In a culture that makes you feel like you’re never DOING enough, we (as a church family) need to send a clear message to the broken-hearted letting them know it’s ok to say “no” to the busy, say “yes” to creating space of stillness to sit in God’s presence, and receive His healing touch that our hearts so desperately need.

Here’s a pull from my latest book, Ripple Effect. I pray it meets you. 🤍, J

“During my season of being a single mom, I was serving with my whole heart. I hit a place of burnout and ended up going through a pretty overwhelming time of grief. I felt guilty for struggling to get to church early each week, along with getting four kids up, ready, and out the door, and found myself just going through the motions. I went to the Lord, and I was shocked that He told me to take a step back and stop serving . . .

God called me out, and into a season of rest as He ministered to my broken heart. My heart that was so shattered by my previous marriage and all I thought it would be, had ended. I needed to grieve that loss and give God space to heal me completely.

I had to let go of my concerns about what people would think at church if I wasn’t actively involved.

Some thought I was struggling spiritually, and I was definitely put in a ‘category’ based on what they saw on the outside, but what was going on inside was powerful.

I stopped caring about what other people thought of me. My value was secure in Jesus, and He was healing my heart. I was getting pieced back together in wholeness. I was going on dates (literally, not hypothetically) with Jesus as He restored what the enemy tried to steal from me: My value through Him, and not what my ex-husband’s actions showed me.

The Holy Spirit began stirring up parts of me and forgotten passions that had been dormant in my life through survival. He began to put a burden on my heart to write books that I had never thought to write before. He started giving me visions for my future, and I saw myself the way He saw me: fearfully and wonderfully made, born for such a time as this.

That season of rest is what launched me forward into the purpose and the plans that God had for me, but in wholeness. I wasn’t trying to manufacture anything or ignore that I was broken inside. God led me to His well, and it was the opposite of ‘doing’ church or following a step-plan of what it looks like to be a Christian, convincing myself that God heals, but remaining broken.

Did you catch that?

How many are saying that they believe God heals, but they haven’t slowed down, sat in His presence, and allowed Him to actually heal, and are still severely wounded inside, carrying around their broken hearts?

God’s presence met me in powerful, life-changing ways as He filled me with His all encompassing love, touching and piecing back together every piece of my broken heart. This is available to us when we don’t care what others will think, stop the busyness, and run unabandoned into the arms of Jesus.

Healing happens when timelines and step-plans to success are not weighing in our decisions because our identities are not in what we’ve accomplished, but what God wants to accomplish in us. As He does this, we show the masses what it means to run to Jesus with it all. This faith walk is where we are living in ‘unforced rhythms of grace,’ and life is not heavy or burdensome.

Truthfully, I didn’t need a ministry to plug into for healing; I needed Jesus.

I still do.

We all do.”

Ripple Effect: A Transformational Journey into God’s Heart That Will Change You from the Inside Out (book)