Choosing Chains

For my latest assignment for school I had to read/watch Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. I found something in the speech that I had never noticed before... Dr. MLK begins his speech with this fact: President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which officially freed the African American slaves. However, 100 years later, he made it quite clear that the slave may have been freed, but the African American people are still crippled by discrimination, chained by racism, and trapped in segregation.

When I read that this time around, I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed the correlation to us as God's children before.  

How often is this us?

Jesus gave us official and unbreakable freedom when He died for us on the Cross 2,000 years ago. His speech was three simple words that signed it: "It is finished."

 No longer bound to the law or to the inevitable curse of an eternity in hell apart from Him-- we were FREED.

Free from sin, free from death, free from darkness, free from the law, free from apathy, free from hell...

free to BE, free to LIVE, free to WORSHIP, free to have PURPOSE, free to walk in LIGHT, free to have JOY, free to have HOPE and to give it, free to LOVE and to BE LOVED, free to MAKE A DIFFERENCE, free to KNOW GOD and WALK with Him.

Yet here we are.

Over 2,000 years later, still crippled by the religiosity of the law, chained by fear, and trapped in our sin. 

So my question is, are we really free?

Why do we choose to stay bound when God chose to unbind us? 

If there's a big open field covered in a rainbow of wildflowers and sunshine, with a horizon of endless mountains, asking to be danced in with an open invitation, why would I ever decide to remain chained against a dark, cold, cell wall when the KEY is in my hand?

The answer is our sinful nature. I've struggled with remaining chained to this wall for years with various addictions and relationships and toxic behavior in my own life. But that's not a good enough excuse when the key is in my hand. It's not in anyone else's hand but my own. 

I've been to this freedom field. It's the most beautiful and life-giving place I've ever known. Yet still, I am faced with the option each day to walk out into the field, or stay chained against the wall. 

I know I'm not alone in this and that all of us have chains that bind us from dancing out in the field of freedom. But if you're anything like me, you probably get angry with yourself. Like WHY can't I just unlock myself? Jesus gave me the key and ability to do so... why would I CHOOSE to remain in these chains?

But these chains begin to feel comfortable. When we've worn them and lived with them for years, life without them starts to sound absolutely terrifying. Anything else seems impossible and unattainable. So we settle, because although the chains may be crippling, they are assurance of how things WILL be when they're wrapped around our hearts. 

Life apart from them is unknown and therefore we avoid it at every cost. As humans we love to know exactly what will happen, when it will happen, and whom it will happen with. But that's not what God asks us to do when we follow Him. He asks us to give up the security of knowing and walk with Him into the field of freedom each day. 

HE ALONE is the only security we need to have and know. He will always take care of the rest for us. We can't thrive and be truly FREE until we choose to take off those chains that we've let bind us for far too long.

So I challenge you to take the shiny key out of your clenched and trembling fist, and unlock each rusty chain that's binding your heart. 

And start walking to the field of freedom. It will look different for everyone because God loves each of us so uniquely. It won't be easy, and will indeed be scary. It won't always be pleasant and comfortable. It will ask you to give up things that you've done for a long time and might even enjoy.

 But I promise you that it will be the most beautiful place you've ever been to. It will  hold adventures that you'd never imagine and bring you some of the best people you will ever meet.

 And best of all, it will captivate your heart to fall deeper in love with Jesus with every unknown second that you breathe in His freedom. 

But you can't have both. You have to choose. It's the hardest choice you'll ever have to make. But it's the difference between existing and living. 

Let's be people who live and dance and adventure through this world without fear and the assurance that we are 100%, eternally FREE.

So what are you waiting for? Unlock yourself.

-Han

Oh, how beautiful to be

We all want beauty.

We want to see it. We want to experience it. We want to be known for it. We want to feel it. We want to taste it. We want to find it. We want to have it. We want to claim it. We want to BE it.

Especially as women we tend to crave and strive after this "beauty" more than most creatures... largely because it would seem that men are striving to have us only IF we possess enough of this.

The heartbeat of our culture IS this journey to "beauty". Wear this brand of jeans, try this makeup style, fix your hair, get abs like this, lose more weight in your thighs, gain more weight in your chest, and I could keep typing for days.

Being a woman, I've seen these advertisements and messages targeted straight at me from everything and everyone my entire life. My heart hurts deeply for other women (and men) in our culture because I know the battle that we fight... It's never ending and it's exhausting. Once we get close to this "standard" of beautiful, the bar goes even higher. If you're a boy, replace beautiful with ripped, manly, strong, attractive, or anything else that culture pressures onto you.

What does this tell us?

If we aren't pursued, it's because we aren't beautiful enough.
The inside SHOULD matter more, but no one really looks at it.
You'll never be good enough.
Keep trying harder.
Keep adding more airbrushed faces and starving bodies to that Pinterest fantasy board.
Change yourself more.
You won't be fully loved, until you're fully beautiful.

I was talking with a good friend of mine I met at the Chicago International Airport a few weeks ago about this topic, and she said something that rocked my world: "Hannah, we're all going to be fat and old and ugly one day anyway... so it's pointless to strive for that kind of beauty in between."

Whoah. That sentence has stuck close to my heart everyday since and I've been reflecting on it's truths.
We allow our worth to become wrapped up in something that's inevitably going to die anyway. We set our energy on trying to change that which will be out of our control eventually. Sounds an awful lot like the book of Ecclesiastes to me.... "Chasing the wind..."

The most beautiful person I've ever known is Jesus. The most beautiful I ever feel is when I'm in His presence... because I don't have to strive, I just have to BE. And in Him, I'm always enough.
The most beautiful people I've ever known are the ones who are chasing God's heart. And the best part? Although your journey to beauty becomes a journey to Jesus; He is the Author of beautiful, so the more beautiful you will naturally become along the way.

One of Satan's greatest victories is the voice and the power that we allow culture to have over our lives. The method of "do this" and "try this" will absolutely leave you emptier every time. No man or woman can ever affirm the beauty you have. Because beauty was designed as a reflection of it's Author, not a destination to be reached.

I'm done fighting for this artificial beauty that is just temporary and unattainable... When people look at me, I want them to see God's beauty, not the superficial kind in me. My life and heart should be a reflection pointing towards HIM and away from me.

My heart breaks for women who put their worth in these impossible worldly standards, and for the men who are showered in expectations that are far from expected. If you're future spouse finds your heart beautiful above your looks, it's guaranteed that the day that you're both fat, old and ugly, they'll still cherish your beauty that's only gotten more beautiful on your journey to Jesus together.

Striving will get us nowhere.

BEING is the solution.


If your number one desire is to be beautiful to this world, your number one prize to show off will be yourself... and it won't last long. But if you desire above all else to seek the only true Beautiful One, His beauty will be leaking out your eyes and your lips and bursting from your heart for the rest of eternity.

Nothing in God's kingdom is done by "trying really hard"... it's always done by "seeking really deep".
Seek HIS beauty, and you'll find the unique beauty He's made you with.

Luke 12:25-28 “Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? (The Message)

There is so much I could say about these verses. They changed my life. Wildflowers are a beautiful weed essentially that grow and blossom in brilliance and beauty all by just BEING... They don't reapply makeup every hour or go to the gym twice a day... they simply rest against the breeze.  And YOU-- a child of God--in your unique and captivating being, are even more beautiful when you just rest against the heartbeat of His chest.

Let His life-giving beauty fill you to the brim so that you can exhale it back to the others around you.

One of my favorite things to tell my friends is this: "You're the most beautiful at your youiest." Because that's exactly how God intended.

-Han

sweetly bitter snow storms

Snow is  b i t t e r s w e e t . 

It's so painfully cold and bitter when it hits our skin. The wind accompanying it's white dust tightens up our faces and causes our lungs to freeze up and pause.

But we can't say it's ugly. 

It sparkles and glistens in trillions of glitter-infused flakes all over the dark purple, winter sky. You can shovel it out of your driveway; but it refuses to stop sparkling no matter where it's tossed.

The white blanket it lays over the earth literally makes the sun shine BRIGHTER when it peeks out of the sky. The more snow, the brighter the sun reflects around us. 

It's beautiful. It's freezing. It's painful. It's mysterious. It's magical. 


I think God did that on purpose.... to engrave even in the seasons of weather that we have to look beyond how our circumstances FEEL... that the beauty laced between each freezing snowflake is an intricate sparkle for a bigger purpose.

But if all you're focused on is getting away from the bitter wind, you'll miss the glitterstorm God is displaying just for you. 

Remember the brilliance of the sunshine is seen even MORE when the snow falls... hold onto the promise that Jesus WILL shine even BRIGHTER when the storm comes...

brighter against the pain, against the bitter cold, against the heartache, against the unknown.

Let His sweetness overtake your bitter. 

Focus on the mystery. The beautiful, sparkling mystery of His heart.

Look beyond your dark bitter and into His forever sweet.