186 - Soul-Sister Friendship: What We Crave + How to Find It
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
Release Date: 01/28/2025
197 - For the People Watchers, EavesDroppers, and Hope Devoid
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
Just imagine what might happen if the words we say breathed life, ignited hearts, and amplified hope when they were overheard! If what came out of our mouths was laced in humility and grounded in our God-identity. If our words repaired breaches and lent hope and lit a candle for someone else. Someone listening over our shoulder, curious how to trust God when life doesn’t make sense. Someone observing at a distance how we become the hands and feet of the Lord we say we love. Someone with doubts and no idea what to do with them. Someone who feels unlovable. Someone misunderstood. Someone...
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196 - The Truth About Vulnerability: The Grace-Lined Protection We Need
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
We get both–the imposter syndrome and the subtly-inflating self-impression. We shame and doubt ourselves, wondering who we are to think God can use us for His grand purpose. And we’re also guilty of esteeming ourselves too highly, as if our value has anything to do with us and not the One who breathed undeserved worth into our lungs just because He loves us so. Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up 2. Read the written version of this episode 3. by Ann Voskamp. 4. Get a FREE Names of...
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195 - How To Cultivate a Receptive, Growth-Friendly Heart
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
What if we let go of the “metrics-based growth” Jennifer Dukes Lee cautions will “[hurry] our hearts,” and lean instead into the two heart cultivators Jesus offers? Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up 2. Read the written version of this episode 3. Jennifer Dukes Lee's . 4. Get a FREE Names of God Phone Wallpaper .
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194 - How To Slow the Rush and Really Rest
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
After a rich, tear-wet journey through the Old Testament searching for who God is on every page, resting in His endless love felt like a bear hug. Again and again and again the truth that God’s love never runs out and is always meant for us brought strength to my soul, filling me for another day of pouring out. Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up 2. Read the written version of this episode 3. 4. Get a FREE Names of God Phone Wallpaper .
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193 - What Happens When You’re Drenched in God’s Endless, Relentless Love
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
It hits like the curled top of an ocean wave: every name I’ve penned in Bible margins, in answer to Ann Voskamp’s question in Sacred Prayer–”Who do I say that God is today? (Mark 8:29)”–is who God is in the right-now. Not a single descriptor is merely a past-tense attribute of God’s nature. Each name spans as far back and reaches as far beyond as endless eternity. Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up 2. Read the written version of this episode 3. I’m taking Mary...
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192 - How to Know What God Actually Wants from Us
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
We don’t have to be more or less of anything. Our presence alone blesses Him. I’m sitting with that as I ponder how we best serve God and minister to the people in front of us on His behalf. Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up 2. Read the written version of this episode 3. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s , searching for names of God as I read like it’s some sort of treasure hunt. Never though to look for God in this way until I began journaling through Ann Voskamp’s . 4....
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191 - Where To Find The Most Beautiful Picture Of Open Hands
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
What strikes me about this picture of open hands is that for hands to be unfolded daily, they must be balled-up daily too. I can relate to that. Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up 2. Read the written version of this episode 3. Get a FREE Names of God Phone Wallpaper .
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190 - The Best Remedy I’ve Found For My Tendency To Catastrophize
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
It begins to connect as I pause at the word ‘name’ at the end of Psalm 91: because we know God by name–by His many names–we know TO call on Him, HOW to call on Him, and WHAT to call Him. Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up 2. Read the written version of this episode 3. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s , searching for names of God as I read like it’s some sort of treasure hunt. Never though to look for God in this way until I began journaling through Ann Voskamp’s . 4. Get a...
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189 - This Is What Changes When We Know God by Name
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
It begins to connect as I pause at the word ‘name’ at the end of Psalm 91: because we know God by name–by His many names–we know TO call on Him, HOW to call on Him, and WHAT to call Him. Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up 2. Read the written version of this episode 3. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s , searching for names of God as I read like it’s some sort of treasure hunt. Never though to look for God in this way until I began journaling through Ann Voskamp’s . 4. Get a...
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188 - Three Unique Ways To Repeat What You Need To Believe
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
This morning, wide awake way too early, I pondered how there’s nothing else I’d rather have running through my head when I can’t sleep than the weighty glory of God Himself. Unless I proactively tell my thoughts where to dwell, they wander willful and easily distracted. I lean into lies that incite fear or unworth rather than lean on the One who knows every tender hope and unspoken prayer. Maybe that’s you too. And you’re ready to change the string of what-if’s and self-belittling on repeat inside your head. Ready to root deep in what you need to believe: That God’s good in the...
info_outlineIt’s a hopeful whisper: soul-sister friendship.
Isn’t that what we long beneath the obligatory “I’m good! How are you?” and mustered-up smiles and silent sighs?
We want something more than surfacy talk about movies and weather, car lines and school projects. More than flighty friendship that unravels over bent feelings and assumptions.
Perhaps your heart-felt prayer is not for more friends but deeper friendship.
The kind that welcomes your crying face into the chaos of the kitchen and hugs you with flour-dusted hands.
The kind that pauses and makes space, knows before you say anything, loves fiercely when it’s inconvenient, remains loyal when it’s costly.
The kind we find between two would-be rivals–a prince and God-chosen king, Jonathan and David–in the book of 1 Samuel.
Links mentioned:
1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.
2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.
3. “Ten Things You Might Be Doing That Keep Your Relationships Shallow" (FREE download).
4. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day Bible Reading challenge (and you can too!). Sign up HERE.
5. Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal is the one I’m using, and her questions gives space to record who God is, where we are in relation to God, and more. I find it dovetails beautifully with Mary’s challenge.