Anne Marie Miller

Category: Hmmmm

  • Are You Listening?

    I’ve said it a million times myself.

    “I want to give a voice to the people that don’t have one.”

    But after going to India a few months ago, it began to occur to me that my philosophy is completely off track.

    Everyone has a voice. Even the people who are the most overlooked.

    They have beautiful voices.

    Broken voices.

    Voices pleading for help.

    Voices singing with hope.

    Even their silence says something…

    The phrase “I want to give a voice to the people that don’t have one” has to go.

    It’s dehumanizing.

    THEY have a voice.

    The problem is WE don’t listen.

  • My Confession

    Every Monday I sit down to watch Intervention. Sometimes it makes me feel not alone in the daily battles that rage in my head and sometimes it scares me just how much I can still relate to the people on the show.

    I know if it wasn’t for certain people in my life, both past and present, there may have been (or could yet be) an episode with me in it.

    And I’m grateful.

    And I’m hopeful.

    And I’m heartbroken for how lonely I know the 20 million addicts feel they are.

  • Giving Away 100 Free Books!

    Sometimes on Thursdays I’ve given away 10 books. Sometimes 5. But usually 10.

    And these books aren’t just random books. They are books from people I know and love and have the honor of sharing their words with you.

    My friend Tom Davis, who has probably made one of the largest impacts on poverty and injustice than any single person I know, is an author as well as an advocate. He recently released a novel called “Scared.” which has received amazing reviews on Amazon, like this:

    “Scared is the hand adjusting our blurry lens of the world … You?ll visit Africa while reading Scared. And once you finish, a little piece of Africa will remain with you.”


    —

    Tom has graciously offered to give away books to the first 100 people who leave a comment on this post.

    The only question you have to answer is this in some way, shape, or form:

    Imagine a world where you had the power to eliminate extreme poverty. What would you do and how would you do it? What does it look like to you?

    I’ll email the first 100 commenters to get your information, and Tom will mail you the book. If you can’t wait, you can buy Scared on Amazon here.

  • Help Some Inner City Pastors!

    Did you know that over the last two years, the readers from this blog have donated over $250,000 to charitable causes via child sponsorships, funding missionaries, buying malaria nets, blue tarps for hurricanes, shoes for the needy, and the Global Food Crisis? Pretty dang amazing! That is a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS, you guys!

    I got an email from my friend and hero Ben Arment, purveyor of the Story Chicago Conference letting me know that he had just invited hundreds of low-income, inner city Chicago pastors to come to Story FOR FREE.

    Story Chicago

    —–

    Now, I don’t really know a whole lot about how conferences get funded, but my main guess is that it’s between sponsors and registrants. I think that it costs X amount of money per person to actually put on the conference. But Ben doesn’t care. He just really felt like he needed to invite these pastors to attend so he invited them without knowing where the money would come from.

    These are the pastors that never go to any conferences because many of them don’t get paid. They are in small inner city churches doing work and ministering in one of America’s poorest areas.

    Here’s the deal – just because these pastors are attending for free, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t “cost” anything for them to attend. Ben pretty much invested the hope of tens of thousands of dollars for these pastors to have this opportunity.

    I think this is one of those times where we can unite together as the church from all over and give generously again to help cover these pastors’ costs. Each ticket is $189, or $169 if we buy four or more. Which I think we can do.

    Since I know not everyone can drop $189 in a bucket, I asked Ben if we could allow everyone to donate what they could – whether it is $1, $5, $10, $100 or whatever over the next month to a Paypal fund and turn it all in at the end.

    To put my own money where my mouth is, I will personally match up to $500 of whatever is donated. And if you want to throw in a match amount as well, please email me! It can be a match of any amount.

    I am praying so hard that we will blow Ben away and that these inner city pastors will see the generosity of the church taking care of each other!

    For those of you who don’t know Ben, this guy quit a very successful career path in church leadership to put together this dream of Story Chicago which has been percolating in his head for years. His wife just had their third baby and he is literally living by faith daily. It’s incredible! And insane!

    Because he’s been such an inspiration in my own walk to do what God has put on my heart, I love supporting him however I can.

    And I hope that you will too.

    And by helping with these scholarships, you’ll be helping these pastors experience an amazing event.

    Donate below, and please spread the word!






  • Provision: How Precious Did That Grace Appear

    I don’t think it’s a coincidence that God created rain in such a fashion that it mimics the human tear.

    Have you ever had that moment when there’s nothing left inside of you, not even a tear to shed, and at the same moment you see a drop of rain cascade down the window of your house or across the windshield of your car as you drive and you feel somehow divinely touched?

    This year, I’ve spent more time on airplanes and away from home than my previous twenty-eight years combined. And while I do wholeheartedly enjoy a life of travel, of meeting new people and hearing new stories, the amount of time I spend alone and inside my own head can get the best of me at my weakest moments.

    Recently, after a week away from home and an overnight flight schedule with little time for sleep, I hit that wall. The wall where the last bit of your spirit slips right through your fingers and the only thing you have left are your doubts and insecurities and the dark weights of your past – the things which are so heavy it seems like they’ll never leave you.

    Taking my usual back row window seat, I rested my head against the thin plastic wall of the inside of the plane. A recent rain shower coated the plane in an army of tiny drops of water. Water, that, when we began taking off, gently rolled across the window in a pattern so parallel to the tears I wanted to cry, I could almost feel the cold, wet trails they would have left behind on my cheek if they had been my own.

    Yet they weren’t. And as those drops rolled across the window, I no longer felt the need to cry.

    How precious did that grace appear.

    Provision.

    It’s something we’re literally – and sometimes figuratively – graced with, when we are, well…without.

    ——-

  • Dealing with Change

    I’m happily in isolation on an island that can only be reached by seaplane or ferry. During this week away, I’ve asked several friends to fill in for me this week. Hopefully you’ll meet some new voices of people I admire.

    Today’s post comes from Graham Brenna. I met Graham when I spoke at a church in Chicago. He’s a very passionate and encouraging person. And he is really tall.

    —–

    Dealing with Change

    Change is inevitable.

    People change, jobs change, relationships change, toothbrushes change, for better or for worse, things change. It?s how we deal with those changes that will make or break us.

    Take the all too familiar interview question, where do you see yourself in five years?

    What would happen if we jumped ahead five years overnight? That would be a massive change! We wouldn?t handle it very well because we would not be prepared for it. We go through little changes in our lives daily and handle them with ease, however, big changes are inevitable, even some we might not be ready for.

    For the sake of not drawing this out into a twenty-page post I?ve narrowed how we react to changes into two groups; kicking and screaming and acceptance.

    Kicking and Screaming

    For many of us, our initial reaction to a last minute change is to fight it. We like to stick with the plan. When things don?t go as planned we get angry and our nostrils flare. We are quick to find the faults in others that led to this unforeseen misdirection and cast blame. The truth is that throwing blame around in the middle of a change is a dangerous game. It?s best to keep a level head and go with the flow. You don?t want to be seen kicking and screaming? it?s not flattering? usually your hair gets messed up and there is the possibility of rug-burns.

    Acceptance

    Some changes are easier to accept than others. When something is planned out before implementation it is easier to go along with. However, when a last minute change occurs. I?ve found that acceptance is a safer way to respond than by kicking and screaming. Accepting a last minute change can be frustrating sometimes however it?s best to revisit the situation later to debrief instead of putting up barriers.

    These last minute changes shouldn?t be looked at as bad things. They should be embraced as learning opportunities. I?ve been trying to form a new habit lately. When things don?t go as planned, I write down what the situation was and what caused it to go awry. Then I try and figure out what I could have done to prevent it. Doing this usually takes all of five minutes. Actually writing it down and doing my own debrief of the situation has given me clarity and has helped to prevent unwanted changes in the future.

    How do you deal with change? How can we help each other deal with change in a more grace-giving manner?

    —–

  • Facing Down Fear at a Shady Motel

    It was unseasonably cold in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last December.

    When I arrived Wednesday, it was 75 and muggy. ?By the same time Thursday, it was 32 degrees and windy – a cold, damp, biting wind that messed up all of our hair and left us shivering in the shuttle which drove us around the most dangerous areas of town.

    After making the rounds at several adult establishments to hand out roses to the ladies who worked at them, we visited the almost condemned Alamo motel, home to pimps, drug lords and prostitutes.

    The cold air kept the prostitutes indoors, but we managed to stop by one motel room where we knew we?d find a lady the team I was with had gotten to know over the last few months.

    She answered the door in a house robe and hair net...

    (Read the rest of my experience at a shady, Baton Rouge motel over at (in)Courage. Comments off here so you can join the conversation there!)

    —–

  • Heart Surgery Countdown: The Other Side of the Operating Room?

    I’ve been wanting to write a post for a few weeks now about a couple of things I’ve been feeling “passionate” about.

    Please note when I am “passionate” about something that usually means I need to wait a few days, and reframe my way of communication into a much less jerk-ish manner.

    So while I am de-jack-ass-ifying myself, I thought I’d send you a little video to update everyone on my heart surgery…which is four weeks away (as you’ll see on the video, I have a hard time doing basic math). And below the video you’ll find some links I mentioned.

    I continue to covet your prayers.

    (Oh, and please note that I actually do own more clothes than this black shirt and white earrings. My first video on my heart surgery I was wearing the same stinking outfit. The truth is, most of those clothes are still in bags in the back of my car from when we moved three weeks ago, and I haven’t had time to wash them yet.)

    Follow my heart on Twitter – this is where we’ll update on surgery day. Why not?

    Ride Well Tour (Nashville Benefit is THIS FRIDAY – I’ll be there! Hope you can make it!)

    Blood:Water Mission

    Dr. Pickett at St. Thomas Heart

    Details on what’s jacked up with my heart

    Details on the kind of surgery I’ll be having

    The end.

    —————

  • Church Sleeping Man

    Over the last few months, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at several Sunday morning worship gatherings. Recently, I was thinking about one when a guy fell asleep (I’m pretty sure before I took the stage — I hope…) during the service.

    It was a wide room, and he was a rather large man, seated somewhere in the middle. In otherwords, it was impossible to miss him as I would scan the audience to make eye contact.

    I won’t lie. Deep inside, something in me wanted to stop what I was talking about and ask someone to wake Church Sleeping Man up. When I would raise my voice a bit to make a point, I would focus right on him, hoping he’d snap out of it.

    Nothing.

    He was practically in a coma.

    When I travel, I spend a lot of time in reflection on my flight home. I usually don’t read or write, but pop in my earbuds to some Album Leaf, Explosions in the Sky (sounds like a death wish, I know), or Sigur Ros. No real lyrics, just music and mumblings. I allow myself to nod off a bit into that lucid state where I’m able to just allow thoughts to enter, I process them, and tuck them away.

    On this flight home, I found myself not being able to move on from Church Sleeping Man.

    Now, I don’t know Church Sleeping Man personally. And what I feel inside (I’m tempted to call it anger, but am too chicken to actually do so) isn’t directed specifically at him. But I do find myself getting really, really upset.

    Because Church Sleeping Man represents so much of our culture today. Although we may not actually fall asleep during a church service, many of us are sleepwalking in our faith.

    Myself included.

    God has so many words for us to hear, so many opportunities to pursue, so many visions to chase, so many people to love, so many lives we can physically save with the resources we have and yet…

    We sleep.

    We live for the moments when we find ourselves alive, awake, and fulfilling a purpose. But those moments have become special because they are exceptions to our normally sleepy lives.

    Sure, we dream a lot…but what do we do with those dreams after we wake up?

    I truly believe that God has wired humanity the other way around. When our norm is constantly living in that state of being alive – fully, abundantly. While we’re asleep — and dare I say it…only dreaming — we are being robbed of our very purpose in life.

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