There’s a word that’s been ringing in my heart lately, a constant theme, a steady refrain. At times I barely notice it. It’s in the background. I catch myself humming it softly, now and then. Other times, it breaks into my thoughts, bursts in my ears, drowns out the sound of everything else.
It started a few months ago, when I was working on my book, What Women Should Know About Facing Fear. I found myself going back in time to some very dark places… painful memories of my childhood and early teens. To tell the truth, I had forgotten how dark, how painful – because my life is so different today. I wept as I wrote the word I pray will encourage the countless other women who battle worry and fear: freedom. There is freedom. I am free. You can be free.
Because of Jesus, I’m not the woman I used to be. I’m becoming the woman I was meant to be.
Weeks after I turned in the manuscript, I hit one of those “big” birthdays – one that’s hard for a lot of women. It could have been hard for me, too. I could have spent the day reflecting on all the things that didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped, the dreams that haven’t come true, the things I haven’t accomplished or haven’t been given. (That’s how I celebrated my 18th. Seriously. I wish I was kidding.)
Instead I found myself reveling in a fresh vision, a new excitement about this next season of my life and ministry – a sense of anticipation. I can’t wait to see what God is about to do!
Free! Free! I am free…
The years have brought with them this unexpected gift. I am free from the angst that characterized so much of my teens and early twenties. I am free from the pressure I felt in my late twenties and most of my thirties – the pressure to prove myself, to achieve in my career or my ministry or my personal life what others defined as success.
I know who I am now. I‘m getting more and more comfortable in my own skin. Not complacent, but content. Confident in my calling. Free.
Not that I don’t still have all kinds of other stress and pressure and drama and trauma. My life is full of it. It’s part of the human condition. But beneath it all, I find this undercurrent, this stream that’s bubbling up into a noisy, gurgling, irrepressibly joyful spring: I am free!
Because of Jesus, I am free.
I’m still a work in progress, but I’m learning every day. I’m growing in His grace.
In John 8:31-32, Jesus said if we believe in Him and continue in Him, if we’re faithful to His Word, we will know the Truth and the Truth will set us free.
Then later He said, “I AM the Truth.” (John 14:6)
Though I’ve never been good at math, even I can grasp this amazing, life-changing equation:
Know Jesus = know Truth = know freedom.
That’s something every woman should know.
……….
Tell me — I’d love to know: What does being free look like in your life?
