Friday, August 8, 2014

Interrupted Giveaway!

Hey y'all!  I have to share two things with you.  A story AND a giveaway.  :-)

First, the story.  My favorite author is Jen Hatmaker.  She is one of my favorite people.  She loves the Lord.  She lives in Austin, TX.  She loves Texas Longhorn football.  She has a "spicy" family (reference to her blog).  She is all kinds of awesomeness.  I was introduced to her a few years ago when a friend shared the book "Interrupted" with me.  This book came to me at just the right time.  I had been feeling "out of sorts" as far as my relationship with God, wondering "Is this all there is?  Am I doing everything I should be?  There's gotta be something more."  I was burnt out with "church" and what it had turned into for me.  I got to where I just didn't want to go anymore.  I felt pretty guilty and I didn't understand why I felt this way.  And then I read this book.  Everything Jen was saying was EXACTLY how I had been feeling.  She had put words to my thoughts, thoughts that I didn't know how to explain or put out there or put words to.

Let me tell you something, it changed my life.

A year or two later, I read her book "7".  Once again, another game changer.

Seriously, y'all.  If you're feeling lukewarm, READ THESE BOOKS!

After reading these two books and subscribing to Jen's blog, she became my "BFF in my mind."  I can't tell you how many times I thought "Me, too!" after reading something she said.  I became a loyal follower, thankful God had put a Christian woman in my life that I could relate to so well.  (Because I didn't always relate to other Christian women).

Then, THIS HAPPENED.  Back in June, my family went on vacation to Port Aransas, TX.  Just a quick two day trip to get away from real life and take a break.  As we were sitting in line waiting to board the ferry to cross over to Port A, I was looking on either Facebook or Instagram (can't remember which one) and my jaw dropped when I saw a post from Jen.  SHE WAS ALSO WAITING IN LINE TO BOARD THE FERRY TO PORT ARANSAS TEXAS!!!   Oh. Em. Gee.  I told my husband she was there with her family and with his always positive reassurance said maybe we would run in to her.  I said no way.  No way we'll run into her.  That would never happen to me...

A few hours later, my family and I had checked into our condo/townhome/beachhouse thingy and I hit the beach with the kids and their cousins while my husband stayed back to rest.  Kids were playing in the water and of course I  was standing there watching them like a hawk, yelling every 2 minutes to "not go out too far."  All of a sudden, I hear a young voice behind me yell "Sydney."  Of course, I turn around to look because my daughter's name is Sydney, and there they are...  Jen Hatmaker's children...  Her daughter, Sydney... (Yes, we both have daughters named Sydney.  Just one more thing I have in common with my BFF *squeal*)  I put my hand to my mouth in excitement and thought "no freakin' way."  Then, I see a man walking up to her kids...  It's Brandon, Jen's husband.  "NO FREAKING WAY," I thought to myself, trying to contain my excitement.  They were right... behind.... me...  You see, I practically KNEW these people because of Jen's blog.  I'd seen many pictures of them.  But I kept telling myself, "no way that's them."  I tried not to look too hard and get caught staring, so I just played it cool and glanced over at them every few seconds.  And then, I saw Remy...  REMY!  Jen's daughter, Remy!  Sweet, hilarious, Remy, y'all!  There she was!  FOR THE LOVE.

So there were the Hatmakers, minus Jen.  No biggie....  Hanging out on the beach with the Hatmakers.  Well, kinda.  We were on the same beach.  And we were just a few feet away...  And I practically KNEW them...

A few minutes later, my husband shows up and I quietly tell him all about it, all the while trying not to stare at them.  He says, "Let's go talk to them!  Let's go introduce ourselves!"  I just love him.  He... completes... me...

I told him no, no.  I can't.  I don't want to bother them.  They'll think I'm just some crazy lady.  And Jen's not there anyway...  And that was it, so I thought.

The next day, we went back to the beach again, same spot.  Just hanging out in the shallow water, once again watching my kids like a hawk, yelling at them to "not go out too far."  I glance to my left, and there's Jen.  There she is...  yelling at one of her kids to "not go out too far."  Right... behind... me...

I froze, y'all.

All I could say to my husband was, "That's her."  Of course, he said, "Come on!  Let's go talk to her!  Here's your chance to tell how she's impacted her life!"  I couldn't move.  She started to walk down the beach away from us.  My husband literally tried to DRAG me toward her.  But I couldn't do it.  The painfully shy, introvert in me had reared it's ugly head at just the wrong time.  So my husband says, "Well, then I'll go talk to her."

And he did.  He ran up behind her, asked if she was Jen Hatmaker.  He said that she smiled and said yes.  He told her something sweet about me and told her that I wanted to meet her and she told him to send me on over to where they were hanging out.

He came back over to me and told me what she had said and he said, "Come on, I'll go with you."  I couldn't do it.  I was so stricken with fear, y'all.  I felt like I was 7 years old again.  There was my chance to meet her and I blew it.  I never went over.


One of Jen's pictures on Instagram!  This is her precious family!  WE WERE RIGHT THERE!

I know, I know.  It's sad that I couldn't pull from the Supergirl on the inside to go talk to her.   But then, THIS HAPPENED...

Most of you know I started a blog.  For myself, really.  To organize my thoughts and to get my feelings out there.  It's been therapeutic and has become something I love to do.  I LOVE getting comments and seeing what people have to say.

I subscribe to Jen Hatmaker's emails (of course) and one day, a few weeks ago, her email subscribers got a special offer...  She was giving away free digital downloads and hard copies of the New Revised version of Interrupted (the book that changed my life) to the first 250 to respond to the email.  The criteria was
that your blog site was current and you had to commit to blog a review about the book.  Needless to say, I jumped at the chance.  AND I WAS CHOSEN...  I received the digital download AND the hard copy to share!  I like to think that my BFF personally handpicked me for the job.  :-)

So here it is.  My chance to give y'all something I love.  One of my favorite things from one of my favorite people.  I didn't get to meet Jen that day on the beach, but this... this I can do.

I've already given you part of my review of "Interrupted" above, but I'll tell you a few more things.  It's real.  It's raw.  It's Jesus, y'all.  For the real.  My favorite chapter is "Get Off Your High Horse -- Jesus".  Here's an excerpt:



That's some real stuff, yo. I've been there. I remember being at a place where I thought we had made it to the top, of the church food chain, that is. My husband and I were teachers, committee members, regular attenders to everything, nursery helpers, small group leaders. You name it. We did it. And then we became a deacon and a deacon's wife. We were at the top.  We had made it...  And it felt horrible. We had been sucked into the game. Believe me, it was our fault, the way we were feeling. And no one else's. Pride had overcome and we had made our way up the map of recognition. Or so we thought. There was fear with every decision we made, what people would say or think about us.  We made this ascent thinking it would bring us closer to Jesus, but it didn't. We had gotten further and further away from Him. We had done it wrong. 

You know the saying, "What goes up must come down"?  Well, it's true. We fell down. Boy, did we fall. Our hearts grew cold and bitter. "Church" suddenly felt like a burden. Several events happened and I fell into a severe depression.  It hurt to be at the bottom. Really bad. 

We had missed the point. The point of Jesus. But you know what happened when we hit bottom?  We got better. We developed a new way of thinking. A new outlook. We saw and understood God in a way we never did before. You see, he does seek the bottom, the outcasts, the undesirables.  He brought me to the bottom, so that I could find him. That's beautiful. 

Now that we are on the other side of our "descent", I am so thankful for it. I can now see myself and others through Jesus' eyes.  Love God and love others. That's it, folks.  And I was too busy loving myself and not loving others. That's not what Christians and the church should be like.  

The things I learned in this book helped get me through. I hope that it can help you, too. 

Now on a lighter note, it's time for the giveaway!  A free copy of "Interrupted"!  All you have to do is comment below or on my link to the blog on Facebook, and that's it!  You can comment about my blog, Jen's blogs, what you love about the book if you've already read it, the reason you'd love to read it if you haven't yet... you get the idea.  I'm so excited to share it with y'all!

And when you're done reading this blog, head on over to Jen's blog (link below).  You will love it.  I promise.  You can also check her out on HGTV where she now has a show called "My Big Family Renovation".  The Hatmaker Family...  Bless it.

Thanks for reading.  :-)

http://jenhatmaker.com/home.htm

8 comments:

  1. Thank you Tracey for being real..... I am definitely reading this book.

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  2. Would love to read this, sounds like the perfect tool for my life at the moment...and, your blog, I absolutely love reading it ❤️ Such a precious soul!

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  3. You are very entertaining to read. You are my new celebrity BFF in my head.

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    1. Lucy, I won't take that comment to heart... especially since she's MY new celebrity BFF...in my head :)

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  4. You are amazing, your words are so honest. Sometimes painfully. I cannot tell YOU how much of an IMPACT that YOU have made in my life. You have blossomed, you are glowing. Thank you for being so painfully OPEN and shinning Jesus!!! <3 you!

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  5. I became a fan of Jen Hatmaker in January when I saw her speak at a Women’s Conference my mother-in-law invited me to. I used to consider myself a devout Christian when I was a teenager but after going through some pretty difficult experiences I have struggled with my faith. Recently I have felt that God has been “interrupting” my life in order for me to figure out what my calling is. I’m in the process of leaving a job with fantastic benefits that I’m unhappy with to go to a small company that is run by wonderful people but doesn’t offer any benefits. I’m also in the process of going back to school with classes starting next week and applying to volunteer for the Sexual Trauma Services in the area. I have been wanting to read some of Jen Hatmaker’s books but do not own any nor do I really have much expendable income since I have to pay for school. I would LOVE to receive a copy of “Interrupted” to dive deeper into Christianity. I’d especially LOVE to be able to participate in the study Jen will be doing online in the Fall.

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  6. My coworker read 7 awhile back and got me interested in it. My sister and I started the audio book the other day and I can tell already I'm going to love it! God's been "interrupting" our lives ever since we read David Platt's book Radical a few years back.

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