The Captivating Woman

Designed with purpose.

Rooted – The Hidden Places Where God Develops You. Book Review AND Giveaway.

My Pastor asked us to pray and ask God where in our lives it was unhealthy. I felt God say, “Sarah, it’s your roots.” Ouch. I felt like I was starting back at square one. Roots? Really? Isn’t that what you should work on when you’re a baby Christian?

Oh, the Lord sure did humble me.

A few weeks later I got the book “Rooted – The Hidden Places Where God Develops” by Banning Liebscher in the mail. We have had the privilege to be a part of their launch team, but I knew that God was going to use this book to really speak into me and to my lack of roots. I felt like my roots were damaged – poisoned at times.

Growth would begin and the roots would spread, but once I let a lie into my life and believed it fully, it was like I was sprinkling poison right on the spot. I haven’t always been confident in who I was in Christ. I have not always been confident in scripture. A lot of the time, I am not believing God at His Word.

Banning talks about our root system in his book.

“Your heart is your point of connection with Jesus – the place where you become rooted in your relationship with Him. He wants to develop His heart-to-heart connection with you to the point where you become fully united with Him, where you think like He thinks, want what He wants, speak like He speaks, and do what He does.” p. 4

I feel like this quote just sets up the whole book. How is your connection Him? How has my connection with Him? Am I thinking like Him? Speaking like Him?

Grace covered my thoughts and guilt when I knew that my connection wasn’t as great as I wanted it to be. Banning uses David to share how it took almost two decades for him to stand on the throne. During those years up until his reign, David spent many intimate moments with the Lord which developed his root system. I think as believers we feel that it should take us a few years in prayer and quality time with the Lord, and then we are ready to go do whatever God has planned. But as Banning explains using David, Moses, and Abraham…it took years.

Years.

Banning also writes about 3 types of soil that will with interact with to help with our rooting process: intimacy, serving, & community.

“A thriving root system is built on trust and truth, which grow strong in our lives as we come to know God through His Word and through personal encounters with Him. However, in order to build our roots in truth , God needs to plant our lives in various soils where we gain specific nutrients for growth…God’s process in David’s life placed him into three different soils that developed the different dimensions of trust and truth in his life…each of these soils teaches us how to align our lives with God’s truth and leads us to encounter God in different ways.” p. 98

He defines these soils deeper, with great stories and backs up everything with scripture. That’s what I really enjoyed about the book – the scripture he uses. As much as I love stories, and Banning uses great God stories throughout, scripture is so important with me. I want to know exactly what God has to say about building my root system.

With all that saying, I would recommend reading this book. If you feel like you’re in a dry season or you just don’t know how to start to establish your roots, this is your book. It’s easy to read, but impacted with truth. I would read a chapter, highlight, annotate, and sit with it for the night. This is a book for new believers and for those who have loved the Lord for many years. I never walked away feeling like being rooted would be difficult. I felt encouraged and challenged.

Find it here on Amazon – click here.

We are also giving away a free copy of Rooted to one of our readers! Enter the giveaway below!

*winner of giveaway was Mackenzie Lynn Beaty*

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Steady Heart

All of us, everyday, come to put our faith, our worth, our trust, our hope, in something, or someone. For many of us, that may look like a significant other, a parent, a close friend, and at times, God. I want to challenge you with a thought today- if God was the only person you had left to put these in- Would you be okay? Would it rock your entire world?

Well, if that thought scares you; that’s understandable. Yet it’s a very real reality each of us may face one day, and we need to come to terms with it.

For me, being a believer, I strongly felt that the place I put all of my faith was in God. Until the day I lost my Dad.

My Dad and I had a relationship where basically anytime my life was falling apart, he’d fix it. I called him for everything. “Dad my car is making a strange noise!!” Or “Dad this guy was so mean to me today and I got a parking ticket and I have no money and had the worst week ever!” Whatever it was, my Dad always made it better. “Sweetie it’s okay, don’t worry. Just pray. You’re beautiful. I’ll fix it. I’ll pay for it.” And he called me and texted me all the time, always encouraging even when I was annoyed and never responded. Most of the time I took his ever presence in my life for granted and just thought to myself “he’ll always love me and he’ll always be there.” Although that was true, it wasn’t in the way I imagined it to be.

February 11th was like most days. My Grandpa had passed away a few days before so my Dad was a little more pushy with texts than normal. But I was being short with him because I missed my Grandpa. He wanted me to call that morning so he could record something for the funeral, but being my 22 stressed out college student self, I said “Dad!!! Can I please just call tomorrow?!” He finally agreed. I figured it wasn’t a big deal, since I was seeing him that weekend anyways and I had a huge midterm due later so it was understandable. Tragically, that weekend never came. And tomorrow morning would be too late.

I finished my final and as I drove home that night, I received a phone call that my Dad had a heart attack. He took his last breath at 8:20pm.

This reality sank in hard. Everything was gone in just a moment. Every opportunity I thought I had to tell him I loved him. To give him the picture I painted for his birthday. To thank him for always being there. Gone. And the scariest part was the reality that I was now alone. The person who was always there to fix everything, that made everything better, is gone, and isn’t coming back.
As painful as this was to realize, and as heartbroken as I am, there is something profound that has come out of losing my Dad. God has brought me to fully put everything in him, and in return has given me a steady heart.

Now, when I feel broken, when I’m scared, when I feel unworthy, I call upon Jesus. Yes, it is hard not having my Dad, but I learned an invaluable lesson on where my faith needs to be. Where my hope and my trust should be placed. And it’s fully in the hands of God.

I’m not saying don’t love your loved ones, or rely on them. Because God put them in your life for a reason. But realize it is Gods love you should rely on ultimately. Don’t lose sight of the SOURCE of the love that you feel. Keep your relationship with God a top priority and don’t take it for granted. God has innumerable strength; and unending, unwavering love. Lean into it. Abide in it.
When you put your hope in things of the world, your heart will feel uneasy. So instead, put your trust, hope, faith, and worth in God and He will give you in return a steady heart.

“The LORD will work out his plans for my life–for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me.” -Psalm 138:8

Bored in Church

There is an epidemic among millennial Christians (speaking as one of them) that doesn’t make any sense. We are bored out of our minds in church. Am I the only one who think that’s strange? Our generation has many characteristics that would make practicing Christianity appealing to us. We are cause-driven, extremely passionate, creative, connected and flexible. We love to work, probably too much, and we have a strong desire to take part in something greater than ourselves.

In addition, church itself has evolved significantly in form and tradition in the past 20-30 years. Even small churches are using technology to create an atmosphere more appealing to the younger generations – lighting, staging, use of artistic media, modern music, and creative illustrations. Some larger churches more closely resemble a concert venue than a church on purpose!

Now you might think I’m about to criticize those churches, but you’d be wrong. Using bright lights, fog machines, and artistic presentation isn’t a sin. But what I am going to suggest, is that those things have no impact on how interested millennials are in church. Here are three things I’d like to challenge you to think on…

#1 – The opposite of boredom isn’t entertainment, it’s engagement!

The church doesn’t exist to entertain, nor should it. While being entertained isn’t a sin, it also isn’t a purpose. The church in it’s purest form is saved-by-grace believers, fulfilling the calling of Jesus together. So the effort shouldn’t be trying to engage in a service, the effort should be trying to engage with Jesus… which is a lifestyle, not an activity.

#2 – Sometimes the service won’t be for you.

There are lots of methods that can keep people’s attention. But God doesn’t anoint methods, He anoints people.

If a Pastor is preaching the Word, there are times when people will refuse to engage with it… or even listen to it at all! Jesus experienced it (John 6:60-71). You can describe this behavior all kinds of ways… but I have to keep it real. It’s called disobedience. If disobedience goes on long enough in our lives, the inevitable result will be boredom. Because we won’t be walking out the reason we exist. Romans 12:2-3 tells us that it is when we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice that we will be given the ability to discern His will. I guess I just want churchgoers to understand that if church is boring to them, it doesn’t necessarily mean the church isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do.

Have some grace with the Pastor who isn’t speaking directly into your life every time. Keeping you in the seat (bored) isn’t the highest goal, winning you to Christ is… Plus, who knows who else is in the room that needs to hear it?

# 3 – Sunday mornings are important, but they are a very small part of the Christian walk.

Can I be real with you for a minute? I’ve been in a relationship with Jesus for almost ten years and sometimes I think church services are boring. Sometimes the worship drags on. Sometimes the preaching is redundant. Sometimes I don’t want to go. (Gasp! And I’m a Pastor’s wife!)

Well-meaning people have given me advice that sounds like this:

“Try taking notes. That will help you stay focused.”

“Oh, come on now. The Christian life isn’t boring. You must not be trying hard enough.”

“What if you made more suggestions to the Pastor about topics that interest you?”

“It could be your church, have you tried this other church? They have better services.”

I’ve never found peace in that advice because 1) it’s not Biblical and 2) it implies that with Christian maturity, you’ll outgrow boredom. But I don’t believe you outgrow boredom, I think you overcome boredom.

All this to say, being bored doesn’t rattle me anymore. I’ve learned that Sunday morning isn’t the standard by which I measure my faith. Worship, study of the Word, and devotion to Jesus is a 24/7 walk. What does my faith look like on the other six and a half days of the week? When my Pastor is talking the paint off the walls, I can rest in the fact that my relationship with Jesus is bigger. Maybe I’m not engaged by a sermon or a song, but I am engaged with my Jesus. He has given me a love for His church, and a reason to be there.

Originally posted on Hannah’s site – http://youcanspellitbackwards.com.

Settling For Normal

“I know that you aren’t fearless, but the fact that you routinely set your sights on things that are big and a little bit outlandish, even when they scare you, is one of the things I love most about you. It’s one of the traits that I’m most proud of you for.”

So said my mother last week. It may have been the very best compliment I’ve received from anyone, ever.

Bravery is so hard. It gets even harder when we give fear more power in our lives than we should. Fear is one of those things that multiplies when left alone in the dark, and takes root much more broadly than it first appears. Kind of like mint. Mint is delicious, and I love having fresh mint on hand for things, but if you put it in the ground, you had better be vigilant about making sure that sucker doesn’t spread. It has these creeper vines that just move outward from where it’s planted, and when you see those vines spreading, you can bet they’ve already put down roots to wherever they’ve gone. And from there it keeps getting bigger, and taking over more space and sending out even more vines that set down roots until every available amount of space is covered – both above and below ground.

I may have been naive in my assumption, but I never thought of myself as a fearful person. Sure, social interaction when I don’t know at least 3 people in the room freaked me out, public speaking, anything where people can weigh in on my performance and by default my ability, singing the melody freaked me out if I’m flying solo, having too many people look at me, being alone in the dark, being vulnerable and having my attempts at connection rejected, failure in general, letting down the people I care about, giving bad advice…and probably a good amount more.

I think for a long time I avoided as many of the above situations as humanly possible, I kept the “mint” as contained as I thought I could, but I missed out on the fact that there was an entire network system under the surface that was alive and well. I am part of a generation that often wears anxiety disorders and insecurity like a badge of honor, and it becomes so much easier to write it off as normal, rather than address the fact that it may not be healthy. I was plenty brave in the things I was willing to let Jesus into, but kept a tight grip on the parts I’d rather not deal with. It became something I didn’t even need to pray about really, unless I was in the thick of an extremely difficult situation, because it was my normal. Normal and healthy are not interchangeable. Normalcy is not the same thing as wholeness. And I wonder if, like me, many Christians settle for their “normal” rather than running to Jesus to be made whole.

If that is the case, I have news for you friends: Jesus doesn’t call us to things that don’t scare us. It’s just not the way He operates. Frankly, it should scare us, because we can’t do it properly when we do it by ourselves, and relinquishing control is always a scary thing.

I want a life that is so much bigger than just me, but that won’t happen if I keep letting my fear convince me that Jesus smaller than He is. When has He ever cut and run, leaving me to deal with it myself? Never. When has He ever let a situation break me? Never. When has He ever asked me to let go of something that didn’t ultimately benefit me? Never.

So why do I instinctively respond as if He has? Why do I resort to such a pitiful attempt at self-protection that all I end up doing is hiding from things that I know I’ve been called to do? I want to live bravely, and be known as one who did things that scared her, even if they sometimes crashed and burned along the way. I want to respond with trust in the fact that Jesus routinely calls us out on the water, even though it’s weird, hard, scary and uncomfortable when we are in the thick of it.

Lord, make me braver than I feel right now. Even if the fear never fully dissipates, let me trust You enough to step out of the boat anyway. I trade my normal for your wholeness. Call me to scary things, and teach me to respond with trust before I have a chance to freak out about the details. Put me in situations where I have to talk about what you’re doing, even though I can’t fully explain it or my role in it. Make this life about so much more than just me, draw me deeper and reveal more of yourself to me. Let me be overwhelmed with thankfulness, quick to repent, quick to forgive and firm in my faith in you.

March Favorites: Jamie Edition

I feel so old saying this, but SERIOUSLY? How is 2016 already 25% done? The year seems to be flying by for me personally, at work and in ministry. I have had so many favorite things (saying this out loud makes me feel like Oprah a little). Here are five of my favorites from March:

  1. “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster. Our staff uses space at my church for our offices, and each week the two staff teams meet on Thursday morning for devotions. We’ve been going through this book, chapter by chapter, and discussing it each week. Man, let me tell you, each page has so many margin notes and highlights. The chapter rocking my world so far is on Meditation. It is a word I don’t often associate with Christianity, but it something that is vital to our experience and connection with God. I won’t give too much away, you need to experience it for yourself.
  2. Iced Coffee. Being a California girl, March means two things: dresses without tights and coffee with ice. The best trick for making iced coffee at home is to put coffee in ice cube trays and freeze it, that way your cold coffee isn’t all watered down. I love my iced coffee with vanilla flavored almond milk, or from Starbucks with soy and toffee nut. However you choose to indulge, iced coffee is here to stay (until October that is).
  3. March Madness. If you follow my personal account on Twitter, you know that I am a sports junkie. I will watch any sport on television, and March Madness is no exception. This year, I had three different brackets. That’s right, three. And all of them were busted after the first round thanks to Michigan State. Still, I have watched nearly every game from various locations. I love the chaos of the tournament, and it is the perfect thing to hold me over until my true love (baseball) begins.
  4. Rescue. This year, my church’s theme for Easter was Rescue. We spent the whole month talking about stories of Rescue, from the Bible and from within our church body. It was a great reminder to me that everyone has a story, and God is faithful to Rescue all who call on His name.
  5. My final favorite for March is the latest Hillsong Young & Free album, “Youth Revival.” It is equal parts worship and EDM, equal parts hype and depth. The sophomore album from the next generation of Hillsong does not disappoint. While their first album was all about finding their sound and being as different from Hillsong United as they could be, “Youth Revival” is about them are settling in. I promise this album has a little something for everyone, definitely check it out.

 

Now, what should have made my list, but didn’t? Let me know in the comments or by tagging me on social media. I want new things to make the list for me in April.

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