Anne Marie Miller

Blog

  • Going Way Back: Celebrating Big Givers

    I’m wrapping up my manuscript for Permission to Speak Freely this week, so I’ve decided to repost previous blog material from the archives. I went and found some that had great conversation in the comments, and since there are so many new readers, figure it would probably be new to you and we can delve into the dialogue again.

    This one was posted about 18 months ago…back in the day when I didn’t use capitalization properly. Sorry about that.

    Read and discuss…What do you think? I’d especially love to hear from churches who do this kind of thing, because I still have a very difficult time wrapping my mind around how this is even Biblical, to be completely honest with you.

    —–

    Celebrating Big Givers

    sometimes churches have special events to celebrate their top givers. most of the churches i know do this for members who give over a certain amount of money per week/month/year. usually there is an appreciation dinner or vision casting event. and the people who don’t “give big” don’t even hear about these events. i was on staff at a church once and was in charge of making sure the invites were sent out. i was talking to someone that worked on facilities to see if he’d be setting up the venue and he didn’t even know about it. his family didn’t give enough to be invited, and the event was pretty much on a need-to-know basis.

    so, i?ve always wondered why this is. don?t get me wrong?i realize those who give significant amounts of money to the church typically do it consistently and that saying goes ?20 percent of the people give 80 percent of the income? and i do think giving (in general) should be celebrated and talked about.

    here is where i get hug up – equal giving does not mean equal sacrifice.

    someone who making six figures a year can easily drop $500 a month in tithing but for someone else to give $500 a month could be extremely sacrificial.

    why aren?t those things equally celebrated?

    why do people even track what other people give? what about the people who give in cash? or the people who have been financially devastated somehow…shouldn’t they be helped by the church, or have a dinner thrown for them?

    does your church celebrate the ?big givers?? do you celebrate all the givers? do you celebrate giving at all? what do you think?

  • Looking Through the Eyes of Love

    Today is my monthly contribution over at inCourage. Below is a sneak peek. You have to visit over there to read the full article. Enjoy!

    —

    looking-through-eyesIt had been a really long day.

    6 am came too soon, and as usual, I was running late to the airport. Due to the extra few minutes I spent taming my hair, I was unable to stop by Sonic for my habitual Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper.

    The tragedy.

    The flight from Nashville to Houston was one of the bumpiest I’ve ever been on. And I fly. A lot. This year alone, it’s somewhere around 45,000 miles. No kidding.

    Several people on our plane threw up and one even passed out on our descent into the stormy city of Houston.

    Once in the terminal, I checked my next flight on the screens.

    My 12 pm flight to Dallas was delayed until 1 pm.

    Then 2 pm.

    Then 3:15 pm.

    4:15 pm.

    Canceled.

    (click here to read more…)

  • And Under the Lights, We Drove Away

    I’m staying at a hotel where they have a duck ceremony twice a day. It’s pretty posh, at least by Arkansas standards (I kid, I kid.) It is a really lovely place to stay.

    Tonight after dinner, my friend and I stood underneath a well-lit driveway with large columns and doormen, waiting for the valet to bring my rental car so we could head back to the conference we are speaking at. The valet attendant closed my door, and I adjusted the seat to fit my ridiculously abnormal 34″-inseam-long-legs.

    I’m not even 5’5″, so this leg length could easily be considered a freak show by some.

    I began to pull out of the driveway slowly, narrowly missing a man who was walking on the left side of my car. As I pushed on the brake pedal, I noticed he was homeless, glassy-eyed, and had literally wet himself, the dark stain of urine soaking through his thread-bare pants from his crotch all the way down to the middle of his right shin.

    Quickly I shifted my eyes back to the driveway, then glanced down at the green LED lights telling me it was 7:02 pm and that I needed to hurry back to the venue. I took my foot off the brake and under the lights, we drove away.

    The one word that has reverberated inside the folds of my brain tonight is dignity.

    Dignity.

    It’s something we feel we must hold so tightly to, and also something we don’t know how to give to others who need it, whether they realize it or not.

  • Old Woman

    Sometimes I wonder what I?m going to be like as an old woman.

    When I was eighteen, I wondered what I would be like when I was thirty and my imagination then and the current reality are very far apart from each other.

    I think I would like to be the kind of old woman who wears chunky necklaces and has bright white hair and that could tell tales of when I was thirty and forty and people would lean in and be mesmerized by my whimsical stories and the way I uncover timeless truth.

    But then I wonder if I?ll just end up alone in my bed with hairy legs and maybe a slight mustache. And I’d be laying in a sea of cookie crumbs watching marathons of Law & Order (and all the while my cat is licking the back of my hand).

  • Drenched & Whole & Healed

    I heard somewhere once that during Billy Graham’s crusades, after he finishes his message, he returns to a chair and closes his eyes and prays. From what I understand, he doesn’t want to see how many people were (or were not) coming forward, and just wanted to pray for the change that was happening.

    Granted, I’ve never been to a Billy Graham crusade and I am probably a terrible Christian for even admitting I don’t know that much about them to validate if this actually happens or not.

    However, as I’ve had the opportunity to speak at several churches in a variety of services, I’ve noticed how easy it is to get caught up in how people are responding and thinking it has something to do with me.

    (Case and point: My Encounter with Church Sleeping Man).

    Recently I spoke at a college and young adult service about the freedom that comes with confession; the healing that takes place when we share our brokenness with others (James 5) and at the end, I turned the service over to the pastors and leaders at this church to pray with anyone that needed it.

    I walked off the stage, sat in a chair, and buried my head in my hands praying for the people at the service while trying to overcome the temptation to look around.

    I assumed that since I was a guest speaker, the people at the service would feel more comfortable praying with the pastors they knew, but a few moments after sitting down, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I sat up, expecting to see a staff member or maybe someone to take my mic but instead was met by the tear-stained face of a beautiful young woman.

    Instantly, I leaned over to hold her for a moment and her body began heaving in my arms as she wept. Her tears rolled off her face and landed on my jeans, one by one. I could feel them as they drenched the denim and melted onto my skin.

    Pulling back from her, I asked her what her name was and if there was something I could pray for her. Given the story I shared from stage, about the addiction I faced when I was in my teens and twenties, I assumed she needed to confess something about that.

    But what came out of her mouth surprised me.

    “I just don’t feel like I’ll ever be good enough.”

    I had to catch my breath just a little.

    I’ve been healthy enough for a few years to talk about addiction but the feeling of insecurity and worthlessness is a chain of mine that I wonder will ever break.

    Inhaling deeply, I leaned back in, silently begging for words of truth. Scriptures I don’t even know by memory began to flow out of my mouth and my heart. I felt as if I were praying them not just for her – but for me.

    When I confessed the lies she said were in her head (Not good enough, not worthy enough, will never be enough) I discovered I was confessing them for me as well.

    The passage in James says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.”

    Interesting.

    I was supposed to be there to help other people confess…to help other people take a step into freedom.

    It just goes to show how powerful confession is.

    Here I was with a complete stranger, and we were both confessing, praying, and were beginning a path of truth together.

    Together, whole and healed.

    ——-


  • Big News about Summer 2010

    Watch the video below for some big news about how I’m spending my summer vacation!

    *Even though the crazy-eyed freeze frame implies it, I will not eat you.

    Or, if you’re lazy and don’t watch videos…

    3100 miles + 2 months in the Summer + Bike + Raising $$ for Water in Africa = Me on the Ride:Well 2010 Tour.

    Learn more or come on the trip with me.

  • It’s Cheap

    I got word a couple days ago that Mad Church Disease is on its fourth printing. Especially considering it’s a niche book in a struggling economy, I am so thankful that the words are bringing hope and healing to many people. It’s not like it’s sold a billion copies, but I think it’s tracking well and really appreciate the stories you have shared with me as you have read it, or passed it on to friends. It is amazing to see how God can redeem our mistakes and brokenness so we can be a healthy hope for the world.

    To celebrate the fourth printing, I’d like to offer you guys a chance to buy an autographed copy for just $10. The book is normally $16.99 (or around $14+ shipping if you buy it online) so I figure with Christmas coming up, maybe it would be a great idea to give to your staff or ministry team or parents or children or a friend.

    This offer won’t last forever. If you want to get the $10 price, you’ll need to purchase it by November 14. They will ship a few days later.

    If you want to buy 20 or more copies, I’ll discount it even deeper to $8.50 per book. If that’s you, email me.

    ((SORRY…this special offer is over. Thanks for your support!))

  • The Boy Made of Post-Its

    Sorry it’s been quiet here lately.

    Really quiet.

    The manuscript for Permission to Speak Freely is due in a couple of weeks, and I’m traveling to six cities (from San Diego to NYC and everything in between) and speaking while trying to finish writing the book…so…it’s been a bit hectic, but wonderful and stretching at the same time. I am looking forward to some much needed down time over the holidays!

    Last night I spoke at The Walk, which is the college & young adults ministry at Sevier Heights Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN. It was an honor to hang out with these students (have I told you lately how much I love college students? It’s a lot.) and share with them a bit about what God has shown me during my trips to Uganda and India and what the Bible says is our responsibility for caring for the poor as an act of worship and transformation.

    Something very cool they did to launch the series last night (It’s called A Message that Sticks), was make a mural out of post-it notes. This mural has around 30,000 post-its on it (each post-it representing one of the 30,000 children that die daily from starvation), and the little boy is named Moises and he lives in Haiti.

    —

    30k—

    I never knew that so many random, seemingly trivial things could be put together to make something so beautiful.

    Or, wait.

    Maybe I did.

  • Accept the Anxiety

    Patient Trust

    Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
    We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
    We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
    We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
    And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability?and that it may take a very long time.

    And so I think it is with you.
    Your ideas mature gradually?let them grow,
    Let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
    Don?t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time
    (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
    will make of you tomorrow.

    Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.
    Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you,
    and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

    Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (via Ian Cron)