024

“Behind the gas stove top in the kitchen is a glass splashback which, over the years, has had bits and bobs stuffed behind it. There’s a couple of the girls’ drawings from yesteryear, and most recently, a poster we made to publicise our Hogmanay ‘Survivor’ themed party.

In the top left hand corner is a little painting I did years ago, to represent the story of Mary pouring nard (perfume) over Jesus’ feet in John 12. The whole story is compelling, but I had found myself captivated by the end of verse 3 –

And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

John 12:3b

I remember pondering how this woman, sacrificing probably her most prized possession for Jesus’ sake, had altered the aroma of the whole setting. It occurred to me at the time that our love does that – it changes the atmosphere of the physical spaces we find ourselves in. It might not be actual perfume, but the scent of our love, our sacrifice, our adoration, our joy, is redolent for all to breathe in.

The little painting in the kitchen has been there for over a decade and I have long since stopped looking at it. I enjoy the colours, and don’t really know how to remove anything from behind this glass screen anyway, so it’s remained. But I’d forgotten the heart of it. I’d forgotten how I’d felt drawn into the story, inspired to view my life, in a sense, as a living sacrifice, setting the atmosphere with grace.

I wonder also if over time the sweeping pinks and golds have served to paint the picture of Mary worshipping her Lord with a kind of elegance that most of the time seems difficult to relate to. This is Mary, we know, Mary who sat at Jesus’ feet while Martha tidied the kitchen. Mary who seems to know, at any given time, that her devotion and focus is Jesus. It’s easy to imagine her, with her long hair and steady devotion, as graceful, steadfast. It’s more difficult to imagine her running around like a banshee, which is something I have plenty of experience of.

.

This week past, though, I’ve had reason to look again at the painting over the stove. I spent a bit of time with another woman who anoints Jesus’ feet with perfume, this time not Mary with Lazarus in John 12, but the sinful lady who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears in Luke 7, in the house of Simon the Pharisee.
Both women washed Jesus’ feet with perfume, and dried them with their hair. Both women made huge sacrifices; these alabaster jars would have cost the equivalent of thousands and thousands of pounds.
The stories differ, though, in the emotion expressed. The sinful woman, who wasn’t named, was likely a prostitute, unwelcome in the Pharisee’s house; an outcast. It says she ‘stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying‘ (v38) and then proceeded to wash his feet with her tears.

Here was a woman, bereft, who knew that the only place she could go was the feet of Jesus. And once she was there, she instinctively knew that she had to give him everything, so spilt her precious perfume for him. (Mary from the first story knew this too, to her credit; it’s my interpretation of her story that became somewhat two-dimensional, rather than the woman herself).

Jesus says later on in the sinful woman’s passage (v 47) ‘I tell you that her many sins are forgiven, so she showed great love. But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.‘

We know from Jesus’ other teaching that this woman was no more or less sinful than anyone else, but what was different was her awareness of her own sin. There was no doubt in her mind that Christ was everything, everything she needed. She was so aware of her own lack that it allowed for her love to flow freely. And the whole house smelt beautiful because of it..

Something of the messiness of this lady’s situation has allowed me to engage with this principle again. The principle being that we’re invited to give all that we have, all that we are, at the feet of Jesus. And the aroma of that sacrifice infuses all the physical places, and earthly relationships that we are part of. What, in particular, we asked to give to Jesus doesn’t matter so much – we don’t have jars of perfume to pour out of – but we are asked to come as we are, and worship him. To sit at his feet in our lack, and to receive his love.

This week has been a messy week. I’ve stared at the picture behind the stove as I’ve cooked, and I wondered to myself What do I smell of? What scent is infiltrating into my surroundings? Because it sure doesn’t smell like perfume. It smells like fear. Disappointment. It smells like agitation and pressure. I haven’t had time to sit around pouring anything over Jesus’ feet. I don’t think I’ve got anything beautiful to give you Lord.

And what I have realise is that the perfume isn’t the most important part of these stories. The most important part isn’t what I sense I have, or have not, to bring to Jesus.

The most important part is Jesus.

Jesus.

These women whose lives are an example to us are only there to point to Jesus.
Jesus, full of grace, who is not only worthy of our total adoration and the sacrifice of our most expensive possessions, he is there to receive us in our place of lack. He receives us in our lack and meets it with his love.

The wisdom of both of the ladies is that they knew this. The beautiful aroma wasn’t from the perfume, it was from their dependence. It was from their desperate and determined decision to sit as close to their saviour Jesus as they humanly could.

And so in a week where upset has heaped upon upset, without any of the elegance or long hair of these ladies, I’m invited to plonk myself before he who is my home. I’m invited to come as I am, with the worship of my sorrow, and receive his grace.

And that – or rather he – is the sweetest smelling fragrance of them all.”

Ros Boydell

Thank you again Ros for how you bring the word of God to life.

Today I am going to share a pretty major secret. I would claim it is the most important secret, and the true bedrock to our faith. This secret is trust. Trusting God is a broad overarching principle that is the foundation to our journey of following Jesus. But here is the key: God has designed us with an innate fundamental longing to be loved—and trust is the secret to experiencing this love that only he can give us.

Said another way, trust unlocks love.

This idea is a bit complex as “love” is a multifaceted concept. In order to understand how trust unlocks love, I think it’s important to define the word. I’ll be using a very practical definition of love that I got from the founders of Trueface which describes love as the process of meeting needs.

Love is the process of meeting needs.

Think of this more as a working definition than a one size fits all definition of love. Love is our most fundamental desire. If we boil down all of our wants and desires, the primary desire inside all of us is to be loved.

And scripture points us to this. If you have any experience with faith, you know the broad concept: “God is love.”

1 John 4:7-8 tells us:

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Genesis 1:26 “. . . then God said,  ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.’”

God is love, he has made us in his image, and my life affirms these truths deeply. Even if you aren’t a Jesus follower, you can get your head around this, right? I long to be loved. We long to be loved. When you boil everything down, it is our heart’s truest longing.

Now, what does that really mean? What does this love actually look like? To understand this idea, let’s think of love as a bicycle with two wheels: the first is being needed and the second is being known. If love is the bicycle, these wheels, being needed and known, represent the two most critical yearnings or components within us to realize what we desire and what we are designed for. The two fundamental yearnings within us. If you are human, you share these core needs.

Now let me unpack what I mean when I say need:

• We have a need to feel valued. Do we matter? Are we important?
• We have a need to feel chosen. Would we be missed or are we worth fighting for?
• We have a need to feel significant. Are we contributing in a meaningful way? Does my work have meaning?

The other component is being known. If you have ever been lonely, you are already aware of this fundamental desire because the truth is:

• We have a need for attention. I see this need in my kids who ask if I am watching them or when I will play with them.
• We have a need to be affirmed. I feel this in my craving to be told I’m doing a good job or that I have what it takes. For example, I have been back working out at the gym and lost ten pounds over the past couple months and waiting for Emily to mention that she notices a difference.
• We also have a need to be understood. That’s why asking questions is a great way to love. The people you feel most connected to are often people who are interested in understanding who you are and how you feel. That’s why one of the best ways you can love others is by asking questions, kind of like Jesus did.

Now that we understand our greatest needs and desires, let’s review:

Love is the process of meeting needs—the giving and receiving of needs being met.

We feel loved when others meet these needs we have and we love others by meeting their needs. It’s important to know that these longings are valid and central to our lives. It’s also important to be aware of how we are meeting them, and who we are looking to to meet these needs in our lives.

What do we depend on to meet our needs?

This is where we circle back to our key ingredient of trust. We must rely on God to find what we are looking for. We have to trust God—not ourselves or the answers of the world.

This longing for love is central to our design, and it is a centerpiece to this war of the world vs the kingdom of God. Our world, with its subtle lies, tells us that we can find or meet our own needs. If we think hard enough about it, we can manifest it. If we hustle hard enough, we can make it happen. There is definitely merit and truth to working hard and pushing towards your dreams, but the evil one is clever. He manipulates these needs and desires and spreads lies that feel like truth. The world says they have answers for what we are looking for. That we can fill the longings of our own hearts. That we can find value in our own abilities, affirmation in our money, validation from the opposite sex, and the significance we crave from our jobs. All without God. Why would we need him? We can do it all ourselves.

But here’s the truth: these are all lies.

How and what we look to to answer these longings matters and is central to the war of our hearts.

Our longings are the central battleground for both sides: our Heavenly father, and the evil one.  Each is fighting to provide us with the needs we are longing for. But only God wants these needs to actually be filled, the evil one is just trying to deceive us so our true needs are never met.

God made us with a healthy desire for attention.

The lies say, “I can do enough, be enough to get the attention I deserve.” Conversely, we see Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, which was an intimate expression of attention. To us living today, we are given the Holy Spirit who will never leave us.

God made us with a need to be affirmed.  

We can receive affirmation from the next cute guy or girl who gives us attention–on screens or in person. Or we can seek that affirmation in relationship with our Father in heaven and others in healthy ways. Who we gain our affirmation from is one of the biggest battles we will face.

God made us with a desire to be known.

The world says if people really knew you, there is no way anyone could love you. So the world’s game becomes only letting others see the “best version” of you. The world tells us to conform in fear, but the Father says he knows me intimately and knit me together in my mothers womb. And in healthy relationships, like with the guys in my small group, I can choose to put my mask away and be vulnerable. They know what I am struggling with, and they love me more, not less.

God made me to live a life of purpose.

My pride says I need to do something significant to deserve or earn love. Jesus said, nah, there is nothing you could do to get any more or less of my love for you. Trust me and I will invite you to partner with me in my kingdom work which will be of great purpose.

God made me with a desire to have significance and value.

My pride says that my money, my roles or position, prove my value. Jesus says, you are a son of God, a saint, a new creation imparted with my righteousness, someone worth dying for.

The evil one offers effective and compelling lies because they give us the momentary illusion of meeting our needs of value, significance, and being known—but they don’t last. They are temporary and come up wanting. All of us have tasted a piece of what the world offers and we know this is true. These “answers” are momentary, they feel good or satisfy for an instant and then we’re left empty again. The simple truth is the lies will never deliver what they promise.

Jesus made us right in relationships in order to experience radical love. We were created with these needs so that only God could meet them. He knew we couldn’t achieve these longings, and that the world’s answers wouldn’t satisfy the true desires of our heart.

The secret to experiencing life with God is trust. Trust is how we unlock and experience love. Trust is how we move towards what Jesus made possible.

Trusting God is letting God love us.

It is a posture of humility, of receiving. Trusting God is letting him meet our needs.

Here are some questions for you to reflect on:

1. Where am I putting my trust the most? Is it in me, others, institutions, God, my career, somewhere else?
2. Which of the God-given needs of attention, affirmation, being known, purpose, and significance is the most difficult for you to acknowledge? Which is the easiest?
3. Who have you allowed to meet your needs in love?

TrueFace posts a brief blog every day. You can sign up on this sight and a reminder will come to your email each time a new one posts. I think it’s well-worth the space on your devise. Their words always get me thinking and lead me to grace.

https://www.trueface.org/blog/trust-the-secret-to-experiencing-life-with-god

THE SHAME CYCLE

I’ve spent far too much time asking myself two questions: What is wrong with me? and Why can’t I get it together?

These aren’t kind questions. They are condemning. They’re laced with a nasty idea: shame. Up until a few years ago, I wouldn’t have known to call it that. But then a friend gently helped me see the narrative that shame speaks: You’re not enough. You’re not worthy of love. Something is wrong – beyond even Jesus’ repair – at the core of your being. And worse yet, it tells me that nobody else is quite as bad as I am, leaving me feeling hidden and alone.

I had tried so many times to “fix” myself. As I struggled with sexual sin, anxiety and an intense drive to earn others’ approval, I would vow to make changes. Inevitably, I cycled back to sin, which left me feeling like a failure, only intensifying the shame.

But over time, God began to remind me of His narrative, a story that is louder than the story of shame. He is not repulsed or frustrated with me. He would never, ever speak shame over me. I began to see how Jesus treated people who struggled with shame (John 8:1-11; Luke 7:36-50). His love, combined with His truth, caused them to come out of hiding.

I am learning that I no longer have to remain hidden but can actually invite Jesus into my shame. His voice tells me that I am accepted, chosen and redeemed, made righteous and blameless by his blood – regardless of how I feel. I don’t have to “fix” myself.

Freed by the love of Christ to tell the truth about myself, I am seeing a new cycle emerge. I am finding the courage to practice vulnerability with my friends. Authentic relationships are emerging, and more truth and freedom is taking hold. This is good news!

Are there any areas of your life where you wrestle with shame? Would you be willing to sit with the Father and allow Him to speak into those very places, listening for what truth He wants to speak?

Once you’ve done that, think of a friend you could practice vulnerability with. Take a step of courage and invite them into this part of your life. Who knows, you may even hear them say, “Me too!”

Additional Resources

The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves by Curt Thompson

The Shame Exchange: Trading Shame for God’s Mercy and Freedom by Steve & Sally Breedlove and Ralph & Jennifer Ennis

Boldly I Approach, a song by Rend Collective

Megan has worked for The Navigators in Colorado, in her home state of Pennsylvania, in Washington, DC, and in Atlanta. She recently moved to Colorado Springs to work with The Navigators Pastoral Care Team. If it’s sunny outside, you won’t be able to keep her indoors (and yet, she dreams of snow days where she can be curled up by a fire). Three years ago, she would have called you crazy if you had told her that one of her current loves would be running.

This flag was presented to my Mom at Dad’s memorial honoring his service to our country in World War II. He was part of the Army Air Force. He rarely spoke of his experience, and I wish now I could ask him more questions. The Silent Generation.

As a child, the Fourth of July, was a fun beginning of the summer holiday. (School never got out until the third week in June.) A big parade started our day and the fireworks ended it with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers sandwiched in the middle.

Living in Colorado Springs, the home of five military installations, and having many friends who have served our country, the Fourth has taken on deeper meaning.

What does the Fourth mean for you?

google image; Happy 4th to you!

“For freedom Christ has set us free;”
Galatians 5:1

Copyright: Sue Tell, April 2024

First a Surprise … When I write, I control what I share. Not so much on a podcast! A few months ago I agreed to be a guest on the “Lifted to Hope” podcast. In two episodes I share a piece of my spiritual journey that relates to shame and being on the staff of a Christian ministry. Shame, one of the outcomes of believing lies. It’s a bit scary to be vulnerable on a podcast. But I’m reeling in my feelings of insecurity and sharing the links with you. Perhaps God will whisper to you. If so, feel free to share these links.

https://www.louisesedgwick.com/podcast/101/
https://www.louisesedgwick.com/podcast/102/

And now, this week’s post.

I need a uniform for significance.

Kappa Delta Chi, 1969
(not in our tan skirts and blazers)

When I was a student at Hope College, I was a member of a local sorority, Kappa Delta Chi. Like all the other sororities on campus, we were easily identified by our uniform. For us it was a tan skirt and blazer. I wore it with pride. It provided an identity. Everyone knew I belonged. The relationships that grew out of that association were important to me.

And it fed into something I believed. I need a uniform for significance. I needed something to communicate to you, I’m significant.

That was a lie! My significance did not rest on the clothes I wore.

Close to the same time I pledged the sorority, my fledgling faith was also growing. I was learning the basics of my Christian life, like how to grow my friendship with God, how to experience my new identity.

The concept of lies was not a part of those days. But as I’ve learned to trust my identity — the beloved child of God (I John 3:1) — God has been whispering, Sue, are there other things you are placing your identity in? YES!

No longer is it Kappa Delta Chi, but could it be ministry? Could it be being a gramma (my spelling)? Could it be …? What uniform do I feel I need now?

A uniform draws attention to me. My heart is that my life draws attention to God. These are two of the verses I pray over to re-center me, to help me TRUST TRUTH.

“Do not let your adorning be external —
but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart …”
I Peter 3:3 and 4

“We carry this precious Message around
in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.”
II Corinthians 4:7, The Message rendition

My heart is that my life (not the clothes I wear) adorns the gospel. So I pray, God, what does it look like for me to adorn your gospel today?

It was important for me to identify that lie.
It was more important that I identified  and replaced it with truth that counteracts it.
It is MOST important that I practice TRUSTING that truth.

Knowledge of truth does not transform.
I need to trust the truth.
When I trust the truth, I experience the truth.
When I experience the truth, I am transformed.

“Not to us, O LORD, not to us,
but to your name give glory,”
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.”
Psalm 115:1

Copyright: Sue Tell, May 2024

It’s all up to me!

Dr. Neil Anderson in his book, Victory Over Darkness, shares several truths about how satan wants us to think about our identity and how God’s word speaks truth into those lies.

Satan’s lie: You get your identity from what you have done.  God’s truth: You get your identity from what God has done for you. Thank you for this reminder, Dr. Anderson.

What pride when I think it’s all up to me. Yet in some situations I confess … and repent … that I think that. After all, I’m the spiritual one. And they know that. My friend identifies with this and she words it I have to be the one to make it happen.

Over and over, God reminds, my identity is based on his truth, not my doings. My identity is based on what God has done for me. I often pray over these truths …

“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me:
your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.”
Psalm 138:8

“I planted,
Apollos watered,
but God gave the growth.”
I Corinthians 3:6

“And I am sure of this,
that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion …
Philippians 1:6

“And it turns out, a me centered view of anything, including one’s theology,  is the lens through which we end up seeing the skewed idea of never being enough…”. Ruth Chou Simons, When Strivings Cease, page 119.  I highly recommend this book.

Google Image

Truth: It’s NOT all up to me. This little child, does not have it (whatever ‘it’ is). And neither do I. God’s got it.

God will fulfill his purpose for me which happens to be all bound up in his love. (Psalm 138:8) God has a place and a desire for me to contribute, but he keeps the responsibility for the results in his court. (I Corinthians 3:6 and Philippians 1:6)

Matthew 4:1-11 records the narrative of Jesus being tempted by the devil. In each of three temptations, the devil goes after places of vulnerability, like hunger. In the first instance, Jesus had just finished a 40 day fast and naturally was hungry. “And the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he (Jesus) answered, ‘It is written, Man shall not live be bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” Matthew 4:3 and 4.

In each of satan’s temptations, he shoots his arrows at places of Jesus’s identity.

In each of the temptations, Jesus responds with truth, with the Word of God. Jesus is secure in his identity. In Jesus’s reality he is teaching me how I need to respond to the lies I tend to believe, those places of my vulnerability. Those places where the arrows are aimed at my identity.

As I look over the list in my journal of the lies I tend to believe and the truths that counteract them, I realize everyone is somehow a picture of how I view myself. Each speaks to my identity.

“For the word of God is living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and of spirit,
of joints and of marrow,
and discerning the thoughts and intention of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12

My Faith is Too Small!

January 2020, visiting Barbara in the hospital

It was October, 2019. I returned to our great room in tears, tears of joy! I could barely mumble out to my curious husband what I’d just experienced as I spoke with my sister struggling with COPD across the country by phone.

She prayed with me. She trusted Jesus as her personal savior.

That was the beginning of a new depth in our relationship. For the next several months, we spoke on the phone almost daily. Twice I boarded a plane to be with her. Every conversation pointed us to Jesus. Sometimes it was my sharing scripture with her. More than once it was she sharing Bible narratives she remembered with me. Whatever we shared became the fodder for our prayer together that day.

My faith was definitely too small. Would our sister-relationship ever change to sisters in Christ? I didn’t think so. My faith was way too small!

One evening she reminded me of the parable of the mustard seed.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed
that a man took and sowed in his field.
It is the smallest of all seeds,
but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants
and becomes a tree,
so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
Matthew 13:31 and 32

The size of the seed is not an indicator of the size of the plant; the size of the potential buried deep in the seed.

“‘But if you can … help us.’
‘All things are possible for the one who believes.’
‘I believe; help my unbelief!’
… his disciples asked him privately,
‘Why could we not cast it out?’
‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.'”
from Mark 9:22-29

I believe; help my unbelief! So often this is my plea. Truth tells me my unbelief is not the issue. Jesus is able. Am I praying?

So often I want to do; Jesus asked me to pray, to trust his ability to do.

“For by the grace given to me …
think (of yourself) with sober judgment,
each according to the measure of faith
that God has assigned.”
Romans 12:3 (parentheses mine)

Commentators don’t agree of the phrase, measure of faith. Does that mean that we all have the same amount of faith? Or does it mean that we have differing measures?

Whatever, God has assigned my measure of faith. So God has assigned what he is asking me to trust him for. If I think my faith is too small, my standard is higher than God’s!

“Now to him who is able to do
far more abundantly
than all that we ask or think …”
Ephesians 3:20

I remind myself of this truth often signing all my correspondence with FMA, Far More Abundantly.

A Mustard Tree

A Mustard Seed

Even as I pen these truths that counteract the lie that my faith is too small, I think of a very difficult situation. It’s easy to think, this is impossible; my faith is FAR too small to trust God with this one. And I’m challenged, where is my focus? On the perceived impossible and my small faith or on God who is able to do far more abundantly than all the I even ask him for or think about.

What about you? Do you struggle with thinking your faith is too small for your current reality? I encourage you along with me to trust these truths. Or perhaps there are other truths God has whispered to you. Please share!

Copyright: Sue Tell, June 2024