For those of you who don’t know Mickey yet, she is a friend of the Tippetts’ who traveled here from out of state again and again throughout Kara’s cancer to love on the entire family and walk that hard with them. She was here for several months at the end of Kara’s life, serving them and always looking for ways to love them. And us girls, for that matter. Despite her own pain and grief, she was always available to us, loving on us, listening to our hearts, crying with us, offering us more coffee, cuddling our babies (and offering them their first French fries!). She is a gift straight from the Lord, as we are grateful that she took the time to talk with us.

This week for the Mundane Faithfulness Podcast, Jill and I sit down with Ali to discuss Chapters 6 & 7 of Jill and Kara’s book, Just Show Up. Friends, there were lots of tears (and laughter!) in the studio and so much wisdom shared (by Ali and Jill!) about insecurities when just showing up for others. Most of the questions we field about what just showing up looks like involve insecurity of some description. We hope this helps sort out some of your questions and encourages you. And for our podcast subscribers, we will have a bonus podcast with the rest of our conversation available soon.

We will be discussing the following questions over at the MFC (Mundane Faithfulness Community) on Facebook; if you aren’t a member, feel free to join or simply post your answers as comments on this blog. Thank you for journeying this with us.

1. If you were asked to walk something hard, who would be there for you? Who are your people?
2. Recall the last time you received help. Was it hard to receive? Why or why not? Did you have to ask for that help? If you had to ask, how did that feel? Is that something you are used to doing or was that out of the ordinary for you?

Over at the Mundane Faithfulness Community, we will be discussing the following questions. If you aren’t on Facebook, feel free to leave your answers as comments. We love hearing from you all.

When was the last time someone showed up for you during a crisis of some sort? Who was it, and what did they do? They may have fumbled a little or maybe even a lot, but they still showed up. Have you taken the time to thank them?

Okay, here’s your chance. Write down two or three inappropriate Christian platitudes you’ve either headr said to others or been the recipient of yourself. There might be one you’ve even used before and after the fact thought, Wow, that really wasn’t helpful. There’s no need to feel shame. If anything, try to laugh about it. We all get do-overs in the practice of showing up. 

We have the second best to this in our MFC (Mundane Faithfulness Community). I am learning what it means to develop friendships from a distance and what it looks like to just show up for my new friends by praying and emailing and pursuing them online. It’s new to me and I feel a bit clumsy, but it’s a gift. I wish we all had friends like Heather and Jill to sit down with over coffee; yet as Heather talks about in the podcast, our calling in relationships and just showing up for others may look different than what we expected. Lovely, lovely truth. Listen and be blessed.

This week Jill and I invited Heather to the studio to discuss the introduction and Chapter One of Just Show Up. As Jill and Heather shared their hearts, I kept thinking, I can’t believe these women are my friends and love me! They are so amazing and godly! I am truly blessed, and I hope you will be, too, as you listen to their wisdom. Jill and Heather had so many beautiful things to share that we ran over; Part Two will be posted in iTunes later in the week. I just regret that Heather’s and my duet whistling “Just Fly Away” did not make it to the finished podcast, although I don’t think Heather is as sad as I am!

We would like to discuss Kara’s questions at the end of Chapter One as a community; we realize not everyone has read the book yet, but please don’t let that discourage you from participating. Please feel free to comment here on the blog, or if you would like discussion and interaction, join us in our conversation on the MFC page on Facebook.

1. The first step in showing up is answering the question, Who? Who do you know who is currently suffering and you want or need to show up for? You may know right away. Then again, you may not be sure. If it’s not clear, ask God to bring that person’s name or face to your thoughts, and trust your thoughts when they come.
2. Once you’ve got that person’s face in mind, what fears or anxieties do you have about showing up for them? You may not have a long list, but there will always be one or two…The most important thing at the outset is to name those fears because that takes away some of their power.

Friends, we are so excited to present to you our very first Mundane Faithfulness podcast! We decided to kick things off with a series talking about Just Show Up with Jill. In this episode, I ask Jill some questions about the story behind the book. Next week we will be talking about the introduction and chapter 1, and then we will discuss the questions at the end of the chapter on our new MFC (Mundane Faithfulness Community) page. We’d love for you to join us!

Just a technical note, we are still awaiting approval from iTunes, so you won’t find us there or your favorite podcasting app until that happens—we will let you know once it does!

And a quick request: After we go through Just Show Up together, I’d like to have a Q&A podcast with Jill, so please be thinking about questions you’d like to ask for that episode. You’re welcome to leave them as comments or email us through the blog.

We pray this new addition to Mundane Faithfulness will be a blessing and encouragement to you, and that we can continue Kara’s legacy of pursuing grace together.