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Tara Johnson

sharing stories through writing, speaking and singing

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healing

Hippie Gospel

September 24, 2018 By Tara Johnson 2 Comments

I’m disillusioned. I’ve lived my entire life in church, nestled safely inside the Bible Belt and surrounded by believers just like me—flawed people who desperately love Jesus and are trying to do their best to figure this whole Christian-Living-thing out. None of us are perfect. Churches can be pretty messed up places because, well, they are filled with broken, sinful people. Just like in Walmart. Just like in McDonalds. Just like in our homes. During the past year, I’ve watched a loved one battle the Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Church Life Tagged With: anxiety, anxiety and Christians, church, healing, panic attacks, panic attacks in church, understanding panic in church

Painting Rust

August 25, 2018 By Tara Johnson Leave a Comment

Our front door is a mess. It’s a white door with glass insets, trimmed with frosted scroll work around the edges. It would be quite lovely…were it not for the bubbled rust marring the bottom corner. When the first signs of moisture damage popped up, I wasn’t too worried. After all, it was only a little rust. We live in the south. Humidity is our bread and butter. However, after a few weeks I noticed the spots of orange spreading and taking away from the Read More

Filed Under: Walking with God Tagged With: Courage, covering our hurts, healing, hiding, hiding from healing, hiding our wounds, painting over hurt, wounds

The Broken Piano

August 7, 2017 By Tara Johnson 2 Comments

“Great musicians should have only the finest instruments in their homes.” The caustic comment from the piano tuner who had curled up his nose at my old spinet piano has bothered me for fourteen years, though I’ve had a hard time figuring out why. I thought maybe it was the man’s attitude when he entered my home. I had been desperately searching for a tuner willing to take on my pawn shop find but from the moment this guy laid eyes on it, his annoyed Read More

Filed Under: Beyond What We Can Imagine, Music, satan's lies, Uncategorized, Walking with God Tagged With: beauty in broken, broken, broken is not permanent, enemy's lies, God heals, God restores, healing, Jesus restores, melodies from the broken, Worth

The Seeing Blind

March 20, 2017 By Tara Johnson Leave a Comment

In this present darkness, most of us feel oppressed at every turn. We sense spiritual forces battling it out. Good versus evil. Angels versus demons. Light against shadows. We’ve been taught to be good soldiers for Christ. Take up our cross and fight. Fight for truth. Fight for our children. Fight, well, for everything. Speaking the truth is always the right thing to do. We must speak what God has declared to be true, omitting nothing. But one thing most of us forget is this: Read More

Filed Under: Beyond What We Can Imagine, Uncategorized Tagged With: broken, Forgiveness, God, God's love, good fight, good news, gospel, healing, hope, hurting, Jesus, Love, Scandalous love, scars, sin, social media, truth, truth and love

Rods and Staffs

March 12, 2017 By Tara Johnson Leave a Comment

God’s presence. How I long for it. There are days when I feel nearly desperate for it. For Him. In some ways, it’s an odd longing. Didn’t Jesus already promise He’s with me until the end of the age? (Matt. 28:20) Absolutely. He said His Spirit is living inside me as a deposit of the promises yet to come. (2 Cor. 1:22) Yet, there are days when I don’t always feel Him with me. I’m not alone. When I googled “God’s presence” I racked up a Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Walking with God Tagged With: broken pieces, fear, God, God's presence, Good Shepherd, grief, healing, His love abounds, Jesus, loss, pain, presence, psalms, rod and staff, suffering, wounds

Drowning out Silence

January 17, 2017 By Tara Johnson Leave a Comment

Noise can be a drug. It’s a numbing anesthesia, insulating us from pain and reality, a distraction that keeps us from looking too deeply at what haunts us most. We do the same with food, with shopping and debit cards, with possessions and degrees, with sex and alcohol, power, possessions, money, relationships, children…yet the more I consider the bombastic nature of our society, the more I believe noise has become the preferred drug of choice. By noise I don’t mean only auditory transmission, but sensory Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Walking with God Tagged With: Be still, Be still and know I am God, busyness, distraction, God's presence, healing, Jesus, learning to rest, noise, quiet, silence, stillness, wounds

The Little White Pill

March 28, 2016 By Tara Johnson Leave a Comment

Some days I loathe it. Other days I nearly weep with gratitude for it. Strange dichotomy. Every time I look at that little white pill in my palm, I am overcome with an odd mix of emotions. When I was diagnosed with depression in 2002, I was desperate for relief from the dark shroud that had blanketed my mind and heart. A shroud I had brought on myself as I lived year after year stuck in the vicious cycle of people-pleasing and perfectionism. I had exhausted Read More

Filed Under: Walking with God Tagged With: dependency on God, depressed Christians, depression, God's grace is sufficient, healing, hope, joy, learning through the darkness, medication for depression, people pleasing, perfectionism, strength in weakness

Oxygen Masks

March 9, 2015 By Tara Johnson Leave a Comment

Have you been burdened to do something big for God? Maybe you have a desire for ministry that is burning inside you. In this day and age, the opportunities are endless. Missions, human trafficking, homeless shelters, women’s or men’s ministries, Celebrate Recovery, pregnancy centers, prisons…the possibilities are exciting and dizzying. Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” We all long to matter. We all want to make an impact and somehow know that our lives will leave an eternal mark for future Read More

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Beyond What We Can Imagine, Courage, healing

Concrete Heart

January 20, 2015 By Tara Johnson Leave a Comment

Pinnacle Mountain State Park in Little Rock, Arkansas was a happening place to be yesterday. Everywhere I looked there were children, dogs, mothers and fathers, laughing friends, college students and the retired. It was a beautiful day to be outside. There was also a lot of bickering, most of it coming from unwilling friends and family members being guilted into hiking to the peak of the mountain, a task that can seem a bit daunting when one looks up to see the top third of Read More

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: All things new, Beyond What We Can Imagine, excuses, healing, hiding behind excuses, transforming power of God, wounded

Pink Socks and Dust Bunnies

January 4, 2015 By Tara Johnson Leave a Comment

The florescent lights in my laundry room died several weeks ago. After unsuccessfully trying to fix the problem, my husband declared that it would take the work of our friend, a skilled electrician, to repair it. Days turned into weeks as my hubby forgot to call to set up the appointment. So here I am, enjoying the wonder of doing weeks of laundry in the dark. But you know something? It wasn’t too bad. I got used to it. Even comfortable, believe it or not…although Read More

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: healing, secrets

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Latest Blog Posts

What’s up with the Christian Cliches?

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Reader Reviews:

Robin Lee Hatcher

Engraved on the Heart by Tara Johnson

“Tara Johnson delivers a stirring tale of danger and hope.” Read more “Robin Lee Hatcher”

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Laura Frantz

Engraved on the Heart by Tara Johnson

“Johnson weaves a tale of selflessness, and service . . .” Read more “Laura Frantz”

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Jocelyn Green

Engraved on the Heart by Tara Johnson

“Lovers of Civil War fiction will rejoice to add Engraved on the Heart to their collections.” Read more “Jocelyn Green”

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Sarah Sundin

Engraved on the Heart by Tara Johnson

“Engraved on the Heart brings Savannah, Georgia, during the Civil War to life.” Read more “Sarah Sundin”

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Meet Tara

Tara JohnsonTara Johnson is a writer, singer, speaker and passionate lover of stories. Tara uses fiction, nonfiction, song and laughter to share her testimony of how God led her into freedom after spending years living shackled to the expectations of others. She lives in central Arkansas with her husband and children.

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