I mentor a lot of women… A lot! Some days I am overwhelmed by the complexity and struggles that women face. From jail ministry, where women have committed unexplainable and despicable crimes. To women who are finding their way as they struggle hopelessly through heavy and challenging circumstances they are navigating.

Yesterday I met with a woman who is living in a messy marriage in the aftermath of her affair. Both parties contributing to the downward cycle after having experimented with polygamy, drugs and witchcraft.

Today, I will be meeting with two girls who are incarcerated. One of them is merely a child. I honestly don’t know what she’s incarcerated for, but she is being held in the mental health unit. As I speak with her, between her random rants, I wonder if she even has the ability to comprehend the truth and revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The majority of the women I meet with are starving for truth and someone brave and bold enough to not only tell them, but explain why it’s truth. They’ve been to psychologists who prescribe medications for anxiety or read self-help books that promise that losing weight, exercise, healthy diet, meditation and mindfulness are the keys to happiness, but never point them to the true source of help and hope.

When I lament on this page about the brokenness of this world it is because I have a front row seat to it. It used to weigh me down, but now it invigorates me that God is using me – inadequate, incompetent, insignificant me – to be bold and brave enough to show them that Jesus loves them so much that he was willing to die for them.

If you’re struggling in a mess of your own (and who isn’t?) I urge you to pick up your Bible and read it today. I always start in the book of John for people who don’t know where to start. Jesus talks the most in the book of John so you get his teaching spoken word for word. It also tells you how to get to heaven, gives incredible examples that models how Jesus lived and you’ll find the life giving truth found in John 3. Everyone should memorize John 3:16.

Thanks for reading this long post. My heart is for all of us navigating the messy stuff of this life to be bold and brave enough to put our trust in Christ and Christ alone.