“for to me, to live is Christ…”
philippians 1:21
philippians 1:21
{kristin}
Every once in awhile, a slight stroke of brilliance comes sweeping across our minds. It's rare, inspired, and often the result of living in the moment just long enough to hear clearly from heaven. It is even more of a rarity when we’re able to experience one of these dazzling breakthroughs in the presence of another human being. Having a partner in crime gives an instant sense of credibility, a shared longing to act, and a common dream tangible enough to recollect and put into motion.
I was able to have one of those moments a few months ago on the telephone with my best friend. One friend on the campus of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, the other in her car driving north on the 101 in the middle of a scorching Phoenix day.
As we glued our phones to our ears, we spoke of written words. Words we’ve read and the words we write ourselves. We spoke meaningfully and transparently about how we came upon this love of the written word. We agreed that writing makes us better, makes us feel like ourselves, makes us present, makes us real. And we began to discover the reason our writing makes us feel such powerful things is because it’s oozing, dripping and saturated in the good news of Jesus.
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{katie}
It is easy for life to feel routine, monotonous, and insignificant. Way too easy. If you’re not careful, weeks go by, then months, and then it is years before you notice everything that has happened around you—the changes in yourself, the changes in the people you love, the growth, the lessons learned. And without ever intending to be, we are stuck in the trap of believing our life is trivial. And it is a trap.
For more reasons than I can say, Kristin is my best friend. But if you had heard the conversation we recently had, well, it would just be even more obvious why. We were talking about writing: about the highs and the lows (there are lots), about why we do it (which is an invaluable question I think we should consistently ask ourselves), about how the delete button is always following closely behind insincerity (because it just doesn’t work to fake it), and about what it does to our soul to be real, and to create something that expresses what we really mean. And then Kristin adds this:
{You know, Kate, I’ve been thinking a lot about what our writing is and what it means, and it’s like everything always comes back to the gospel. All we write about has this way of landing back on Jesus; and, just how everything in our lives makes the most sense when we talk about it through that lens. And that’s exactly how it should be}
Kristin hit the heart of everything with that statement. That is exactly what we want our writing to be about: how every day, everything that happens is a part of what God always intended, a reflection of what it means to live in light of the gospel. There are no meaningless relationships, no unimportant jobs, no pointless discussions. The good things are gifts to be treasured. The people we love are but glimpses of what it means to be loved by a Savior. And the painful moments are longings for our true home.
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{kristin}
The gospel is more than 4 laws. It’s more than a one-time prayer. It’s more than church, than memorization. It’s even more than good news. It’s the unshakable foundation of our every move and the electric source of our every thought. Suddenly, when we shine the light of Jesus on our everyday thoughts and musings, colors are more vibrant, people look more like miracles, and a life we once classified as mundane spins and twists into fruitful motion.
Katie and I refuse the mundane. And that’s because beyond our simple commonalties, we share a deep-sea, sky-high love of Jesus Christ. We believe in his power and choose to see him in all things. He doesn’t promise it’ll be easy or flowing in prosperity, but he does promise perfect love and endless grace, and that’s what we want to rest in.
We write imperfectly to showcase a perfect God.
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{katie}
Life is a lot of things, but it is never trivial. And as much as anything, that is what we want to remind you of when we write. God is a good, good God. And the world is full of reflections of this goodness in so many places: early morning quiet, a baby’s laugh, a genuine friendship, a good pizza, the ocean, the first flowers after a long winter, a cozy blanket and just-can’t-put-it-down-book, the hand of your soul mate, sunsets… But all of us know there are plenty of hard things, too: sickness, injustice, scary doctor appointments, arguments, corrupt leaders, poverty, earthquakes, divorce, losing a job—or a leg, or a loved one… And it is all real.
So we write about what is real, and about how everything begins and ends with the Gospel. And it is our most sincere prayer that you find in our words some evidence that your life matters so deeply, and that for everyone, our joy, our hope, our saving grace, and the deepest longings of our hearts are met in a man named Jesus.
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