Suzan Johnson Cook - Moving Up: Dr. Sujays Ten Steps To Turning Your Life Around And Getting To The Top!

This book is dedicated to all those who are ready to move up, to Adele Bond, Mercedes Nesfield, Alexis Revis Yeoman, Gail Harris, Theresa Harrison, and Bertha Williams, who keep me up, and in loving memory of Yolanda Denise King, who moved up to Higher Ground.

Word UP! is a familiar twenty-first-century saying among teens intended to get the attention of those who need to listen and be lifted up. This book about moving up will capture your attention and advance you toward a new spirit of liberty and UPness. I share from a moving biblical story the tips and steps to a brand-new you. Remember, life is a journey, a series of significant steps one takes. At times, they are forward, sometimes backward, but always important. These steps I am sharing with you ascend upward toward a staircase pointing toward Standing up, Speaking up, Looking up, Booking up, Kissing up, Listening up, Hanging up, Making up, Waking up, and Cheering up.

Some of those whove helped me stay up and pray up were those responsible for this book. Trace Murphy, my editor, and the entire Doubleday/Random House team; Lois de la Haba, my literary agent, who not only hooks me up but also books me up and introduces me to heaven-sent writers like Larry Keefauver and wonderful publishers like Doubleday.

Thank you, Larry, for helping my voice speak up and come out in this book.

I must also speak up and give a shout out to my husband, Ron, and sons, Christopher and Samuel, who share my life, love, and legacy, and who give me room to write, dream, pray, and have my EBs when I need them. EBs are affection my sons give to me when they think Im emotionally breaking-down. As you move up in life, remember that Mommy loves you.

To my BCF Church family, Wonderful Wall Street Wednesdays, and Womens Ministry International, who allowed me to share these ups in oral form before they were even written, and to Capt. Gail Harris, who said, Thats your next book right there. You were right.

I n the mans world of Old Testament patriarchal society, some five generations of sons after Jacob, the begetting of boys came to a screeching halt with the birth of five daughters to ZelophehadMahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. A son and father without a son, Zelophehad had no male heir to receive his inheritance.

In ancient Israel the property of a deceased person was usually distributed according to law or tribal custom. Written wills were rarely used. The real and personal property of a father was normally divided among his sons. A larger amount, usually a double portion, went to the eldest son, who assumed the care of his mother and unmarried sisters.1

No sons available, no suffrage, womens rights, or civil rights law. Whats a woman to do? Would the family legacy be transferred to an uncle by bypassing the rightful women heirs? Those sisters, even without a constituted voice, found their voice to move up into prominence instead of down into obscurity. The five collected themselves corporately as one and stood before the most imposing male figure their culture had ever seenMoses.

Zelophehad was a dad, a son, and a grandson, but he had no son. The story takes place in a time when male patriarchy and dominance ruledwhat men did, said, and wanted was all that mattered. Women were property whose primary worth was measured in the birthing and raising of children (particularly male heirs). They were to care for the home, but not own the house. When Zelophehad died having no son, the question that would have most probably resounded in the minds of male relatives was this: Which man would receive the inheritance?

That is, until some sisters came on the scene!

No man would advocate for them. All that the men had to go on was precedence. But the women had more going for themthey had upward-moving boldness rooted in a legacy of faithful loyalty. Our father died in the wilderness, but he was not in the company of those who had gathered against the Lord, they declared. Their family lineage was just as worthwhile as that of their uncles. Their claim to a future was just as valid as anyone elses and they were willing to go up to Moses and ask for their rightful inheritance. They reached up to grasp their rightful inheritance and God caused the inheritance of their father to pass to them setting up a new precedent for future generations.2

These are the daughters of Zelophehad. Theyre not the names you normally hear when you think of famous women in the Bible. Theyre not Mary Magdalene and not Mary the mother of Jesusnot Ruth or Deborah and not Esther or Rahab, but rather Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, five sisters who were united. United in going forward not backward, being blessed not cursed, seeking more than whats traditional, speaking up not staying quiet, moving up not staying down, they were

Standing Up

Speaking Up

Looking Up

Booking Up

Kissing Up

Listening Up

Hanging Up

Making Up

Waking Up and Cheering Up.

It may not be clear to you now but as we explore their courage, boldness, and initiative, these sisters will become an inspiration and example for your life as they have been for mine and for countless other women and men through the centuries. You dont have to be a woman to look up to a woman. Anyone can learn how to be up from those who show the way.

In a time when women had little prominence, the daughters of Zelophehad came before one of the great leaders in history. They were not intimidated or cowering. Without guile, they were full of fiery conviction shaped in the crucible of being right. With the death of their father, instead of going down into grief and obscurity they went to the front of the line refusing to settle for less. For the first time, they rose up and they may well have framed the issue this way: Dad had a life, but now its time for us to live. Where is whats due us? Give us the inheritance of our father? Dont we deserve what our Dad had?

A Kairos Moment

Eternity can invade time and space. Such intervention is called a kairos momentin the Greek this word speaks of a certain, particular time or season, an appointed moment, an opportunity. We may call it a crisis, because we dont understand the times, but God often orchestrates these kairos moments so that He can reveal answers that we need for the critical questions in our lives. We could not foresee it, but God knew the kairos moment was coming. God divinely aligns kairos moments in history such as when the wise men were following the star in the east. They had been astrologists all their lives but those particular stars lined up in a way that questions were answered and a direction and a destiny for the future was revealed.

In this story of the daughters of Zelophehad, this particular set of circumstancestheir father dying without male heirswas a