Nancy Parker Brummett

Author Writer Speaker

Back Porch Break

Gentle and Lowly

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Some books land in your lap at just the right time. That’s what happened when I read Gentle and Lowly, The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, by Dane Ortlund.[i] My granddaughter recommended the book, but it wasn’t until it was offered by our women’s ministry at church last fall that I signed up to read and discuss it.

You know a book was worth the read when it lingers with you long after you close the cover for the last time. So it was with Gentle and Lowly. Ortlund takes the verse in Matthew 11:29 where Jesus says, “I am gentle and lowly at heart,” and makes it the basis of a whole book drawing the reader closer to the heart of the Savior. He points out that within all four gospel accounts of the life of Jesus this is the only place where Jesus describes the condition of His heart. From those seven words come a wealth of encouragement and love for those who trust in Him.

Of course, the book includes references to many other relevant Scripture verses and also presents quotes from some of the most articulate and insightful writers of the past: men like Thomas Goodwin, John Bunyan and Charles Spurgeon. I probably won’t ever get around to reading their collected works, but I’m grateful for the exposure I got to their deep theological understanding in Gentle and Lowly.

As we came in to the Christmas season I realized so many of the words in the old familiar carols had more meaning because of Ortlund’s book. The story of Christmas is the story of a gentle, helpless baby being born in a lowly manger on a mission to save us all.  In “O Little Town of Bethlehem” we sang, “No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.” How blessed are those who are meek enough to welcome Him in to their hearts.

The strains of “O Holy Night” brought more passages from the book to mind. “His law is love and His gospel is peace.” Yes, Lord, I want to fall on my knees before You. Your love is never-ending. You long to pour out Your love for us.  And You are forever the desperately needed Prince of Peace.

“First Moment in Heaven,” (c) Christian Photoshops

What will I bring in to the new year from this focus on the heart of Jesus? That He is neither surprised nor repelled by my sin, but that when I sin His heart pours out not condemnation, because that score has been settled, but understanding, compassion, mercy and forgiveness.

And in those times in 2026 when I might feel unworthy, invisible, washed up, and useless, His heart will reveal how He sees me—as a beautiful daughter of the King, a soul with a reservation in heaven, and a friend of His. He won’t let me disparage or discount one of His friends, not for a second.

Then there’s the suffering. We all pray the new year will be void of the kind of pain we’ve endured in the past, but we don’t know. What we can be sure of is that Jesus, because of His sacrifice for us, is acquainted with our pain, relates to our suffering, and will be with us in the middle of it to hold us close to His heart and get us through it.

I realize this is heavier than most of my posts, but just as I need to clean off my desk before I can work productively, I needed to share what was on my heart before writing anything else. Needless to say, I recommend Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. The cover is beautiful! The chapters are short enough to add one or two to your daily devotions, and the truth you learn about the heart of Jesus will stay with you always.

Happy New Year!

[i] Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2020).

 

Seek the Sun

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If you ever long for more sunshine in your life, follow a cat around. These feline finders never miss the chance to bask in a burst of sunlight, and all of us will need to do that more as the days grow shorter and the sun sets earlier this winter.

This has been a year of valleys and peaks for our family. If you’re a regular reader and you’re just now realizing you haven’t heard from me for a while, it’s because the valleys seem to have drained my creativity so my writing and my cooking, which l came to understand is also a creative endeavor, have suffered. And yet we’ve also had a joyful wedding, a new baby born, and an engagement this year! In all of it, we know God is good, now and forever, and that we are richly blessed.

But like a plant turning toward the sun to soak up as much as it can so it can grow and bloom as designed, we can’t grow if we just sit in the dark. That’s no way to thrive. Those of us who are blessed with sound mental health (well, most of the time) realize that grief is not a destination. It’s not a place to stay, but a place to travel through in time, incorporating the loss into who you will now be but not letting it define you completely. And as we travel, we look for the sun, the positive, the eternal hope that lifts our heads.

It takes discipline to turn away from the dark into the light. And it takes a full reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible passage I often turn to when I need to shift my perspective is Phil. 4:8—Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

The fact that you’re reading this means healing is happening. I’m especially grateful for Thanksgiving this year as the timing of the celebration is nothing less than perfect. As Chuck Swindoll wrote: Thanksgiving is a time of quiet reflection upon the past and an annual reminder that God has, again, been ever so faithful. The solid and simple things of life are brought into clear focus, so much so that everything else fades into insignificance.

So if you are feeling down this holiday season, seek the sun and seek the Son, Jesus Christ. Bask in all the blessings for which you are grateful. Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!

The Day After

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(Readers, if you weren’t able to open and read my April post, “Sunrise Hope at Easter,” due to a glitch in the system of the host provider, you may read it now on my website.)

As many of you read in April, I have not been able to write very much recently due to the loss of our 9-month-old great-granddaughter from complications of the flu in February. But when I heard the writing prompt for a writer’s workshop sponsored by Academy Christian Church, my imagination soared. I thought it might just be the opportunity I needed to get the creative juices flowing again. I was right.

What was the prompt? To choose a person in the Bible who had a personal encounter with Jesus and write about what they did the day after. Attendees were provided with a list of 30 such encounters, but we were free to choose anyone we wanted. I chose the woman at the well from John 4:1-45.

This woman is unnamed, so I named her Marta. I imagined her returning to the house she shared with a man not her husband, experiencing a sleepless night remembering the life-changing things the Messiah had said to her, a sinful Samaritan woman, and strategizing how she would leave her life of sin. The next morning, she rises before dawn and begins to prepare one last meal for this man I named Jamal when she realizes she left her water jug at the well. She goes to retrieve it and returns to find he is awake. She calmly explains why she can no longer live with him; he explodes and leaves.

That is a short summary of the three pages I wrote, but I like the ending another writer in the group imagined better. In her version of the story, the woman leaves, not knowing what will happen to her, but she encounters a group of people who tell her, “Join us on the road! We are going to follow Jesus!” Just imagine.

Another attendee wrote about the woman with the issue of bleeding in Mark 5:24-35 and Luke 8: 42-48. As you may recall she had suffered for over 12 years and, in desperation, worked her way through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’ robe and be miraculously healed. The day after? This writer imagined she wakes realizing that she doesn’t have to deal with the bloody rags that have been the bane of her existence for so long. She is clean. She tells her caregiver that she has the energy to go fetch the water at the well herself, where her amazed friends are so happy to see her. Hearing that a woman she knows is ill, she takes water to her, too, so thrilled that she can now minister to others again because her Lord ministered to her.

Other writers imagined what happened the day after to the man possessed by demons that Jesus transferred to the pigs (Mark 5:1-20), to the Centurion whose servant was healed from a distance (Matthew 8:5-13), or to Lazarus, who was raised from the dead (John 11:1-44). The writer speculating about Lazarus wondered, assuming he had been in the presence of God, if Lazarus was really that happy about being brought back to live on the earth again? Of course, his sisters Mary and Martha were thrilled and grateful that he was back, but was he? We can only imagine.

I’m grateful to the ladies of Academy Christian Church for welcoming me to their group with open arms, and grateful to discover that grief couldn’t permanently rob me of a gift the Lord graciously gave me so very long ago.

What about you? If you’ve had an encounter with Jesus, what did you do the next day? Who did you tell? How were you changed? I can only imagine.

Sunrise Hope at Easter

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Dear Readers, you may realize I didn’t post anything in February and March. That’s because we lost our almost 10-month old great-granddaughter, Anna, to complications of the flu on Feb. 12. I haven’t been able to write much since, but when I can I will post more about sweet Anna. For now, this repeat message on hope at Easter seems appropriate for us…and I hope for you. God bless.

No wonder so many people love to attend Easter sunrise services. A sunrise represents hope, and so it is the perfect representation of the hope we find in the message of Easter.

Few events can be counted on to occur day after day, but the rising of the sun is one of them. Even on a cloudy day, when the heat and light of the sun may be minimized, we can still see that the sun did indeed rise once again!

And how grateful we are for the blessing of the sun in our lives. Without it, we would be in perpetual darkness. Without it, plant life on the earth, including the flowers and trees that bring us so much joy, would shrivel and die. All the beauty we look forward to this time of year when spring begins to bloom would cease to exist. In fact, all of life would eventually disappear from the earth, all because we lost the sun.

Our life on earth is marked by the number of sunrises and sunsets we experience, but do we really experience them? Do we appreciate the sun and the majesty of the Creation that allows it to shine day after day, or do we take it for granted? The first rays of a sunrise are subtle at best. Slowly the darkness begins to fade as the sun makes its way toward the horizon, but then as the giant orb of fire climbs up into view the entire sky changes color. The sunrise can look different each and every day, but because we can count on it to happen without fail, it’s a wonderful symbol for the hope we have in Jesus Christ—the hope that is an anchor for the soul, firm and secure (Hebrews 6:19).

It was a dark, bleak day when Jesus was crucified on the cross—the worst day His followers had ever known. And yet when the grieving women ran to the tomb early in the morning of the third day, after the sun had risen, they were greeted with the glorious news of the resurrection! Praise God we can be sure that those who believe in His Son will also know the glory of everlasting life. We can be even more certain of that than we are of the sunrise! For no matter what darkness our life holds, one day we will be bathed in the light of heaven forever.

The next time we are blessed to watch a sunrise, and especially on Easter morning, we should bask in the hope that it represents. It’s a hope that never fades, and never disappoints.

Restoring a Grand Old Lady

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As enjoyable as the holiday season may be, we can all feel the need for physical renewal once it’s over. The “new year, new you” mantra strikes a chord with many of us.

We can glean inspiration from a story of amazing restoration. On April 15, 2019, a devastating fire extensively damaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The crowd of onlookers gasped as flames shot through the roof and her iconic steeple toppled to the ground, with debris even spilling in to the Seine River nearby. To see this beloved medieval Catholic cathedral, built from the 12th to the 14th centuries, crumbling before their eyes was a horror beyond imagination.

But hope sprang from the ashes. France’s President Emmanuel Macron declared that the grand cathedral, visited by thousands of sojourners yearly, would be rebuilt and restored to her original glory in five years.

My husband and I were privileged to walk the streets of Paris in July of 2023. As we looked up at the massive scaffolding surrounding the majestic cathedral we shared our tour guide’s view that Macron’s deadline would probably not be met. Naysayers were many, yet thousands of diligent artists, artisans and craftsmen began the pains-taking work of cleaning and repairing stained glass windows, recreating stone and wooden carvings from photos, restoring centuries old paintings and murals, and resurrecting the damaged organ—the largest in France. The billion-dollar project was funded in part by donations from all around the world—with 57 million coming from the United States.

And so, taking just a bit longer than Macron predicted, Notre Dame Cathedral was rededicated in December 2024, welcoming thousands of worshipers and curious tourists through her doors.

Photos reveal that the cathedral is lighter and brighter than before. And it truly is restored to its original beauty with attention paid to every minute detail.

Now the gasps are those of awestruck visitors and worshipers attending mass.

Europe is full of amazing cathedrals, Notre Dame perhaps being the most famous, but the Bible reminds believers in Jesus Christ that we are the temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), indwelled by God Himself through the Holy Spirit. We the people are the church, not the buildings.

So if our temple needs a bit of restoration, let’s get started. Let’s pay more attention to what we do and don’t eat, lace up those walking shoes, and enter the New Year grateful for the bodies we have and in anticipation of where they may take us next

I’ll Be Home for Christmas

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After a year when so many lost their homes through war or natural disaster, I was especially grateful to decorate the place we’ve called home for almost 10 years and to share it with friends and family. This is where we live and this is home.

Yet another home comes to mind this time of year. The big white house on the hill where I grew up in Tennessee was still there until a couple of years ago. Although the house has been demolished and the surrounding land sold, I can still visit there in my heart and mind any time I want.

I close my eyes and I’m pulling my car up the long driveway and parking between the screened-in side porch and the dogwood tree. As I get out of the car I see my mom looking out the kitchen window where she’s been watching for me. By the time I get to the door she’s rushing to it from the other side, clapping her hands, smiling with her whole face, and calling out, “Nancy’s home! Nancy’s home!”

For most of us, even in the best of times, the Christmas season brings tears. Tears of sadness, tears of joy, maybe tears of gratitude for all we have or all we’ve loved and lost. Each year I tear up the first time I hear Amy Grant’s “Tender Tennessee Christmas.” She sings, I know there’s more snow out in Colorado than my roof will ever see, but a tender Tennessee Christmas is the only Christmas for me.The song connects two states that have been home to me. As a T-shirt I have reads, “I’m just a Tennessee girl in a Colorado world.”

At times, often after I’ve visited Tennessee, I begin feeling that rather than having two homes I don’t have any place to really call home—that geographically speaking I no longer belong here or there.

“First Moment in Heaven,” (c) Christian Photoshops

That’s when the Lord gently reminds me that it’s normal to feel this way, because we won’t truly be home until we are with Him for eternity.

The joys of this past year were many, but we also experienced some devastating losses and far too many memorial services. As we reflect on those who are no longer here experiencing Christmas with their families, we take comfort in knowing that because they were followers of Jesus Christ they are “home for Christmas” in the truest sense.

 

And until we join them, we’ll continue to be grateful for, and blessed by, our earthly homes present and past.

May you be blessed to be home for Christmas this year, and if you don’t know where your true home is, turn your eyes upon the Babe in the manger and the grace and truth He still brings to the world. Merry Christmas!