I officially started the draft of my second book this morning! However, this one's gonna take a little longer to write - I have 43 more years to work on it:
Chapter 1 – The Better
Half
A Valentine’s Day vision –
from my journal, 2-14-13:
As I layed in bed after
the alarm went off this morning, asking the Holy Spirit to fill me and do this
healthy eating thing in me because I can’t, I thought about how this will allow
me to live the second half of my life healthy and free from food addiction. I
thought about how God’s giving me back the years that were stolen from me and
how I’m going to live long and produce “fruit, fruit, lots of fruit” (a word
spoken over me by a pastor) into my old age… and then a thought came to me:
that when I’m 100, I’ll write another book about the second fifty years of my
life and I’ll call it “The Better Half”. And that book will be all about
living in victory! This is the vision I prayed for God to give me! This is what
I’m building – “The Better Half”.
And it won’t begin with
depression and pain. It won’t be hard to write like “Out of the Pit” was.
It’ll be filled with miracles
and the joy of how God was able to use me.
When I was in high school
in the late 1970’s, I was in a small vocal ensemble called The Sweet Sixteen which
was made up of eight girls and eight guys. Within this group, the guys were
known as The Great Eight and the girls were The Better Half and each performed
their own numbers separately in addition to the combined group. The music we
did was of a greater difficulty than that of the larger choir - everything had
to be memorized and we even did simple choreography while we sang. Being part
of that group was beyond anything I’d dreamt of for myself – a nerdy,
socially-awkward introvert who never felt like she fit in. To me, it represented being
esteemed by my peers, respected and maybe even a little popular. It meant realizing
the potential that had been locked away inside of me that no one to that point
had been able to recognize or appreciate. But now it was able to come out and
be used to create something beautiful.
This is what the second
half of my life represents in the kingdom of God. I wrote the draft of “Out of
the Pit” when I was 50 years old. I cried and relived those years of pain while
getting it all out there with the hope that it would help just one person who
was struggling with depression and looking for a ray of light. It was difficult
but I knew I HAD to do it and that the Holy Spirit was giving me the words that
just poured out with clarity and power. It was heavy, deep and brutally honest
but I’ve always figured: What’s the point
of saying anything unless it’s honest and can have a real impact?
So now I believe that God
has told me that I’m going to live to be 100 (at least). And these second 50
years of my life have a purpose that goes beyond getting free from pain, pointless
suffering and despair. This half of my life is all about how I’m getting in
line with my Father’s plans, finding my role in them, and how He’s able to use
me to create something beautiful.
This is The Better Half.
