Last weekend, I made a three-hour drive to Cider House orchard & venue to speak to women hungry for the Lord.

And it stirred some needed encouragement in my bones. The same bones that feel bruised these days because so many are grieving. 

Every day, I hear of new pain. This year, my close friend lost her dad and is simultaneously battling cancer. Another birthed her precious son, lost near 16 weeks in utero. Another is caring for a child with a disability. Another is enduring the heartbreaking parts of fostering. And these are trials I can speak openly about. You can imagine the ones I can’t. 

Just last night at my son’s tee-ball game, I overheard some stranger telling someone on the phone that his young wife would need a double mastectomy. 

Is this our life now? 

The headlines say yes. We are hurting. So much. 

But do you know that a group of hurting women set aside this past Saturday to lean into Christ and fellowship with others?

That is what our aching hearts need to see—the hurting and still hungry. 

Do you know the richness in walking with women who are heartbroken but still hanging on to God? This is Christ in them.

Find these women. They are precious pearls harvested in deep waters.

At times, it’s going to be sorrowful and undoubtedly inconvenient to shoulder pain—

But oh friend, the richest of fare that we miss if we don’t.