Falling into freedom

On our 14th anniversary in August, my husband and I sat in a busy breakfast cafe on Hilton Head Island, taking advantage of extra adult hands to take care of our kids at the beach house our party of 16 was occupying for the week. We ended up talking about how God has opened our eyes through adoption to the hurting moms in our small town. I struggled to articulate some thoughts and got frustrated, so much so I declared we needed to talk about something else. And we did talk about another less meaningful topic momentarily but then we ended back on the harder stuff.

I read Shannan Martin’s “Free Falling” a few days later on the way home from that vacation. Yes, I read the whole book in one sitting, only interrupted by lunch at Chick-fil-A, a potty break at a gas station somewhere in Tennessee, and some questions from the back seat.

Our callings aren’t the same, but Shannan affirmed some of what God has been telling me. Her story reminded me that God does want to make broken things – including the people I’m quick to judge and my own family – beautiful. {Tweet that.}

“Though we didn’t realize it then, adoption was our earliest entry point away from the comfort of the status quo and through the doorway of tangible distress and loss. It was here that I began to see, for the first time, that perhaps what the world calls ‘brokenness’ can be a thing of real beauty, adorned in the best possible ways, unexpected and entirely holy.”

{Shannan Martin in “Falling Free”}

I’ve been following Shannan’s blog for awhile, but I liked her book even more than I expected. Her words flowed through testimony and truth to lead my heart to a deeper understanding of what God is doing in my own world and in the lives of people around me.

Even the subtitle – Rescued from the Life I Always Wanted – speaks volumes to me. I often say, my life looks nothing like I expected, and, really, that’s because God has met me most intimately in the areas that I would have never planned. I have seen God clearest while navigating relationships with my kids’ birth moms and loosen my grip on our plans. I have met God when I had no idea what to expect and he showed up with surprises I would have never wished for. {Tweet that.}

“Jesus calls us to live, move, and love in reverse. It’s never the way we thought it should be. It’s not what we would have scripted if the pen were in our hands. That’s what kingdom living is. It’s about holding loosely.”

{Shannan Martin in “Falling Free”}

Honestly, I read this book so fast, I should probably read it again – and this time in a hardcopy I can mark up and write notes in the margins. But I couldn’t stop scrolling through pages on my iPhone screen. I nodded the whole way through – and laughed some too.

*****

About the book

Shannan Martin had the perfect life: a cute farmhouse on six rambling acres, a loving husband, three adorable kids, money, friends, a close-knit church — a safe, happy existence.

But when the bottom dropped out through a series of shocking changes and ordinary inconveniences, the Martins followed God’s call to something radically different: a small house on the other side of the urban tracks, a shoestring income, a challenged public school, and the harshness of a county jail (where her husband is now chaplain). And yet the family’s plunge from “safety” was the best thing that could have happened to them.

“Falling Free” charts their pilgrimage from the self-focused wisdom of the world to the topsy-turvy life of God’s more being found in less. Martin’s practical, sweetly subversive book invites us to rethink assumptions about faith and the good life, push past insecurity and fear, and look beyond comfortable, middle-class Christianity toward a deeper, richer, and ultimately more fulfilling life.

“Falling Free” is 240 pages and officially releases Sept. 20 from Thomas Nelson.

About the author

Shannan Martin, known for her popular blog Shannan Martin Writes (formerly Flower Patch Farmgirl), is a speaker and writer who found her voice in the country and her story in the city. She and her jail-chaplain husband, Cory, have four funny children who came to them across oceans and rivers. Having sold their dream farmhouse, they now enjoy neighborhood life in Goshen, Indiana. “Falling Free” is her first book.

Giveaway

Of course, I’ve got a copy of this fabulous book for one of you! Use the Rafflecopter below through Tuesday, Sept. 13 for multiple entries. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*****

I received a free (early!) electronic copy as part of the “Falling Free” launch team. But these opinions are my own. Publisher Nelson Books is graciously providing an actual copy of the book to the giveaway winner.