Jerusalem Jackson Greer - At Home in this Life: Finding Peace at the Crossroads of Unraveled Dreams and Beautiful Surprises

PRAISE FOR

At Home in this Life: Finding Peace at the Crossroads of Unraveled Dreams & Beautiful Surprises

In a world where social media encourages perfection through retouched photos and happy highlights, we need truth tellers like Jerusalem Jackson Greer. At Home in this Life reminds the reader that, though our lives are not perfect, they are still beautiful. It is a joy to read, like sitting down with a good friend, comparing notes and saying, Yes, exactly. Im so glad I found you.

Traci Smith, author of Faithful Families

Hope deferred makes the heart sick (Prov. 13:12). At Home in this Life is tonic for what ails us. Its stories, recipes, and projects add up to a comforting but instructive lesson in how to make a home and find peace in the seasons before our dreams come true. Who knew that waiting could be so beautiful or taste so good? Embracing a range of home-centered pursuits, from gardening to serving the homeless, At Home in this Life is exactly my kind of page-turner. I loved this book.

Christie Purifoy, author of Roots & Sky

Many of us long for a more whole, beautiful, and ordered life and imagine that a change in our circumstances might bring about what we desire. Jerusalem invites us on the journey shes traveled, with humility, honesty, and humor, to transformation through practices firmly rooted in the lives we already have. She offers hope that a new way is possible and a tangible example of learning to faithfully love what is right in front of us!

Mark and Lisa Scandrette, authors of Belonging and Becoming and Free

This book is for all of us who have struggled to embrace the imperfect reality of our present moment. The author weaves her own ordinary story with the wisdom of St. Benedicts rule, and in doing so invites us all into the gifts of stability, service to one another, and as she says, cooperation with God in my own transformation. Her story of everyday transformation is one we all need to hear again and again.

Micha Boyett, Author of Found: A Story of Questions, Grace, and Everyday Prayer

I love Jerusalems realness, her willingness to walk us through her own story and show us how it mimics a universal story we all know in our bones: God is good, even when things end up differently than how we thought they would. Her wit, candor, and love of ancient practices woke up my bones to a renewed sense of wonder at how God is at work around us all the time, in ways big and small. Her ordinary life is a gift, because its full of the magic of Godjust like all our lives.

Tsh Oxenreider, author of At Home in the World and Notes From a Blue Bike

Jerusalem Jackson Greer has written a relatable, warm, and utterly charming book of theology within time and place. The radical act of staying put with a community and a home and a family is an example of faith and hope and healing for these fragmented instant times. This is an incarnational book, an embodiment of how God shows up in our right-now lives with steady surprise and everyday richness.

Sarah Bessey, author of Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith

The author writes with poignant conviction about the best of lifethat moment when we surrender our roots to the earth for the long haul. Weaving profound truths with ordinary home-keeping tasks, she reminds us that all is sacred and God is vibrantly alive in our mundane. This book is a hopeful liturgy of endurance, even for the city-dweller like me.

Shannan Martin, Author of Falling Free: Rescued from the Life I Always Wanted

Finding Peace at the Crossroads of Unraveled Dreams & Beautiful Surprises

At Home in this LIFE

Jerusalem Jackson Greer

PARACLETE PRESS

BREWSTER MASSACHUSETTS

2017 First Printing

At Home in This Life: Finding Peace at the Crossroads of Unraveled Dreams & Beautiful Surprises

Copyright 2017 Jerusalem Jackson Greer

ISBN 978-1-61261-632-2

Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture designated (VOICE) taken from The Voice Copyright 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from the Common English Bible, CEB Copyright 2010, 2011 by Common English Bible. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. The CEB and Common English Bible trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Common English Bible. Use of either trademark requires the permission of Common English Bible.

Unless otherwise specified, quotations in English from The Rule of St. Benedict are taken from The Rule of St. Benedict in English, ed. Timothy Fry (New York: Vintage Books, 1998).

The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) are trademarks of Paraclete Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Greer, Jerusalem Jackson, author.

Title: At home in this life : finding peace at the crossroads of unraveled dreams & beautiful surprises / Jerusalem Jackson Greer.

Description: Brewster MA : Paraclete Press Inc., 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017005061 | ISBN 9781612616322

Subjects: LCSH: Greer, Jerusalem Jackson, author. | Christian biography.

Classification: LCC BR1725.G79 A3 2017 | DDC 277.3/083092 [B] --dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017005061

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All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete Press

Brewster, Massachusetts

www.paracletepress.com

Printed in the United States of America

To Phyllis,

My fairy godmother, my patron saint, my friend.

I miss you so.

May today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing you are a child of God.