I’ll be there.
I can do that.
No problem.
How often do we utter those words for fear of hurting another’s feelings, when the only ones we’re hurting are ourselves? How often do we commit to things out of guilt instead of dedication or genuine excitement? Oh, Lord. I used to be so guilty of it. I was riding high on the whirlwind. I was overbooking myself and missing my children’s ball games and steak dinners with my husband. I was worn and weary and even lacked joy in writing—the one thing that’s always brought me such happiness. Everything was out of balance.
But now I’ve embraced a sweet truth prompted by that powerful verse in Matthew. If I don’t feel the Lord has placed a specific thing in my path, I turn it down. I leave some room on my plate. Room for dessert, if you will. Room for the sweet, relaxing moments. I prioritize now: my relationship with the Lord first, then my family, and then my career.
I rest.
(And you know what? God Himself rested on the seventh day. What makes us think we don’t need to?)
It’s not possible for most working women to take more than two weeks of rest at a time. As a writer, I am fortunate to be able to set my own hours. Maybe you cannot do that, but you can prioritize your lives. You can figure out what’s really important. You can make some lists. You can say no.
You can rest.
CHAPTER 22
Not Crazy, Not Absurd, Simply Beautiful!
While a dear friend and I were hanging out on my patio one summer night, she said, “Susannah, tell me a story. Tell me one of your funny stories.”
I wasn’t sure where to start.
When the stranger in Walmart asked me to check the size tag on her underwear? Or maybe the one about the lady who was wearing Marvin the Martian pajama pants in Petco and asked me to hold her overactive Chihuahua while she searched her purse for her checkbook? “She may pee on you, but it’ll only be a dribble.”
Do you want to hear the story about my daddy riding on the outside of the train again? When Aunt Cora’s feist gnawed on Uncle Harvell’s artificial leg while we watched The Newlywed Game? The time aliens visited my dog? Or when I was nearly killed on a horse? Did I tell you the one about the dead chicken hatching on our Thanksgiving table?
Wait! Did I already tell you about the time someone tried to break into our house but slid on a frozen pile of dog poop in our driveway and was apprehended by the police? The copperhead snake coiled up behind our refrigerator? When my mama drove her Buick into a river? When my daddy drove his Chevrolet into a river? When I drove a golf cart into a river?
Do you know about the fistfight I got in at a high school party where I was thrown into the deep end of a pool? When I almost missed my high school graduation because I had detention? Or the time I touched the hem of Fred Durst’s Dickies at a Limp Bizkit concert? When I contracted mange from a dumpster dog and had to stay in the hospital? When I lost my entire kneecap after a rollerblading accident? Oh, that’s a good one.
When my mama prayed life over our brown labrador, Hershey, after he drank antifreeze? I’ll be darned if that dog didn’t fully recover after her petition to God! What about the time a woodchuck was stuck on the limb outside our front door and prohibited us from going on the porch for two days? The time our four-wheeler flew out of the bed of the truck while Jason was driving? The time the owl flew into the side of my car? I once fell into some bushes on the playground and was stuck there until lunchtime.
“Susannah, you’re making that up!” My friend laughed.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” I answered.
My life is riddled with crazy, absurd stories that couldn’t be made up. And good Lord, I’m thankful for it. Because when someone asks me to tell them a story, I’ve got plenty of material.
But you know what else you can’t make up? It’s not absurd. It’s not crazy.
It’s beautiful.
It’s life-changing.
It’s the best story I know.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16–17).
Those words have been ingrained in our minds since we were children. Sweet Sunday school teachers had us highlight John 3:16 in our Bibles. Vacation Bible school teachers had us put the words on crafts made of Popsicle sticks. For many of us, it is the first Bible verse, the first truth, we ever learned. We are reminded of John 3:16 on billboards and T-shirts and bumper stickers. And that’s a wonderful thing.
But have we become desensitized to the powerful truth found in the book of John? Do we even realize the magnitude of God’s love? Or has it become a nice little verse we learned as children?
As believers, we should never become bored or numb to this beautiful reality. We should always bask in joy that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, sent His only Son to die on a cross for us.
For us.
For every sin we’ve ever committed.
For every sin we haven’t committed yet.
God saw that the law wasn’t working. People couldn’t successfully follow the rules and regulations of the old covenant. They were offering burnt sacrifices left and right but were not capable of maintaining perfection through the old law. And when the time was right, because of His unfailing compassion for us, God changed all the rules and regulations. He made the ultimate sacrifice by sending Jesus to die for our sin. And not only that, but to free us from condemnation and guilt and addiction and affliction and every other stronghold we encounter in this fallen world.
John 3:19 reads, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” And that’s the very reason the people chose Jesus over Barabbas, a murderer and thief, to die on the cross—a manner of death reserved for the lowliest criminals. And we continue to choose Barabbas every single day, don’t we? We choose the ways of the world. We choose our flesh. Our desires. Our sin. Continually, that’s what we choose. And yet, praise God, our sins are atoned for.
We are pardoned because Jesus, bloodied and beaten, bore His cross to Golgotha. Nails were driven through His wrists and ankles. And then the cross was erected, and Jesus, blameless, was on that hill for the masses to see—for the masses to ridicule and spit on. He had the power to remove Himself from that cross, but He didn’t. He hung there for you and me.
How can we not be passionate about the most powerful love story to ever occur? How do we become used to the ultimate sacrifice that took place on that old, rugged cross? How are we insensitive to the burden Jesus bore? We forget His last moments of torment when He asked His Father, “Why have You forsaken Me?” We forget the bloodshed. We forget the earth rumbling and the heavens breaking open. We forget the greatest example of agape love.
Don’t you know this just tickles Satan? He does not want us to realize God’s prevailing love for us. He wants us to believe Jesus’ death wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be, or that it’s not even true. And if it is true, we are too dirty, too unclean, too sinful to accept God’s mercy and grace. We are too “bad” to benefit from what was done on the cross that day. Satan doesn’t want us to see the extent of what happened at Golgotha. And we too often fall for it.
Sister, my prayer is that you fully realize the scale of God’s love for you. I pray you envision and understand what God’s precious and blameless Son went through for you. Yes, you. God’s heart must have been grieved at Jesus’ pain and suffering, yet He did what had to be done to save you.
It is love at its finest and purest and most powerful.
The truth found in the book of John isn’t just a Bible verse to memorize or something you see on a billboard on a busy interstate. It is the truth that saves souls from hell and sets captives free. It is the good news. The best news. The ultimate news.
And it’s about you.
; Forget your flaws.
Forget your hang-ups.
Forget your sin.
God did. God forgot all of it the moment you recognized what Jesus did on that cross and you asked Him into your heart.
You are loved immensely and immeasurably. No matter what you’ve gone through in this life, joy is attainable through Jesus.
You can’t make that up.
Acknowledgments
If a hip-hop artist who just won the “Most Explicit Album” award thanks God first, then of course I must too. I thank Him for seeing me through every struggle and restoring my joy time and time again. He is good and worthy to be praised.
Much thanks to Jessie Kirkland for seeing potential in me, helping me brainstorm, and giving me great advice and wisdom on this journey. The goal of every video I made and blog post I wrote was to catch the attention of an agent, and I’m surely glad I caught the attention of such a good one.
Thank you to my Thomas Nelson team—Jenny, Stephanie, Janene, Sara, and those I’ve never even met—who helped make my first work of nonfiction a reality. You’re good people.
I’m so incredibly thankful for the support of my husband, Jason; my children; and my mother-in-law, Kristi, who are always proud of me and proud for me.
And, of course, a big shout out to every single person on the World Wide Web for the likes, shares, follows, comments, and support. I would still be tossing my writings into a Rubbermaid tote, never to be read by another soul, if I hadn’t been encouraged by so many strangers to keep going. You’re good people too.
My prayer is this book will draw everyone who reads it closer to Jesus. He is the upside to life’s downs.
To Mama, Daddy, Mr. Charles, my grandparents, and my precious Nutella who sat right beside me while I wrote every word of this book—I love you with my heart and can’t wait to get to heaven to see you all again.
About the Author
Susannah B. Lewis is an author, blogger, and humorist. She’s had several articles and videos go viral and has been featured in Erma Bombeck’s Humor Writers, Parents magazine, US Weekly, and Reader’s Digest. Susannah lives with her husband, children, and dogs in Tennessee. You can find her online and on social media @whoasusannah.
Can't Make This Stuff Up! Page 14