Ripple-Effect Faith with Twyla Franz

Perhaps the biggest threat to thriving is apathy.    Have you found this to be true? Stop reading your Bible and your hunger for it dissipates. Stop listing gratitude and it's harder to find gift in the hard. Stop praising God and fear settles in. Stop praying and God feels farther away. Stop investing in your marriage and it begins to fray. Stop your workout rhythm and it's difficult to pick it b...

We enter autumn a bit unsteady. Feeling behind but also needing soul stillness. Burning candles as we grasp for inner peace. So for both you and I, here are ten fall-back-on truths to anchor us this autumn season.   Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  HERE. Read the written version of this episode  HERE.

That longing you can't silence for community–to know and be known–is neither superficial or selfish. It's the evidence of God's heart for you.  Belonging wasn't your idea first. It was His. Before the first created man had breath in his lungs, God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit existed in perfect community. As Jennie Allen says, "Our God has been relational forever. It means that He created u...

We're hearing ripples of revival. Seeing fresh hunger for God in unexpected places. Feeling the stirring within our own souls. God is on the move, as always. But we're noticing it now. The cracks in our culture—the very things that deeply grieve us—let the light of Christ in. Light is always brightest when the dark is darkest. And isn't it like God to bring uncontainable hope alongside the hard-to...

I see it in your eyes that can't mask the tiredness, hear it in the cracks in your voice, feel it with you in the hurried steps and anxious scrolling: life feels fractured. Unsteady. At times, unfathomable.  We quiet our questions, assuming God sees coming redemption before we can glimpse it. But we can't hush the disquiet in our souls. Is there a way to thrive no matter what life throws our way?...

Grace is a trust equation: our nothing plus God's everything equals ripple-effect redemption.  God's grace, according to my friend Jennifer Sakata–and host of Living the Grace Life Podcast –"is that forward movement that restores connection and rebuilds relationships." How perfectly this line summarizes 2 Corinthians 5:19! It is central to our good news that  God was in the Anointed making things...

An others-first mentality seems rare these days. Maybe that's why "charity of the heart," as Paul describes it, always makes my gratitude list (1 Cor. 8:1). Life can feel like a race in slow motion, where making space for someone else comes at a cost. But you and I get to be the sort of people who normalize uncommon rhythms–like noticing the people in front of us, getting to know our neighbors, an...

To the one doing the work while someone else gets promoted. To the one diligently practicing, who hasn't been picked yet. To the one quietly faithful, serving in selfless and unseen ways.  To the one holding up the team but never getting credit for it.  To the one behind the brilliant ideas, the one always building others up, and the one quick to assume responsibility but not the praise. To the ma...

The very lives we live fit like iridescent shapes into the kaleidoscope of God's plan for this wonderful, aching earth. We bump up against each other as life jostles us. It may feel at times like friction. But look through the kaleidoscope and you'll see the stunning picture we create together. We're a colorful assortment of polygons differentiated by shape and shade. And all this difference, toge...

The very lives we live fit like iridescent shapes into the kaleidoscope of God's plan for this wonderful, aching earth. We bump up against each other as life jostles us. It may feel at times like friction. But look through the kaleidoscope and you'll see the stunning picture we create together. We're a colorful assortment of polygons differentiated by shape and shade. And all this difference, toge...

It makes all the difference, doesn't it, whether we're running away from or towards something?   One feels like friction, the other like invitation.  One feels like failure licking at our heels, the other like movement itself is a win.    I slow to a walk beneath the cloudless sky, pondering a question: When have I been the one running  from  something?   From a decision I didn't want to make. Fro...

Can we talk about how to stop hiding where it feels safe and cozy and predictable? Because maybe what makes you "come alive," as Howard Thurman famously wrote, is somewhere beyond the line of where risk meets comfort.   Links mentioned: To learn more about Enneagram 8s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God's grace to your neighbors, and (for the...

You're a rock that steadies others, die-hard strength that looks out for the weak, focus and grit that helps the rest of us show up more fully in our own endeavors. But beneath your tenacity is a tenderness that can feel unnerving. Some days you struggle to find grace for yourself within your sky-high personal standards. Can we talk about it?   Links mentioned: To learn more about Enneagram 8s–inc...

If ever you've wished for a fast forward button through the painful seasons of your life, this is for you.  You're full of spontaneous energy and fun ideas. You help the rest of us lighten up and enjoy the adventure of life. You're bold and bright and brilliant. We're grateful for your contagious optimism, your eager yeses, your enthusiastic encouragement.  Because of you, we try new things that w...

You're the hands holding everything for everyone, the arms keeping us safe, the backbone of community, the feet that stand for the good all. You prepare for all the things we miss or underestimate.  Rarely do you rest.  Even when your hands are still, you're working out potential issues inside your head. Researching the safest option. Eliminating the unknowns. How long has it been since you've had...

This is for the planners. The methodical. The curious. The articulate.  This is for those of us who prefer a little more time to process, who sometimes (maybe most times) want to blend in, who run out of words before the day is done. Links mentioned: To learn more about Enneagram 5s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God's grace to your neighbors,...

Some days you feel like you don't fit in. At times, you worry you're flawed and broken. Often, you fear you're too much.   And we hate that for you, because what we see is someone who reflects Jesus' tender emotions, His genuine care for us, His reassuring presence. Links mentioned: To learn more about Enneagram 4s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirr...

The insecurity you'd do about anything to keep hidden, the way you're always on a 10 but still feel behind, your fear of rejection–leave it with Him. You don't have to carry it anymore.  Links mentioned: To learn more about Enneagram 3s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God's grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missi...

There you are. You're quick to see the needs in front of you, but sometimes it feels like no one sees you .  You are more than the warm, smiling face greeting us at the door. More than the volunteer we count on for an enthusiastic "yes." More than the way you welcome both friend and stranger with the hugs we all love.  Sometimes your worth gets all tangled up in what you can do to serve others. Yo...

To you, exhausted from trying so hard to be perfect, weighed down by feeling worthless, worrying about what others think of you–let's take a big exhale together. It's time for a trade: The intrusive anxiety, the dreaded insufficiency, and the battle in your mind–for acceptance that doesn't hinge on your perfection.   Links mentioned: To learn more about Enneagram 1s–including what we appreciate mo...

Some days you get in a slump and maybe you don't truly believe there's a place for you. You dismiss somewhere way down inside that God would actually want  you next to Him. That He seeks your presence.  Then you read John 14:2 and it hits hard: you are in the front of God's mind. You're not a last thought. Not unfilled potential. Not looked over in the slew of everyone else.   Links mentioned: 1....

Underneath my slouched posture and avoidance of eye contact was the belief that my voice didn't matter. I left speaking up to those whose words were more effortless, less awkward. I thought that meant they mattered more. Perhaps you can relate. You dismiss the value of your voice because someone else can articulate it better, say it with more confidence, or couch it in more credibility. You second...

We want there to be good reason for the delay. Want to know the waiting will one day make sense. Want assurance that God's best will be worth all the angst and surrender.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  HERE. 2. Read the written version of this episode  HERE.

I think of how less light around me works almost like blinders on a horse. Blinders are the piece on a horse's harness that blocks their vision–not entirely, but so they see only what's straight ahead. It's a built-in focus mechanism. One I often resist but deeply need.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  here....

I was a keep-to-myself neighbor for most of my life. A scarcely-seen neighbor. A door-locked-unless-I-expected-guests neighbor. But I was also a lonely neighbor. I thought it was normal to drive across town every time you wanted to meet up with a friend. To close the garage door as soon as you pull inside and gaze at the ground when you walk to the mailbox. To nod a cordial hello if you see a neig...