Cara Sexton - Soul Bare: Stories of Redemption by Emily P. Freeman, Sarah Bessey, Trillia Newbell and More

D ear Reader-Friend,

Theres a lot of talk about authenticity out there. A lot of feverish cheerleading about being real, showing our messy selves and holding one another up while doing it. But Ive withdrawn into listening for a while, sort of taking things in while I withdrew somewhat from the cacophonous conversations about authenticity, even as I fought my own obstacles to bring a book about it into the light of day. Its been a time when my own shadows hovered darker, my darkest clouds loomed closer than ever, and I had to squint to see Truth within and between all the well-meaning voices of Christendom, even in all its beauty. What I have seen is that there is a lie so many of us believe: Your wounds have no place here.

Yet there are times when the Christian community is all that stands between me and hopelessnessdays when friends and soul companions reach across the distance and transform it into a tabernacle where we gather and laugh, or mourn, or shake our fists together. I know what beauty looks like when I see it. This is beauty. It always has been. It always will be.

There are different kinds of truth telling. Theres a height above laundry piles and laughter. Theres a depth below bad-hair days and fast-food confessions. When I said yes to coordinating a book about authenticity, about the raw and real baring of our souls for a holy, redemptive purpose, I did so without anything in particular to say but with an open heart to see what he had to show me. I did so because this project was his from the beginning. It has always been his. And now, three years after God stirred my own scarred and broken heart with the whisper of his love for the scarred and broken depths of yours, I know one thing I didnt know when I started. It is something I think youll come to know, too, as you recognize familiar faces and familiar shadows that challenge even the most radiant countenance among us.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:37-39 ESV )

Youve heard the verses before. You may have even sung the songs. But do you know this, really, to be true? Do you know that your wounds, too, are welcome? Do you know that the soul-bare places, the sights and sounds of your life that you shelter from public display, belong to him? That he resides there? That he redeems there? My prayer for you, reader, is that you do. That you always will. And that these pages will remind you.

The stories that follow were each written by a different author, all of them telling their own redemptive soul-bare truth. These have been broken up into three sections to help you navigate through the book: Part One: Letting Go, Part Two: Leaning In, and Part Three: Hope and Healing. At the end of the book is a bio section that tells a little about the authors and where else you can find their work. Each of these writers is blessing the world with their words, and I encourage you to visit their blogs, buy their books, and otherwise support the important work they are doing by honoring their writing gifts, and then to keep the conversation open by telling your own soul-bare stories.

To tell our truth is to link arms across the divides that keep us out, to close the gaping lie that says our wounds do not matter. Together we are a living mosaica tiled path winding through the beauty and pain of human experience and leading toward redemption, and this book, together with your own soul-bare story, is a work of art that speaks of forgiveness, grace and healing. We tell the stories of life and love, bound together in the perfection and completion of Christs great sacrifice. The very Word of God is, after all, a collection of broken stories about broken people just like us. Your story is your own and has been written by the Creator with purpose. Even if your edges are chipped, your story is beautiful. Tell it.

In his love and light, standing soul bare beside you,

Cara

Part One

LETTING GO