This week I’ve had the privilege of encouraging several women during deep conversations which lasted about half a day. One group of women sat on blankets and towels by a river in the blazing sun here, in Spain, on Tuesday. Another group of women met via Zoom and chatted away in the early morning hours of Friday. Both groups somehow shared continuously for about six hours each.
Time is a gift. Your life is a gift.
Tomorrow I’m having a few women over to begin a new endeavor, a book discussion. It’s new -despite the fact that I’ve been in close to a hundred book discussions over the years- because I’ve never had a book discussion with people like this before.
I’ve never welcomed people into my home (or life) who call themselves witchy and write incantations, people who place those handwritten, wishful messages inside of lemons and then put those lemons in their freezers. They call them -freezer spells-
I kid you not.
Earlier this week these lovely women glorified their lemon freezer spells to me, telling me how effective they were, what the freezer spells accomplished, how they worked. It was only after I listened respectfully to their small business fears (that’s why they tried the incantations) that I realized that they might be amenable to a book discussion. So I offered. I had already been encouraging them w/ specific questions and strategies. I had already shared my testimony.
I’ve NEVER had people agree faster. One of them singlehandedly connected me with 200 other women the very next day!
I don’t know what’s stranger, the fact that I can listen thoughtfully to the idea of a lemon freezer spell without judgment or the fact that I’ve never had a book discussion with just bona fide unbelievers before.
So anyway, tomorrow I’m starting something entirely new, at least to me. I’m going to minister to the real needs of my neighbors.
And the whole time I’m going to be praying fervently for a way to witness to these women about Jesus.
But today? Today I’m finishing something.
Romans 15 and 16
Seven months ago on December 22nd, I began writing my way through Romans. I originally believed it would take about eight weeks because I knew that Romans 1 and 15/16 were paired, 2 and 14 were paired, 3 and 13, 4 and 12, and so on almost exactly through the whole book, culminating in the middle chapter, the gem of Romans, Chapter 8.
I never did any of the things I thought I would when I started writing through Romans like discussing apostolos or Andronicus and Junia -women- being outstanding apostles. I hardly mentioned the chiastic structure, the importance of task and authority in apostleship not being separated, and LOADS of other stuff.
But I wrote out of obedience.
And now?
I’m done writing through Romans.
It feels like I never even really got started.
And..
It feels like I should start all over again… do it better, do it differently.
Perhaps I ought to circle round Romans for the rest of my life? Perhaps I ought to learn how to be a better teacher before wasting your time.
Perhaps.
Or maybe.. maybe who I am is exactly who God has chosen to use for His glory. Because it’s abundantly clear that I can’t finish anything on my own. And He must be a good God to care for and carry forward such faulty, weak, tiny people like me; people who are, on their best of days, mediocre.
For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; but as it is written,
“They who had no news of Him shall see, And they who have not heard shall understand.”
Hey guys?
I think I might be the first person on Substack to have written through an entire book of the Bible. I’m not sure.. but I might be. I did it haltingly, poorly, haphazardly, stiltedly.. but I did it.
And you know what that means? It means that you can too.
I’m SUPER sure that you’ll do it much better. And hon? You ought to start today. Substack people need Jesus. They’re scared so often. They need hope.
Love, Katie I'll write more soon!
