Til We Are Brave

I currently live in Illinois finishing up my bachelor’s degree in Communications at Moody Bible Institute. I have grown to love the song-filled fields and rambling rivers of the Northern Midwest. I am engaged to the man my heart loves, and am delighted to walk this treasure-riddled, wild adventure of life wherever our Lord leads us.

The most beautiful thing I know about myself is what the Heidelberg Catechism says is our only hope: that “I am not my own, but belong body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” He is my Lord and Savior. Without Him there would be no story, no breath, no beauty, and nothing beating in any of our hearts.

But with Him? Oh, dear heart, words cannot express the beauty of belonging to God.

Living with Cystic Fibrosis, I have learned that life is precious and uncertain, and that the grace of God is truly abundant. Like Levertov, I marvel at this wild, beautiful gift of existence: “That there is anything, anything at all, let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything…”

Yet there is also pain, darkness, doubt, hearts more broken than we know what to do with, and questions that feel as insurmountable as a mighty, treacherous mountain. But the story of darkness does not have the final word.

And this is why I write. Sarah Clarkson says in This Beautiful Truth, “our humblest moments are the spaces in which God’s reign returns to earth, and I believe that the beauty we claim and create in response to that in-breaking life can be a radical defiance of evil.”

I write about the questions, because I have known the presence of the One who is big enough to hold all questions. I write about beauty, because it bleeds through every moment and reminds our souls that the story that beats at the heart of this sad, magical world has been redeemed and shall be restored to a wholeness we can yet only see glimpses of.

I also love dancing (in the rain, in the wind, with my love in the park while the jazz band is playing), collecting wonderful and perfectly useless treasures from the great outdoors, watching I Love Lucy with my two sisters who are my very dearest friends, and listening to the sound of water (waves or rivers, or the astounding song of waterfalls).

So, welcome, dear heart. May your heart find here a pilgrim tune to ease your wandering, a gentle hand to press yours with kindness, a space to wrestle and wonder, and perhaps a bit of sunshine that will make you smile. If you would like to read more of my poetry, stories, and musings, drop by my substack: https://josiepraytor.substack.com/ Would be delighted to see you!

Sincerely,

Josie