introduction

I tried to write a book like this once with a dear friend of mine. But because of various circumstances and, ironically enough, misplaced identity, it never actually got past the outline stage. I told myself after the project and our friendship failed that it’s okay that we never wrote it. I figured it was his load that he felt needed to be splattered on pages to try to help the church, that wasn’t my burden—that wasn’t my heart.

I have to be completely honest with you, and hopefully I will be throughout these pages, but I have fought the need to write. I have worked on several chapters the past few years, and figured that my book to you would just be a hodgepodge of random twenty-something thoughts that no grown woman would really take seriously, and maybe you won’t take this seriously either, but I have to obey. In John 3—Just after John the baptizer says that Christ must increase and he must decrease—it is talking about Christ being above all and what it means to receive his testimony, and then in verse 36 it says “Whoever believes in the son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” I’ve read this passage several times, but it hit me differently this year. I glanced over it and then my eyes had to sweep it again and again to try to take it in…belief and obey are the same. Maybe you’ve heard that before, and I probably had, too, but it didn’t sink in until that moment. So what if I believe in God (even the demons believe and shudder) and am deeply moved by his truths, what does it mean if I don’t obey him? So that’s what this book is. It’s not me trying to be creative, although I do believe that God will show his handiwork through me; it’s not me trying to climb onto a measly soap box, although I hope that God’s truth convicts your hearts; it’s me obeying.

I’m in the middle of doing Beth Moore’s Esther Bible study at my church and tonight she talked about the reversal of destiny and how there are reversals all throughout the Bible. Where a person’s life, or a story, is heading one direction with a particular focus and then God works and the focus is completely redirected to his glory. This is evident in every Christians’ life, where our purpose was for darkness and we were an enemy of God, and then God’s grace scoops us out of the mire we have been sloshing around in and our purpose is now to fight through his power and for his glory. Beth said that if we look at our lives we would all be able to pinpoint that shift. I think that there are several shifts throughout a believer’s life, but probably an overarching theme. At least I can see one in mine. And although I don’t want to just talk about my issues to you, they are going to be a huge part of it. I hope that every time I pick up a pen or open up another Word document I can start it off with prayer, so that I am reminded that my life is not about me. We are apart of such a bigger picture than our small dust-filled lives. I pray that we can lift our eyes from this horizon of life so that when God reveals his bigger story to us we have the vision to see it and can’t help but shout it to others when we do. God’s world is amazing and I’m so thankful that he has extended the invitation to me to be able to join him in it.

I know that I am young, and that may put some of you off on the idea of reading what I have to say, but I think that it’s critical that we be in community together. Most likely, if you are picking up this book, you are one of my sisters. I don’t just mean like in the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” but that we have the same father God, and the same older brother, Christ. So, I want to share with you some of the things that I have been sifting through in my life, or some things that I think are crucial for women of any age to reflect on.

My dear sisters, we’re in this battle together, trying to make it from day to day and not go crazy. So I hope that I can help you dig deeper inside yourself, so that you too can reflect on how you should be living life.