thatissaranoh-blog

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Creating for the Creator

Creating for the Creator

“To create is to be more like the Creator.”

  Ever read something and find it’s never occurred to you to see it from that perspective? That is exactly what happened as I read those words from Lysa TerKeurst this morning.

When we create we are moving into a deeper relationship with our Creator, we reflect a bit more of Him and can identify just a piece more of who He is. And if you’ve ever created…

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Hey Singles, Check Your Heart

Hey Singles, Check Your Heart

Last year I wrote about how you can lean into the life of a single individual through the holidays, and I believe that still holds true today. The year prior I wrote about having a solo thanksgiving as I had done for several years.

But what if you’re navigating Thanksgiving with family and friends as a single, and you can feel the anxiety or the loneliness mounting?

I have been there, and it’ll…

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What is it to you?

What is it to you?

Earlier this week I was fortunate to be at my home church in Knoxville, a place I hold very dear in my heart and my was instrumental in my faith journey. The Senior Pastor is retiring and to hear Hollie Miller is a treasure and a delight. I am so thankful I was able to sit under his leadership while I lived there. He pointed to a Scripture in his sermon on Sunday that was something I’d forgotten…

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Discouragements

Sometimes you stare at a blank screen without so much as a syllable coming through your mind. The screen mirrors your mind. Blank. Empty. Without words.

It’s not as if you don’t have anything on your mind-the to-do list for your day or your week, future aspirations, current news, relationships with others, relationship with God. But we’ve maneuvered and compartmentalized so much of ourselves that…

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Moore of Christ, Less of Them

Moore of Christ, Less of Them

I read the words of Beth Moore Sunday morning, 280 characters splayed across my smartphone. Words I couldn’t put to what I had been feeling and living in the last nine months. A heart conflicted and wondering. A heart struggling to rectify two pieces of life.

Emotions bubble up, along with my hackles. I’d get angry, self-righteous, and then remorseful. Over the last nine months it’s often felt…

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Traveling Light

It was about a year ago I went on my own bucket list trip. I think it is always interesting to hear about people’s bucket lists and the things and places they want to travel to, see, and do in their life. Sometimes the experiences are very similar to others and sometimes they are wildly different. Reflecting the uniqueness of every human being and the desires of adventure and curiosity of…

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Singled Out in Prayer

Singled Out in Prayer

Over the month of July I was out of town almost every weekend, traveling for birthdays, weddings and concerts. While it was fun for the summer, it also removed me from my home church most Sundays. If I am honest, it was also a bit of a breather as I have been in some major wrestling on the state of the Baptist church as a whole and specifically the Southern Baptist church which I have been a part…

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Mountains Moving

Ever find yourself absolutely bowled over by a whisper?

Yesterday while out running errands I had the radio on, going full tilt down I-65 when these words came through my speakers “I’ve seen you move. You move the mountains. And I believe, I’ll see You do it again.” In those words I heard the whisper of God Himself, coming near asking me, “What if you are the mountain I have been moving?”

Y’all.…

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Seeing Our Creative God

Seeing Our Creative God

“So often we miss life’s beauty because we’re too preoccupied with it’s flaws.” -Ann Spangler

  Did you forget God created you in His image? Or that He created the ground you walk on and grass you seem to mow 24/7? Or the cat who keeps calling your new patio cushions home?

I think we become so engrossed with what’s wrong or “what just has to be survived” rather than remembering the Creator who…

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Killing "Just a Season You're In" Mentaliy

Killing “Just a Season You’re In” Mentaliy

Do you ever resign yourself to the thought “Well, this is just the season I am in,” and just wallow in it? It’s a difficult season, or a quiet one, and you just find yourself giving in and wallowing a bit? Does that sound familiar? Or that it’s just so busy and crowded with things, that you think this is the way it will always be?

Recently I was skimming a couple of social media accounts I follow…

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Love of God and country?

Love of God and country?

God doesn’t share a platform.

  I read that quote in the context of an article on patriotism and the church. It was cautioning those on Sunday who would seek to put their love of country ahead of their love of God in their worship services.

If I am honest, having grown up right in the buckle of the Bible belt all my life, I hadn’t given the patriotic-themed services much thought before. I am in a…

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Self-Storing Treasures

The Why of Storing Your Treasures

Recently two separate self-storage facilities have been built within about three miles of my house. One is actually within about 50 yards from one that has been in our area for several years. I keep thinking about those self-storage facilities as such a reflection of our culture and environment now. If you turn on your television, you can see it in shows such as Hoarders and Storage Wars. We want…

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On Not Being Okay

On Not Being Okay

There have been multiple times I have written this post out over the years and deleted it. Or it’s been left as a draft. I have walked away thinking “What would people say if I posted that?” I worried over reactions and conversations that would have to be had if I wrote this post. Earlier this week it again came to the forefront of my mind when I was sitting with a coworker waiting for our to-go…

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The Walls We Build

The Walls We Build. Thoughts on the intersection of our comfort and our lives as believers.

Eight years ago I went on my very first international mission trip, at the age of 28. (Go on, do the math there y’all) On that trip I served in Mexico, near the town of Baja to be exact, in building homes for families. One team would build and the other ran a VBS-style curriculum where we did crafts with the children in the community and showed them Jesus through story. The family worked with us…

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A Semicolon

A semicolon and the rest of the story

For a while now I have been quite enamored with the semicolon. It is stronger than a comma, but weaker than a period. It separates major sentence elements. It is more than a pause; it is a continuation of a thought relative to the sentence.

The semicolon has one definition though that I love. I read it several months ago and it has just stuck.

The author could have ended the sentence right…

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The Gifts

It’s closing in on 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning. April in Tennessee has decided to be a snowy/rainy/wind-chill freezing kind of thing. It resembles more February than it does spring time in bloom. I haven’t showered and I have consumed two very large cups of coffee and one slice of toast. I am in my favorite winter pajamas. I was thinking about how my singleness looks, about the contrast of life…

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Holy Saturday

The wait of Holy Saturday and what it reminds us who live in the wait

Originally posted in 2016, this post below has been updated and edited. I have a small sign on my desk from a friend that reads “Hope always.” It was given to me in a time where I couldn’t muster much hope. I was practically an empty shell and questioning much about what I had known for some time. It sits not only as a reminder but a marker of a time when I may not have been able to find hope,…