Free to Lean: Making Peace With Your Lopsided Life

 Award-winning author Jocelyn Green inspires faith and courage in readers through both fiction and non-fiction.  A former military wife, she offers encouragement and hope to military wives worldwide through her Faith Deployed ministry.  She loves Mexican food, the color red, reading on her patio, and spending time with her husband, Rob, and two small children in Cedar Falls, Iowa.


You can connect with Jocelyn on Facebook and Twitter.

Pull the plug on guilt and find peace in a life that leans.

Work projects, family time, church activities, personal hobbies, fitness goals - there's never enough time to squeeze it all in and give everyone and everything equal attention.  But maybe achieving "balance" in life shouldn't be the goal.  Maybe the goal should be seeking God's agenda and passionately doing the task He has for you right now.

Jocelyn Green feels the pressure - like most of us - to do everything well and still have time to relax with a latte at day's end.  But she has learned that a balanced life is overrated...and not even scriptural.  God never asked us to "do it all".  He asks us to lean on Him.  Then He provides the strength we need to accomplish what's on His list for us.

By focusing on what God hs for this season of your life, you will discover the joy of a lopsided life.

My Thoughts:

I so appreciate Jocelyn Green's writing ministry in both her fiction and non-fiction titles.  She inspires readers in both.  However, she has given us something extra special in Free to Lean.  Green gives us permission.  Not that she's superior to us and not even that we need anyone to give us permission.  But as a kind friend who loves us and wants us to know God's grace and gift of abundant life, Green reminds us and gently challenges us to learn to say "no" to some things (maybe even good things) and say "yes" to better things (what God wants for our lives).  

"It is not a sin to know and communicate our limits."

Reading Free to Lean was like taking a big exhale and releasing frustration and anxiety.  Green reminds us that we can't be all things to all people all of the time, nor should we even be trying.

Most importantly, Green's encouragement in the book is biblically sound and gospel-centered.  

"Whether we're living out our big-picture purpose or we're in a season of waiting and trusting, we are always expected to represent Christ.  This is our daily call.  No matter what our agenda holds, we can reflect His image when we love our neighbors, model Chrislikeness in our interactions with others, and bear the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  This is a calling and a purpose that always applies."

Green ends each chapter with "Your Turn" (questions for reflection) and "Truths to Trust" (short statement summarizing the main truth of the chapter.  Free to Lean would be a perfect choice for personal devotional reading/study, small group emphasis, or in a mentor/disciple relationship.

*I received a complimentary copy of the book.  All opinions shared here are my own.

Blessings,
Jennifer