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Grace: How a Recovering Legalist Moves Forward in Faith

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A few weeks ago a fellow faith blogger asked me to write a guest blog for her some time about my faith journey. “I’m particularly interested in your journey to finding Jesus…how grace has changed your life…or something of that nature.” I readily agreed. That was a month ago and I haven’t written a word…until now.

I haven’t really talked about faith – at least not explicitly – in this space in quite a while. I think that my faith story has been coloring a lot of posts. It’s always been there. But I haven’t really written a blog post specifically about where I am right now.

Mostly, it’s been because I’m not always really sure about where I am.

I think that when I wrote my blog series about legalism and grace I was a girl who had a lot of answers. As time has passed since then (can you believe it’s been four years?), I think I’ve gone through several phases.

I went from a place of surety…to a place of anger…to a place of rest…to a place of extreme doubt…to a place of healing and renewal…to a place of settling into my spiritual identity. These phases, much like the five phases of grief, haven’t had definite beginning and ending points. In some ways, I’m still dealing with all of these phases all at once. Moment to moment my emotions can change, and I’m back feeling angry, overwhelmed, or overjoyed.

I haven’t really allowed myself to write about it in detail because I felt like I had to have more things “figured out.” But, I’m also one of those people who sometimes doesn’t know what I’m thinking until I write about it.

So, before I write a post for my fellow-blogger Christy, I think I need to “flesh out” and work through some stuff in this space. Maybe then I’ll be able to string together some coherent thoughts for a guest post.

I’ve laid in bed over the last few nights, unable to sleep – trying to write a post in my head, as I always do. I’ve ended up thinking about all of the things I need to write about, disclose, and work through. It’s like “Wow, I need to talk about this…oh…and that…and I really can’t talk about that without talking about that…and this…and…”

…and thirty minutes later I’m up folding laundry at 11:30PM because my head is in a tizzy.

So, for the next {undetermined amount of time} I am going to be writing several posts about grace, our church, and where I am in my faith right now.

Grace: How a Recovering Legalist Moves Forward in Faith

This page will serve as the landing page for this series. I will be sharing all posts here. If you want to receive these posts to your inbox so you don’t miss any, click on the “Messy Faith” option in the sidebar. (If you are already on my mailing list, you can click “subscribe” and it will take you through the process to update your preferences so you can receive the posts in this category.) You can also “Like” my faith-based Facebook page, Beautiful Messy Faith.

Grace: How a Recovering Legalist Moves Forward in Faith

Grace for the angry recovering legalist: this is where the healing begins

Stained Glass Masquerade: 6 Reasons We Left Our Church

Stepping Stones to Grace: There Are No Wasted Church Experiences

How God Led Us to Our Church Home & 6 Reasons We’ve Stayed

Face to Face: A Messy Tribute to the Place I First Met God

What our neglected yard is teaching me about my faith and spiritual growth

How to deal with spiritual abuse triggers at church

Christian, you can read your Bible and still be falling apart

Christian living post-legalism: how I got stuck in my “walk with God”

Live in the outflow: a new way of looking at Christian living

What the Larry Nassar trial can teach us about effects of spiritual abuse

Advice for those leaving Christian fundamentalism or an abusive church

{More} creative faith and Bible journaling resources

Approaching the spiritual disciplines with grace and expectancy

Regeneration: transforming the way you look at your spiritual identity

How do you pursue a relationship with God when you’re exhausted?

Healed Wounds {Grandma’s Funeral & My Trip to My Ohio Hometown}

A King James Version (KJV) Audio Bible for Women

What does a “mommy blog” have to do with local church ministry?

A Fresh Pursuit of God in 2020: The Bible, Faith, and Spiritual Growth

Seven Years of Grace

Am I Worthy? {Come to the Lord’s Table Series: Part 1}

A Moment of Silence {Come to the Lord’s Table Series: Part 2}

Seven Words That Changed the Way I Viewed the Lord’s Table

Corporate Celebration: The Lord’s Table and 1 Corinthians 11

Disentangling (and reclaiming) the hymns of the Lord’s Table

I’m Invited to the Table of the Lord: The Lord’s Table & Hospitality

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