Reader.

Consider this your invitation to immerse yourself in the waters of Miryam, from bitter to strong, on August 22nd. Keep reading, and I'll tell you more.
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All the way back in May (which feels like a lifetime ago already, anyone else?), I wrote about Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the different seasons of her life I kept recognizing in my own:

• Yes Mary
• Training Wheels Mary
• Wedding at Cana Mary
• At the Cross Mary
• Upper Room Mary

If you missed that one, you can read it here​

What I didn't anticipate was that my next study, Miryam, Mary's namesake, would become a study of a woman moving through the different callings (not seasons per se) of a life.

We spent two sessions with her this summer in Women of Deliverance. In June, we covered the first half of her life, found in Exodus, where we meet her twice at the shores of the sea. As a girl, she watches over her baby brother in a basket, one of seven women who play a part in saving Moses and, eventually, a nation. Named in Scripture as a prophet, we see her again as she leads Israel in worship at that same sea after the crossing.

The July session, less familiar to some, covered the second half of her life with two episodes found in Numbers. It's where Miryam speaks against Moses, is struck with a skin disease, and is banished from the camp for seven days. A few chapters later, almost in passing, Scripture shares her death.

At first glance, those two episodes look like a fall from grace. A rescuer becomes a cautionary tale. And honestly, that's often how it's preached.

But that's not where I landed after studying her extensively. Not at all.

What's interesting is that studying different perspectives begins with her name. Miryam's name carries two Hebrew roots. One is marar, to be bitter, the same root behind mor, myrrh. Myrrh is a bitter spice, but it became known as the "oil of joy," used in weddings and anointing.

That same root also carries a second meaning. As Hebrew scholar Victor Hamilton notes, in Aramaic, the root can mean "to strengthen, bless, commend," and in at least four Old Testament passages, that may be the better translation. Exodus 1:14, for instance, might read not that the Egyptians "made their lives bitter," but that they strengthened them, hard labor toughening the Hebrews rather than merely embittering them.

The other root, yam, means sea.

Which makes Miryam's name something closer to Bitter Waters AND Waters of Strength.

I keep thinking about that. The parts of our story we'd call a fall, a banishment, a drought. And how much of what we could call bitter is, somehow, the place where strength can be made.

What has felt like a hard circumstance in your life that you can now see differently, one that's become a source of strength for others?

You could sit with that question on your own. But honestly, do you think you might close this email and not think about it again?

What if you could get away to really think through your story, where something has been buried or lost, and has the potential to stay bitter rather than become strengthening?

If that is sounding like just the thing you need. I'd love to have you join me for a three-hour workshop experience. We won't be coming to a tidy conclusion about who Miryam was. Nor mastering a name study. It's about space, room to remember, reflect, and hear from God about your own forming and becoming.
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This Immersion pulls from the two-part study I taught this summer on Miryam. Through short teachings and your own guided reflection, we'll sit with all four episodes of her story, sea to death, and let them meet whatever season you're actually in. Same Living Room Lab format as our Illuminate gatherings: I'll share what I've been learning, then leave room for quiet reflection.

If you're in a season of transition, wondering about the younger version of yourself that's been buried, this is an invitation to bring that question into a room designed to explore it.

​Illuminate Immersion: Miryam $19​

Saturday, August 22 · 10 am–1 pm PST

Hybrid: in person in Tacoma (limited to 12), or live on Zoom

​Registration here is required.​

If this is speaking to you, I'd love to have you there. Questions? You know I love a good question, so feel free to send them my email by replying to this email.

With you,