29 minute read
Glo Atanamo
TRAVELING TOWARD
Purpose
Blogger Glo Atanmo Finds a New Outlook
by Lauren Winfi eld
Editor's note: This article discusses thoughts of suicide. If you or someone you love is struggling, help is available. Please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
When you’ve worked hard to build your dream life, it can be diffi cult to slow down and acknowledge the signs that something might be . . . off . Instead of turning toward the potential problem, sometimes we ignore it, hoping the nagging feeling will go away. But problems don’t disappear when we don’t give them our attention. They snowball— sometimes into extreme proportions—before they can’t be ignored any longer. GLO ATANMO WAS BORN IN CALIFORNIA and raised by Nigerian immigrant parents. And having both feet in two diff erent worlds sparked her lifelong pursuit of fi nding a place to belong. “At a young age, I felt like I constantly had to straddle between two identities. ‘Am I Nigerian, or am I more American? Which one do I belong to? Am I doing American right? Am I doing Nigerian right?’” Her parents pushed for a traditional career, but Glo decided to bet on her dreams and her tenacity. With only $500 and a suitcase, she boarded a plane with a one-way ticket to the UK. Her goal? To tell the stories she found while traveling all over the world. “I never gave myself a plan B, and that gave me such a relentlessness to be like, ‘Glo, fi gure it out.’ At my
lowest, I went days without eating. I slept on a park bench because I couldn't afford a hostel for the night.”
But figure it out, she did. At the height of her success, Glo landed six-figure deals with brands that flew her all over the world. “For seven years, I was a full-time travel blogger. I went to eighty countries across six continents—that was my life. I felt like I was living the dream.”
Over time, Glo began to notice pains in her stomach from time to time and watched a bulge expand across her abdomen. Over the course of a year, she radically altered her diet, hoping her body would heal itself and the problem would just go away. But nothing worked. When her stomach pain escalated while she was traveling in Malta, she finally went to the hospital. “I felt like my organs were just being squeezed, and it was so painful,” she remembers.
Doctors finally diagnosed her pain was due to an ovarian cyst pushing her organs out of place. After an emergency surgery, Glo was placed on eight weeks of bedrest—unfathomable for a young woman who’d spent nearly a decade traveling the world in her twenties.
As she began to cancel contract after contract, Glo spiraled into despair. “I was feeling so drained physically, mentally, emotionally, financially. And for eight weeks I felt like, ‘Who am I if I can't travel and I can't post?’ I was literally bent over, teaching myself how to walk again. I felt so useless. It was just so traumatic that I remember I was looking at the painkillers like, ‘Why am I here anymore? I have nothing left.’”
Thank Me for the conditions that are requiring you to be still.
– Jesus Calling, FEBRUARY 16
When her world felt hopeless, Glo looked over and saw her Jesus Calling devotional. “I turned to the page on February 16th, and it was so, so powerful. I just needed something to validate me, like, ‘Glo, there's something else that has to come out of this.’ I needed to know there was purpose in my pain.”
The realization was the catalyst Glo needed to transform her pain into a new path. She now uses the skills she acquired through travel blogging to serve others.
“I don't care about what I can do for myself. How can I heal the world? How can I speak to those who are also going through a traumatic experience?”
By switching her role from “influencer” to “teacher,” Glo now heals through her words and teaches others how to survive tough situations and build a life worth living. Along the way, she’s also found her spirit healing the way her body has. “The way I show up in the world now feels so much more fulfilling because when you have purpose and legacy behind what you do, you feel more called and led in your work.”
Find out more about Glo at theblogabroad.com
What Solo Travel Taught Me
THE WORLD IS 99.9% GOOD.
You‘d never think that, because any time you hear of another country on our news, it‘s because something bad happened. Our judgment is clouded with all the negative news.
SOLITUDE IS NOT LONELINESS.
Solitude and isolation are very different. You can isolate yourself and throw a pity party, or you can spend time in solitude. God is with you in solitude.
JOURNALING SOLIDIFIES THE MOMENT.
When a moment is so raw, you‘re never going to remember it as intimately as you do in that moment. Write down your feelings or capture them in a video.
MY TOP THREE FAVORITE COUNTRIES ARE…
They have to be Japan, Norway, and Sri Lanka. They’re all my favorite for different reasons, but each environment felt so clean, and I felt so welcomed there.
Give It to God, and Watch How It Grows
by Dr. Tom Phillips
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Charlotte, North Carolina
I grew up on a Mississippi farm, where work ethic goes hand in hand with trusting in the Lord. When planting was done, then came the laid by season, when we had to trust God would send an early rain. I remember going out in the afternoon sun with my uncle, watching him run soil through his fi ngers. When he’d look up at the sky, I knew he was saying to the Lord, “Now it’s Yours.” When the crops came in, there was potential for mountains of debt if it wasn’t a good year, but there was also a possibility for joy if the harvest was bountiful. As we watched soybeans, corn, and cotton come up, we prayed for latter rain, which causes the fruit to grow to its greatest extent.
I planted the seed… but God has been making it grow.
—1 Corinthians 3:6 NIV
I believe the church itself is in the early phases of a latter rain, which will cause the greatest fruit that’s ever been borne by the church. And it’s all about Him, not about the church. Jesus said, “When you put Me fi rst, everything else falls into place.” When I was fourteen or fi fteen, I realized I loved telling people about the Lord. I also buried myself in books and thought I should become a surgeon and use that platform to tell people about the Lord. I went to Ole Miss and majored in pre-med. That’s when it was like a light bulb came on in my heart: I wanted to surrender to whatever God wanted me to do. I made a deal with Him, though: I didn’t want to give up medicine, so I thought I’d surrender to medical missions. And He said, “I didn’t ask you to surrender half of yourself. I asked you to surrender your whole self.” I read in my local paper that Billy Graham had a habit of praying before he parked, asking God to lead him to someone who needed ministering. I thought, Well, that’s interesting. I can do that. And without fail, God always led me to a person in need. I knew that He was using this habit to change my life for the sake of others. I went back to Ole Miss and dropped all the courses that had to do with medicine and picked up all the things pastors should learn. It didn’t take long before I was handed a church of 250 congregants to lead when I was only nineteen years old. I loved every moment of it and learned a tremendous amount. When you give your time, your talent, your resources over to God, He will provide the increase.
Dr. Phillips’ book, Ignite Your Passion for Jesus, is on sale now.
Life is a beautiful journey of discovery. An inevitable part of that is growing older, so let’s once and for all stop this pursuit for eternal youth. Don’t fi ght aging, embrace it!
–Florence LaRue, in her book Grace in Your Second Act
FLORENCE LaRUE
Finds Grace In Her Second Act
by Laura Neutzling
SINGER FLORENCE LARUE KNOWS THAT IF YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH LIFE every day, it shows up in how you treat other people—and yourself. At eighty years old, Florence makes a practice of being grateful for the wisdom of her years and all the experiences she has been able to take in over the course of her life. One of those experiences was joining an iconic music group whose songs topped the charts in the 1970s: The Fifth Dimension.
Florence, one of the original members, began singing with the group in her early twenties. The group enjoyed great success with number-one hits, world tours, and a revered status in the history of music (their meteoric rise was shown as part of the 2021 Oscarwinning documentary
Summer of Soul on Netfl ix). Her work became more intertwined with her life after she fell in love with and married her manager, Marc Gordon. When their son Geoff rey arrived, Florence and Marc didn’t put the business on hold. The couple took their baby on the road as they traveled all over the world.
Though performing came naturally to Florence, she considered herself to be shy and relied on her stage persona (whom she calls “Miss LaRue”) to give her confi dence to stand in front of crowds every night. But as she approached her second act of life, Florence wanted to share her real self with her audience, and began communicating more than just the music. In recent performances, she refl ects that, “My whole perception has changed, and I enjoy communicating with people. I enjoy the exchange of singing songs and making people feel things—making people happy.” Florence admits the showbiz bug bit her at a young age and that she had starry-eyed dreams of fame and fortune. But as someone who grew up in church and had a strong faith, at some point, she felt prompted to ask herself some hard questions: “What are you doing with what God’s given you? How are you spreading the gospel? What are you doing with your lyrics?” These are questions the singer been actively answering over the last several years, because she believes in the power of music to change people’s lives, and she wants to be a good ambassador of the gift she’s been given. “God has shown me the importance of music,” Florence says, "and also my responsibility as a musician. Music has a big infl uence, especially on our young people.”
As she continues to entertain audiences in her eighties, Florence has no regrets about being a diff erent performer than she’s been in years past. On the contrary: her maturity as a performer has released her from the pressure to have a “certain image” or exemplify a level of “coolness” the music industry often demands. “I began being true and honest on stage,” she says, “and that’s when I began to enjoy it the most. I even tell people on stage how old I am, because I want them to know that you can be eighty and still live, not just “exist.”
Florence’s book, Grace in Your Second Act, is available at your favorite book retailer.
SEE GOD’S BEAUTY IN AMERICA’S NATIONAL PARKS
by Amy Kennedy and Dave Degler
When you’re surrounded by tall leafy trees, cool mountain lakes, or wild and rocky desert terrain, it’s hard not to see God’s fi ngerprints on His creation. Amy Kennedy and Dave Degler see this every day in their work. They’re the co-executive directors of A Christian Ministry in the National Parks, a faith community for people working in, living in, and visiting the national parks. If you fi nd yourself near a park this summer, Amy and Dave have a few tips to make your outing a bit more enjoyable.
NEW RIVER GORGE BRIDGE CUYAHOYA VALLEY NATIONAL PARK
PARK TIPS
TRY A PARK YOU’VE NEVER VISITED BEFORE. There are 63 national parks in the US, and there are more being added all the time! Have you ever been to Capital Reef in Utah? How about Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio? Ever heard of the latest national park, New River Gorge in West Virginia, just added in December 2020? Explore new places, and make new memories.
PLAN AHEAD! Summer’s the busiest time for the parks, so if there’s something specifi c you’d like to do, make sure you do your homework. Some campgrounds book months in advance, and many popular destinations—like Cadillac Mountain in Maine’s Acadia National Park, or Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico— require you to reserve your visit time in advance. When in doubt, go to that park’s website to fi nd out more.
GO WITH THE FLOW. Some of the best moments we’ve had in the parks are ones that happen off the cuff. Maybe you turn the corner on a hike to see a family of mountain goats. Maybe you run into someone on the trail and have an incredible conversation. Be open to what God has for you on this trip. It might be different than what you expected.
BE KIND TO OTHERS. Whether it’s saying a friendly hello to park staff or being courteous to others on a busy trail, make sure you spread a little kindness while you’re in the parks.
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
CAPITAL REEF NATIONAL PARK
WHAT TO BRING FOR A DAY IN THE PARKS
Water, water water!
Many national parks are at higher elevations, and people forget they need more water when they're at altitude. Bring more water than you think you need.
Energy bars and snacks.
You’ll need some nourishment if you’re out and about for a while.
A fl ashlight.
Just in case you get lost!
A journal and a Bible.
The parks are one of the few spaces left where we can truly disconnect. So fi nd a rock in the woods or a spot on the lake, and spend some quiet time in nature with God.
A friend!
Always travel in pairs or groups, just in case you meet an animal on the trail. Plus, it’s more fun that way! AMY: Glacier National Park If you’ve never been to Glacier, I highly recommend it. There are so many hikes, from major backpacking hikes in the backcountry, to short boardwalk hikes up at Logan Pass. Being out on Two Medicine Lake is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. Going-to-theSun Road is magical. This park is truly beautiful.
DAVE: Big Bend National Park If you want to be remote, this is the park for you. It’s really pristine, very wild and rugged.
One of the things I love about Big Bend is you can cross the border into Mexico and visit a village called Boquillas. Take your passport, and if the border crossing is open, try to go for a visit. Meet the people, eat some tacos, go into the shops, and experience life on the other side of the river.
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK
GARY CHAPMAN Celebrating 30 Years as Translator of THE 5 LOVE LANGUAGES
WHEN DR. GARY CHAPMAN WAS WORKING as a counselor over thirty years ago, he noticed a common theme in the couples who would sit across from him. One would share their spouse “didn’t love them,” and the other partner would be mystifi ed, wondering where they had gone wrong in conveying their love. As he began to see more couples blindsided by similar revelations, Gary realized there must be countless people having trouble connecting with their partners, that perhaps they weren’t communicating love in a way the other could understand. And the fi rst idea around “love languages” between couples began to take form. Gary began to test the theory that we all can be reached through our own personal language of love with the couples in his counseling sessions. He encouraged them to learn what their partner’s love language would be, then to start communicating and connecting with them within that language. As couples reported the results of this experiment, Gary began to see a pattern of success. “Sometimes, they would say, ‘In three weeks, this is changing everything!’” he recalls. Gary continued to work with couples while shaping and honing the love languages to their current fi ve categories. But it would be several more years before he’d think of bringing this concept to a larger audience by writing a book about it. “I just thought maybe I could help a lot more people I’d never be able to see in my offi ce,” he says.
Gary’s idea in book form did help a lot of people—
to the tune of 30 million books sold, translated into fi fty languages and scores of other books and resources around the concept. So why have the fi ve love languages resonated with so many couples and continue to be used far and wide in counseling settings? Gary says it comes down to something that is common among all of us—the desire to have one of our deepest emotional needs met. “I think when you understand another person's love language, you now have information on how to really communicate on an emotional level. What we're trying to do is meet what almost everyone agrees is one of our deepest emotional needs as humans, and that is the need to feel loved by the signifi cant people in your life. It creates a positive climate in a marriage where both of you are choosing to speak the other person's love language.” Gary is grateful the book and its principles have had staying power to this day, and believes the simplicity of the concepts will make it appeal to generations to come. “I really wrote the book because I wanted everybody to have better relationships. I think we need to have more empathy with people in general and say, ‘I can see how you feel that way,’ and then share some things with them—Jesus Calling is a great book to share with people. Whether you're Christian or not, we’re all made in God's image. And because of that, we have the ability to love, and we have the capacity to receive love.” 1WORDS OF
AFFIRMATION “You look nice in that outfi t!”
Or, “I really appreciate what you did.”
ACTS OF SERVICE
Cooking meals, mowing WHAT’S the grass, washing the car.
YOUR LOVE LANGUAGE?
In his own words, Gary explains the fi ve categories he uses to identify how we each like to receive communication and connection from our partner.
3 5
2
RECEIVING GIFTS
“It can be anything—it’s the thought that counts.”
PHYSICAL TOUCH
“Hand-holding, hugging, kissing, the sexual part of marriage—bascially affi rming touches.” 4QUALITY TIME
“Our phones are off, the TV is off. We’re giving each other our full attention and simply sharing life together.”
Try Your Hand at Journaling!
Giving and Recieving Love
1.When was the last time you felt truly loved? Write about that moment and where the feeling came from. Why was that moment so special to you?
2.Have you ever noticed that people in your life “light up” diff erently, depending on ways you show
them love? List two or three simple ways you might convey your love to the people closest to you
using a “love language” that might resonate with them.
3.As you refl ect on giving and receiving love, write down a few thoughts about why it’s important
to show (and be shown) love, and why it might make all the diff erence for someone who needs it.
GO BEFORE YOU’RE READY
Chasing Dreams with an “I Will” Attitude
by Lt. Col. Dan Rooney
Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney has achieved not one, but two goals that many dream of: becoming a US Air Force fighter pilot and a PGA golf professional. Lt. Col. Rooney shares the defining moments that pushed him far outside his comfort zone and the daily spiritual practice that helped him summit mountains that many would deem impossible to climb.
WHEN I WAS TWELVE YEARS OLD, I had a moment of what I call synchronicity, when God puts someone or something in your life that has a dramatic impact.
I played a round of golf with a fighter pilot named Steve Courtright, and he was the coolest adult that I’d ever met. Later that day, I told my dad, “I know what I want to do with my life: I want to be a golf pro and a fighter pilot.”
And he asked me a question I’ll never forget. “Son, can you tell me which way an airplane takes off?”
“Is it into the wind?”
He said, “That’s exactly right.”
With only a few words, my dad was preparing me for the headwinds that would stand between a twelve-year-old kid and this unlikely dream.
A few years later, I went to the University of Kansas to play golf, where another moment of synchronicity occurred. I was signed up for what I thought would be the easiest class at the University of Kansas, sports psychology 101. On the first day, the professor goes to the front of the room, writes the word volition on the whiteboard, and says, “Can anybody tell me what this word means?”
It’s crickets, right? Not a word.
Then he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most powerful word in the world. Volition is the power of choice. Every day you wake up, you are free to choose. But the choices you make will culminate to write the legacy of your life.”
Then he goes back up to this whiteboard, and he writes down what he calls the volition matrix. He said, “Every choice you make follows a logical path. And it starts with, I won’t do that. I can’t do that. I’d like to. I’ll try. I can. I will. And if you can make it to I will, nothing can stop you.”
I made the choice, right then and there, that I was going to chase my crazy dream with everything I had in my heart. I left the University of Kansas and applied for the Air Force pilot training program. Thankfully I got in, but I’ll never forget arriving at pilot training. The colonel comes into the room and says, “You’ve made it to this moment. You get to chase your childhood dream of being a fi ghter pilot. But most of you aren’t going to make it. Only 4.8 percent of the people who start the program will successfully complete the fi ghter pilot course.” It was a defi ning moment in my life where I realized I couldn’t do this by myself. The next morning, I woke up thirty minutes early—it was really early, because we’d go to work at 4:30 in the morning—and I dedicated myself to thirty minutes of daily prayer. It was a life-changing gift the Air Force gave me, and this routine of prayer has never stopped. I read Jesus Calling every single day, and it all started because I had this impossible mountain to climb at that point, which was to become a fi ghter pilot. I would say the defi ning thread of true greatness is when you get to a place in your life where you have to choose to go before you’re ready. So often, people wait for everything to get perfectly aligned. I’m going to move when this happens.I’m going to quit this job and do something I really love when I get this much money in the bank, or after we’ve had kids. I really think that’s the purest form of your faith, when you have to push yourself past these stopping points. Today, I’m the only guy in the history of the world to be a PGA professional and a fi ghter pilot. And I’m thankful for the challenges the good Lord has put in my life and the way they’ve transformed me.
Lt. Col. Rooney’s book Fly into the Wind is available at your favorite book retailer today.
Lt. Col. Rooney’s Ministry: Folds of Honor
Folds of Honor is where I feel like I’m truly serving God in my life.
Thirteen years ago, I’m on a fl ight from Chicago to Grand Rapids. The captain announces that we’re carrying the remains of an American hero who was killed in Iraq, Corporal Brock Bucklin. And his identical twin brother, Corporal Brad Bucklin, has brought him home.
That night, I saw Corporal Bucklin’s four-year-old son watch his father’s fl agdraped coffi n inch down the cargo ramp when it hit me: This little boy is never going to play catch with his dad or get tucked in at night. That was the inspiration to start Folds of Honor.
Our mission is to honor the sacrifi ce by educating the legacy. We provide scholarships to spouses and children who’ve had someone killed or disabled while defending the freedoms we enjoy. It’s been so humbling to know He’s truly using you as an instrument for good.
Shines HOPE
THROUGH THROUGH the BROKEN BROKEN the the PIECES
Light Can Be Found After Loss
by Cynthia Stuckey
MICHELLE HORD KNOWS THE POWER OF WORDS, and that stories take twists and turns we can never imagine when we start them. A thirty-year media executive who walked the halls of Good Morning America and The Oprah Winfrey Show, Michelle started her career as a journalism major who landed her fi rst job at a show that wasn’t quite what she expected to end up on her resumé: America’s Most Wanted. “It’s funny,” Michelle refl ects on her unexpected employer. “We have our course, and then God provides what we think are detours, but instead are actually the great path. My time at America’s Most Wanted truly taught me compassion, because I spent a great deal of my time working on missing children's stories.” Michelle never anticipated her own story would be thrust into a similar arc years later. In her early thirties, Michelle married her fi rst husband, and though their story and wedding refl ected love, “The pictures and the words did not always align,” Michelle describes. The two soon sought counseling but to no avail, and Michelle came to the realization that the marriage could not be repaired. The one binding tie in the fracturing union was a love for their daughter, Gabrielle. At seven years old, Gabrielle was a light to all who knew her. Michelle remembers that, “Classmates and principals all felt she had this unbelievably warm, loving spirit. She was so excited to engage and to learn.”
Adoration for her daughter prompted Michelle to push through agonizing negotiations and divorce, and on June 5, 2017, Michelle and her then-husband signed divorce papers. It appeared they had turned a page and stepped into a new season. But Michelle was mere hours away from the most heart-wrenching day of her life. Less than twenty four hours later, Gabrielle's life tragically ended at the hands of her own father. For many parents, such a loss would push them to utter despair. But instead of a retreat into darkness, Michelle ran straight for the arms of Jesus. The fi rst days following Gabrielle’s death would set the course for Michelle’s hope in brokenness. “I remember as if it was yesterday: I was on my knees in the living room, praying and holding hands with family and friends and saying over and over like it was a battle cry: ‘Though He slay me, yet do I trust Him? Though He slay me, yet do I trust Him?’” The verse from Job 13:15 became a life preserver for the grieving mother, the words spoken by a father who also found himself grieving lost children. But as Michelle refl ected on the verse in days to come, she realized there was an important word that shed new light on her experience.
“We all have dark, unexpected, painful chapters of our lives where we have a choice. We have a choice to live in that space, stew in that space, or we have a choice to say, ‘Yet.’ And to me, yet is a courageous gift God gives us to say, ‘This does not take away anything that happened. It doesn’t take away the pain and suff ering. Yet says that God can take what was meant for evil and use it for good. Yet says that we can evolve from a mindset of scarcity to a mindset of abundance. Yet says we can potentially fi nd love again and fi nd ways to trust again.’
We have a choice to live in pain, or we have a choice to say, ‘Yet.’
Michelle also found a lifeline in her devotional practice, something she had been cultivating in her life for years. “After my daughter was murdered, Jesus Calling became part of a toolkit of army equipment, frankly, to survive. There were several devotionals I read, but my relationship with Jesus Calling, the intimacy of how the passages are written, was familiar in a time when there wasn’t much that still felt familiar.” To Michelle, the tiny word yet has propelled her journey as a missionary to those who grieve. “My ministry is this: I’ve survived. There is a complete vulnerability and weakness and brokenness that takes us to Him in a unique way, where He truly can shine through all of the broken pieces. The heinousness of my story only speaks to how loud the hallelujah is.”
Michelle’s book, The Other Side of Yet, is available wherever books are sold.
