Pure Joy and Cardboard Testimonies

Last night I was honored to attend a women's event called "Pure Joy". This event is the brainchild of two sisters. Two sisters willing to put themselves and their passion on the line for women. This was the 2nd annual Pure Joy conference in B-Town and I missed the first one. I wasn't really sure what I expected, but let me just say...it blew my mind.

Six hundred and fifty-ish women from all different churches and denominations came together in corporate worship and amazement. Brave women shared their powerful testimonies on loss and abuse and bad choices. Women cried and laughed and held each other as they shared their own pain. There were parts of the evening that were so thick and hard to navigate, but God was there speaking to all of our hearts about trusting Him and giving all to Him and being AMAZED by Him.

God showed up!

I came into the event pretty comfortable in my own little life. I have my struggles, but so does everyone. Somehow you manage to just "suck it up" and move forward. I have become too comfortable with my junk. Anyway, I sat next to a friend and we laughed and chatted away. Then the worship started and so did the tears, seemingly out of nowhere. As the music poured over me I realized that I have become DRY CRACKED SOIL. The music was like LIVING WATER pouring down into my dry spaces.

I didn't know.

I didn't know I had become so dry and desperate for God. I thought things were going fine lately. I didn't know what I had allowed myself to become by not spending daily time with Him. My prayer is that God will keep this on my heart and remind me daily the feeling of being DRY AND SCORCHED. I want to chose the Living Water.

I was asked to help with a portion of the night called Cardboard Testimonies. It is a quick way to tell your story. On one side you sum up something significant in your life. Then on the other side you write how God carried you through that. The struggle and the victory. I have heard about the power of this moment but to witness it firsthand...I have no words. The night before we met and wrote our testimonies. There were several women participating in this event. I saw what many women wrote and I immediately became insecure about my story, my pain. It didn't seem as dramatic as some of the others. It seemed meaningless compared to the stuff some women have walked through.

But as the night went on, I realized that God is writing all of our stories. So NOTHING is insignificant to Him because HE is the author. It has given me the courage to share my story on this blog. Over the next week I will tell you about me. I will share what God has written over the most dramatic circumstance of my life. I will show you God's handiwork.  If nothing more, I want to write it for my kids to have and read.  I want them to see who I am and what choices I have made.  I want them to see how God redeemed me.

Please bear with me.

I struggled with what I was going to say on my cardboard. I ended up with...

I TURNED MY BACK ON GOD

{flip over}

HE NEVER LET GO OF
ME

A huge thank you for all the women who worked their fannies off to put this together.  What a project!  I know that lives were touched, women were changed.