Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire

Hello and welcome to Saturday. Does it feel like a weird Saturday to you? Like you have been stuck on Saturday for a week? Yeah, I’m there with you a little – I have to check my calendar multiple times a day to see what day of the week it is. I hope you have found some ways to find calm, ways to find joy, and ways to continue to grow through this time. If not, check out my last post with some tips to help deal with the uncertainty!

I’d like to take some time to share about a book that I am reading. I received early access to “Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire” (FFF for short) by Jen Hatmaker (it releases April 21, 2020 and I hope you will consider pre-ordering!) I haven’t finished the book yet, but I am already deeply moved and inspired by it. I also feel like now is a great time to focus on something tough that isn’t the state of the world. If that’s not your thing, I get it, I do, but I will encourage everyone to find some ways to continue to grow and flourish during this time. The reality is we aren’t sure how long this will last, so it’s important to keep working towards our goals! We don’t want to look back and go “oh darn, I had so much time and look how I wasted it…”

Okay, so back to the book. Have you heard to Jen Hatmaker? Allow me to introduce you to her. She kind of feels like my best friend, when in reality I have never met her in person. I’ve watched hours of her lives on Instagram, I’ve read hundreds of her posts on Facebook, I’ve listened to many of her podcasts, and I’ve seen her speak live twice. Each time I find new nuggets of wisdom, new moments of humor, and such valuable inspiration. I read (well, listened) to her book “Interrupted” and was especially moved by her vision for a barefoot church, which is strongly aligned with my vision for a community cafe. When I have surreal moments like this with a person or idea, moments were our ideas align and collide despite the fact that we’ve never actually talked about them, I see it as a divine sign that I’m on the right path. I have moments like this with Jen’s words on the daily.

Her latest book, FFF, is a treasure trove of these moments, these nuggets, and these inspirations. Are you a woman who feels like maybe your inside and your outside don’t match? Do you feel like you sometimes need support to do what you know is the right thing because it’s also the hard thing? Do you feel exhausted from self loathing as if it’s the only thing that your mental energy goes to? If any of those statements ring true, you will find value from this book.

Jen is vulnerable, honest, and relatable. She shares stories of moments in her life when she has asked questions about where she stands on things. She explains how she has taken that unease, how she has asked questions, she has listened to different perspectives, how she has worked through her feelings and thoughts to find her conclusions. This isn’t always popular, she has lost community for her decisions. Her message: Keep living. Keep doing all the things that you know are right, changing doesn’t mean you will die, it means you are growing. Questions are how we grow.

I’ve included a few of my favorite quotes from the book. I share this mid-book review because this book is moving me. It’s helping to encourage me to keep working to find my true authentic self. It is supporting me in asking the questions. To stopping the voice that says i’m crazy, i’m over-reacting, or this is too hard. Keep living.. The path is not linear, it is not easy, and there isn’t a book to tell you where it will take you. This book however, it gives you ideas, it gives you options, and while it doesn’t lay the pavement, it gives you the asphalt — it gives you the tools you need to make your path. I think this is so valuable, a true gift, during this time of uncertainty – it is something I CAN do.

Check out her books, her podcast, her social media. She is spreading comic relief right now (laundry room clean up…) and her podcast has linked me to so many inspirational women. Her podcast is “For the Love.”

I’d love to hear what and who is inspiring you. Let me know if you pre-order the book — you get some awesome bonus gifts if you do! A recording of my favorite Jen Hatmaker talk (from Rise x Dallas — she talks about sisterhood and elephants!), an audio recording of two chapters from the book, and the intro + 2 chapters.

Hang in there friends. We got this. We got this soooo hard.

xoxo, Gretchen