Moore - Audacious

Copyright Elizabeth Moore

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved.

978-1-4336-9052-5

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 248.843

Subject Heading: CHRISTIAN LIFE \ WOMEN

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible ( hcsb ), copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.

Also used: English Standard Version ( esv ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Also used: Holy Bible, New International Version, niv , Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Also used: The New Living Translation ( nlt ), copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Also used: New King James Version ( nkjv ), copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Also used: King James Version ( kjv ).

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Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.

Audacious longing,

burning songs,

daring thoughts,

an impulse overwhelming the heart,

usurping the mind

these are all a drive towards serving Him who rings our hearts like a bell.

Abraham Joshua Heschel & Samuel H. Dresner in I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology

Acknowledgments

Twenty years of working with a publisher gives an author innumerable opportunities to say thank you. A writer doesnt stick around that long because shes miserable. She sticks around because, somehow amid the ink cartridges, e-mails, conference calls, texts, Skypes, manuscripts, deadlines, and edits, something clicked. Very different people from very different places and perspectives somehow landed on the same page and sent it to print. The whole process has never lost its wonder to me. God alone could forge the length, depth, and breadth of the ministry relationship Ive had the privilege to share with LifeWay Christian Resources. That they are not sick to death of me by now is a wonder all its own so I will begin my thanks with them.

My beloved friends and colleagues at LifeWay, I would scour every dictionary in the English language if I could find a new way to say thank you for partnering with me in another message. Alas, Im left with the same two worn-out words but I extend them with fresh affection and tremendous warmth. Faith, Paige, Amy, and Becky, I will remember for a very long time the conference call where we first discussed this project. In a planning meeting for the next calendar year, you let me spring this one on you for this calendar year and worked at lightning speed without any hemorrhage of excellence to get it done. That, my friends, is audacious. It could not be more fitting that this project required audacity on every level. Thank you for all the extra hours and extra effort. How I pray that you will never consider them wasted. Most of all, thank you for getting behind this message with such genuine passion. I will love you forever.

Jennifer Lyell, I loved every second of working with you. You are the best kind of editor: not too much, not too little. Youre just right. I am so grateful for your feedback, both professional and personal. You worked hard and fast.

Keith Moore, not one manuscript in twenty years of writing would ever have been completed without your support. Being married to somebody as quirky as me is not for the meek or faint of heart. Thank you for not dropping your jaw and telling me I was out of my mind for adding this project into a busy schedule. To have a man who has continually said, Baby, you can do this is a gift of God beyond price. I love you furiously. Thank you for keeping me honest.

Amanda and Melissa, thank you for your company, your hilarity, your constant affection and your patience. If you dont buy whats in this book from this pen, its worthless. No one on this earth means more to me than the two of you. No one on earth inspires me like you do. You are walking, talking manifestations of Gods unfathomable grace to me. I love being your mother.

Curtis, my son-in-law and pastor, thank you for always praying for me and encouraging me and for continually being interested in what Im working on. You are unspeakably dear to me.

Jackson and Annabeth, you delight me to no end and keep me forward-thinking in every artery of ministry entrusted to me. I cannot wait to see what Jesus will do with the two of you. I would not trade grandchildren with anybody on the planet. You have me.

GP, Susan, KMac, Kimberly, Jenn, Nancy, Sherry, Johnnie, Evangeline, Diane, and Mary, my co-laborers at Living Proof Ministries and dearest fellow sojourners: your hard work, your continual labors of love, your prayers, your encouragements, and your exhortations have enabled twenty years of books to be written that truly might never have otherwise landed on the page.

Travis, Angela, Christine, and Priscilla, you cheer me on tirelessly. You widen my world. You enlarge my heart. You make me laugh. You call me to believe. You stir me up. You make me brave.

Jesus, You light the stars, hang the moon, and set the sun ablaze. Your relentless love saved my life, saved my family, and saved my sanity. Any shred of dignity I possess is a testament to Your mercy. Be the driving desire of my life. Keep me.

A Vision Begging for an Adverb

I boarded a plane in Seattle under a spectacular cloudless sky to head back to my home on the outskirts of Houston. Mount Rainier was in a gratifyingly arrogant mood that day, wearing a heavy cloak of late-winter snow against a background of shocking blue. I had a bulkhead seat on the flight, meaning that Id have to put my carry-on in the overhead compartment rather than having it handy under the seat in front of me. To occupy my time until I could get out of my seat and grab my laptop, I reached into my bag and pulled out a book my good friend, Travis, had passed on to me at our conference.

The second chapter of the book pitched out a set of simple questionscommon ones reallythat hit me with curious force like Id never grappled with them before. I had . Most of us have. But, for me, it had been a good long time. People with a feverish student mentality tend to see everything through the lens of a classroom. I read a book and the author turns into a teacher and every question sends me back to a desk at Northbrook High, feeling a ridiculous obligation to answer. Trying to assemble my truest response to those two basic questions quaked my heart wide open somehow and compelled me to these pages. Nothing helps me hash things out like a blank Word document with a blinking cursor.

That night, just a few days ago as I write this, I tossed and turned, oscillating between sentences of a book I was already jotting in my head and a jillion sane reasons to put the whole idea to bed. Theres no time for this, I kept telling myself. I had the next day off and spent it laughing, musing, and eating with my two adult daughters by a crackling fire on my back porch in the woods. No one can get my mind off work like they can. Their company is a Sabbath to me. Their lively conversation, pure inspiration.

We three can work through subjects at warp speed and adapt to each one with a brand new mood. The harder the season were going through, the funnier we tend to get to each other. Its not that we like to be miserable. Its that we share a deep-abiding commitment to milking the absurdity out of every holy cow of a calamity that treats itself to the grass in our pastures. We cry hard. We laugh hard. So when my girls are with me, Im with them. That evening I shoved aside the surging in my soul and gave full sway to my worlds favorite company but, as their cars backed out of the driveway, that compelling pulled right back up, parked itself in my chest and revved cantankerously.