Pushing Beyond
A radio interview? Um, no thank you! All my life I have performed in musical theatre and as a singer, but being recorded on the radio… That’s another matter! One of my lovely readers (thank you, whoever you are!) sent a copy of my book Ya’acov’s Well to Joy Ravela, one of the hosts of radio Rhema’s drive show. She got in touch about it and we decided to do a giveaway – and an interview (that’s Joy in the photo).
The interview part I agreed to without thinking and then spent many hours fretting about it. There’s just something about the idea of speaking on air that really intimidated me! I wrote to one of my writer friends and she encouraged me. “Fear is not from God. Speaking out His truths over a radio frequency, sharing the story He’s put on your heart, that is.”
When I wrote Ya’acov’s Well, my goal was to show the transforming power of God in the lives of ordinary humans, both in salvation and in sanctification. When Jesus met the woman at the well in John 4, the passage my book is based around, He didn’t leave her unchanged. The way I’ve visualised it, the woman at the well found salvation from her sins in Jesus, but more than that too. In my story, God took her on a journey of sanctification that took her from her old life into a new one, a life in which she became free from the strongholds of her past, and walked in new-found freedom and boldness.
The thing is, that is true for all of us. As He sanctifies us, God empowers and emboldens up to go beyond where we have been, to seek to glorify Him in new ways, far from our old “comfort zone". The Nina of a few years ago was terrified to let anyone see her writing. The Nina of a few years ago was scared to speak publicly. The Nina of now knows that an awful lot of people have read her words. The Nina of now is still a bit frightened by that, if she’s honest. And the Nina of four weeks ago was certainly afraid to speak on the radio, but the Nina of then and now believes that God is bigger than her (my!) fears. And the reality is, it isn’t about the Nina of a few years ago, the Nina of now, or the future Nina, just as it was never about Mara in Ya’acov’s Well. The reality is it is all about Jesus. All about bringing glory to God the Father, through the Holy Spirit at work within us.
Mara’s whole life, messy and fragmented, then healed and whole, served to point to the grace of God and to draw others into His presence. As followers of Jesus, I believe that is true for all of us. God does not leave us where we were, He transforms. He makes new. If Mara was saved from her sins, but continued to live a life centred around herself, where would the glory for God be in that? It is a challenge to all of us who call ourselves believers in Christ to continue pressing into Him to be made ever new. God never promised us that our lives as His messengers of Good News here on earth would be easy. We are challenged to be bold as lions in proclaiming the gospel, to be brave in the face of situations we could never have endured before. We are not left alone to accomplish these mighty deeds – no, they are done by God’s enabling through His spirit.
In Ya’acov’s Well, Mara confronts a part of her past she would much rather have left behind in order to take the gospel to people desperately in need of it:
“Hello, my sisters!” Mara called out. The pack of women regarded her suspiciously as she made her way forward. Mara held out her hands.
“I’ve brought you some food.”
Hesitating only a moment, the women converged on Mara. She had been right. Although some of them made enough money to live quite comfortably, most of their income went right back into paying for the upkeep of their appearances. They were hungering physically as well as spiritually.
After a while, one of the older girls looked across at Mara.
“Why have you done this? Why have you brought food to us? Don’t you know what kind of women we are?”
Mara nodded slowly.
“I know. And I remember what it feels like, having to give your all to look right. To be something you no longer desire to be. To be forced to play a part. And what it feels to hunger.”
She gave a rueful smile and saw she had captured their interest. One girl near the back, with lovely dark eyes filled with deep pain drew Mara’s attention. Perhaps this girl was the reason she had come here.
“What do you mean?” Another girl asked. Mara smiled again. And so she began her story. She told them of Ya’acov’s Well and of Yeshua and of Mariam the Magdalene. She told them what Yeshua had done for her. What he could do for all of them.
All the women listened with baited breath. The youngest one with the dark eyes couldn’t conceal her tears.
After that, Mara went back day after day. Not everyone amongst Yeshua’s followers in the city understood, but Mara didn’t feel they had to. She knew what she was doing was right.”
It is exciting to follow God who never leaves us stationary. I look forward to seeing how He grows and stretches me over the next few years and the rest of my life! To see some of my stretching in action (I was shaking so much when shaking as we recorded this), here is the link to my interview with Radio Rhema at the end of January this year!
Nina
"So, if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever! Since the new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence." -2 Corinthians 3:11-12
“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” -Colossians 3:15
“Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved.” -Psalm 55:22
For Nina’s books and blogs, or to make contact, visit ninapeck.co.nz