Featuring: Made Well by Jenny Simmons and a GIVEAWAY!

Made Well
"Finding Wholeness in the Everyday Sacred Moments"

Her story mirrors my own in some ways. A life defined by a tumultuous journey towards healing.

When I started reading the words she had so transparently crafted, I smiled, I cried, and I cheered for all those I knew would find healing because of Jenny's vulnerability.

I used to think that when people were healed, that they didn't ever deal with the "problem" again.  The "it," whatever it was would most certainly go away.

More often than not, we are not instantly transformed.   As I have learned in my own life, getting well sometimes happens over many bumpy years when despair creeps into the places you are trying so desperately to clean up.

Jenny Simmons writes, "...sometimes the broken things aren't fixed here and now. Sometimes the marriage ends, the babies die, the job is lost, the life savings are cleaned out, the disease grows, and the miracle you prayed for doesn't happen."

I agree.

In my case, the aggravating panic disorder was a constant reminder that I couldn't cut it. That I was broken, and clearly my inability to cope meant that I wasn't good enough to be made well.

I believed that I could be transformed in a second, so why wasn't that God's plan for me?  Did He hold a grudge against me, I wondered silently?

Over the past 10 years, I have discovered a beautiful truth. That God loves me enough to use my weaknesses to make me stronger than I ever believed I could be.

This line from "Made Well," resonates with me so deeply:  "...there is more to being made well than the curing of our bodies or fixing of our situations.  There is wholeness to be found on the roads we never prayed for."

Of course we don't pray to have days where we feel like we can't get out of bed!  But, the determination we tap into, and the reliance on God inspires us to rise up, wash our face, and trudge through the day, laying a foundation for the work of healing to begin construction.

I never would have dreamed of all the things I've learned through my struggle with anxiety.  It has been a great teacher.  I may not have wanted to be taught this way, but God knew that it's what I needed to become the version of myself that He could use most effectively.

Like Jenny, I too have had those days where I was mad.  Just plain mad that I had to go through this process.  She writes, "...afraid, lonely and angry that I even had to work for health when no one else around me seemed to be tasked with that..."

I remember days when I looked at all the people around me and felt alone.  I lived a life plagued by fear, and yet I was determined to be a world changer. I didn't know how to start, but I didn't know how to quit. I had to get well.

And, I am being made well, it just may not be in the way I wanted.  Or like Jenny said, "It wasn't the miracle I prayed for, but it was a miracle all the same. Emmanuel showing up in the hardest moments, holding my hand."

God brought this book into my life for some rough moments when He and I were upending the deepest roots of my fear.  That in itself is proof that my Creator loves me, He delights in me, and He is giving me grace to walk this path to wholeness.

Thank you Jenny Simmons for sharing so bravely about finding wholeness in moments that we might otherwise pass by without a pause. These unexpected parts of our journey are what give us hope to keep pressing into the One who restores...the One who makes us well.

--- I'm giving away a copy of Jenny's book to one of my readers!---

----- Like my post on Facebook and leave a comment on the link or on the blog to be entered. -----

------- For more information about Made Well, by Jenny Simmons, go to www.madewellbook.com -------