Listen, Love, Repeat.

I was so excited when I received my copy of Karen Ehman’s upcoming book,  Listen, Love, Repeat: Other-Centered Living in a Self-Centered World. I have been a long-time fan of Karen Ehman and followed her speaking and writing with Proverbs 31 ministries. She is one of those authors whose writing makes you feel like you are real-life friends. As I read this book, it almost felt like I was sipping coffee, sitting on a barstool at Karen’s kitchen island…while she baked cookies and shared her practical, life-changing wisdom (hey, a girl can dream, right?).

Anyways. This book. It is the antidote for our self-obsessed culture and the answer to every woman who has prayed, “God, I want to serve and love like you do, but what does that look like in my ordinary life?”

You see, I read books like, Kisses from Katie and Compelled by Love and my heart was stirred in a way I can hardly explain. I was wrecked. The American dream lost its allure and I wanted to be like these hero women missionaries who sold all they had and went to the ends of the earth to love the poor and broken. I wanted for my ministry and love for Jesus to ripple beyond the doorstep of my home. I wanted to love multitudes to Jesus. I had one little problem… I was a single, homeschooling mom. A full-time student. A nanny. A waitress. And I couldn’t go to Africa.

So I wrestled with what this life of laid-down love could look like right here in the cornfields of Illinois. I did my best to live out my definition of “other-centered living in a self-centered world.” And I don’t believe my efforts were futile or in vain. I just didn’t really know where to begin. I probably wasted a lot of time spinning my wheels and trying to figure out the how. I didn’t know how simple it could be.

But this book. I’m telling you…this book…

Karen puts feet to your desire to serve God right where you are.

She gives your mind creative, surprisingly simple ideas for how to scatter kindness. She gives your hands practical tools to use in loving your friends and family as well as the lonely and broken who surround you. She makes it easy. Really easy.

And if you are in a place where you’re not even sure you have the desire {or let’s be real…TIME} to serve anyone extra {husband+kids=enough}, this book will serve as a loving wake-up call for your heart that you can and really should embrace this message.

“If our perspective each day can be, ‘I am in it for you’ instead of ‘What is in it for me?’ we will discover the joy of serving Jesus—without expecting anything in return and done only for an audience of One. We may show this kind of love to family or friends. Or we might demonstrate it in a random encounter with a stranger. Either way, the stage is set for us to showcase God’s love to a watching world,” (Listen, Love, Repeat, p. 48).

 

Karen shares that sometimes this love is shown in helping a teenager with homework. Sometimes it is delivering a meal or sharing our home. Sometimes these things seem like an inconvenience, even a sacrifice, and…they are. But it is so very pleasing to God when we pause, listen for His voice, share His love, and then… repeat. And it is also so fulfilling and joy-giving to our own souls.

The world would tell us that we get by getting. God says we get by giving. We tune ourselves into God by spending time in prayer and in His word. And then we refuse to sleepwalk through life. In the mundane, every day dishes, laundry, and carpooling…we listen for His voice.

“Focus on the face in front of us… What are they thinking? What are they feeling? Can you climb behind their eyeballs and see the world from their eyes, if only for a moment?” (Listen, Love, Repeat, p. 30). Maybe this is your husband. Maybe it’s your server at Chili’s. Maybe it’s your postman or the nurse at your doctor’s visit. Maybe it’s the single mom you brush shoulders with when you pick up your kids from school.

I recently had the privilege of meeting another one of my favorite authors, Ann Voskamp. Ann says of Listen, Love, Repeat, “Her [Karen’s] words here speak my heart language—and echo the heart of God. Live these words. Repeat. Have a profoundly beautiful life right where you are.”

I am sharing Karen’s message with you because I believe it is important….and it’s important because it is Jesus’ message.

This is how we show the world who He is.

Jesus is calling us to listen for heart drops, to really look at the faces in front of us, and to scatter kindness. His kindness. Then repeat.

Good luck, everyone! A random winner will be picked next week!! (I’ll comment below with the winner and share on my Facebook page.