Rhinestone Jesus by Kristen Welch
Have you ever stumbled across a really great blog? A couple
of years ago I started reading the musings of the wise and humble Texan Kristen
Welch. In “We are THAT family” she writes about motherhood, about serving,
about poverty and about saying ‘Yes’ to God. And I was really excited when she
crystallised a lot of her thoughts and her life story into “Rhinestone Jesus”
published in 2014. This book is actually
a great follow on from Lauren’s review of The
Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Tim Keller, because Welch urges us to take
a good look at our comfortable, self-focussed lives and realise that “sparkly,
safe faith is no longer enough”. Like David Platt in Radical, which I reviewed last year, Welch urges us to take the
gospel seriously and to put God’s kingdom before ourselves. But like Michael
Horton in Ordinary, Welch also wants
us to realise that we don’t need to be focussed on creating an extraordinary life
to be proud of, rather we need to be faithful and content with where God has
placed us right now. Not complacent, but rather content. And then when we are
focussed on Him, we can say yes and rely on God as we take our place in sharing
His love and spreading His kingdom. We don’t need to wait until we have it all
together, we can say ‘Yes in
our mess’.
“I slowly discovered that God
didn’t require me to get my act together before
He would reveal His God-sized dream; He was just waiting for me to say yes in my mess.”
A few key events in her Christian, good-girl, rhinestone
Jesus pin wearing life unsettled Welch and forced her to see that God wanted
her to put aside her own comfort and security (which was really no security at
all), and cling to Him in faith as she stepped out in small and big ways to
share the love of Jesus with a dying world. She is now the founder of a maternity
home in Kenya that rescues, houses, educates and gives medical attention to
pregnant girls who are poor and desperate and who desperately need to hear and
see the love of Jesus in their lives. Check out Mercyhouseglobal.org to find
out about the amazing work that they do. And in her spare time (while not
flying to Kenya, blogging, and parenting three children) she works with refugees.
Kristen’s floors may be sticky, but she has helped to save and transform the
lives of many girls and their babies.
Kristen Welch grew up in a Christian home and was a strong
witness throughout her school years. She actually did wear a sparkly Jesus pin to
school. But marriage to her college sweetheart was put to the test when he
revealed a struggle with pornography and they had to work through tears and
forgiveness to put the shattered pieces of their marriage back together. And
then it was when she travelled to Kenya with Compassion that Welch’s world
really fell apart. She visited a slum in Mathare Valley and what she saw there
caused her to cry out to God:
“Where are you? These are your people;
You created them. How can you allow so much suffering? For a moment, time stood
still. I stopped and closed my eyes. I saw God’s finger pointed at my chest as
He asked me the same question: ‘Kristen, how could you allow this?’ In that
exact moment, I knew my life would never be the same.”
We are not all going to go out and rescue many people from
poverty, exploitation and desperation. We might feel called to world mission or
full time ministry, and we might not. But Welch challenges Christians not to
give up on the dreams of reaching a world for Jesus. Dreams that might have
faded and been buried under the weight of mortgages, nappies and washing. God
wants to use us in our weakness to bring glory to Him. Maybe we need reminding
that we can make a difference. We can serve where we are and use what gifts we
have to bring glory to God and not to ourselves. Welch reminds us that striving
to be the perfect Mum will only lead to guilt and entitled children. Striving
to find contentment in our homes, our jobs, and in our goal of perfect
parenting will never really satisfy. Sparkly, safe faith that focuses on what I
do and forgets what He has done will never satisfy.
“I
thought I was going to Kenya to help . . . But I was the one drowning in all
that I had. I was the one who needed help. I was the one who was spiritually
poor. . . God used a day in hell to rescue me.”
About
this month's contributor, Rachael Collins
Rachael Collins is a Jane Austen fan who often finds it amusing that she is married to Mr Collins who is indeed a minister. She is an English/ History teacher who has taken a break from teaching in order to devote more time to reading children's literature. Her three children are the happy beneficiaries of this decision. Rachael enjoys gardening, drinking tea, baking and sorting her wardrobe according to colour. She endeavours to read her old books before she buys new ones, but occassionally she loses that battle.