My kids join me for their own takes on a recent peaceful protest demonstration. I share the why behind the go, and the spiritual implications that it has. 

Word Quota with Bec McNew

#25 No Justice, No Peace.

In the wake of Ahmad Arbery, there are some things to expect, and ways to respond as believers. Initially, I had recorded this as a video, but I turned it into a slightly shortened podcast for listening convenience."If you never risk offending your "base" with your truth-telling but are always aimed at your ideological foes, you're not a prophet, but a panderer." -Jared C. WilsonAlso discussed are some reading recommendations.(not an add)White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be WhiteBe the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation by Latasha Morrison The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism by Jemar TisbyWhen Heaven and Earth Collide: Racism, Southern Evangelicals, and the Better Way of Jesus by Alan CrossOh Freedom!: A Conscious US History Curriculum by Delina Pryce McPhaullOf note that I failed to expand upon in the recording: the Justice for the McMichaels, at least the one I was referring to, was likely a trolling page. That doesn’t negate its being terribly problematic, & in fact, I would argue, makes it worse. Thousands upon thousands of people joined it either because they didn’t know they were being trolled or because they knew it was trolling and were in on the “joke.” Either circumstance is incredibly grievous and devaluing. For that reason, I chose to let its mention remain in the recording and am just tagging on the addendum here.

#24 Plea from a White Mom Learning

 TheNewBecwordquota.com“Be hospitable to one another without complaining.” 1 Peter 4:9 CSB“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:2 ESV“When God's people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.” Romans 12:13 NLT"I would be amiss to try to pawn off all responsibility in the matter as 'not my calling,' or 'not my gift,' when there is still clearly a mandate for participation." -Bec McNew"Hospitality doesn’t always have to be this grandiose thing.  It can include the grand things, and it will likely require some sacrifice, but in itself, hospitality is not an event. It’s a way of being." -Bec McNew"Welcome doesn’t have to be a sign on a banner. It can simply mean receiving people into our space to live loved "-Bec McNew"Hospitality shares what there is; that's all. It's not entertainment. It's not supposed to be." - Rosaria Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with a House Key

#23: Hospitality

"Well-meant intentions are not always beneficial, or even harmless." -Bec McNew "Something often unspoken in our goody-goody world resides, and that is our lust for the sweetness of the approval that comes sandwiched between good-deeds and humble-brags." -Bec McNew"It’s difficult to be intimate with Jesus, prophetically described in Isaiah as the 'Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief,' while doing everything in our power to distance ourselves from suffering." -Bec McNew"We can delight in God’s wonders and with-us-ness, possessing appreciative awe and trust in his ways, the person of love that he is, and the good of those who love him in accordance with his purposes while also feeling hurt, disappointment, regret, sorrow, and loss- while bearing witness to the same in another." -Bec McNew“It’s quite something…I am a person who wants to love by fixing things. I want to love people by doing practical things to make things better for them. And what I have learned with her, what she’s taught me, is there’s also a love called love only to witness. Only to witness. To bear faithful witness to what someone is going through with no possibility really of fixing very much. And that is a hard love. That is a very difficult love.” -Barbara Brown Taylor, via Kate Bowler's podcast Everything Happens“Christian tragedy looks outward, upward, and beyond for redemption.” -Karen Swallow Prior, On Reading WellScripture references: 1 Thesselonians 5:16, Psalm 67:4, Proverbs 15:13, Matthew 5:4, Psalm 119:50, Isaiah 49:13, Psalm 147:3, 2 Corinthians 1:4, Romans 12:15, Romans 8:35-39

#22: Good Grief

TheNewBec wordquota.com The Lying Tree "Speak your truth," is sort of a buzz phrase lately, and "It's just how I am," is widely accepted. We explore the dangers and accuracy in these statements. "News-flash: I am not the source of life, neither am I the standard." -Bec McNew "Frequency and quantity of expression are not actually equivalent to wellness or truth." -Bec McNew "It’s a daily struggle not to elevate ourselves up as our own little gods, answerable to no-one." -Bec McNew "Is there a regular damage that is being endured because we’ve grown so used to its abuse that we no longer see it as a problem, unaware that we are only moments away from being unable to function? -Bec McNew" Matthe 7:4-5, John 8:31-32 NLT 

#21: The Danger of Your Normal

Today on Word Quota you get to join me on a date with my husband, Brett McNew, as we discuss the importance of creativity and using the gifts God has given you, Brett's journey from a love a reading at a young age to publishing his YA novel The Lying Tree, and there's a little bit about enneagrams and Muppets thrown in there too.The Lying Tree by Brett McNew on AmazonTheNewBec on InstagramWord Quota

#20: Interview with Brett McNew

TheNewBecwordquota.com Evie and Alistair: Farmhouse Warriors Transitioning into the new year can be both exciting and overwhelming. Today on Word Quota we talk about how balancing our lives doesn't mean that everything gets the same amount of attention and energy.  "Failure in completing an action well does not equate to being a failure, personified. Failed events in time do not equal ultimate defeat." -Bec McNew  "What if, in all of our accomplishments, rather than only focusing on trying to achieve more, we also tried to achieve less?" -Bec McNew  "Balance in our lives doesn’t mean having equal amounts in every space at all times, spreading ourselves equally thin in everything." -Bec McNew  "Success isn’t just about the end result, it has a whole lot to do with what fills the middle." - Bec McNew  Matthew 6:33, Colossians 3:17, Psalm 127:1, 1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV 

#19 Rhythm & Refocus

 Join me as Wes Willett gives us a peek into his beginnings in music career and ministry, lessons learned and what he wishes the masses knew about platform ministry, ambitions of what we think success is, why God might not give us the superpower of seeing the future, the importance of family, and more. Of course, we also discussed Wes’s fantasy/ historical fiction not-a-silent-night kind of Christmas novel, Anno Domini, and there’s also some comic book superhero discussion for good measure. theinkforge.comAnno Domini by Wes WillettTheNewBecwordquota.com“God, he really knows what we want and he’s so good he’ll give us what we didn’t know to even ask for.” -Wes Willett “When the scripture says that God will give you the desires of your heart, He’s placing the desires in there.” -Bec McNew  “I think it’s a trick of the enemy to get us always focused on being… the next big name." -Wes Willett “Everything good in my life has come from God.” -Wes Willett  “In our ambitions, if we put a picture in our own heads of what we think success is… it actually might be putting God in a box and limiting what he wants to really do. We’re so narrowly focused that we don’t see the other things.” -Bec McNew “One of the reasons God gives us callings that are bigger than we are is so that the triumph will always fall within the careful margins of faith.” -Wes Willett “Christianity, in an effort to keep our kids safe, to be palatable to everyone, we’ve sort of sterilized our books, our literature, when scripture is absolutely anything but that.” -Wes Willett “I wanted to show people, young Christians especially, that God, the things of scripture, are far more amazing than mythology… and it’s real. It’s not a myth.” -Wes Willett “I have a champion in the faith to raise- I need to be careful to enjoy the time God has given me there and invest in that.” -Wes Willett 

#18: Interview with Wes Willett

Does our thankfulness extend beyond the feeling of relief? TheNewBec wordquota.com We must recognize the full capacity of our deliverance, if even from ourselves. Gratitude meets full realization that there is nothing innately greater within one of us that deserves more than another. . Thankfulness that goes beyond the feeling of relief turns into the activity growth of gratitude. Luke 6:45 Matthew 5:44 Luke 17 Luke 21 Luke 11

#17: Gratitude

The supernatural. Is it real? Is it harmless? Is it dangerous? Is it okay to enjoy magically themed entertainment? TheNewBec wordquota.com "As with in the garden, the sinfulness, the threat to ourselves, comes when we are trying to seek anything other than God to be god to us- to usurp a power over God- to seek ourselves or other powers to give us a personal power trip or addiction to control." -Bec McNew "There lies a danger of diluting the magnificence of God’s supernatural existence, which in turn truncates the very source of our hope." -Bec McNew It’s in many stories about the magical miraculous that we see the parallel of Christ conquering death with life." -Bec McNew "Anything less than God himself is a danger when it’s elevated above Him." - Bec McNew "Creativity itself bears evidence to a designer God." "Stories of the magical miraculous can be used as innovative tools for some to behold the realization of God’s far-beyond-ourselves possibilities- his unfathomable awesomeness, his all-powerfulness- and invoke worship of HIM because of it." -Bec McNew "I honestly think we use the word magic because in our mortal vocabulary we are not equipped to talk about the glory, the awe, the majesty, the other-worldliness of God himself... it is our finite humanness trying to put into words the wonder and the responsibility and the greatness of things that we can't describe." -Lisa Jo Baker Romans 14, 2 Corinthians 10, Ephesians 6, Galatians 5, Galatians 4:10-11, Lisa Jo Baker IG Lisa Jo Baker Harry Potter, Jesus and Me Galatians For You Galatians For You 

#16: The Magical Miraculous

My dear friend Nay joins me for life conversation, and it's a full one! We discuss everything from home decor to physical illness, culottes to mental health, and the sweet places God has blessed us with in our sorrows and happiness as we use our all-the-wordiness. You don't want to miss this one! TheNewBecwordquota.comHappyHolderHome Enjoy the Journey © 2009 Naomi Carroll  Becoming © 2009 Naomi Carroll 

#15: Story Time with Bec and Nay

Often we feel as though we have no choice but to live exhausting lives. Rest requires a humility to trust that things can succeed outside of our overrun efforts. TheNewBec wordquota.com The Ink Forge “If busyness is currency, what exactly is the price that we are paying?” -Bec McNew “Rest is wealth.”-Bec McNew “Rest is where our strivings cease.” -Bec McNew “Rest requires humility. " -Bec McNew “Rest is given- it’s a gift of the Lord’s presence, and we will miss out on it if we aren’t obedient to receive it. " -Bec McNew “What functionality are we sacrificing to the false god of efficiency?" -Bec McNew “It can seem so difficult to make a space for receiving- we have exercised accomplishment for so long, resting at first appears to amplify the awareness of how sore we are." -Bec McNew "It takes a decided obedience to exercise our trust and receive the rest that is far beyond ourselves." -Bec McNew “All-night ministry time was sandwiched between two times of unhurried time with God.” -Wes Willett “What if the greatest accomplishment in life is to be in His presence; to look at His presence as an actual accomplishment—as the accomplishment?” -Wes Willett Psalm 37:7 NASB Exodus 33:14, Psalm 62:1, Matthew 11:28, Hebrews 4:11 “For the Christian, rest is the final place of God’s heavenly blessing, which they will receive if they hold fast their faith.” -Christian Standard Bible Commentary 

#14 Give Us Rest

The experience of adopting our son expanded my heart to more fully understand the heart of adoption in the gospel. TheNewBec wordquota.com “Adoption puts the exclamation mark on redemption!” -Bec McNew “God pours out his love generously, and we are able to accept it fully and pleasurably without false humility.” -Bec McNew “God isn’t passing out his benefits on the basis of what is merited, his bestowment of delightful love is not in our accomplishments- it’s on the basis of who we belong to.”-Bec McNew “God looks at those whom Christ’s blood covers and sees us as blood-kin.” “Adoption on Earth is a metaphor that reflects a glint of what takes place in the heavenlies!” John 1:12 (CSB), Ephesians 1:5 (NLT), Galatians 4:4-7 (NLT) Galatians for You by Timothy Keller No Orphans of God by Avalon

#13: Adoption and the Gospel

Why I still have faith when an answer to prayer doesn't turn out how I hoped. TheNewBec wordquota.com Evie & Alistair: Farmhouse Warriors Lipscomb LIFE Program “We tend to have a weak theology of suffering in our pews, and if one wants to learn to locate God’s work in suffering, hearing the narratives of others whose lives are different than mine is imperative.” -Kate Watkins "Fear dissipates with Proximity." -Bec McNew "Asking is an offering of humility." -Bec McNew "Shining your light doesn’t mean that the days are never cloudy. Sometimes God’s glory shines the brightest against the contrast of our darkest days." -Bec McNew "Lament is an aspect of our lives that knits us intimately in solidarity and surrender with the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief." -Bec McNew "He is good through even our most horrific circumstances, not in spite of them." -Bec McNew "When we don’t get what we asked for, we rest in God’s working. -Bec McNew Matthew 5:14-16 CSB 

#12: When You Don't Get What You Asked For

Rachel Anne Ridge is such a joy, and I'm so happy to have her on Word Quota today. We discuss life interruptions, parenting, and of course those beloved donkeys, Flash & Henry! Rachel Anne Ridge Flash and Henry instagram Flash the Donkey Facebook Flash the Donkey TheNewBec wordquota.com

#11: Interview with Rachel Anne Ridge

Word Quota is all about life and word. Bec's personal "word quota" has become a means by which to connect with others through honest talk about life in her words and share life spoken through THE Word- as well as the wisdom and experience of others she interviews. From the daily mundane to the extraordinary, and lots of places in between and beyond, her words encourage you that no matter what you face, you are not alone in life's journey. Word Quota serves as an inspiration to fulfill your own word quota well as the gift it can be to the world.

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Word Quota with Bec McNew

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