Your Opinion Please.

May 8, 2013 / Erin Kirk / 19 Comments

If you’re much of a reader, you know back cover copy is often what prompts a book purchase.

Do you know who writes that copy? The author does, or at least takes a crack at it, and it’s torture….

In 300 words or less, explain your 60,000 word manuscript. Exhibit all your marketing savvy but don’t be cheesy – be compelling, clever and original.

So here’s the shot I took in the proposal I’m sending out this week for Going to the Sea: A Sassy Liberal Wades in with Jesus. Since you’re my tribe, I want your opinion.

Would you pick it up? Comments welcomed and appreciated.

When outspoken, West Coast, liberal feminist Erin Kirk quit corporate America and moved to Texas to farm organic vegetables and beef cattle, she thought she had it all figured out.

But Texas ripped away her Whole Foods-hip exterior like an old house dress, revealing decades of loneliness, anxiety and fear. Desperate, Kirk looked for a remedy in the one place Liberals in America supposedly never look: The Bible.

Thus began a fiery, yearlong experiment.

Rather than shouting, “WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE” every day into dust devils of bone-colored sand, Kirk read The Bible – the whole thing – and attempted to do as it says.

Irate at the church but weary of freewheeling theology, Kirk excused everyone from the discussion and gave The Bible one year to convince her the transformative power of God is available to anyone who will seek it. She asks:

Must I be a pious, well coiffed, sweetie pie to follow Jesus? Or can I just be myself?

Am I short-changing my life, just to avoid obeying God?

Why bother with Jesus in a culture that often doesn’t, or worse, pretends to?

Is there value in…gulp…submitting to my husband?

Can God tame my smart mouth and the angry voice in my head?

With rangy, open prose rooted in her wild and willful past, and a journalist’s eye for detail, Kirk drifts from Northern California, through the Colorado Rockies to conservative West Texas, landing firmly on both sides of America’s religious culture wars.

Speaking gently to those outside the church gates, and boldly to those within them, Kirk explains with kindness and heart why Jesus still matters.

You Are a Miracle in Waiting.

April 30, 2013April 30, 2013 / Erin Kirk / Leave a comment

When I agreed to go to Zambia this summer with SCRUBS Medical Mission, I dreaded raising the trip money. I’d rather take a beating than ask people for help because I’m a proud, independent American woman and I can handle stuff.

Unfortunately for me, God hates pride and stubborn independence. He does. Look it up. Proverbs 8:13 and Psalm 10:4

So, I sucked it up and asked everyone I knew. Today, I only have $300 to go. Can you believe that? Thirty six of you were happy to jump in with me and go make some friends in Zambia. What a lesson! How often do pride and independence – the most American of all values – interfere with that big, leapy faith God wants before he lays some mind-blowing miracle on us?

Evidently, for me, raising $3600 wasn’t hard enough though. I want leap farther now, believe even bigger. So here goes:

Meet future Zambian engineer Telise and lawyer Fidelise

Telise (left) and Fidelise (right) used to be orphans but they’re not anymore, because Pastors Jasper and Zion took them in, loved them and taught them how to believe in God’s faithfulness – especially for school.

School in Zambia is free only to seventh grade.
According to Wikipedia, 74% of Zambian children go no further.
Telise and Fidelise need tuition for 10-12 grade by May 18th to pursue these formerly inconceivable goals.
One year for both of them is $2400, but they really need two and I have no idea how to raise it.

But God does and He’s waiting for us to be the conduit.

So I’m believing for it and when it happens, I’m going to crow about it right here. So get ready. As the Prophet Isaiah said:

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11

If you’re the miracle, or you’re part of the miracle or know someone else who is, will you pray for it, forward this link or send a tax-deductible contribution to SCRUBS with “Tuition” written in the subject line? SCRUBS Medical Mission 15434 Brittain Court, Lindale, Texas 75771

Zicomo. That’s thank you in Nyanja. I’ll keep you posted.

I Don’t Go to a Normal Church

April 15, 2013April 14, 2013 / Erin Kirk / Leave a comment

If you watch tv much, you could be forgiven for thinking the Christian church has lost its ever-loving mind. Didn’t Jesus Christ himself say the two greatest commandments were to love God and love others? Uh Houston, we have a problem.

Just remember, normal followers of Jesus rarely make the news. Sometimes they do, but usually they’re too busy doing free electrical work at somebody’s house on a Saturday. They are typically quiet, unassuming people who, in a million years, would never tell you about the electrical work. But I will. That’s what a couple of guys from Wood County Cowboy Church have done with their spare time lately. In fact, two of them are in the picture below (Wes and Ryan – blue plaid and green short sleeves).

My nutty little church bustles with Christians like that. People there use whatever they happen to be doing as a vehicle for loving God and loving people, or put another way, obeying Jesus.

For instance, on Saturday, a bunch of us got together at church and had college for dogs. Our Elder Tommy Lee is a stock dog trainer and thought it would be fun to invite a bunch of people and have a clinic.

Tommy kicked off this canine hootenanny with his best dog. He said if we were half as enthusiastic about Jesus as Border Collies are about sheep, our lives would look totally different.

He also brought bunch of puppies along and turned them out with the sheep, just to get them thinking about their life’s work.

This fella won a bunch of money on tv with his dog.

And in case you’re wondering, this is how it looks when a dog listens.

This is how it looks when he doesn’t.

This is the pastoral peanut gallery. Mike, the guy with the dirty black hat, pastors our sister church, Cross Brand Cowboy Church, which has seen up to 2,000 people on a Sunday. A lot of people go there because it’s ok to wear a dirty hat.

This is Marc, the W3C Arena Manager. He brought a pile of fajita meat from the local Mexican market and grilled it over the fire for everybody.

And the wearer of these cute boots took all these pictures. She’s the fabulous Sue Ellen Lare. Yep, like Sue Ellen from Dallas.

The point is, these people are servants – loving God, loving others and having fun doing it. What a healthy way to approach your faith.

Jesus said, “The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy, but I came so that you might have and enjoy your life, have it in abundance, to the full until it overflows.” So why not pray, play with your dog, then thank God for the sunshine, eat lunch and make new friends?

Minus the dogs, that’s how Jesus did it.

He’s worth emulating, and the gospels show us how.