Cultivating Autumn 2024 | Fortitude is released!

Every release of a new edition of Cultivating brings with it a certain joy of completion, and an affirmation of the work we are called to. It carries the blessing of being faithful to having done the work to bring it into being – work done alone and work done in community. This edition is no exception to that, except that it comes with a deeper sense of “rightness” for having done it. The topic of Fortitude, like the topic of Courage before it, is a heavy one – weighty, a little foreboding, and sometimes difficult to face “in the eye”. It took courage to write about it, to explore it, to try in some way to come to clearer terms with it. Like all our topics, it was set for us nearly a year in advance. It strikes me every time to see how ‘timely’ our given topics are at the time we enter into the work explore and present them. Only the Lord could have known how much we would need fortitude in this specific season.

Every author, photographer, illustrator, editor, formatter, digital tech, and donor contributing to this edition has poured something of themselves into it, and been a vessel for the Lord to pour Himself through. There have been sacrifices made for every element of what makes Cultivating, and in the sacrifices there is also a refining. Every precious thing that we lay on the altar that we might answer the call to serve the Holy One with the gifts He has given us becomes a portal of both love and death. Love freely given, death freely entered into. That is the rhythm and cycle of the obedient life. We pour out of skills and hope to increase them even as we lessen ourselves in the giving. Every single piece in this edition, as has been in all our editions, has been done in faith, hope, love, trust, and obedience. We do this as an act of worship and as an offering for your sake as well as our own.

I know many of the stories in the background of these offerings and those who give them. Troubles, sorrows, sicknesses, losses, work pressures, aging parents with great needs, families at risk or need, loneliness, fear, financial uncertainty … the same kinds of burdens that may well be facing you too, dear reader. These good pieces are made and given by fellow believers holding on in faith to what is Good, True, and Beautiful ~ the Triune God Who is ever faithful. We create in faith and hope, and are rooted in the fortitude that it takes to do the work of making, living, and flourishing in Christ’s name.  It is our deep hope that something you find here in Cultivating will speak to you in a way that you most need and affirm for you again that our God is faithful and He is with you every breath and step of the way Home. We are praying for you, sweet reader, and so grateful for your company in this good work! 

Edition 32 – Cultivating Autumn 2024 | Fortitude

The featured image titled “Burford Church Allee” is courtesy of Lancia E. Smith and used with her glad permission for Cultivating. 

Lancia E. Smith

Lancia E. Smith is an author, photographer, business owner, and publisher. She is the founder and publisher of Cultivating Oaks Press, LLC, and the Executive Director of The Cultivating Project, the fellowship who create content for Cultivating Magazine. She has been honoured to serve in executive management, church leadership, school boards, and Art & Faith organizations over 35 years.

Now empty nesters, Lancia & her husband Peter make their home in the Black Forest of Colorado, keeping company with 200 Ponderosa Pine trees,  a herd of mule deer, an ever expanding library, and two beautiful black cats. Lancia loves land reclamation, website and print design, beautiful typography, road trips, being read aloud to by Peter, and cherishes the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and George MacDonald. She lives with daily wonder of the mercies of the Triune God and constant gratitude for the beloved company of Cultivators.

thecultivatingproject.com/