For the Love of Haitian Motherhood

  This post is part of Jen Hatmaker’s “For the Love” Blog Tour which I am delighted to be a part of along with many other inspiring bloggers. To learn more and join us, CLICK HERE.

 The after school pick-up line has never been quite so full of laughter.  Can’t stop!

Sweet friends, you know I love a good book that speaks to the heart of women, and especially those who desire to share the grace of God with others.  This makes me giddy.  Forget celebrities!  I’m much more impressed with authors who write about sharing Jesus and spreading the radical Gospel!  Amen?!  I’m so very nerdy about this and that is quite alright!  

  …and at the playground with my boys.  Mommas have to sneak reading time in wherever we can.  Don’t judge, friends.

Clearly, I’m rather smitten with the freshly released book, For the Love by author Jen Hatmaker.  I’ve been waiting for the release of this book forever, I tell you!  Guilty confession: I was so thrilled to preorder this book that I got confused and ordered it three times.  I thought I’d only ordered it once…then saw two shipping notifications…realized my error…but then three books arrived.  Needless to say, I’ve been gifting friends with books this week.  My husband texted me today and said, “For the love, stop ordering For the Love.”  So, there’s that.
 I can’t help myself. Yesterday, I read a page where Jen said, “WWAVD?” (What would Ann Voskamp do?)  I laughed so hard I had tears!!!  Tears, I tell you.  Secretly, I’ve often asked myself the same question. I only wish I could be as soft spoken and tender as Ann Voskamp…in my dreams. I’m not wired quite so gently.

I was laughing, crying, and soaking in nearly every word until I came to a chapter called, “On Calling and Haitian Moms,” that nearly took my breath away.  If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, you likely know what this means to me.  If you are new here, welcome!  Let me catch you up to speed.  A gigantic part of my heart lives in Haiti.  That’s an understatement on my true emotions, but it sort of sums up the feels.  My first international mission trip was to Haiti and I recently co-lead another team to this beautiful part of our world.  Nothing makes me come undone quite like the people of Haiti. I adore these people.

 As I read every word of that chapter, I felt as though Jen and I had shared our hearts on the matter.  How could it be that someone else had felt this tension?  The tension that I’ve often referred to as “The In-Between Place.”

Fellow readers, I don’t want to give away any spoilers because I’ve encouraged so many of you to dig into this book right along with me.  Let me just say this: I got to page 18 and ran upstairs with the book in hand to share Jen’s words with my husband.  The tears in my eyes were hot with relief…relief that someone else had lived with and sorted through her misconceptions of the Gospel based on the American Dream and the American church traditions.  Since visiting Haiti, my mind has wrestled with my heart about God’s goodness, provision, and what we had always called, “blessings.”  This is a good thing.  We must see God as the God of all of Creation rather than a genie in a bottle granting wishes and picket fences to whomever asks for more “blessings.”  We’ve been wrong all along!  His goodness is not contingent on my life circumstances.  He is unconditionally and eternally good.  It is our definition of “blessings” and our entitled beliefs in what “good” should look like that have led us so blindly away from His truth.  When I read Jen’s Bible benchmark for true theology, I was overwhelmed by her precision of the matter.  So spot on! May I share a little excerpt with you?

  Preach on!  For the love of all people.  Keep speaking this!!!  

  For the love of my precious friends, I thank you, Jen Hatmaker for speaking justice and truth from the mountain tops.  See also Micah 6:8.

Dear sweet book nerds like myself, I assure you that this book is all kinds of thought-provoking and will make your sides hurt from belly laughing hysterically.  Do yourself a favor and buy this to have on hand every day for the afterschool pick-up lines or trips to the playground or 10 minutes of quiet after the kids are {finally} asleep.  I can’t wait to hear what you think!  (You will LOVE it!!!) I can hardly keep from telling you more! 

Goodness bears itself out in millions of ordinary ways across the globe, for the rich and poor, the famous and unknown, in enormous measures and tiny, holy moments. It may involve a career and it may not. It may include traditional components and it may not.”
  ~Jen Hatmaker, For the Love

In all of my excitement, I want to share the whole beautiful thing!  You’ll enjoy it so much more if you take the time to read it yourself.  May it enable you to rethink the ways you live out grace in this world of impossible standards!  May it remind you of the true Gospel, a true love story of amazing and radical good news free to all people!  May you not get awkward looks from the other Moms in their minivans as you simultaneously read and laugh in the pick-up line.  {The struggle is real.} May it release you to be a kinder version of yourself, one who gives grace more freely to self and others!
 
From my heart to yours,             ~Courtney

P.S.  Enjoy this little book trailer from Jen Hatmaker herself.  It’s the cutest!