Join the quest and Accept The Love Challenge!
![Living A Life of Love… [the Believer’s Calling]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/6D2928BE-8440-4758-B829-B24B1683970D.png)
A Fallen, Wounding World God didn’t call us to a life of wounding, friends. He called us to live a life of LOVE. But because of our human-ness, we’re born into a world inherently wounding. And sadly, as creatures of a fallen, imperfect world, we inflict our own wounding behaviors on those around us. “With…
![Perfecting God’s Love… [Our Life-Giving Gift]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/C369BD7D-F601-4BAA-809E-63D112B5DC3F.png)
Our Human-ness Brokenness became our human-ness when sin entered the world. Our perfectly axised world suddenly set un-straight was forever imperfectly tilted towards disobedience, enmity, and darkness. We’re called, as Christ followers, to peel back the darkness and live in the Light; becoming increasingly more like Him. We’re called to love like Jesus loved. And…
![The Best Kind of Friend… [and God’s Purpose in Suffering.]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/A4A34026-4B78-4E7D-BD8C-9D74E63CC826.png)
The best kind of friend is a praying friend. It’s no secret 2024 has been a hard year for the Rains’ household. Little by little, I’ve pulled back the curtains in this season of life and let friends in… I might’ve overshared a time or two. But the reality is when we share our “stuff,”…
![Trusting God’s Goodness [in the Darkness]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/BDCBBCA2-D23A-4CF5-A600-E6D7F9623FFE.png)
If We’re Being Honest Neither the church nor our broken world needs more SHINY PEOPLE who hide behind the veneer of an audible “fine.” The world needs more Christians willing to process and wrestle publicly. Because when we are honest about the world’s brokenness and our struggles within it, we underscore the futility of our…
![How to Not Be a Stumbling Block for Others [and love like Jesus]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/9886033D-594A-47C8-9248-9C99A78006F5.jpeg)
Doing What I Do Not Want to Do “For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate.” – Romans 7:15 Do you ever wish you hadn’t done or said something unkind? Or maybe you simply withheld a kindness when given…
![Why Your [Broken] Story Matters…](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/D5A9670F-6671-44C7-81C1-1D9AE57875AF.jpeg)
Last month as we chased the Blue Moon, as oft we do, I was experiencing increasingly infuriating health issues which eventually led to the canceling of hubby’s birthday celebrations over the holiday weekend. It was a hard blow—for both of us. And for different reasons. But out of the ashes, a tide of healing burst…
![How to BE LOVE in a [Not-So-Perfect] Barbie World…](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/656F884D-5B0F-4ABF-B8EF-C7DDFB78B681.png)
I snapped this photo of a wayward, perfectly pink Barbie shoe as I walked into my Bible study in Nashville—four summers ago. And I’ve kept it on my phone, all this time?! What can I say, it spoke to me. I guess because I’m still a Barbie girl at heart. As a young girl, Barbie…
![How to Love The Unlovable… [in the wake of another tragedy]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/9916C315-6131-4A51-90E8-E3AA83992B54.png)
Every time I hear of another school shooting, I always return to the same, recurring thought. “Woe is the suffering/misery this person surely endured to have committed such an unfathomable act of horror.” Often you’ll read the words, “I hope the killer rots in hell.” But clearly they’ve already experienced hell. Hell on this earth….
![Black History Month… [Celebrating People of Color]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/9607F7A0-E9BA-4CE5-987A-B5330CD246BF.png)
When celebrating Black History month, I couldn’t help but think “some of history’s BEST examples of accepting the challenge to love a broken, unlovable world are People of Color.” Hands down, the life story and mission of John M. Perkins is the best, fully-human example of loving the unlovable I’ve ever encountered. Rather than hating…