Jesus Calling Magazine Issue 13 - Fall 2022

Jesus Calling Books to Inspire You this Season

Dear Reader,

When our children were very young, our family was living in Japan, where Christmas wasn’t even a holiday. People went to work and to school as usual. This actually made it easier for us to keep the emphasis in our home on Jesus’ birth. One of our traditions was to make a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas morning, before we opened presents, my husband would tell the Christmas story to our children. Later, we’d sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and eat some of the cake we’d made to celebrate His birth.

Now we have six precious grandchildren, and we care deeply about their spiritual well-being. Christmas in the United States is a whirlwind of parties and other activities. The emphasis on giving and getting presents often takes the focus off Jesus and His miraculous birth.

As you prepare for the holiday season, I encourage you to find a special way to tell a child about Jesus—it could be your child, your grandchild, or simply a child you have befriended. Share how important Jesus is in your life, and teach the child the importance of talking to Jesus in prayer. With a little help and encouragement, most children find it natural to pray.

A wonderful Bible verse about praying is: Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done (Philippians 4:6 nlt). Our loving Lord invites us to be open and real in our prayers. This is a delightful invitation and an amazing privilege!

Laura Minchew

& Group Publisher

Michael Aulisio

& Publisher

Robin Richardson

Senior Marketing Director

Mandy Wilson Marketing Director

Stephanie Chalk

Senior Marketing Manager

Laura Neutzling Managing Editor

Amy Kerr Senior Editor

Abigail Nibblett Content Coordinator

Beth Murphy

Senior Marketing Director

Barbara Moser

Creative Director

Candace Waggoner

Senior Operations Manager

Michelle Lenger Designer

Nelson,

From the Football Field to the Medical Field

NFL Player-Turned-Neurosurgeon Dr. Myron Rolle

by Laura Neutzling

DR. MYRON ROLLE had an early education in the power of a team, long before he became a football star or appeared on the roster of neurosurgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital, the largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He was introduced to teamwork through his Bahamian parents, who came to America with a dream for their five boys to find purpose and success.

“They were leaving behind all the comfort of the Bahamas,” Myron remembers,”and starting over in America, where the people around us didn’t share our culture. We had to stick together, lean on each other and on our relationship with Christ. And if we did that, then maybe success would follow.”

Adjusting to life in America happened slowly but surely, helped by Myron’s father who initiated his boys into a love of

American sports. The elder Rolle got his start in the Caribbean Professional Football League, now known as the Caribbean Football Union, and was instrumental in bringing Miami Dolphins players to Nassau to train locals in the sport. Competition filled the Rolle household as the brothers were always jockeying for position or trying to race each other.

“There were a lot of broken lamps and cracked tables,” Myron laughs, “and trying to figure out ways we could hide them before Mommy and Daddy got home.”

In the Rolle home, though sports were important, education

and community involvement were paramount. If the boys wanted to compete in football, basketball, track, or baseball, they had to earn good grades and join two or three clubs. “I truly enjoyed writing for our school newspaper, being student body president, building homes for Habitat for Humanity, and volunteering at church.”

But football would ultimately pull Rolle into its ranks as he became a top high school player in his region, then state. Upon graduation from high school, he found himself being recruited by eighty-three different colleges. However, true to the way his parents helped him see the world, Myron wasn’t only interested in being a professional football player— he also wanted to be a Rhodes scholar. Knowing this could change the trajectory of a potentially super-charged NFL career, Myron took off a year from his life as a potential professional athlete to travel to England and attend Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. When he returned, instead of being the first round draft pick he was predicted to be before he left, Myron had dropped to the sixth round. In the 2010 NFL Draft, he was selected by the Tennessee Titans, where he found himself idling on the sidelines for two years. He was briefly picked up by the Pittsburgh Steelers, before the team released him in 2012. The next year, Myron announced he was leaving the NFL for med school. His projected ten-year career in the NFL lasted for just three years.

“Cutting it short at age 25 was tough,” Myron reflects. “But if I had to do it again—go to Oxford before the NFL—I’d make that decision ten

“

God always works it out and protects you from things that you don’t know are coming down the road.

Myron working on location

Myron wearing #25 for the Tennessee Titans

times. Because of my short NFL career, I didn’t have any chronic injuries, and my hands had the dexterity to do surgery and helped me live my second life as a neurosurgeon. God always works it out and protects you from things that you don’t know are coming down the road.”

As a global neurosurgeon, Rolle has traveled and operated all over the world: Zambia, Montserrat, Antigua, Guyana, and Jamaica. He loves working with patients and helping students who aspire to be neurosurgeons themselves. As a practicing Christian in the medical field, Dr. Rolle doesn’t get many chances to speak about his faith because his day-to-day as a doctor, as he puts it, is supposed to be “cerebral and neck up.” Even still, it influences how he thinks about his patients and approaches his work and life.

“I pray before each case to make sure I’m doing the right things, that I am prepared as much as possible. That’s something that matters a lot to me, and has been helpful throughout my career. I just had a situation where I felt like, Man, why is this so hard? But then I remember I have Somebody I can lean on, and that’s been the best assurance. It’s helped me move forward.”

Secrets from a Neurosurgeon How to Use Your Brain for a Happier Life

In today’s world, especially when you look at social media, we often think, I need to do it all tomorrow, or, I need to be 100-percent better by next week. But if we break down our goals and do a little bit every day, we have small wins that help us see our growth. We can mentally pat ourselves on the back and say, “I’m a little better than I was yesterday.” We can see how we’ve improved a month from now, six months from now, a year from now.

You have six different lobes in your brain. And those small wins activate the limbic lobe, which is your reward pathway. When you make progress, that lobe helps you release neurotransmitters that make you feel good about what you’re doing, instead of beating yourself up or thinking you’re not doing enough.

As overwhelming as the world can be, if we can get there through prayer, if we can get those small wins daily, I think we’ll be better for it.

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Dr. Rolle’s story!

Dr. Rolle’s book, The 2% Way, is available at your favorite book retailer today.

“

I pray before each case to make sure I’m prepared as much as possible.

EVAN DOUGOUD IS LISTENING. IT’S SAVING LIVES.

by Lauren Winfield

LISTENING IS POWERFUL. Just ask nonprofit CEO Evan Dougoud.

Growing up in a suburb of Norfolk, Virginia, Evan remembers a home filled with warmth, with big family Christmases and birthday celebrations lining the walls of his memory. But when his sister moved to Oklahoma for college and Evan moved into his teen years, the home he loved was shattered when his parents decided to divorce. His father left the family home. And one day, so did Evan’s mother. He found himself alone at fifteen years old.

“To this day, I don’t know where my mom went,” Evan says. “I was at home alone, taking public transportation everywhere. I had a really rough time as a fifteen-year-old, just trying to survive.” Without a traditional support system to keep Evan steady and nurtured, his teachers and other community members showed up for him in lifechanging ways.

“My teachers allowed me to sleep and do homework in their classrooms. They gave me extra support, allowed me to be myself, and just listened to me. One of the most powerful things you can provide somebody is your ears, right? When people don’t listen or try to belittle your voice, that can cause you to spiral and devalue yourself. But because my teachers listened to me and what I needed, I believe they saved my life.”

“

Because my teachers listened to me and what I needed, I believe they saved my life.

The pivotal lesson in paying attention took root in Evan’s heart. Over the next few years, he moved to Oklahoma to be closer to his sister and father, who had also moved to the state. He began working in the nonprofit sector for Youth Services of Tulsa, helping other kids who found themselves without a strong support system, just like him. In his conversations with his clients, Evan discovered many lived on the streets—and one of their top needs was a shower.

along with a laundry services trailer, a clothing trailer—even a mobile barbershop.

And today, Evan’s dream has evolved into the Beheard Movement, a nonprofit providing services for the unhoused in Tulsa, including access to meals, administrative case managers, a job training program and more. But serving each client still begins with the transformative power of simply taking a shower.

“The people who use our services, they’re human too,” Evan says. “They have struggles, but their struggles are much more public, right? Now they’re coming out of the shower, and they’re getting connected with services and getting housed. It’s been a beautiful story.”

Evan began to research how to bring showers to his unhoused clients, and began sketching out his vision for a mobile shower trailer. He prayed over his vision, and just four months later, Transformation Church in Tulsa donated the money he needed to purchase the trailer. Receiving the funds left Evan in tears.

“I was crying not because I got something, but because people who’d been praying for a shower got to experience one. I knew some who hadn’t showered for three weeks—even three months.”

As they were able to access a place to shower and clean up, Evan began to see changes in his clients. Depression lifted. Self-worth soared.

From there Evan watched God take his dream and add a truck to pull the trailer, making it truly mobile,

Evan is on the ground floor of daily nonprofit life. He still takes time to listen to clients, so he and his team can discover their needs and creatively fill them. His next vision is a mobile food truck in downtown Tulsa that can teach people on the street how to cook and eventually employ them to run the food truck.

Evan and the Beheard Movement are changing lives one shower—and one conversation—at a time. “I believe that someone listening to me and what I needed saved my life,” Evan declares. “And because it saved me, I want to help do the same for somebody else.”

Want to help? Find out how you can get involved at beheardmovement.com.

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Evan’s inspiring story!

PHOTOS

EVAN DOUGOUD

“

One of the most powerful things you can provide somebody is your ears.

by Cynthia Stuckey

Alexa

What ’s the Point of It A ? Being aLight to the World

SPEND A FEW MINUTES WITH Carlos and Alexa PenaVega, and it doesn’t take long to see what their top priority is.

“I want to be the guy who, when something happens, my first thought is, Help me, Jesus,” Carlos declares.

This rock-solid confidence in God didn’t always come naturally for the couple. But after decades living in the glare of the Hollywood spotlight, they’ve found that faith has given them a rudder in their adventurous life—and guided them toward a peace that passes all understanding.

Both in their early thirties, Carlos and Alexa were each impacted by the pressures of living in the public eye by the time they turned eighteen. In the early 2000s, Alexa starred in the blockbuster Spy Kids film franchise alongside Antonio Banderas, while Carlos nabbed several television acting roles before he became well-known for his part on the Nickelodeon show, Big Time Rush, and later the band by the same name. Both found success in entertainment, but it would be years before God would nudge them together into a partnership that would be their best role yet.

At twenty-three, Carlos recalls being in what he describes as “a very dark place,” after he called it quits with a longtime girlfriend and found himself with time on his hands during a break from touring with his band. A close friend, Andrew, had invited Carlos to his Bible study. Andrew had invited Alexa too. The couple met and, less than nine months later, they married. A year after that, the PenaVegas welcomed their first child, and before long, they were a family of five.

At first glance, it seems like the couple has led a star-studded, storybook life, one that’s been easy, relatively smooth—but that’s not been their experience, especially when it comes to their faith.

It’s a sentiment they’ve tried to take into parenting their boys, Ocean and Kingston, and daughter Rio. The PenaVegas don’t just want to tell their kids about their values. They want to model what they look like. “We pray out loud all the time,” Alexa says, “The other day I hit my foot, and Ocean runs up and says, ’It’s okay, Mommy, I’ll pray over it.’ It was one of those moments where I’m like, ’Oh, my gosh, it’s working!”

The family splits their time between their home base in Maui, Hawaii, and a houseboat in Florida. Needless to say, they have a thirst for adventure and learning about the world around them, something they share with readers in their first children’s picture book,

Ocean’s World

“We love to travel, and in the book, we created a world where our kids could adventure to different places—deep into the ocean, or even volcanoes—and learn about animals, the environment, the weather,” says Carlos. “I think kids and parents are really going to have fun reading it!”

As they look to their own careers, Carlos and Alexa use one question to guide their choices: “What

“

I want to be the guy who, when something happens, my first thought is, Help me, Jesus.

Alexa and Carlos early in their relationship

is the point of all this?” What was once a murky answer earlier in their careers has become crystal clear: to be a light in the world and “Kingdom-hearted,” as they say, in all they do.

“If you look at the roles I took in my early twenties versus after I developed a relationship with God, they greatly differ,” Alexa says. “Not that everything I was doing was bad before, but I wasn’t as picky. I didn’t have boundaries yet. And as I grew deeper in my faith and in my relationship with God, I felt much more confident and comfortable to say, ’No, this is not what I stand for.’ Being able to take the reins in our careers is something Carlos and I learned together. We found healthy boundaries and set the tone of who we were, what we were willing to do, and why we were willing to do it.”

I think having that daily conversation with God helps you rely on Him for everything. In 2015, the PenaVegas had an opportunity to test their boundaries when they were both invited to join Dancing with the Stars—not as partners, but as rivals.

“America wants to know a little more about you every single week, and you get to decide what you want to talk about,” Carlos explains. “We had the opportunity one week to talk about our testimony. I did a Viennese waltz

to an a cappella version of ’Amazing Grace,’ and I kind of laid it all out on the line. It was very scary at first, because I had never really talked about God in my life publicly like that, and Alexa did the same. It was so cool to see God use our testimony on that level to really impact the world.”

Alexa agrees, remembering how the couple decided early on to support each other on the show, even as they competed. It wasn’t exactly the performance the producers had in mind, but the audience loved it. “The amount of people who wrote in supporting us, saying, ’Thank you for being an encouragement to marriage, for making marriage look exciting again,’ we were just kind of blown away. We didn’t even realize that was happening. But the truth is, on TV and in the movies, marriage looks like this terrible thing that you get yourself into (“The ball and chain!” quips Carlos). It doesn’t look fun and exciting or holy at all. So we realized, ’We get to show people that marriage is fun!’”

The PenaVegas have seen firsthand how their relationship with God informs the choices they make and the roles they take on, and they feel

“

Carlos and Alexa with sons, Ocean and Kingston, and daughter Rio on the way

a certain peace in keeping that a priority. It’s something, Carlos says, they’ve learned to turn to God about all the time. “I think having that daily conversation with God helps you become a person relying on Him for everything. Going to Him daily is key.”

to help other people,” says Alexa. “That’s really been our story on this journey.”

And one of their go-tools for creating that close connection with God has been Jesus Calling. “We both have it on our phones!” says Alexa. “About ten or twelve years ago, I was gifted Jesus Calling by my friend, an actor named Robbie Amell. It’s just been such a staple in our lives.”

Not only in the couple’s lives, but in the lives of their friends, too. Alexa shares about a friend’s father who bought hundreds of copies of Jesus Calling to give away to people he felt needed the book. “We loved that idea so much, we started doing that with faith-filled books that inspired us. One of those was Jesus Calling.”

The PenaVegas are still using their “What’s the point?” question to guide the projects they choose to pursue, like Carlos’ recent return to the touring stage with Big Time Rush, along with the couples’ new memoir What If Love Is the Point? Their faith in an always-faithful God continues to give them peace amid the beautiful and the hard seasons they’ve endured—and the ones still to come.

“When you give your circumstances to God, He won’t just heal you or fix you. He’ll actually use that for a testimony to glorify Himself and

Carlos and sons, Ocean and Kingston

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Alexa and Carlos’ story when it hits the airwaves October 13!

What If Love is the Point? is available at your favorite book retailer today. Ocean's World hits stores on October 25.

“

When you give your circumstances to God, He won’t just fix you. He’ll use you to help other people.

SONYA CURRYSONYA CURRY STOPS TRYING and STARTS TRUSTING

by Laura Neutzling

SONYA CURRY KNOWS GOD has a plan for her life. And over the years, she's watched that plan unfold in ways she never could've imagined.

As a child, the native Virginian remembers she had two distinct interests: sports and education. She’d spend hours in her room playing “school” with the other kids in the trailer park where she grew up, holding recess, hosting snack time, even handing out worksheets.

She also honed her love of sports into a scholarship that, along with Pell Grants, became her ticket to Virginia Tech. There Sonya played basketball,

became an all-American volleyball player, and met Dell Curry, who later became an all-time leader in scoring and three-pointers for the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.

Together, the couple passed their athletic talent down to their three children. While their daughter Sydel became a decorated volleyball player in college, their two sons became NBA stars: Seth, a point guard for the Brooklyn Nets, and Stephen, a World Champion point guard for the Golden State Warriors who’s regarded as one of the greatest—if not the greatest—shooter in NBA history.

FROM LEFT Sonya's daughter Sydel, sons Seth and Steph, and Steph with his daughter

While Sonya’s family achieved on the court, she achieved in the classroom. She eventually fulfilled her childhood dream of working in education when she started her own school. “I know without a shadow of a doubt that He had a plan for me in the arena of education, in the arena of nurturing other people,” she says. “By lining that all up for me, He gave me my occupation.”

But despite her roles as an educator and the matriarch of a prominent sports family, Sonya found it wasn’t quite enough. While she wanted for nothing, something wasn’t clicking. She just couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

being religious and going to church to having a really personal relationship with God—and it just saved my family. It saved me and got me more focused on living out the potential God had placed in me.”

“

A church goer all her life, Sonya took her children to church too because, as she puts it, “that’s what you did.” One day, she was sitting in church and the words from the pastor’s sermon felt personal.

“If you’re tired of doing the same thing over and over again, and you want something new,” he said, “the altar is open, and Jesus is waiting for you.”

Sonya knew Jesus, but she didn’t really know Him. And at that moment she realized, God, I really want a personal relationship with You. I don’t know what that looks like, but I’m just going to surrender to You.

After that moment, her life began to shift. “I had my school,” Sonya says, “and I realized it needed to be a part of where I was going with God. So I added spiritual development to the curriculum and changed the name so it became a Christian Montessori school, teaching the Bible and leading by biblical principles.”

Sonya’s family began to see the transformation in her. She was praying more and doing morning devotions before school each day. She wanted her kids to see that they could also fit God into their schedules.

“They began to see the Spirit’s transformation in action versus just words. They saw the joy I had and the focus on being content where I was. I went from

Like lots of moms, Sonya felt she had to do everything and fix everything for her family. When she realized she could stop trying so hard and start trusting God, her days began to have a new sense of peace that remains with her today.

“Doing my daily devotion and prayer time grounds me. It reminds me who I am, where I come from and who I’m here for. Jesus Calling speaks to my soul because it sums up the totality of my life experience—the things that are built on the foundation of God have never failed. He’s got a plan for me, and I just have to stay focused on Him. It’s an everyday work of progress.”

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Sonya’s story!

Sonya’s book, Fierce Love, is available at your favorite book retailer today!

“

God, I really want a personal relationship with You. I don’t know what that looks like, but I’m just going to surrender to You.

I went from being religious and going to church to having a really personal relationship with God—and it just saved my family.

REVEAL THEBig Dreams

BIGGER PICTURE

DIY TikTok Stars Noell and Daniel Jett

Find Happiness Beyond Their Dreams

probably two months, and looking back, it was one of the best financial decisions we’ve ever made.”

“Financial and personal,” Noell pipes in. “It was the happiest time of our marriage, really. It forced us and our kids to focus on each other and spend time with each other. We found that circumstances change, but true joy, true happiness is found within yourself, within God, within your family.”

EVERYONE DREAMS OF HAVING THE PERFECT HOME. A cozy cabin hidden in the woods. A cottage just steps from the beach.

Few people get the chance to build a house from scratch. But Noell and Daniel Jett of St. Augustine, Florida, did, all by themselves. It was the ultimate lesson in DIY—and so much more than they bargained for.

Married for eleven years, Noell remembers when she and Daniel, a contractor, first began dating, he confided that he’d always wanted to build a home of his own, ever since he watched his parents build their own in the nineties.

The home was woven into the fabric of the family as the setting for decades of holidays, birthday parties, and meaningful moments together.

It didn’t take long for the dream to become Noell’s too. It didn’t take long for the hurdles to show up, either. The first? Money.

“As a business owner, I was trying to grow my team. I was trying to grow my clientele,” Daniel remembers.” We were like, ’Okay, if we’re going to grow the business and build this house, we have to make sacrifices.’ And after much convincing from my wife, we decided to buy a camper to live in. That was an absolute no for me for

While they lived in the camper, the Jetts searched for land among Florida’s low-lying areas. Then one day, Noell stumbled on a piece of land that was nearly perfect— except it already had owners on it. Daniel decided to knock on the homeowners’ door and introduce himself. After taking some time to think it over, the elderly owners agreed to sell, and the Jetts were ecstatic—until the owners changed their minds. Months went by while Daniel and Noell clocked more time in the camper while looking for a place to call home. Finally, right before Christmas, Daniel made a last-ditch plea to the couple to reconsider their decision. And they did.

Eighteen months of land clearing, planning, and building ensued. The Jetts broke ground in July 2018 and put together a list of must-haves for the home: space for their four kids to play outside, room to entertain their large extended family, a big kitchen, a wrap-around porch.

As the house went up, they began to post their journey on social media, which took off unexpectedly—to the tune of nearly 5 million followers across

Instagram and TikTok, which helped the couple offset their building costs.

But what looked like a blessing at first turned out to have a few strings attached.

in this life.”

Daniel agrees. “For us, and for our kids.”

The Jetts are renting a home on the beach while they wait for their fifth child to arrive, enjoying a season of rest after years working seven days a week to make their dream home a reality. But they’re still keeping their eyes on the next chapter, a new dream they’d like to build together.

“As the platform grew and grew, it seemed like the finishes on the house had to become nicer, the details had to be more intricate,” Daniel remembers. “So we had this added pressure—the house had to become almost a show house at some point.”

Through financial difficulties, roadblocks, changed plans, complex designs, and delayed building materials, the couple kept putting one foot in front of the other. Finally, in November 2019, they moved into the home they’d painstakingly built together.

Less than two years later, they sold it.

“Basically what we thought was the pinnacle turned out to be a stepping stone,” Noell admits. “Everyone gave us such a hard time on social media. ’I thought this was your dream home! You don’t sell your dream home!’ But your dreams change. You can get so caught up in the daily, the monotony, the materialistic aspect of things, but there’s a bigger picture at play here. We have a purpose. We have a bigger calling

“We just think it’s so important to connect with God each day and keep your mind focused away from the things of the world. The house was a tangible thing, right? But that’s not the point. This home opened up a whole new platform that we’re able to use to make an impact and share the love of Christ with the world. That’s the bigger picture. That’s the reason why we’re here.”

Adapted for print from an upcoming episode of the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear the Jetts’ episode airing November 10!

Getting to Your Dreams AND LOVING THE LIFE YOU’VE BUILT

Make peace with putting in a lot of time and hard work to reach your goals. Be willing to make sacrifices.

Position yourself properly. When opportunities arise, and you’ve taken the steps to point your life in the right direction, you can rise to the occasion.

Be patient with the process.

You can find the Jetts’ book, Create Your Dream Home on a Budget, at your favorite book retailer today.

Realize that happiness, true contentment, and peace aren’t found in external circumstances.

“ True joy, true happiness is found within yourself, within God, within your family.

An exclusive excerpt from Sarah Young’s all-new, 365-day prayer devotional Jesus Listens

October 10

My Jesus,

YOU KNOW ABOUT every one of my troubles; You have collected all my tears and preserved them in Your bottle . So please help me not to be afraid of tears—or of the hardships that cause them. I know that my problems are not random or meaningless. You’ve been teaching me to trust You and fi nd comfort in Your sovereignty. I’m confi dent that You know what You are doing!

Because Your perspective is infi nite—unlimited by time or space—Your ways of working in the world are far beyond my comprehension. If it were possible for me to see things from Your God-perspective, I would marvel at the perfection of Your will—and revel in Your Glory. But now I see only a poor refl ection , so I must live with mystery.

Your assurance that You preserve my tears in Your bottle shows me how precious I am to You. And the Bible promises that someday You will wipe every tear from my eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain . How I rejoice in that glorious, heavenly future awaiting me!

In Your victorious Name, Amen

PSALM 56:8 TLB • 1 CORINTHIANS 13:12 NIV REVELATION 21:4 NIV

Him, and obey Him, His influence over our lives increases.

Tapping into the Power of the Holy Spirit

by Max Lucado

Oak Hills Church San Antonio, Texas

We are weary from the loads we carry and the challenges we face. We have questions we cannot answer and problems we cannot solve. Yet, what if there is help? Someone to walk with you and guide you, to shoulder the load? And what if this help was heaven-sent? Someone who is ever strong. Never tires. Always near. Unhindered by what hinders us. This is the promise of God—the presence of heaven in our hearts.

God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Though we struggle to understand this, there are similarities in our lives. I am one person, yet, I am a husband to my wife, a father to my children, and

a grandfather to Rosie and Max. I am one person expressed in three different roles. The Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity through whom God is most active today.

Scripture employs more than a dozen metaphors to describe the work of the Spirit. In fact, it is a testimony to His grandeur that one metaphor will not suffice. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate teacher (John 14:26). He is our intercessor (Romans 8:26). The Spirit is the dove of peace who calms us, the gift giver who equips us, the river of living water who flows out of us to refresh the world (Matthew 3:16; 1 Corinthians 12:1–11; John 7:37–39).

Our Good Shepherd has commissioned the Holy Spirit to guide us down the winding roads of life. Who led the ex-slaves through the Red Sea and through the wilderness? The Holy Spirit. Who leads the children of God today? The Holy Spirit! We have what the Hebrews had minus the manna.

The Spirit is a person. And, like a person, the Spirit has intellect, emotions, and will. He can be lied to, grieved, insulted, and blasphemed. When we dismiss the Holy Spirit, we quench His influence over our lives. Conversely, as we receive Him, sense

The greatest force in the universe is your ally, your spokesperson, your advocate. So ask Him to guide you. Seek His will. I’ve noticed that He often speaks to me through my own thoughts. This is not surprising. He owns my mind. My body is His temple. I should not be surprised that His answer to my question would come in a form that I can understand.

Forty years of ministry has left me convinced we do not have what it takes to heal this hurting world. We might create programs, train staff, and build wonderful sanctuaries. But I’d gladly exchange them all for one raindrop from the Spirit of heaven. We need His help.

“ God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.

Find Max’s latest book, Help Is Here: Finding Fresh Strength and Purpose in the Power of the Holy Spirit, at your favorite book retailer today.

TRAVIS TRITT

Grand Ole Opry. He dreamed about sharing the stage with them one day.

Eventually, he graduated from high school and began to work for a heating and air company, nursing his country music dreams as he sang at a local restaurant on the weekends.

Tritt’s turning-point moment came when he realized he was making more money moonlighting as a country singer than working his 9-to-5. But he was scared. He didn’t want to leave his day job only to fail as a singer and find himself broke.

The choice was between safety and risk.

On Life’s Turning-Point Moments

by Michael Scott Overholt

FOR MANY CELEBRITIES , their appeal stems from the ability to tell a rags-to-riches story. With grit and gumption and a turning-point moment, their nominal life becomes phenomenal, and it wraps up neatly with a “happily ever after.”

At first glance, the same lens looks like it applies to country music legend Travis Tritt. The singer has lived a life where his dreams have, as he says, “more than come true.” He’s worked with many of his childhood heroes: Ray Charles, the Eagles, Charlie Daniels. Rich experiences fill the pages of his life.

“

But how do “happily ever afters” happen? And who has a hand in them along the way?

Growing up in Marietta, Georgia, which the singer still calls home, Tritt’s love of music began with the gospel he sang in church. As he grew, so did his love for country music. Some of Tritt’s fondest memories from childhood come from sitting in lounge chairs with his family in the front yard on warm Saturday nights, listening to who was performing on the

Tritt knew, however, the boss at his day job had his own regrets for taking a safe route of his own. At his own turning-point moment, his boss chose to manage the family business instead of accepting an offer to play guitar for Carlos Santana.

Tritt poured his heart out to his boss, who empathized with the young man. The manager lamented that he’d always wonder what could have happened had he, too, pursued music. He didn’t want the same for his employee.

“Go follow your dream of playing music,” he said. “If it doesn’t work out, your job will be waiting for you.”

It was the “the kick out of the nest” Tritt needed.

Talk to Tritt for long, and you'll find he repeatedly acknowledges the people who helped him learn to navigate Nashville and the country music business. Most notable is Charlie Daniels.

My dreams have more than come true.

FROM LEFT Travis and Ray Charles; Grand Ole Opry with Vince Gill and Joe Diffie; Travis with Charlie Daniels

During the National Finals Rodeo of 1989, Tritt landed a week-long gig opening for Daniels at the famous Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, home of the Rat Pack. Night after night, Daniels watched Tritt from the stage wing, where Tritt remembers glancing out of the corner of his eye to “the silhouette of that big hat he wore.” At the end of the week, Daniels pulled Tritt aside. “I love watching what you do with an audience,” he said, “And I think you’re going to have a career in this business for as long as you want one. It can be difficult to navigate. Sometimes it feels like you’re in a stormy sea without a compass. But if there’s any way that I could be of any help to you, here’s all my numbers.”

“To this day,” Tritt insists, “I would say that ninety-nine percent of everything I know about the business side of music, I learned from Charlie Daniels.”

God repeatedly works through people to accomplish good in others’ lives. Call it His default move. Tritt’s story is no exception. People with vital information and life experience assisted Tritt, and he repeats this theme in his life, his songs and his stories, if we have the capacity to hear it. This message should encourage us. Who are the people around us? What wisdom and assistance do they offer us? What kindness can we offer them? You never know how finding your own turning-point moment might impact another’s success.

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Travis’ story!

You can find Travis Tritt’s latest record, Set in Stone, wherever you stream or buy music.

DAVID

JIMMY CRIBB AND TRAVIS TRITT

“

Ninety-nine percent of everything I know about the business side of music, I learned from Charlie Daniels.

THE BELLAMY BROTHERS

Christmas in Florida was a little bit different, because we had grapefruit and oranges. When we were kids, our uncle used to come over on a horse and throw grapefruit on our roof—we had an old farmhouse tin roof—and he’d scare us and tell us it was Santa Claus. It doesn’t sound that frightening now, but it was when we were inside the house and you’d hear it—especially when they were setting off firecrackers off at the same time. That was just a normal Christmas for us.

FAVORITE ChristmasTRADITIONS

Every family celebrates the holidays in their own way. Some of our Jesus Calling Podcast guests share their family’s (sometimes quirky) traditions and cherished memories that make the season special.

RASHAD JENNINGS

What I love about our family Christmas time is we play Dirty Santa. I will get the silliest gifts for everybody: I’m talking about hammers, For Sale signs. I got my little nephew a toilet seat top—I’m that uncle. I love that we all get together and play cards. We have a big dinner, and my mom always makes turkey hash the next morning. It’s just an amazing feeling to celebrate what God has done in our lives and to give love.

IRLENE MANDRELL

My mom was expecting, and she went into labor on Christmas Eve. Everything was fine until it wasn’t—things just changed really quickly. So the doctor came to my dad, and he said, “I’m sorry but there’s nothing I can do. There’s a problem, and I cannot save your wife or your child.” My dad went out front, and he started praying. All of the sudden he hears, “Arby.” My dad was a pharmacist in the Navy, and it turned out this was a doctor he had served under during World War II—and he was now the doctor in charge of that hospital. He said, “Well, let me see what I can do.” So on Christmas morning, my mom survived. And my sister Barbara was born.

ANTHONY EVANS

When I was a kid, my three siblings and I would wake up at five in the morning, go to our parents’ room, jump on the bed, and be like, “Yay, let’s go open our presents!” And my dad would say, “Okay, kids, before we go open our presents, we’re going to go have a moment of devotions and time with God.” Now, as a 7-year-old, that feels like, “Okay, kids, before we open our presents, we’re going to go to jail!” But it ultimately turned into one of my greatest memories ever, that time when we would sit down and listen to my dad remind us the real reason of Christmas before we did the other traditions of Christmas.

REBA MCENTIRE

Having kids is what makes Christmas a different story because you get to see the delight in their eyes that you had as a kid. My motherin-law would tell the story of Joseph and Mary coming to Bethlehem, and having baby Jesus in the stable and putting Him in the manger.

Then she’d bring a cake in, and we’d sing ”Happy Birthday, Jesus” because it was His birthday. She’d tell the kids, ”This is why we’re here. The gifts, that’s the symbol of Jesus’s birthday.” Then we’d open the gifts and go on with our day. But those kind of holiday traditions are really cool to remind the kids—to remind everybody—the reason for the season.

HEAVENLY REMINDERS OF A GOD WHO SEES US

A wife, a mother of four, and an artist, Anne Neilson paints with passion and purpose. After she began painting with oils in 2003, she quickly became renowned for her Angels Series, an inspiring reflection of her faith. After painting thousands of angels over the years, Anne reflects on her heavenly subjects and how impactful they’ve been to her—and countless others.

Over the course of painting for twenty years, I’ve often been asked why I paint angels. I paint angels because I want to create something that reflects my faith. I believe in angels, and I believe that God places not only guardian angels but also a host of angels around us.

Early on in my painting career, a young woman strolled into my studio. Kate, we’ll call her, appeared to be in her thirties or forties, and had just moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, in search of a new home. She had a story to share, and was eager to tell it.

Kate shared about a time when she was being prepped for surgery. One of the nurses looked at her and said, “Wow, there are a lot of angels in this room!”

Kate then slipped under anesthesia. Later, Kate mentioned the comment to her mother, who went into detail about when Kate was born. As they were leaving the hospital, she

made a stop at the little chapel and prayed that God would surround her daughter with His angels. Tears streamed down Kate’s face as she heard the story of her own birth.

God used a simple but powerful prayer from her mother over her as a newborn—that God would surround her with angels. Years later, a comment from a nurse in an operating room would continue to convey His powerful message: I see Sometimes we forget that we serve a God who sees everything about us. He sees our pains, our joys, our failures, and our successes.

He sees, and He will go before us today and always.

We humans are not angels. But God created us, just as He created the angels, with a mission. We have been placed on this earth to be the hands and feet of Christ. We are called to be “angels” to our world. Dig deep into your spirit to see how God is guiding you to be an angel in someone’s life. This might just mean wrapping your arms around someone who grieves. Or bringing comfort and peace to a world so torn and divided. Or simply reaching out more in love and kindness.

You can find Anne’s latest book, Entertaining Angels, at your favorite book retailer today.

C E L E B R A T I N G E V E R Y C H I L D

Fox & Friends’ Ainsley Earhardt Helps Kids Find Their Shining Light

From the first moment she held daughter Hayden, Ainsley Earhardt has wanted her to know two things: “I’m so glad God gave you to me, and He has a big plan for your life.” She captured these thoughts in a brandnew children’s book called I’m So Glad You Were Born. Ainsley caught up with one of our editors to share more about the book, her favorite moments parenting a first grader, and how she gets ready for busy work days at the studio.

Jesus Calling Magazine: Congratulations on your new children’s book! You dedicated it to someone special, right?

Ainsley Earhardt: I dedicated this book to my mom. Growing up, she always said, “I’m so glad you were born,” when it was someone’s birthday. She had a stroke four years ago, and it’s hard for her to speak, but she is such a fighter. I just wanted to do something special for her.

JCM: I’m sure it means so much to her. Can you tell us a little about the book?

AE: If you think about it, on the day of your birth, everyone’s world around you has changed forever. So this book tells kids all about that: their birth, how special it was, and how God has a big plan for their life. And of course, why parents and grandparents, friends and godparents are so happy they were born. It’s about celebrating who you are as a child.

I look at children, especially now that I’m a mother, and I know for each of them God has a purpose and a plan for their futures. I look at the little girls in my daughter’s class, and they’re all so special. Some of them are funny, some of them are the smart ones. Some of them are the athletic ones, or the artists. And they’re all perfectly made and equally special because God gave each of them talents.

JCM: I’m sure your daughter knows that about herself, thanks to you. How do you show her how much you cherish her?

AE: I tell my daughter all the time, “You are such a blessing. I am so glad to have you. I’m so glad God made you perfectly for our family, for me.” I just feel so blessed.

I think as parents and as Christians, we have to allow children to know their talents, and allow those talents to shine. We need to help encourage them, whatever their talents and passions might be. Let’s encourage them to be the best at those, and to work hard at those, and thank God for those talents.

JCM: Let's say you and your daughter are looking to have a little fun. What do you guys do?

AE: We have dance parties in our house! We have a big Tupperware container full of instruments, and we pull it out whenever we’re in the mood to dance. We crank up a song that might be my daughter’s favorite at the moment, and we just dance around the kitchen or around the living room, banging the drums and playing all the different instruments.

At night we read three books, and she gets to pick those out: two regular books and one Jesus book. And oftentimes it’s Jesus Calling for Kids I got so many wonderful books when Hayden was born, and Jesus Calling is such a special one for our family. I read the devotions when I’m coming to work each morning, and my daughter loves the books at night.

JCM: I’m so glad it’s been so meaningful to your family. You mentioned work—how do you get ready to go into the studio in the morning?

AE: I try to start my day off with prayer and with reading Jesus Calling. I think it’s important because just like going to church on Sunday does for me—that kicks off my week and starts my week on the right footing— reading Jesus Calling in the morning helps me to stay centered, helps me to remember why I’m here and what’s important. How can I make a difference in the people's lives around me, or in our schools, or in our workplace? Every day my daughter and I talk about how we can make a difference in someone else’s life today. So I just am here to serve the Lord. I want to share His love with other people.

Ainsley with her dad and daughter, Hayden

Ainsley with her parents

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Ainsley’s story!

Try Your Hand at Journaling!

1. Think about the kids in your life. What special gifts or attributes make them a light in this world?

2. As children grow, what qualities or characteristics might help them lead happy, healthy lives?

List those qualities here.

3. How can you help the children in your life cultivate those qualities you just listed?

You can find Ainsley’s book, I’m So Glad You Were Born, at your favorite book retailer today!

OF PARENTHOOD

thed ce

Adam and LaVon Hamilton on Raising Children and Parenting Them as Adults

by Michael Scott Overholt

PERHAPS THE MOST DISTINGUISHING FEATURE of our humanity is our adaptability. We can adapt and find meaning in the process. We adapt to survive and then to thrive. But that doesn’t mean change isn’t hard.

Adam and LaVon Hamilton have been leaders in the United Methodist Church for over three decades, and along the way, they’ve watched their two daughters become adults in their thirties. Over time, they’ve seen their relationship to each other, and to their daughters, flex over time.

“There were two periods that were the most challenging in our marriage,” says Adam. “One was when we had children. And the other was when our kids moved away.”

LaVon agrees. “You parent one way when they’re little, and completely differently when they’re older,” she muses. When you are used to setting up rules, worrying if they’re going to get into the right school, worrying if they’re studying the right thing, and then they become adults—it’s hard to make that shift. I think your role changes and becomes more of a cheerleader, as a support person, as an adviser if they want it. And yeah, it’s a huge transition. When we became empty nesters, we had to figure out again how to be together. You have to figure out: how do you transition together? How do you learn the dance steps for this new phase in your life? Because the dance music doesn’t stay the same throughout your whole life. It changes as you go.”

Adam uses his own young adult life to understand parenting’s changing dynamics. His parents didn’t attend church, so in high school, his effort to self-actualize came in the form of attending church.

“When I started going to church, that was sort of my rebellion,” he reflects. “I didn’t think of it that way, but I was becoming a different person. I was differentiating myself.”

ce

Adam and LaVon speak openly of the difficulty that transition creates. Granting their daughters the freedom of self-determination meant acknowledging their daughters would make choices Adam and LaVon would not have made regarding faith, or how to raise the couple’s grandchildren (“Which is really hard,” they both admit).

While adapting to their daughters’ changing needs was a challenge, they’ve learned the trick lies in learning how to encourage their children “while not pushing them away.”

“Our kids went to church all the way through high school. But out of high school, that began to fade,” Adam says. “So that was hard. We tried to figure out ways to be encouraging of their faith while not pushing them away, which can often happen in our desire to have our kids follow Jesus the way we follow Jesus. You’re praying hard and you’re trying to get it right and, you know, you’re going to miss it sometimes. I think we’ve tried very much to guide and encourage, but also to leave space for them to ask questions and to grow and to see things differently. But today I look at them—our daughters are thirty-one and thirty-five—and I’m just so proud of them and who they’ve become.”

“As long as we’re still alive,” says LaVon,” we’re finding ways to parent. We’re still finding ways to show them love and care. And I know as we age, the tables turn and they start helping to take care of us. But I think that no matter how old you are, you can still look for those ways you can be mom or dad to your children.”

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Adam and LaVon’s story!

You can find Adam’s latest book, The Lord’s Prayer, at your favorite book retailer today.

“

I think that no matter how old you are, you can still look for those ways you can be mom or dad to your children.

HEALING BEGINS When We Admit We Need It

Pastor Sheryl Brady on Walking with God When You Can’t See the Road Ahead

by Cynthia Stuckey

PASTOR SHERYL BRADY IS WELL ACQUAINTED with the goodness of God. As the pastor of The Potter’s House of North Dallas, she has had a long history of seeing the power and presence of God firsthand. Through a vibrant speaking and recording ministry, she has traveled the world to share the encouragement found in God and in His Word. But despite her strong ties to that goodness, a season of great loss deeply tested her faith.

After losing both her mother and her sister within a short time, Sheryl found herself in a dark valley of grief and brokenness. Watching her sister succumb to cancer was a devastating blow, but as the busy pastor of a large, thriving community, Sheryl felt she had no convenient time to grieve, especially publicly. She recalls the pressure of knowing that every Sunday morning, people came in droves to hear something amazing. “As a pastor, everybody looks to you for hope. They look to you to always have the right thing to say, to always be positive, to always be encouraging,” she says.

Still, Sheryl felt distanced from God. She was devastated He hadn’t healed her beloved sister. For a pastor, that apparent distance was frightening.

One particular evening, though, everything shifted. A hollow season of grief gave way to one of Sheryl’s greatest opportunities when she simply could not pretend to be “okay” any longer. On a special “Night of Hope” at The Potter’s House, Sheryl took the stage with both her loss and her shaken faith in tow. In that moment, she chose honesty, with herself and the audience before her. Assenting her brokenness and disappointment over the heart-wrenching loss of her mother and sister, she began to be real with her church family. In the midst of deep pain, she began to recite Romans 8:38–39, true words about a faithful God who will not allow anything to separate us from His unending love.

Neither death nor life . . . neither the present nor the future . . . neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God.

ROMANS 8:38 – 39 niv

It was, as Sheryl calls it, “a God moment.”

“I’m telling you, live on that stage, that is where I felt the sovereignty of God kick in and my healing began,” she declares. “I realized that God is sovereign. I can’t make Him do anything. But I also realize that if I would let Him, He would walk me through the decisions He makes that I don’t understand.”

This season of brokenness led to a moment of complete surrender, becoming an attention-grabbing lesson for Sheryl and for those who were influenced by her testimony. She has learned much about the seasons God uses to transform us into who He has for us to be. “I feel like so many times, we underestimate and we undervalue the moments that God has given us, moments are small enough to be missed. And yet there they are, big enough that one minute can change your life forever. So many of us miss God moments

because our attention is on grand moments.”

For Sheryl, pressing into the honesty of her grief didn’t fracture her faith. Instead, it ushered her into a closer presence with God and deepened her faith in Him. Sheryl knows that for many, a faltering faith can lead to shame and an even further distance from the God who never leaves our side.

To those who suffer, especially during the holiday season, Sheryl Brady speaks hopeful words with the heart of a pastor, but also as one who has learned deep lessons from the wilderness of loss. “If I can leave you with anything, I want to encourage you that the fluctuations of faith do not equal the absence of faith. And today, I believe that if you would just dig a little deeper, you might have to redefine what you have always called faith. But I’m telling you, God is faithful. He is faithful, full of faith. And if He is on the inside of you, you’ve got more faith in you that you even know.”

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Sheryl’s story.

Sheryl’s book, Don’t Miss the Moment, is available at your favorite book retailer today.

“

So many of us miss God moments because our attention is on grand moments.

PLUGGING INTO THE SOURCE

by Michael Scott Overholt

Actor Kristoffer Polaha Finds Streams in the Desert of a Hollywood Career

IT’S EASY TO THINK THAT TRUST is a zerosum game; you either have it or don’t. When it comes to faith, many Christians are uncomfortable thinking that trust, especially in God, could ever be optional.

Thankfully, God doesn’t feel the same way.

In Scripture, story after story shows God meeting us in our unbelief and helping us with our trust. Small invitations to trust God lead to larger invitations.

Kristoffer Polaha—an actor, producer, director, and writer—knows all about the risk and reward of trusting God. He’s seen it countless times in his life, though two moments in particular stand out to him.

The first occurred while Polaha was still in high school. As a freshman, he was cast in a senior-only production of A Streetcar Named Desire, and from there, he was hooked on the craft. During his junior year, he wanted to see if all he accomplished on stage and in the classroom was through God’s talent or his own. Six months of testing his theory turned into six years of wandering, where Polaha found himself exploring several world religions—Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism—and the cultures that practice them.

During a semester at sea, Polaha’s bunkmate Ryan, who hosted a Bible study aboard the ship, told him, "Man, you’re doing all this stuff around the world. Why don’t you just read the Bible?"

“I started going to this Bible study,” Polaha says. “And I think God was able to use—and is still able to use—that little winter of my life, that six years of wilderness.”

While Ryan’s influence was a major factor in bringing Polaha back to his faith, it took two more decades of living for Polaha to surrender control of his career in Hollywood.

“As an actor, you only make money when you’re working,” he explains. “So there’s this crazy ebb and flow between when I’m working and when I’m not: really lucrative periods of my life turn into really dry periods. I always feel tethered to my faith in those moments because there’s literally nothing I can do other than pray and see God open up the door.”

After fifteen years of ebb and flow in Hollywood, the exhaustion caught up with Polaha. In 2015, he finally took the grip off his career and handed it over to God. "It’s in Your hands," he prayed. "If You want me to be an actor, You’ll open up doors. And if You don’t, You’ll close them. I am no longer going to try to control this thing."

Take a look at Polaha’s filmography, and you’ll see

that since 2015, his acting credits have exploded. He’s even landed roles in two major blockbusters: Wonder Woman 1984 and this summer’s smash hit, Jurassic World Dominion

Those landmark moments of trust-building prepared the actor’s heart for spiritual reconstruction. Polaha had to get to where that reconstruction would be most meaningful, where he had the strength to trust God and surrender his own ambitions for His will.

“If you believe there is a God who created the universe and everything in it, everything that is seen and unseen, and that the hairs on our head are numbered, then why wouldn’t you want to be in contact with that constantly? Why wouldn’t you want to be constantly plugged into the Source? God has shown me things in my life—there have been real moments of need, and I would cry out to God and say, ‘Lord, I need this thing.‘ And there would be a feeling, an overwhelming feeling of peace that surpassed all understanding. It was almost as if God would say, ’I’ve got you.’”

To learn more about Kristoffer Polaha, including his appearances in inspirational films like Where Hope Grows, check out his website at krispolaha.com.

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast

Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Kristoffer’s story.

Kristoffer as ”Wyatt“ in Jurrasic World Dominion

The Stories Behind Three Favorite Christmas Hymns

We sing the familiar words and melodies every year, but where did these classic songs come from? Writer Ace Collins gives the scoop on three of the most beloved hymns for the Christmas season.

GO, TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

John Wesley Work II was a folk singer, composer, and professor of Latin at Fisk College in Nashville, Tennessee. He, along with his brother Frederick, studied the words and basic melody of the impactful spiritual “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” a song passed down orally among generations of enslaved Africans living in the American South. Not wanting to change the dramatic impact of the song’s lyrics, John and Frederick kept them intact but rearranged the music to suit a choir like the Fisk Jubilee Singers. In the 1880s, the famous choir took the song to the world.

JOY TO THE WORLD!

Two brilliant songwriters—although they never met—together created one of Christmas’s most lasting songs.

Born in 1674, English songwriter Isaac Watts was inspired to write his most famous song while reading Psalm 98:4: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth.”

Focusing on this verse and the five that followed, Watts penned a poem called “Joy to the World.” A century later, Lowell Mason was a music publisher in Boston who wrote more than 600 hymns, including “Nearer My God to Thee.” In 1839, Mason published a new songbook entitled Modern Psalmist, with music set to the lyrics penned by Isaac Watts.

SILENT NIGHT

Created out of necessity and performed in a tiny Austrian village on Christmas Eve in 1817, this carol owes its debut to an organ that wouldn’t play and a priest who wouldn’t hold a Christmas mass without special music. A repairman came to fix the instrument a few weeks later and heard the song. Impressed by the beautiful hymn, the repairman jotted down the words and learned the melody. And over the next few years, as he went about his profession, he introduced “Silent Night” to many churches and towns.

Want to learn about other favorite Christmas hymns like “O Holy Night,” or even contemporary classics like “Jingle Bells”? Find them in Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, available at your favorite book retailer!

Tauren Wells

Creating Timely and Timeless Music for the Church and Beyond

by Laura Neutzling

GRAMMY-nominated artist Tauren Wells came to prominence in the Christian pop rock band Royal Tailor. After leaving the group, he went on to record a solo record in 2016 with Nashville-based Reunion Records, making a shift from the pop rock sound that defined his earlier years to a more electronic sound.

Wells has a way of keeping himself immersed in current music and loves combining the music that’s hitting culture at any given time, namely hip-hop, with thoughtful lyrics he hopes will also bring people into God’s presence.

“I started leading worship in high school, which was cool because I got to bring my friends from public school to church. Seeing my friends step into a relationship with Jesus, that was really exciting to me.” “ I’m so excited about what God is doing in the world through the creative arts—and I’m just thankful to be part of it.

Growing up, popstars like Prince and Michael Jackson influenced Wells‘ musical sensibilities. Tauren also had a heavy diet of gospel music in the mix from Donald Lawrence, Fred Hammond, Israel Haughton and others. Blending funk and jazz elements with roots gospel was where the

emerging artist felt his own style come together.

Tauren is passionate about bringing this diversity in music to the church in order to reflect the communities they are building. “If we’re really trying to make our churches diverse and multicultural,” he says, “it’s not just having people in the room who look like the culture we want. It’s creating the pieces of fabric that make those cultures and weaving them into the faith community we are building.”

Tauren gets to bring his unique take on musical diversity to the eclectic community of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, where he and his wife also run a private music academy. He’s excited about his part in raising up the next generation of musicians and worship leaders who’ve studied not only voice and instruments, but videography, photography, and graphic design.

“What’s cool is we’re getting to see some of the fruit of that labor—some of these kids are seventeen, eighteen years old, and they’re leading worship in their churches now.”

Whether he’s collaborating with gospel legends like Kirk Franklin or country music’s Gary LeVox from Rascal Flatts, Tauren believes there are messages God wants to put in the world for particular times through music.

“As I am raising young people, they love worship music, but they also love hip-hop. I’m so excited about what God is doing in the world through the creative arts—and I’m just thankful to be part of it.”

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast

Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Tauren’s story.

Your Weakness Can Be

YOUR SUPERPOWER

Author Mary Marantz on the Courage to Share Your Story

Mary Marantz is an author, speaker, and podcast host from humble beginnings who went on to graduate from Yale Law School and become a number-one bestselling author with her memoir, Dirt. Mary shares about her childhood, how her father advocated for her education, and how sharing her story helped her acknowledge the hard moments from her past—and connected her with others who have gone through similar struggles.

I GREW UP IN RURAL WEST VIRGINIA on the top of a mountain in a single-wide trailer. My dad’s a logger. My mom cleaned houses.

I say I was born in 1980, the trailer was born in 1978, and surprising to no one, single-wide trailers from the 1970s were not really built to last. You had to know exactly how to hopscotch your way across the hole in the brown shag carpet to keep from falling all the way through. And so I grew up in that trailer from zero until I left for college at 18.

When I was writing Dirt, I noticed my dad’s story and my story took on a parallel track. We grew up in the same yard, went to the same elementary school, the same Sunday school.

But when he went to school, in the first few days of class, he was called on and gave a wrong answer, and the kids laughed a little bit. For him, that meant

he wasn’t created for education, that he wasn’t very bright, that he wasn’t destined to be anything more than, in his words, “a dumb old logger.”

When he had me, he thought, I’m not going to be able to teach you everything myself. But I can prepare you heading into that kindergarten year.

been hiding away in their story is actually their superpower. We do this all the time. We think something that feels like weakness is just that—a weakness. But it’s actually what other people find the most courage in. What you think disqualifies you can turn into a soft place to land for other people who have hard stories, just like you.

So when I was about nine months shy of going to kindergarten, he started me on these workbooks from the grocery store. They had reading and math for every grade level, kindergarten through sixth grade. He started me in the kindergarten books, but every time we finished one, we would just bump up another grade.

Nine months later, when I started kindergarten, I was in fifth-grade math and reading at a sixth-grade level. So I started with these labels like “smart” and “gifted.” Those labels became a lifeline that said to me, “Maybe you can be more than where you started.”

My dad was always saying things to me like, “You’re going to get out, you’re going to go to college.” And I always felt like God was saying to me from an early age, “The muddy, broken, hard, brutal, beautiful—I’m going to use all of it. One day, it’s all going to make sense.”

There have been many times when I’ve been bitter, angry with God. You know, when you’re writing this book at forty remembering your childhood experiences, I think some of the bitterness is more of a memory than a lived experience.

Here’s the big thing: God can handle that. He’s not surprised by that. And I think it leads to a deeper, more real relationship with Him when you say, “I have some hard questions for You, and I’m not really happy with You, but I’m listening.”

What do I hope people get from my story? I hope other people find themselves in it. I hope they find the courage to stop thinking that their muddy story disqualifies them before they begin to make peace with their past. I hope they realize that, in so many ways, the thing they’ve

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Mary’s story!

Learn more about Mary and her work at marymarantz.com.

“

The thing you’ve been hiding away in your story is actually your superpower.

Jesus Listens WHEN OUR CHILDREN PRAY

Creating Meaningful Prayer and Devotion Time for Kids and Parents

I HAVE NO GREATER JOY THAN TO HEAR THAT MY CHILDREN ARE WALKING IN THE TRUTH. ~3 JOHN 1:4

We all want a meaningful prayer life and a close relationship with God. We want that for our children, too!

That’s why Sarah Young adapted her bestselling prayer devotional, Jesus Listens, into an edition perfect for kids. Take your children and grandchildren on a journey to cultivating a deep connection to God through prayer.

In Jesus Listens for Kids, children ages 8 to 12 will learn how to pray and know that Jesus is always listening to them. This book will equip parents and grandparents to help kids:

• know that they can talk to Jesus about anything

• come to Him when they are afraid, anxious, or worried

• learn how to thank and praise God, and take Him their requests

• develop the habit of prayer and reading Scripture every day

You can find out more about Jesus Listens for Kids at jesuscalling.com, and pick up at a copy at your favorite book retailer today!

5 WAYS TO MAKE PRAYER SIMPLE FOR KIDS

As a mom of four, Holly Shivers, author of I Can Learn to Pray, knows a thing or two about helping kids create a special time to talk to God. She’s gathered a few tried and true ways adults can help kids make prayer a natural part of their days.

1. Encourage kids to find a hideout.

Whether it’s behind a curtain, in a guest room closet or a special nook, have your kids spend five minutes in their special place every day, just talking to God. Teach them to pull away from the distractions around them and simply be with Jesus.

2. Incorporate prayer into things you’re already doing.

Pray when you and your kids are alone together, like when you’re driving to soccer practice, eating dinner, taking a walk, or tucking them into bed.

3. Pray spontaneously.

When I was growing up, stopping to pray for something never felt awkward or uncomfortable because my parents modeled this for us often. Show your kids there’s never a wrong time to talk to God.

4. Pray together as a family.

Before our family heads to bed, we often sit in a circle and each share a prayer request for the week. Then we’ll say, “Everyone pray for the person on your right.” Not only are the kids praying for their siblings, they’re hearing their siblings pray over them.

5. Get help!

In Luke 11, we find Jesus once again praying in an isolated place. When He returned to His disciples, one of them said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” While it’s true that prayer is simply talking to God, we see from this passage that prayer is also learned. Purchase a book or prayer guide for kids that can help them navigate the principles of prayer found in Scripture.

A

We

PUMPKIN conundrum

fall word SCRAMBLE