I love history and I love story. I love the way we can look back to see forward. I love the way story connects us all. So I am so excited to share this guest post by my friend, Michelle DeRusha. She’s worked to compile both a dynamic history that’s anything but dull and a complex story of women that are much like you and I. Flawed, imperfect, average, and extraordinarily called by God, she introduces us to women we’ll not soon forget in her new book, 50 Women Every Christian Should Know: Lessons from Heroines of the Faith.
It officially releases September 16th, but BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon are already shipping it so be sure to order your copy today!
Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada’s flashy style complemented her vivacious personality. With her hair elaborately coiffed and her body perfumed and clothed in exquisite silks and opulent jewels, she often spent her evenings on the town, dancing and reveling with her friends and suitors. Equal parts effusive and temperamental, depending on the day or the hour, she loved laughter, frivolity, gossip and entertainment, relished good food and lively music and, more than anything else, craved attention and was often at the center of it.
Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada was the Kim Kardashian of the sixteenth century.
Not exactly what you might imagine for a nun, is it?
Yet young Teresa would grow up to become the person many of us now know as Teresa of Avila, founder of sixteen convents across Spain and author of Interior Castle, among other works, which is still one of the most widely Christian read books today, five centuries after her death.
Learning about the life of Teresa of Avila and many of the other Christian heroines featured in 50 Women Every Christian Should Know taught me an important lesson about who God calls. The truth is, as much as we admire and honor Teresa of Avila and many of the women who have walked in faith before us, they are flawed and fallible, just like the rest of us.
And God chose these flawed and fallible women to do his work anyway.
I relate to the young Teresa. I have a vain side. I like fashion. I covet the latest trends. These are not my most Christian qualities. Yet when I look at Teresa and see a bit of myself in her, I also see possibility and potential. Teresa gives me hope that God can and will use me in spite of my vanity and tendency toward materialism – in spite of every one of my flaws.
If you take a good look at the women in this book – heroines, leaders and Christian all-stars, every last one – you’d be mightily challenged to find a perfect woman among them.
Gospel great Mahalia Jackson had a temper.
Writer Madeleine L’Engle doubted.
Social activist Dorothy Day gave birth to a daughter…and never married.
Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first woman to be ordained, quit preaching.
Missionary Ida Scudder initially resisted God’s call.
Abolitionist Sojourner Truth joined a cult.
Missionary Amy Carmichael was stubborn.
Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom was afraid.
Mystic Teresa of Avila was vain.
Yet God used them nonetheless. And in many cases, he turned their flaws, their weaknesses, into their greatest strengths.
This, friends, is the beautiful truth I saw time and time again in researching and writing about the women in this book: In all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Just as God used each and every one of these fifty women in powerful ways – sometimes to impact one, sometimes to impact one hundred thousand — he will use you and me, too.
Teresa of Avila is one of fifty Christian women featured in Michelle DeRusha’s recently released book, 50 Women Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Heroines of the Faith (Baker Books).
From Catherine of Siena and Anne Hutchinson to Susanna Wesley, Harriet Tubman and Corrie ten Boom, this book of engaging narratives spans more than 900 years and brings into focus fifty incredible heroines of the faith. Women who inspire and encourage us. Women who remind us that we are not alone, that the battles we face today are not new, and that God is always with us in the midst of our struggles.
Michelle is also the author of Spiritual Misfit: A Memoir of Uneasy Faith. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her husband and their two boys. You can connect with Michelle on her blog and on Facebook and Twitter.
I saw someone post about this book on instagram last week. I had no idea it was a new book. I’m really intrigued by this book to see who these 50 women are..going to have to put this on my wish list!
Hey Beth Anne, it’s good to meet you here. Thanks for your interest in the book!
“The truth is, as much as we admire and honor Teresa of Avila and many of the women who have walked in faith before us, they are flawed and fallible, just like the rest of us.”
Exactly! Yet they were obedient.
As you help us see these women with their struggling, human weaknesses do what God calls them to do, may it inspire each of us to walk close to Him and obey His call.
And continue to uphold and challenge each other as we sisters in faith walk together.
Amen, Sheila. And thank you, sister!
This looks so intriguing! It’s always a treasure to find others who God has used in mighty ways that share some of the same fallible qualities as me. 🙂 This definitely breathes hope into a weary and worn out soul that starts to wonder if there is anything left for Him to do anything with. So glad to know about this and look forward to reading it. Blessings on your heart and words…Meredith
I know you would find inspiration and encouragement in these stories, Meredith. It was a relief and a comfort to find I shared so many qualities — both good and bad 😉 — with these women, many of whom I have admired for a long time. It definitely helped me see more clearly how God can use and indeed is using me, in spite of my many flaws. Grace and peace to you – and thank you for your comment here today.
This looks so good! I’m definitely guilty of putting these ladies on pedestals and thinking kingdom work is just for people like them. So important!