Sarah Bessey
About the Author

Sarah Bessey is the author of Jesus Feminist, a disarming and beautiful invitation to the Kingdom of God waiting on the other side of the Church’s gender debates. She is an award-winning blogger at www.sarahbessey.com, an editor at A Deeper Story, a contributor for SheLoves Magazine, and a passionate advocate...

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things we love
& you will too!
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  1. “What if we actually saw our anger as an invitation from the Holy Spirit to do something about it?”

    Oh, I love this for it takes me out of just acknowledging the injustice and into the action. Thank you for these words, not of despair, but of joy and hope.

    During this season, I believe God is calling me to care about the women of India. These praying women who need to know their worth in a loving Father that allows them to be all who He has called each one to be. I have had different interactions with a few women from India and I will be speaking to a group this Fall in India and my prayer is that we may encourage each other in our callings as women living for the Lord.

    May we all continue to be women who are “pushing back the darkness in the world.”

    Your words bless, Sarah! I hope our paths cross one day and I may tell you that in person!

  2. It is so true that we need to start paying attention to our anger. I am finding my calling in helping abused women and teenagers. Someone has to do something and might as be me.

  3. Has been and always will be, speaking for those who have no voice – our children! That’s where my heart is for sure!

  4. God has put me in front of our church’s teens this year – and I am blown away by the level of insecurity and lack of godly guidance for our youth. If they are to be the future of the church they need to be loved on and guided to TRUTH! God is giving me a heart for teens!

  5. i’m not quite sure which one thing…but i think that this book would be a great help in rethinking thru the differences between how Jesus views women and how my neighbors’ prophet Moh. did. They both lifted women up some from the scummy culture they were in, but J is the only One who raised us to Joint Heirs and Redeemed and Adopted and Beloved. so thankful!

  6. God is calling me to care about…me…I’ve always put so much focus on other people that I lost sight of ever caring about myself. I actually wrote at the beginning of this year something like a mini-manifesto that this year I was going to be nice to myself which doesn’t mean avoiding fear and doesn’t mean jumping headlong into fear, but taking the time to find a middle ground.

  7. “Pay attention to what makes you angry. You just might find your calling hiding in there.” Human trafficking and the disharmony in the church between men and women.

  8. Women who are being abused in their marriages and then are not supported by church family when they attempt to deal it. I am getting very angry at the number of times I see the survivor ostracized by the church and the angry violent one supported.

  9. This book is already on my 2014 list.

    God has been calling us (my spouse and myself) to care about discipling for a long time. People don’t want to go to church run like a business, they want and need community, connection, encouragement, and knowledge of the Scriptures. We are very much ‘neighborhood missionaries’, in the fact that where-ever we live we have tried to love our neighbors, get to know them, serve them, etc. Anyone can do this, you don’t have to have a seminary degree, and it’s free to start (and continue). 🙂

    Sarah M

    • I love that term “neighborhood missionaries”. My parents did that in inner-city Tampa, FL when my brother and I were babies. I then had friends in college who did the same thing and lived just a street away from where I once lived. They lived with other families and did life together ministering to their neighborhood and those who crossed their path. They have since taken the ministry to Hamburg, Germany where they were both military kids. They continue to spread the gospel in very powerful ways. I am so proud of them. Beautiful vision! countless blessings, jana

  10. I think mine would would be in women and having children the way they desire with choices available and decisions left up to them and not just the medical staff.

  11. Work with women pregnant when arrested, not to abort their babies. Support them throughout their pregnancy and prison term. Care for their child and work with them for one year after their release to reunite the family, Fully restored, serving the Lord with God’s grace.

  12. I’m not sure what God is calling me to do but I have realized that my anger is something that both my daughters are learning. Time to start listening.

  13. God is calling me to care about my home and the 3 littles that live in it…to love on them to my fullest and be present for them in every moment.

  14. I believe God is calling me to encourage and lift up new moms, especially ones struggling to find their footing in motherhood!

  15. I’ve just begun listening to my anger in the past few weeks. I’m still determining exactly what it is, because it’s flaring up in so many areas, and there must be some common theme! Gender infantricide, rape, abuse, women feeling ostracized within a church community, single moms… I just want women to feel valued, to feel empowered, to feel the purpose God has for them and the strength He has given us. But how?

  16. Wow! Ive had this kind of anger before. I didn’t really know why or where it was coming from but I realized it was spiritual ly since it drove me to pray realky pray for others things they were struggling with. Its awesome how God works.

  17. Value. Whether or not the person if female/male, “intelligent”/”simple”, or someone with developmental disorders, whatever, they all have value. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. And it really chaps me when value is placed solely on the strength of our mental muscle or our backs. How to channel the anger in a healthy, loving way is a hard lesson for me to learn. Because on one hand it IS loving, but it definitely doesn’t exhibit love for everyone.

  18. I think God is calling me to stand up for my self and my family plus he wants me to take a stand for himself and to tell others what he means to me.

  19. I open to this post today…the first one I am reading. Your words grabbed me.

    This weekend, I got angry – righteous – “I can’t stand this anymore”, ” I have to do something”, Stop talking, And ACT NOW! – kind of anger. I scripted my thoughts to four of my dear friends asking them to pray this dream with me. Over the weekend a specific, concrete vision has come clear to two us and grabbed us both like a fire deep in our souls.

    The Anger I felt, it welled up and overflowed and has pointed me toward my passion. It was my anger that began this work in me. It is God’s work and His love and abundance is overwhelming. In the past 48 hours I have received confirmation after confirmation. This post and book are one more! Thank you. I would love to win a copy.

    BTW – I can’t wait to share what we are working on. It will be a full-court press and as God guides us will likely be hitting the blogosphere soon. countless blessings, jana

  20. God is calling me to lose the fear and to speak truth. To use my blog as the center of this calling and to share the (real) ity of him. Looking forward to reading more on this book!

  21. He’s calling me to animal work/care, specifically cows. Terrifying and so important to me at the same time.

  22. If I can be honest anger is def something I struggle with. I grew up with angry ppl and yellers! I feel like I am being called to care about living eith less excess so we can give more abundantly to others

  23. I have anger in my heart that swells up inside of me. I am trying to learn to lasso this and keep the devil away because he I feel is the route of it.

  24. He is definitely calling me to help other Christian women struggling w/ depression and/or special needs children.

  25. God has been challenging me to love like He loves and that means to care about who and what He cares about—with boldness!

  26. i appreciate this a great deal, sarah. lately, i’ve been thinking a great deal about this flip side of this–not dismissing other people’s anger or assuming *theirs* is motivated by something dark, sinful, or self-indulgent. i think you’re right that calling and passion is closely linked to anger–mine and yours and hers and his, too–and giving each other the benefit of the doubt can go a long way toward understanding and channeling our anger toward growing something whole and good together.

  27. Hungry children and abandoned pregnant girls are what makes me angry. In the last year I have started to recognize that this anger is from the Lord. Learning the difference between human anger and righteous anger is so important!

    This is going to be a year of “doing” for me with Jesus’ help!

  28. God is calling me to care about relationships, though they might “inconvenience me”. I mean I’m “all about” relationships and the lost! Or wait, am I all about serving at church, too busy with that and then I’m fried when the opportunity to build new relationships presents itself? Hmmmm…

  29. My anger is directed at abusers. There are so many lies in this world surrounding abuse and its victims. My prayer is that light is shed on the truths of what really happens in situations involving domestic violence and those subjected to it. I feel a calling to speak out about these lies, and to help women gain strength to put an end to their suffering.

  30. I am angry about the millions of innocent babies who never live every year because of abortion. It started as a mild interest, and has now become my passion. I started out volunteering as a counselor at a local crisis pregnancy center. Then I was given the opportunity to learn to do sonograms for the same centers. I have been doing that on a volunteer basis for a couple of years now, one day a week, after my full time day job. I now feel called to do this full time. The funds are not available right now to add another paid nurse/sonographer position at this time. But God has so laid this on my heart & my husband’s heart that we have decided that I will quit my full time job this spring, and continue to volunteer and make myself available. If the funds become available great, otherwise I will just volunteer and wait and see what happens.

  31. thank you for this inspiring post. anger can be draining, frustrating, and I think the approach here can help use the energy of anger for good. I am angry about the (general) acceptance of poverty, angry that people with comfortable homes do not care that neighbors have no warm place to lay their head, no nourishing food in their stomachs. That even those who make a gesture (write a check) see a wall between “us” and “them.”

  32. I just recently added this book to my Wish List – cannot wait to read it! I really feel God is calling me toward the pro-life movement. I have always been prolife but now as a mother it really frustrates me how lightly people handle throwing away these precious lives! God bless!

  33. My anger is for the children that are left without families, or with families that are not healthy. My heart breaks for them, that their childhood is stolen and most times they don’t feel Jesus ‘ love. My heart breaks for their broken parents, who usually got a horrible hand themselves.

    Our way of helping and showing Jesus ‘ love is our current fostering /adopting journey.

  34. “Our calling is hiding somewhere in what makes us angry.” Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it like that before. And I’m so happy to see someone in the Christian Women’s community writing about this. It so often seems like anger is the thing we fear, the thing we hide, the thing we do not want to acknowledge. But in this light, it might be best to take another peek and pay attention to where we’re being led by the things we’re being angry about. Next steps: “Anger is only the starting point, of course, the invitation: Christ sustains the passion and directs it into life-giving transformation.” Yes. What do I care about? Largely, women who do not have a voice; who are not being listened to and heard. Specifically, human trafficking and 27 million women, men, and children who live in slavery every day without the larger world taking notice.

  35. I’m being called to care about families of criminals. As the sister of a man who abused his wife and children in nearly every way possible and who is currently incarcerated, I feel a call to help those people who have family members who can commit such crimes. It’s a terrible thing to have to
    Recognize such sin in your own family, but I believe that when you don’t you deny God’s holiness, his justice and his law. You also victimize the victims all over again by justifying the sin. I’ve started to see this more clearly and there are very few resources for families like mine. I think I may be called to do something about it.

  36. Sharing Hope with families struggling with the hopelessness of mental illness, addiction, infidelity and other hurts, habits and hangups.

  37. I’m an absolute mess. Everything I’m reading this morning is convicting in the most wonderful and overwhelming of ways. Your article here is no exception. What a tremendous revelation I’ve had this morning reading this article, Sarah. Bless you for your revelation and sharing it with us all! I needed this so much.

    Janelle

  38. Human and Sex Trafficking… He’s been calling my daughter and I get gain knowledge and do what we can to help out with various ministries and organizations and just recently, we are reaching out not just across the globe – but just across town!

  39. Anger usually makes me act or want to fight the good fight. I have always been one who gets so angry when harm happens to children or the least of these. But also I am very big on equality right now. But what I feel called to do right now is to sit down and have dialogue with those who think differently then me and find commonalities. I am a true believer in power of conversation.

  40. I’m sick of there being second-class Christians. God doesn’t have a varsity and jv team. People are part of the team or not. We earn a spot only through the grace of Jesus Christ and that should be good enough.

  41. God is calling me to care about the identity of college women and their understanding of where that identity should come from. I work with college students and I find myself heartbroken each year by the continual struggle women are facing balancing being who God calls them to be vs. who the world says they should be.

  42. The forgotten and brokenhearted…one soul at a time. In our “ME” culture it is so easy to plow right past others- I, sadly, did it for too many years…and catch myself going there again when I get agenda driven versus Spirit driven….may we all redeem the time we have left and may Jesus Christ receive all the praise!

  43. I KNOW A YOUNG WOMAN WHO IS BEING EMOTIONALLY ABUSED BY HER “FAMILY”. SHE HAS A DISABILITY AND THEREFORE HER “MOTHER” RECIEVES A CHECK FOR “TAKING CARE ” OF THE HER. MOSTLY THE MONEY IS USED TO TAKE CARE OF THE MOTHER, STEPFATHER, AND YOUNGER SISTER. I HAVE DEBATED ABOUT REPORTING THIS BECAUSE I DON’T THINK SHE WOULD WANT TO BE ALIENATED FROM HER SISTER.

  44. God’s been calling me to pay more attention to my attitude and heart during my temper moments. It’s so easy for me to be inwardly focused when things aren’t going “my” way… so God’s been challenging me to be more thankful for the small details of life.

  45. God is calling me to care about…women…I love to see them living in fullness and freedom, being who God created them to be! God is calling me to care about… the church…to love the church despite her imperfections. God is calling me to care about….the nations…to be excited about what He doing around the world! To take action, to take part, to pray, to GO, to be SALT and LIGHT!

  46. Thank you so much for this today! I like to refer to myself as a recovered victim of the US food and diet industry. When I accepted that God gave us exactly what we need to be strong, healthy women who can live His best version of ourselves, I became passionate about whole food nutrition and about educating women and girls on this topic. I believe that the Holy Spirit gives each of us nudges to send our hearts in the right direction. I love to think of my anger as one of those nudges.
    Heidi

  47. God is calling me to care about … anger. Thank you so much for putting this thought into words. I am right in the middle of dealing with some long-buried anger, and would love to run away from the whole process. Instead, the insistent voice of the Holy Spirit keeps blowing through my life with a demand that I “keep going; I am with you. Jesus is here. The nightmares and the sickness and the fatigue will not win … God wins. Keep going. Go through it. There is work to be done.” And the work is not about me, but about how I am supposed to live into God’s will in a new way, one that is grounded in my brokenness and allows someone to see right past me and into the eyes, heart, and being of Jesus, of God. I would love to write that this presence of the Holy Spirit is a whisper into my ears, but it is not, and I do not have words for the presence; it may indeed be a gale force wind. Listen. Pay attention to the anger and do not let it win. I AM with you.

  48. What gets my fire going is when I think about the millions of orphans around the world that could still be with their first families if women were empowered, educated, and cared about in their culture so that they could provide for their babies. We are adopting two girls from a country in Africa & through this process God opened my heart to the need of people helping first families. We aren’t sure how a God will use this passion but we are praying & doing what we can now.

  49. I’ve always had a heart for the people in Cambodia, and loved it when I was privileged to visit there, where I left a piece of my heart. right now I’m trying to hear God’s whisper as to what He wants me to do next. What stirs me, what do I do with the gifts He has given me, where do I fit in to His plan. I just cut out an article about a local woman who is working to help stem human trafficking, of course connected to my beloved Cambodia… enough to make any thinking person ANGRY.

  50. Very thought-provoking to look at my anger and see my passion! Hmmmmm…help me hear and see, LORD! And what would I do about it anyway? Love, Lauri…for Your glory, Father!

  51. I never ever thought about my anger this way so this is giving me much to think about. We are raising 2 grandchildren as our own and we have went through a mountain of struggles in doing so. Emptied out our savings and court battles against my step daughter. The anger of what she has put us through and the anger over having to face one’s own child in court. The anger over starting over in being a mommy again and having to erase our plans to do so and giving up my job to take on this tast. While I have forgiven my step daughter and am no longer angry with her per say, I am still angry. My anger is for all grandparents that are put in this position and the heart breaking struggles they go through. My anger is in hearing story after story and the struggle after struggle of grandparents who many are older than us. My other anger is for young mom’s and dad’s and how lost they are. So many of them have had no training and are so needy themselves. Teen parents have been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember and very likely because I was one of them. My anger is for their children and wanting these young parents to understand that today matters and that there is better in this life. I am angry that we as a country so easily hand out welfare money to them without teaching them how to use it, manage it and how to move on from there.

    I already do pray for grandparents that are in the position of raising grandchildren and their grandchildren and for teen parents and their children but my heart yearns for more. God brought me through so much as a teen mom to become the mom I am today. God also brought us through this journey of being mommy and daddy again. We have learned so much and the healing that has taken place in our home because of Jesus and his grace is amazing.

  52. I’ve been surprised to see the focus of my calling shift as my seasons of life change. I’m an abuse survivor, and for years my calling was there, encouraging and educating. And then I became a mom and suddenly working moms in the church became a calling. I think the common thread is women (like me) who feel out of place in the church for whatever reason.

  53. I’m so excited to read this book. I’ve often thought and kind of had that thought reinforced through the church that Jesus and feminism were mutually exclusive. My passion is to love people. To show people who have been hurt and discriminated against that the Bible is a love story not a weapon to be hurled at those whose sins some deem to be greater than their own. To encourage people to fall in love with God rather than seeing him as a punitive father.

  54. I’m working to pinpoint it exactly. I know it involves relationship and devotion and Truth. Community. The book sounds intriguing.

  55. Just added this to my must read list. I have found myself growing more and more enamored with the lives of young teen girls, their struggles (family, boys, self image, chasing God), and empowering them to have a voice. I am a youth leader at our church, Harvest Cove, and the way my pulse quickened while reading this article.. I just know there is something in there for me. I am beginning a young women’s/teen study for girls this spring and think this would be a great insight to draw from.

  56. I get upset at how our culture represents body image. My passion is redeeming positive, healthy body image. I teach Holy Yoga that teaches people grace by worshipping Jesus on their yoga mats. I love how our anger can be re-fueled and redeemed to change our culture.

  57. Finding new ways to love and care for my family. I just went back to work full time after a year home with my son. It’s been a difficult transition, but a huge help for our family!

  58. When girls believe the lie that attention from a guy will make them happy. And almost equally so, I get pretty upset when those with disabilities are treated poorly (made fun of, aren’t wanted and therefore aborted, etc).

  59. God is calling me to care about His church, His children, and His plans for my life. He is calling me to stand up and speak out…to face my fears, and to be used by Him for His glory.

  60. Recently I have started feeling led to do something about marriages in our church. I don’t even know if there is a need for some kind of marriage ministry, but I feel like I need to ask about it.

  61. Yes…paying attention to what gives us a rise inside of us…it’s like putting a thermometer in…and seeing the mercury climb very fast…coming out of a twisted relationship with my heavenly(well earthly too) Father…I want people…especially woman to know how incredibly loved they are…that they can take a deep breath and relax right into His love!!

  62. I am burdened for the Church, especially in America. That many have been misled to exchange the beauty of faith in Christ for a lie of faith in faith alone.

  63. God has been calling me to care more and more about discerning what His Word says/means about various topics rather than being swept up in the views of culture. It’s a tenuous process at times, but ultimately rewarding to know Him better.

    I’ve been wanting to read Sarah’s book, so I would be *so* excited to be one of the winners!

  64. I’m a woman who has had other women mentor and impart into me on my journey with Jesus. Now I find myself sharing those gems of wisdom, prayer, sisterhood, love, encouragement and God’s word with other women. It’s an incredible transformation and a beautifully humbling calling. I learn all the God brings to me, knowing there is at least one that will need that word, that testimony. I didn’t know that back then, but I see it more often now..I’d love to read your book, if only for the fresh perspective God has given you that will refresh me as well… Iron sharpens iron…blessings to you dear sister in Christ 🙂

  65. The Lord has put the needs of girls and women being exploited (sex trafficking, etc) on my heart lately, and I have been researching ways that I can begin helping in those areas. However, I have always had a heart for youth, and have worked in the juvenile justice system for going on 13 years now. The Lord has laid it on mine and my boss’ heart to further engage the Christian faith community in stepping out of our comfort zones to help our neediest kids, our hardest-to-deal-with kids and families. It is still very much a work in progress, but He is faithful and He will do it!

  66. Orphans in Moldova who are are not being protected from sex trafficking; Christians in eastern Africa who have so few Bibles; those who don’t have enough food in Birmingham, Alabama; those who are not being protected from the sex trafficking taking place on Interstate 20 west of Atlanta.

  67. i feel that what i once thought was normal for me is now being shaken. thoughts, what and how i believe and who i am. its not in a bad way but by the lords leading. it is a very new area for me and some days i don’t do well to hear what he is trying to say and do in me. i want to be the one making the choices and decisions instead of yielding myself to the lord. it’s about allowing the lord to show me who i am in him, not who i think i am.

  68. I get upset about motherhood being viewed as an accessory to “real” dreams. As though it were the nutritious, but not very attractive, side dish to a more worthy entree.

    I get upset with the perpetuation of the idea that we all must be the same, though we so very obviously are not, as we pursue our calling – whatever it may be.

  69. Your comment, “I need to keep caring about this,” was powerful. I’m approaching age 60, and have been focused both on the struggles of those living in poverty and on gender issues within the church and particularly my denomination for nearly 40 years, and sometimes I’m just so tired of being the one who notices, who speaks up. But I must continue to give voice to what I believe.

  70. I want to read this book so badly. I have had guilt over being charged about the word Feminist. The title fascinates me!

  71. What makes me angry… Well that’s pretty easy… The deepest anger that rises out of my gut is when I feel ignored and that results from the even deeper roots of justice firing anger towards human equality for both women and men. The feeling of being ignored has made me, in the past, feel of less value and it made my voice as a woman feel small. I know that the reason I magnetically seek out and fervently read books like Jesus Feminist is to feed the hunger that I have– it’s a desire to learn, soak in and educate myself on the subject of equality for humanity… and for me my passion is most importantly focused on the equality of women in the church and in marriage. Nothing eats at me greater than seeing inequalities in those spectrums. Right now I am in a learning phase … I have had a five year plus hiatus of sorts from the church and have not been personally involved in a specific church community during those years. For me, I needed to step back for a bit and view it all from the “outside” and now that I am back, ready to find a home in church again, I am cautious but also brave, I am picky and yet much more open minded than I have ever been before… As I grow and as I get more involved in a community I am curious to see where this rising of justice spirited anger will lead me… As I do feel peace with my anger … Peace inside of the fire.

  72. I’ve recently allowed myself to see the injustice in the world around us. To allow myself to be angry at it. For me it mainly focuses around the place of women in the church (as I myself find I do not fit the mold, and I have mentored at a camp many girls who I see struggling to.) as well as Environmental degradation and the astronomical toll it has particularly on those already in hard places.

    Sarah, your work has truly been an inspiration to me to reach out and find out ways to help, one of which for me has been to share your words, and words of others (such as Rachel Held Evans) to friends and family who were in the same closed off world that I was in, before I allowed myself to see.

  73. Great message! I’m struggling to stand up to what i know is wrong when the message I get from those I am trying to help is , “Please do stir the pot!” It’s a good lesson to know that when something really gets me worked up/angry and I can’t get it out of my head, God is working within me. Sometimes I’m not sure where we are going, but I’m ok with God on my side!

  74. This sounds like an amazing book. Thank you for allowing God to use you for His purpose. May we all be encouraged by Him alone to follow His plans for our lives. 🙂 My passion is in getting myself out of the way for Him to use me.

  75. Thank you! I really needed this…. and now I’m in tears as my heart has been touched and affirmed!

  76. Hm. I think what makes me most angry in a righteous way is intentional ignorance. When countries have the money, resources, systems, etc. to improve the life expectancy, famine, low education, whatever, but out of greed, pride and power don’t care to know what their people need. When the people don’t have a voice to force their government to act and that government has no interest in serving its people… That’s the saddest thing to me. It’s one thing when you don’t have what you need. It’s another when it’s available but wasted.

  77. God is calling me to care about real justice for women in crisis–justice only available from a relationship with Jesus Christ. He is calling me to point out that the real war on women comes from Satan and must be fought by all of us who are called by His name. The title of Sarah’s book resonates with me as Jesus is the true feminist and the only One who can give women the honor and power they deserve and were designed for.

    Mary

  78. God is calling me to focus on homeschooling my boys and to teach them how to love others through service!

  79. I am a teacher in a public high school. I believe that God is calling me to be a place of refuge for the students who “have everything going for them.” I see so many kids who are so brainwashed to “be strong” and to “be thankful for all their blessings” that they don’t know how to share their own hurts and fears. Don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely right to be strong and to be thankful, but NOT to the point of denying or feeling guilty about their (our) own frailty and brokenness. Kids (and we are all kids) need a place where we can be real, and it makes me angry when that can’t happen due to our masks of perfection that seem so necessary today.

  80. Very inspiring post. Its something I have never thought about before. I do have an idea of what makes me angry, but I did to really hone in on it. Its such a general thing at the moment. I’m so glad that I stumbled across your message. It really hit me.

  81. God is calling me to put more energy into face to face relationship, and to quit wasting myself in online things. Will be a hard change for me, but ultimately more satisfying. I wouldn’t have commented at all, but I’d love a copy of Sarah’s book, and I can’t afford it right now.

  82. We have got to stop smoothing over worldly attitudes and behaviors, abortion it the murder of an unborn baby, there is no nice way to say it other than flat out lying. Every baby has a right to life!

  83. The intensity of the Lord’s calling for me to advocate on behalf of mothers and children worldwide has increased greatly over the past several years. I am troubled by events here in the US (abortions, abuse, sex trafficking), and abroad (abortions, abuse, sex trafficking, access to water and food, preventative health care, etc.).

  84. The last couple of weeks I’ve really been trying to find what it is that God is trying to tell me and the last two days it’s like everything is speaking to me. Thank you for this article, I will keep listening because I know that the Lord is teaching and preparing me for what it is that He wants me to do.

  85. I have felt angry about how our society sometimes seems to put greed above the public’s health and above the basic human dignity of others. I’ve started to be more mindful in my shopping habits and to try to buy only what I really need when I do shop (although this is very hard). The thought that even baby products could have questionable chemicals in them makes me angry, and if a mother wants the “organic, natural” product for her child she has to pay more for it. I have no idea what anyone could do about this on a larger scale, but I am going to say a general prayer for those whose health and well-being are being hurt by greed this week.

  86. Praise God. I felt this very thing in my spirit this morning. You have clearly defined words that my heart was feeling that makes me intrigued to see how i can serve.

  87. I know what topic makes me passionately, raging angry – the idea that God’s plan is for women to be the homemakers and husbands should not. The idea that it’s sinful and not in God’s will for the wife to be the breadwinner and the husband to stay home w/ the kids. I haven’t sorted out if this is my personal hang-up or really something that God has placed on my heart. It’s a topic that I need to delve into deeper once I can set aside the irrational anger.

  88. Woman not being free to become who they are called by God to be because of religious “rules” of what they are “allowed” to do.

  89. This is why I feel like we need a better understanding of God’s wrath. I read an essay by Walter Benjamin once who talked about working class riots being a form of “divine violence.” That kind of started me reflecting on the way that we can actually be agents of God’s wrath in a healthy way. When you’re angry about injustice, I would say that God has put his wrath inside of you. To be “covered” by God’s wrath on the other hand means to be doing things that do violence to truth and justice that other people would and should be angry about if they knew.

  90. Watching the Grammys last night did more than make me angry. It grieved my heart that all those people who worked so hard for acceptance and love did not understand that it’s not society they need to please; that it’s not human love and acceptance that will give them security and acceptance; it is the love of God the Father, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, whose ways are not those of the world, but far higher, better, and totally about love, the love that does not ever abandon or disappoint. As a musician, my anger is toward myself for insulating myself from these scenarios, as if I had no responsibility to pray for these precious people that Christ died for. If it does not provoke us to action, anger is a waste of time and energy. Praying for all those in the music industry who do not know the freedom, acceptance, and revolutionary change of Jesus Christ as Lord.

  91. What wonderful timing! I just said this for the first time, in conversation with one of my brothers: ‘I’ve pushed all my anger down for so long, thinking it was all bad, all wrong and sinful. I want to see God’s version of my anger; its angelic side, what God made it for.”

    I don’t know yet what that is…although it may have to do with the sisterhood of women, and with reclaiming friendship as a love distinct unto itself and important to both men and women.

  92. Wow, this post must have hit a nerve. You got a lot of comments. Many things get me angry. Lately it has been Christians in the USA not giving to help people in other countries who have so little. Other things that bother me include businesses that cheat people, or lie to people just to make more money. I’m intrigued by your book topic. I might have to get a copy.

  93. I feel like God is calling me to know those who are different from me – different theologies in particular. I don’t think there’s time for the crazy bickering over minutiae. There’s a lost and hurting world out there, and Jesus came for them. I want to make Him known and I can’t do that if I’m looking for fault with others who already belong to Him.

  94. God is calling me to stand up for women… I’m 19 years old and have been wrestling with a call to ministry for a couple of years. I remained silent about what I knew in my heart God was doing. According to the church I grew up in, I wasn’t allowed to voice my opinion let alone to preach. However, just last year after finally opening my mouth and saying yes to this God-given calling, I preached for the very first time while interning at a church. It was beautiful…potentially one of the most sacred, life-changing days I’ve ever experienced. It was then that I knew I no longer needed to keep my mouth shut. I finally understood that I had a lot to say and a lot of wisdom that God was calling me to share. Lately, this is what makes me angry…..when women feel as if they can’t be called and aren’t allowed to speak up. I’ll speak up and stand up for women until we’re ALL able to stand up for ourselves.

  95. I need to pay attention more, but I believe my passion is about the abandoned children (mostly girls) in China.

  96. I am a teacher and I see many children walk through my doors. I wish there was something I could do to help the many kids who are the victims of adults making poor decisions. So often, those decisions impact a child in more ways then we ever imagine! My attention is focused on helping these children!

  97. God is calling me to take better care of myself so I can continue my ministries with new mothers, newborns in need, and the homeless through my church while also being a good mother to my little ones, a good wife to my husband, and successful in my job. Phew, I am tired just thinking about it! 🙂

  98. Yes. I have been walking in this recently. Right now I am paying attention to my pulse rising and the need to take deep breaths. There are things I don’t agree with in my church such as the lack of women in leadership and various other recent decisions. I am praying for God’s guidance in how to act (and wait) in accordance with his will. It is an interesting process, but I am realizing gradually I am called for something such as this.

    I love your book, Sarah. I’d love to own a copy of my own!

  99. I can tell the difference in my anger by it’s manifestation on my face. When I’m being selfish or “flesh-y” it is hot, surfacy and I’m just a mess. But the soul-centered kind… that anger comes out of me in the shape of salty tears. I ache to see women free to be who they’ve been created to be. We hide so much behind comparison and false pretenses because we’ve been judged, we’ve been held to a standard we could never fill- because it’s man made and artificial. We were designed to be authentic- to radiate His creative love in and through us.
    And those tears come becasue I have been hidden… I have been angry about that wall between what I think I should be and what I have been created to be. … Thank you for this post- you have helped me to create words for the tears manifesting on my face!! I can’t wait to read your book!!

  100. To be honest, I have stuffed down anger, in order to be able to breath, to get through what has been a terribly life threatening journey, but as I start to come out of the darkness, I see and am touched by so much injustice, and am listening for the whisper’s that I know are there, I need to allow myself to ‘feel’ and that is very scary.

  101. God is calling me to help our ‘throw-away’ teens. Makes me SO ANGRY to see a homeless teen.

  102. First off, to God be all the honor and glory!! I just posted a quote of yours yesterday in my Facebook wall and agree we all have to get to the point where we want what God wants to redeem all of humanity. And what are we gonna do about it? Secondly, I was endowed by God with a blessed daughter, now 10 yrs old, with Down syndrome and feel God is calling me to exhort parts of the fully abled church who indiscriminately mis-label certain soul-abled beings because of fear suspicion or unfounded prejudice, thus disabling those sons and daughters of God from their reliable place in His Kingdom.”

  103. My anger is riled against my failure to listen to women without condescension, and the responses I have given in the past to their concerns. I am incensed at my pastor colleagues who very quickly told a female colleague of mine what she needed to do for her husband who was mentally and emotionally abusing her.

  104. I have a passion for stay-at-home-moms! Being one myself, I know first-hand the loss of self and lack of confidence I sometimes feel, especially when compared to other moms who have careers outside the home. Many people value work and success by the paycheck you receive and since SAHMs aren’t paid, we sometimes are looked down upon and thought of as not having a job, as if we have nothing to offer. The past few years God had really given me a heart to fellowship with and stand up for SAHMs!

  105. ‘Pay attention to what makes you angry. You just might find your calling hiding in there.’
    I’m so glad to see this today – it never occurred to me to consider the passion in that anger as a place God may be calling me to step into.
    Thank you!

  106. Human trafficking and the practice of young girls (as young as 9) being married to adult men, or married in general!

  107. I get angry at child abuse and the state of the foster care system in America. When I talk about foster care, I often get more passionate than people are comfortable with, so I’ve spent years hushing up about it. But I think you’re right, maybe it’s time to make some people uncomfortable with what makes me angry and step into what he has called me to. Beautiful post, thanks for sharing.

  108. I have deep passion for helping women who are being oppressed however what makes me angry is seeing young girls and women starving themselves and buying products to make them “perfect.” They are perfect the way they were created!!

  109. God is causing me to care about others. I have closed my heart and isolated myself as not to get hurt by others, and this has been a work in progress over the past five years. I struggle some days and other days are easy. I pray everyday that God will continue to work in me.

  110. Thanks for this. It resonates with me so much. God has called me to care for those who have been hurt by the church in this way.

  111. All I know at this moment is that this slow steady boil right below the surface watching injustice in the church, Christians with their head in the sand, generations walking away or being pushed out of church doors, denominations/churches hiding abuse, American politics being labeled and shoved into neat little “BIBLICAL” boxes, and the dregs, rejects, lost, abandoned places/people being forsake by those who claim Jesus… all these things that make me want to shout finally does not feel so crazy. You have given words to what I have been feeling. That anger I have been unable to fully grasp or define.
    Thank you. I AM NOT CRAZY!

  112. I am be called to speak against how I am being overlooked in my workplace. It is not enough to just be told that you are a valued employee. Actions speak..make room for me to make my workplace better…so that I can shape the culture. Show me that you value my perspective, insights, and vision. Show me that you want black women in your institution to not just be seen but also heard.

  113. This isn’t something I’ve considered before but it’s really interesting. What angers me…hm. entitlement. Ha. How do I turn that into a calling? That one might be self centered not soul centered. Hm, I’m not sure, but it’s something I’ll be thinking about…

  114. I love reading all the different ways people are answering this question – it’s so lovely how God invites us each to be a part of His work in the world in unique ways. Right now, I’m working to end deaths from malaria in Africa. (A disease we eradicated in the U.S. sixty years ago). Check out http://www.imaginenomalariamo.org if you’re interested. 🙂

  115. Would love to read this book. I recently finished my Ph.D. and my dissertation was a qualitative study on women CEOs. I would really enjoy hearing Sarah’s perspective on women in leadership. Thank you.

  116. My passion has been stirred recently to deal with the importance of being part of a church community that is cross cultural, for real. It’s time to end the segregation of Sunday morning.

  117. I’m only now probing the depths of my passion, what infuriates me and prods me into action to change the world for Christ. For so long, I have tried to repress any angry feelings as sinful and unworthy of a Christian, so now I have to untangle the righteous, Holy-Spirit-inspired anger from the selfish anger. Then, I need to find the courage to act upon it!

  118. Gosh, a lot of things. Homelessness and disregard for the poor in general, income inequality. And today kind of near the top of the list my country’s citizens’ obsession with their guns. I live close to Columbia Maryland where the latest mall shooting took place. I keep thinking maybe I would like Canada.

  119. I remember distinctly the burning I felt in my soul when I heard a friend tell me the story of how addiction and a long chain of relationships with abusive types landed her on the streets with a john pimping her out until she contracted HIV and was no longer useful to him. And again, a few years later, the burning when my Sudanese neighbors’ 8 month old daughter died of dehydration and diarrhea. The burning boiled into a sense that something could be done to spread healing. For me, that has been a career mainly focused on global public health–from HIV prevention, care, and treatment work to efforts to build better health systems for mothers, infants, and children. My dreams of being a missionary as a little girl turned into hours of study comparing best practices, hours of meetings to develop better guidelines and standards, hours of working alongside colleagues to find ways to ‘make medicines and good medical care available in hard to reach places, and hours of analyzing data and writing up reports. And even in this, I see God’s kingdom coming. I see Jesus reaching out and healing women and children as when one more clinic provides life saving antiretroviral therapy to pregnant and nursing HIV positive moms that prevents their children from the virus, and as one more village has a trained health worker to deliver babies or administer vaccines. My role may seem removed, but I am part of a long chain of those who are bringing goodness and light, and my burning sense brought me to this calling.

  120. I am angry because there are beautiful broken women who are pushed out of their Muslim communities because they are strong, because they are broken, because they are shameful or too brave or different, and they don’t know they are accepted, they are worth it. I am angry that they are considered the enemy, that no one tells them they are their Father’s and he is so proud of them.

  121. I have read Sarah’s wonderful book, and thank a mutual,friend who got me one of the 1st copies in Australia…wow…..it opened my eyes amd gave me a new breath of life. Blessedly, I have been able to use my anger about young people turned from home, drunk because of emotional pain, amd just plain helpless and hopeless. My family as been involved in this using our home as a come amd stay place, for as long as you want, warts and all, until you go, with an open door amyntime day or night. And I love it, it is the best, most heart rending but fulfilling thing in the world for us. BUT I had never put a name to my reactions amd driven love for these daringly heartbreakingly beautiful young ones. My anger is not bad, it drives my love, now I can see clearly what I had listened to, and voiced rather loudly at home, amd to my delight, the whole family has the same anger which can be channeled to passion. Keep on writin Sarah, your God given insights hit the spot every time. Bless your heart

  122. I’ve lately felt called to continue to lead my MOMs group, but more so to help educate my church. I want to help open push boundaries on comfortable Christianity and help my congregation grow and learn and feel more energized in the life of Christ. I want them to connect him to their every day encounters; to look deep inside of themselves and grow stronger in seeing their spirit stretched.

  123. I still don’t know what my calling is in particular but will now start paying attention to my anger in hopes of discovering it. Thank you for a direction to look in my search!

  124. I feel a very strong pull toward the plight of victims of human trafficking, and putting an end to it. However, I believe that God needs me to wait on that, as I was recently diagnosed with MS, after a sudden and disabling attack a year and a half ago. After a year and a half of tests, specialists, questions, and frustration over not knowing what was wrong, a little over two weeks ago additional symptoms brought a diagnosis. Now, I feel that God wants me to show my family how much I love them, and appreciate their devotion to me; and how they have stood by my side tirelessly. I also hear him calling me to “Be still…” and reminding me that my future belongs to him, and that is where I do my best to rest my mind. Being human, its not always easy, and I fail. At this time of my life I believe that God is calling for growth in my relationship with Him, helping me to meet me at myself as MS is a stranger that has taken over my body; (that’s how it feels anyway) and calling me to show my husband and daughter the love I feel for them and to let them know how priceless they are to me. Finally I believe that God is calling me to see myself as He sees me, and while I know what He says is true; honestly it is hard to not see myself through the condescending looks, glares, or eye rolls when I’m out and about in a wheelchair or on an electric cart/scooter. So I know this calling will be a work in progress for a little while (at least), and He may call me to help others with the same in the future. Only He knows!

  125. The future of our teens… This year I shifted to working with high school girls on Wednesday nights, and I am loving it! I’m well known at work for getting sidetracked on rants about education disparities for low-income teens…rants about support for teens in general. I was excited to read this, because I’ve never made that connection! No wonder I’m having such a blast in my group!

  126. In previous seasons, God has called me to care for families with children in our local PICU unit. I”m still ltrying to figure out just what I’m being called to.. but judging by my anger, it’s something to do with bereaved parents or families fighting congenital heart defects.

  127. Leading my family back to church that includes my husband. Meeting other families, there are people out there that could be a wonderful part of my life, God will put them right in front of us.

  128. God is calling me to care about the middle school girls I get to teach this year. He has given me a great opportunity to be an example to them and help them as they grow and head to high school.

  129. Education and abuse victims. I have always been empathetic to a fault and have had to learn that I can’t save everyone and fix everything… but I can feel it and I can cry for them. I can mourn with them and I can do little things…. and I can pray…. Like make feminine products to send to 3rd world nations so the girls can go to school. To looking for the good in all my students. To giving some extra encouragement and patience to that student who just “feels” down and out… to recognize those who are broken and try in my own small way to shore that up and show them the Great Healer. I read recently that we are God’s hands.. sometimes His hands wipes tears and fix meals… they don’t always “change the world” sometimes they just change someone’s world 🙂

  130. God is calling me right now to minister to the broken women in downtown Tel Aviv, at least for this season of my life I am here to be faithful and love them, care for them, bandage their wounds, pray over them and just live and be Jesus to them.

  131. I care about people, particularly women, learning about God and God within. I am passion about authentic living and loving on others. I’m passionate about figuring out ways to make the ordinary sacred – to see God in everything.

  132. God is calling me to advocate for people with disabilities. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of our abilities. We don’t have less value if we have a disability. Our society tends to see people with disabilities as being “costly” and having less value. I am surprised and disappointed at times when I see people with disabilities “pushed aside’ and judged in a negative way. It makes me angry. They are someone’s son or daughter, brother or sister, grandchildren, etc. and they are also our brother or sister in Christ.

  133. I love that post. I’m prone to anger. Not a good thing, but it kind of trickled down the DNA pipe and now I’m in charge of it. It was mine, but I chose a divorce, from the sin type of overreacting anger that hurts people. Grace made me new. Now to look at the things that anger me and see God’s calling dressed in the passion that rises to defend and take a stand…Wow! I was raised in a T.V.-less home. As I watch people today – all ages – sell their souls to the mighty media god, I feel angry. As I read that Apple sold $10 BILLION in Apps in 2013, I feel sick. That could pay off the debt of a few small countries. Think of the people it could feed and clothe and teach. That makes me angry. As I see the influence that media has on woman and how girls are coming up with only a pretty surface leaving the soul warped and starved, I feel angry. Yes! I think this is a calling. Thank you for writing down these words and bringing clarity.

  134. I’m angry that my country, South Africa, has one of the highest rates of abuse against women and children and so I am organising a gender seminar for youth this year entitled “I’m the one..saved by grace to make a difference” (Eph 2:8-10).

  135. Young pregnant women with few options – who have no help, or help that is either hard to get, not sufficient, impersonal, or without compassion. Who are unseen, or quickly dismissed, their problems labeled ‘typical’ and ‘unavoidable’. I don’t know what at all to do about it, but I see these young women and am angry on their behalf, and that’s a place to start.

  136. Sarah, I think it is interesting that you use the word “anger.” For me it is a breaking within my soul, witnessing injustice, heartbreak, despair, unbelief in personal value and worth, and loneliness experienced by God’s daughters. The pain takes my breath away. I see the pain in their eyes, feel it when they walk by me and my soul just hurts. My calling/life’s mission is to edify, encourage and empower God’s daughters as they discover, embrace, celebrate and live who they are and are becoming in Christ. My passion is for us to know the love God has for us, how desperately He wants us with Him, living strong in Him and being who He created us to be. If I could spend my days doing this, I would.

    Looking forward to reading your book. It’s on my amazon.com wishlist!

  137. Thank you for your words Sarah. You are a bright light! After traveling to Guatemala this past year and being raised in a home with a large family, God has stirred in my heart to love and encourage those who are not seen…in my Sunday class, the kids at recess who are alone, the struggling mama.

  138. Sarah, I appreciate your writing and your heart so much! I have been so encouraged by the rising voice of strong, brave, compassionate women. We are taught as little girls that anger and opinions look ugly on our faces. What a terrible terrible lie. There is unmatched beauty in a woman who is fierce with passion and vision. Scary and beautiful. May we identify the anger, raise our words and hands, and play our role in transforming this world more fully into God’s glorious Kingdom.

  139. This is a very interesting approach to feelings of anger–to channel your anger into a worthwhile commitment and to make changes that will better the world. These thoughts are going to stay with me and help me in the future. Thank you for sharing.

  140. I am now in my 60’s, so I came of age with the Vietnam war, the quest for civil rights, and the feminist movement. Your thoughts on what to do with the anger really resonate with me. I am encouraged that Christian women of your generation are speaking out. It is right to be angry, but we also must put change in motion, or the depth of our feelings serves no purpose.

  141. Healthcare shift workers who can’t get to church or Christian fellowship regularly but who regularly encounter extremely difficult situations, and the edges of life and death etc in their daily work. How to reach and support them (us).

  142. I sense a prompting to care more for the elderly of my church. They need to feel loved appreciated and needed!!

  143. I love this! It is so what I need to hear. I have a deep passion for orphans, babies, children. I have two boys, but have always wanted more. My mind is swirling with different thoughts about different areas that make me angry when it comes to dealing with young mothers, and babies and the slave industry. I have always said I wanted to be involved, just never took the next step to get there. Now, 2014 is my year! I want to step out of my comfort zone and help others. I will do what I can to research and see what I can do to help. I don’t know if you know or can offer suggestion as to where or how someone might help in some of these areas; maybe a list of legitimate organizations would be a start. Any guidance is appreciated, thank you for your blog, and I look forward to reading you book.

  144. Yesterday I went and picked up my copy of your book at my aunt’s feminist bookstore (Bookwoman, Austin, TX). I had to special order it, but she was happy to do it. The theme God is putting in front of me right now is love. I want to tear down the walls that have been put up between Christians and those who have been/are being judged by us. My aunt, a feminist figure, a LGBT activist, should not have to feel like an outsider to the love of Christ. There should not be an animosity, a silence in our conversation when it comes to her life and vocation and mine. I want to stand on the top of a mountain and shout: God’s love is for everyone!!!! Then invite all who were curious to a dinner party, and let us share in a common meal with our common lives.
    There should be a place for your book in every bookstore and there should be a place in the pews for all of humanity.

    I’m working so hard in putting love where I feel the pains of anger. I am so happy to hear that we’re not alone in that process.

    Loving the book!! Blessings to you and your family.

  145. God is calling me to the “least of these”. To care for the little ones without a voice that is normally heard. The single moms that no one seems to notice their struggles. The young women whose hearts break each and every day from the pain of the past, and they think they are all alone. I feel God calling me to care for those who feel unloved, because I have been redeemed by the One whose love never fails.

  146. God is calling me to care about the people around me more, to intentionally find out what they’re struggling with and need prayer for and then do it. This post is so great! Thanks for writing it!

  147. Standing in the gap….bringing women closer to be transparent, to love one another, to learn from each other, to support one another instead of competing with one another. Thank you for sharing:)

  148. Children as young as 5 years old being bought and sold by parents in Cambodia! Trying to grip my mind to understand why parential complicity is so prevalent due to the history of the culture and country. That makes me doubling over for that nation that keeps me awake for many nights. That fuels my action and my heart further to continue to serve with Ratanak International! It has been the most painful 5 years since I started, and yet it is also the most joyous 5 years. Serving Jesus in the most extreme painful place also brings extreme amount of joy when I see a life transformed and step into the Light!

  149. God has called me to care about families that are experiencing pregnancy losses. I have started a ministry at my church called “Hannah’s Hope” the provides families with tools to help them grieve the loss of their babies. My hope is that families will feel loved, cared for, and that someone else cares about and validates the life and loss of the baby. I am hopeful that Hannah’s Hope will keep growing.

    ~K
    http://www.tulsafbc.org/hannahshope

  150. For the past two or so years I have been learning to care for myself. Asking Him who he has created in me to care deeply for.

  151. I care deeply for those who have lost loved ones through suicide. I know the pain, but also the other side of it since I too felt that hopelessness. I have been thinking of getting involved with some kind of group to help people. My last child leaves this June for school, so I will be ready for a new project. Thank you for your book and the ideas of anger.

  152. God is calling me to love wholeheartedly with no judgement on whether I believe/approve of what a person or groups of people may be doing. He is calling me to advocate that God doesn’t hate and because we are made in the image of God that we shouldn’t hate either, that we need to love and show others, not make them feel ashamed or singled-out or unwanted.

    As a child of God, there is a calling to see worth, value, and dignity in EVERY human being – no matter how sinful or distorted or far from God. (SheReadsTruth.com)

  153. So true SO true. Our emotions tell us something deep about as. I actually just wrote this morning about what my sadness was telling me. And it was telling me to write more.

    And I get angry about people who are in bondage and dishonest with themselves. I’m not sure what my calling is yet but I know it involves women. I know I care about emotional health and helping women live honest, authentic, vibrant lives.

  154. I’ll be honest….. I’m not sure what makes me angry the way you mean. I can think of things that tick me off (ha) but I’ll have to ponder or a bit to find the real deal. The only reason I’m even playing, since my answer is lame, is because I’d REALLY like to win a free copy of the book. I grew up baptist, am now living free and God is continually redefining things that I’ve believed for years! It’s disconcerting at times and straight up frustrating at others but it is such a good journey to be on!!
    Thanks for reading.

    Your sis,
    Christina

  155. God is calling me to care about those in need. I have found therapy animals are an amazing way to help all kinds of ailments but the animals need the training, structure and programs to reach those who need them.

  156. God is calling me to help those who deal with addictions and teen girls who don’t understand their worth and who turn to relationships with boys for affirmation.

  157. God is calling me to care about a friend in our church who is going through some serious struggles in her marriage right now.

  158. I believe that righteous anger is great when it is expressed in a healthy and productive way. I used to just channel righteous anger by complaining to friends, but blogging has helped.

  159. Every day, I feel deep down that my calling is out there, that it is coming, that I am in the process of growing toward it. Right now, I feel God is calling me to listen to Him and to myself, because that is the only way to prepare for whatever He wants me to do. So much I feel passionate about: gay marriage rights, women’s rights issues, and the environment, to name a few. But I don’t know yet how to channel that good anger and passion into a cause. But I know that it’s coming. So I wait and I learn and I pray and I hope. Thank you for sharing this post- I can’t wait to read Jesus Feminist!

  160. God is calling me to care about the hungry children and families in my community. I began volunteering for our local food bank a few months ago because seeing hunger right here in America makes me angry. It is ridiculous considering how wealthy our country is.

  161. One of the things that infuriates me is to observe people who ignore the TRUTH of matters and make little to no effort to formulate their core beliefs and professed Christians who walk not in the TRUTH because they take no/little time to actually read and study the Word of God. I am intrigued by this book you have written. I think {I hope} it may present and discuss some of the thoughts and revelations that God has been speaking to my heart as I have been walking out of rigid, legalistic doctrines of men and entering into the freedom of a {any} true believer in Christ Jesus. The Bible I have been reading and the stories I’ve been rediscovering read much different than so much that is commonly taught in Sunday school classrooms, denominational curriculum and even from the pulpit. I would love to win a copy of this book, and look forward to reading it!

  162. A calling for moving into an unfamiliar area of fostering. These children are in the system because of the poor, inappropriate, dangerous, and careless choices their own family has made.
    This has placed a burden on my heart for the child. Children from newborns to “aging out” teens.
    Now the opportunity to adopt a newborn beams on the horizon. For that responsibility we pray for wisdom.

  163. I agree, if we can just learn to embrace the place from which our anger comes we as women can change the world for the kingdom of God. Just like love, God gave us the emotion of anger. As long as we can learn to utilize our anger in the proper way, to acknowledge that God gave it to us as a warning system to tell us that something is wrong, we could in turn be much more powerful. Thank you for your post, that is most powerful and eye opening.

  164. Right now, it might not seem huge and world changing, but it’s taking the righteous anger in me that is watching my own siblings foundation be shaken as our mom and dad go through marriage issues and basically throwing their hands up and checking out of their responsiblities. It’s affecting my four brothers and one sister so much that it scares me for their own future…And as the older, married and a new mommy, sister, I’m at a loss and asking the Holy Spirit to what I can do.

  165. I would like to see more unity and compassion in my church and other churches. We need to be more of the “hands and feet” of Jesus. Our mission should be our local communities, there is such a need.

  166. I have felt a calling from the Holy Spirit I believe, that I would like to start some kind of Ministry for Emotionally Abused wives or single women too. I have been married for 40 years. I fell in love with a man that myself and all my friends thought was literally dropped from heaven for me. Within a few weeks of meeting his family I began to have concerns about an eventual marriage relationship that would be healthy and spiritual. He told me the only emotion he ever felt in his entire life was ANGER, especially toward his Mom. I had never met anyone in my life like that. I told myself that emotionally healthy people usually feel the emotions of fear, joy, exhilaration, sadness, loneliness, disappointment, and an entire gamut of emotions. He had been in the seminary, went to Church, was kind to everyone, said and did all the right things, helped everyone, treated his Mother and family with respect,had a great love of nature and was intelligent. Yet this underlying emotion of anger toward even God confused and frightened me. He was unable to identify WHY he always felt angry. I insisted we go to therapy before marrying. We went once and the therapist said we should never marry and we would continue this subject at the next session. My boyfriend believed all therapists were quacks and that he wasn’t going back. After all we were in Love. I wrote our vows with the words,” I will love you and help you fulfill all that God created you to be.” I believed if I just Loved him unconditionally, unlike his Mother did for him, he would eventually open up and feel free to just BE, instead of living the life of two people. After 5 years I began to fear the foundation of our vows was never going to happen. I gave him everything he wanted emotionally and physically. He was a wonderful Father to our 2 little girls and I refused to bring them into this situation. As the years continued I began to feel a deep loneliness and he thought a hug and a kiss would heal it. As the girls were growing up, I began to notice I was losing my independent spirit as I had to ask permission from him for any of my needs. He wanted to live on a hobby farm, which we lived and labored on for 29 years. Each morning he drove off to the Cities to work with professional people and I was left to do the work on the farm. I was always a City girl and left all my friends behind there who really didn’t enjoy coming out to a desolate farm. Also, he sold the car I bought when I was single and left me with junk cars that would never make it to the Cities without some kind of beak down. His mother was MANIPULATIVE AND FOUND NO SHAME IN MAKING UP LIES about me right in front of us. If I tried to defend my self I was told to never do that because it would only cause trouble! I eventually noticed that the man I loved and everyone else that met him had no idea he was living a double life in order to be loved. He had been manipulated since childhood by a single Mother to live this way and was totally oblivious to his behavior. He found it impossible to show anger at injustice. He felt no pain for those who were suffering. He was a recluse who said ,
    “All I need is You!” while my social side was dying for couple friends in our marriage. Everyone I knew, said at least once a week that I was the luckiest wife in the world and that my husband would do anything I asked him to do for me. It was the total opposite at home with me. I couldn’t stop loving him, even though I resented his insensitivities to my needs! Whenever I tried to confide in my long term friendships with my girl friends, even they would say, “Bill would never hurt you!” I was stunned and felt betrayed. I began to live a double life too. I pretended how happy I was and that we were indeed the perfect couple that he wanted us to portray. After 32 years, I prayed to God and truly believed that when I told my husband the truth about the JOY I had lost in my life he would “FEEL” and want to go to therapy together. I broke down sobbing, begging him to love me for who I was but he just stared at me and could not comprehend my pain. I was devastated and fell into a very dark world where there was no hope of healing. Eventually I had a nervous break down and he saw no need to stop the hate mail and lies his family was spreading around to others about “Poor Bill” having to live with a mentally ill wife. For 13 years, I planted my feet on the floor each morning and begged God to either let me die or give me the strength to continue loving the man. Please, I prayed, I know the real Bill is in there, but he is too afraid to reveal himself, but at my expense. I felt great anger, despair, a loss of my integrity, and a need for friends again, anyone to put their arms around me and see my side of the story. Soon I became physically ill with heart and neurological problems that took away the use of my hands. I had been a teacher and an artist and it was those things that used to soothe my broken spirit. Now that was gone too. The smell of food made me ill, and I could no longer eat or drink. I would drive myself to the ER and they suspected I was being abused at home. But I would never admit it. I would kneel at his feet sobbing and begging him to help me and himself. i wanted him to know that it was OK to be imperfect and that I could never be perfect like he expected of me. I used to be spontaneous, unafraid to express my opinions with others and I was respected as a kind and loving person. Now he had the power. He could convince everyone that he was NOT the one with the problem. My Mother had died years earlier and during this period my two daughters got married three weeks apart in two different states. My brother had been in a car accident and was paralyzed from the neck down and on a ventilator for 5 years. He was my life line, my only sibling. When he died, I stood during the service unable to control my emotions. I told God, “People think I’ve become a fraud, crazy, my daughters believe I’m hurting their Father because he knew how to manipulate them into thinking this. No one will comfort me. I stand before you with a basket stuffed with unspoken pain and I don’t know what to do with it, Lord!” When I returned home, my life only became worse. By now I was suffering from PTSD! Everyone who used to love me compared me to my saintly husband and the only emotions shown me were anger. But I still believed this marriage could be saved! I would not return anger. I needed to set boundaries and expressed what they were going to be to my husband. I would no longer live in an environment of anger because God is Love. I felt His ever lasting love in my heart through this entire nightmare and I was wasn’t going to give up on us. I trusted God would never abandon us and with therapy and the development of a connection with God in our marriage we would grow together. I realized at the age of 65 I would have to make some life giving changes in my life and never again give into despair or anger. I knew forgiving my husband and all those I loved despite their hurtful remarks to me was the path to freedom. The greatest gift my Mother left me when she died, was her Faith and now was the time to lean on that virtue. It was a long painful journey to reach to where we are now in our marriage. My husband has been in therapy with a tremendous therapist and I have been in therapy for years to survive this union. God answered my pleading in His own time. We now take time to pray together, discuss our feelings freely. He is beginning to understand WHY he lived and treated me as he did. Losing control can be frightening and control was all he knew from his childhood. It is still a difficult journey at times but we now have interdependence, not dependence on each other. We are one, yet separate and he knows now that only God is perfect. That is why God made us human with flaws. I am slowly loving myself again, whom I began to love less than the man who emotional abused me. Anger is full of empty despair, and even hate at times. Never let it control your life. God is the only one in charge and even he expects us to mess up at times. So, I am still praying about how and when I should start this Ministry. I know God will give me the answer how to help other women in this awful situation. We show no scars. We remain quiet because we fear more hurtful words from others. You see dear women, if you are living like this, I would like to provide a safe place where you and others can pray and share your pain and expectations together. Not all emotionally abused women belong in a facility. The worst of the emotional abuse is that no one will believe your story! Depending upon where you seek help, God is often not a factor in the program. Not all marriages need end in divorce and this route is often emphasized in these facilities. Please find a spiritual advisor to intervene also and know yourself enough to know if you really do need to leave. I pray that God will give me the courage to be His Servant to these hurting women. Their husbands probably are really good men but have been abused themselves as children. Physical and sexual abuse are very different from emotional abuse and require different forms of help. Anyway, that is the calling I hear God asking me to do ,either through my Church or independently. I am praying each day for all women to become empowered, never let anyone take who you are away from you and never let anger ALONE determine your decisions in your marriage. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Any thoughts or ideas from some of you other wonderful women out there. I need input! Thanks and God Bless you ALL! Oh! I don’t believe it takes a degree to simply listen and offer compassion to other suffering women. However, I do encourage getting professional help. I just want to offer a safe Haven of understanding and an opportunity to share their stories together. But Spirituality is a must for every woman’s Higher Power in her life, I believe!

  167. God is calling me to care about parents who are struggling to raise Godly kids and maintain an intimate relationship with each other. It’s a difficult world and we’re always subject to what the media throws at us. We aren’t perfect. We need to strive to stay in God’s Word and be the best Christians we can be ~ God will give us the grace to do so.

  168. I’m angry about a lot of things, but the one that keeps bubbling to the forefront of my mind is the marginalization of women in our churches. It’s wrong and I am absolutely sick of it. I’m taking the words in this article to heart. If it makes me this angry, what do I need to DO about it? Thanks.

  169. I’ve been thinking a lot about this. How what makes me angry is the mistreatment of people — the lack of grace-giving: In. My. Own. Home. I can’t stand it one bit. I get so fired up when I see the accusations or the impatience most of all; the expectation for any of us to be more than who we are — tripped up, messy, sloppy, careless, forgetful human beings. And yet, it’s grace that we all need, most especially the accuser. And so the radicalness of this grace-giving is what is provoking me to the core. And it starts with me, most assuredly.

  170. I think God is calling me to save the “hard” truths in certain situations that others may not want to say. Very local, but it’s been on my heart lately.

  171. God is calling me to care. Of course I care about a great many things, but circumstances have given me a hard outer shell that tries to keep the hurt of caring from reaching inside. I have programmed myself not to feel too deeply or be too deeply involved in anyone’s life, not to grow too attached or expect too much. But I am called to care, so things have to change.

  172. Thank you so much Sarah! I have been realizing the exact same thing lately, that my anger is so righteous because of my closeness to God. I have been looking for ages and only your words have given me hope in a time where I am called to women’s rights and the societal norms that are so out of line with what God would have. From the bottom of my heart, I am an avid writer, and ONLY your words this far are ones I fully have agreed with. Sarah, if you know of any other women or men’s words you enjoy reading – please let me know! I am thirsty for more truth in words.

    I have wept hours over the way I personally feel unjustified as a woman who wants to lead, teach, and become a voice and change for women, men, and children all over the world. It kills me that so much of the Bible speaks with ‘he’ and written by the eyes of men, with women as partners but rarely not actors of the faith. I have been told that I should not minister to men because they might get the wrong idea because I am a 21 year-old woman. I have felt like an outcast in intellectual conversations where I have so much to say, I have been quieted or spoken over my entire life, for the sole fact that I am a woman. I seek to witness all of societies eyes and hearts be altered into ones that view women as equal and strong persons who are not just possible objects of their affection. I seek to be more than an appearance, wether it is goos or bad, but a friend with a heart that has depth and insight. I desire to see young women not give into the common societal belief that their value is not found in the clothing and makeup she wears and the charm she exudes. I desire to see women read the Bible, study theology, and not magazine and fashion tips.

    My heart burns for the injustice of sex trafficking all over the world, for the women who were never given a chance at freedom, especially in the countries of Canada and India.

  173. I think this is amazing. i think we as Christians are all entitled to holy anger. Anger that will move us to pray, fast,cry out for God on these issues. Just like Esther in the Bible moved with Holy Anger and went out in front of the King and she declared if I perish, I perish. This is what we need to live like today, I know for myself, I am always afraid to move, to act even sometimes being disobedient to the Holy Spirit because my natural mid thinks that the Holy Spirit can never lead a woman to act that way. I am coming to an understanding that this is false and that we are all both women and men called to be sons of God.

  174. I feel God is calling me to write — I have begun locally but I am still very unsure about where he is leading this gift in his service. ….there are so many topics, I am passionate about. I would love to have a copy of your book. In each of my local newspaper articles so far…I have tried to plug something from a Christian book I have read — because good spiritual food heals the soul—and you never know what another needs — only God does. I trust that God is using me in ways I am not aware of.

  175. You were my favorite speaker at IF! It really took me back to hear your self proclaimed labels, liberal, feminist, tattooed and pierced as evidence. And yet by far you were the one I most identified with. I had to laugh as I looked around at the other women around me- no wonder I felt like such a square peg in a round hole!
    Thank you for such a precious message- I was one of them and the passion and calling within me burst, propelling me into the ranks of male only church leaders. I was devastated by the double standards, the restrictions and hurdles for us sisters, mothers and dtrs. I have spent the last 4 years reeling from this devastation, hurt and bewilderment at GOD, His church and leaders.
    IF was a huge breakthrough for me. I am so scared, yet hopeful. I feel His power surging through me once again with potential, dreams and expectancy!!!
    Thank you dear Sarah! Yours is a precious message for other square pegs like me!!!!! GOD bless you!

  176. The things that get me angered are things no one wants to talk about like our bullying government and how they make the calls. The gmo’s in our food. The chemtrails in our sky. My biggest most passionate anger is Vaccinations! They do not help our children they do not save lives like they want you to believe……. but like I said no one wants to open these cans of worms. They continue to be sheep and they stay in the herd. It’s very frustrating to watch our world falling apart. I also care about the abused women around the world, the neglected children being raised wrong and that will only contribute to the downfall of our world. I don’t really know honestly……….