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![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…
![Why Should I Choose a Word of the Year… [in 2024]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/47107FF7-42B3-4A6E-9818-FDBB276C8A28.png)
“The seeds of death are at work in us, but LOVE is stronger than death. Your death and mine are our final passage, our exodus to the full realization of our identity as God’s beloved children and to full communion with the God of Love. Jesus walked the path ahead of us to choose the…
![How to Have Joy [and Be Joyful] in a Not-So-Perfect World.](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/05A5D243-B06B-4D77-A18E-69ECE0C54FC3.jpeg)
Joyful people see with open eyes the hard reality of human existence and at the same time are not imprisoned by it.” – Henri Nouwen Radiating hope ✨ and Shining God’s love in a weary, not-so-perfect world is what the manger message is all about, friends. God’s love for us does not change like the…
![Surrendering Your Dreams… [and the Dream-Maker].](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/7F552247-2DE2-4B5A-9DDB-26ED39C15E9E.png)
Right now I’m livin’ the DREAM I dared to pray for… Does it look exactly like I thought? Uh, no. Does that make it easy? An emphatic, no. But does it ever!? So, humbly I must SURRENDER this new season of unrealized dreams-—to the Maker of my dreams, again and again. The Great Adventure In…
![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 do you love your enemy? Jesus loved in all sorts of challenging circumstances, but none more difficult than Mount Calvary. As he hung on the cross, Jesus’ prayed for his enemies [Luke 23:34]. When praying for our enemies, it becomes easier to love them. Praying for our enemy opens our hearts and allows us…
![“LOVE Makes You Do Crazy Things…” [Really!?]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/41E420DD-46A5-4490-950A-69EC10C017ED.png)
Love can’t make us to do crazy things as suggested by Will Smith last night during his acceptance speech at the Academy Awards. Crazy good things, maybe!? But God is LOVE and love endures all things. Perhaps the wisest words of the night [regarding the incident] came from Denzel Washington. “In your highest moments, be…
![Storms… [finding the meaning in it all?]](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/977316E1-1CE1-4DAC-8508-F3352658B7E1-scaled-1.jpeg)
Weekend before last, hubby and I returned #CousinCarl back to his natural habitat. A weather alert informed us of possible tornado weather ahead. So, we were forced to pull over and wait for the storm to pass. As we continued on, rays of sunshine accompanied by a beautiful rainbow replaced the stormy skies in the…
![Am I Where I’m Supposed to Be…. [asking for a friend]!?](https://rachelwrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/24A203FA-2220-4E9C-9BE6-29F9F3DF3553-scaled-1.jpeg)
I have long dreaded this first week back in January. Knowing this week is when our journey began, I worried. Would I feel saddened by the long, brutal journey of moving to Hometown, OK knowing mama would leave this earth just a few months later? Not to mention, now being marooned in a foreign land…