Restless: What People Are Saying

Now Featured at the Patheos Book Club
Restless
Because You Were Made For More
By Jennie Allen

What People Are Saying

You Are Not Alone...

"Live a small life? I cannot. And neither should you! The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in each one of us. God has given us that life-changing power so that we are able to do the very thing He has placed us on the earth to do.

Then why do we feel a sense of restlessness? I believe it is because deep down we know we were made for more than where we are and what we are doing right now. There is something to be birthed through us. Whatever our history has been we know we are somehow a part of destiny and we want to play our part in realizing that.

God gave us more than our own gifts, talents, and abilities. He gave us more than inspirational quotes and motivational pep rallies. He gave us His very self in the person of the Holy Spirit so that we would never be limited to achieve only what is possible on our best day.

Jennie, thank you for bringing us to this because it is to our Father's Glory that we bear much good fruit during our brief sojourn on this earth. And dear reader, I pray that you dream big, believe big, and dare big dur­ing your one and only life on this planet. Impossible is where God starts and miracles are what God does. Go on, I dare you to let God be God in you so he can be God through you!
—Christine Caine, author of Undaunted

"They say the world is made up of individual atoms. But the truth of it is that the world is made of individual stories. In the beginning was the Word—not atoms—and that very Word exhaled and breathed you into being and every story connects to another story that is changing the story of time—His Story.

Now is your story, and you and your story matter beyond time.

Now is your space on stage. Now is your time and now you are here for such a time as this. You will not pass by this way again. There is only one now. Eternity is worth the risk. Now is not the time to be demure with the gifts you've been given. Share them lavishly. Now is the time to let your life be poured out as ink in an epic story of bold sacrifice and startling courage. Now is the time to live upside down. Herein is rest for our restless souls.

There is a darkness that tries to spread the disease of "be big." Christ whispers the cure to the ego's disease: Decrease so I can increase. There is a lie that tries to convince that giving yourself for the world is what really matters. Christ is the Truth who whispers that giving yourself for one person is how you really change the world.
—Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts

"I keep hearing this common tension among women. It's funny because we are a generation that is so advantaged. We have more than our parents have—most of us have more schooling, bigger houses—we have every privilege, luxury even, and advantage. We've been given so much, and we are so blessed, and yet I keep hearing over and over, "I'm restless. I don't know what it is, I don't know what more I could possibly want, what am I missing? How could I still feel at all dissatisfied with this happy beautiful life that I've been given?"

I love it because I know that God is calling us deeper and deeper into the kingdom where things like houses and salaries and success simply cannot satisfy. He has set this longing in our hearts for more of Him, more of the gospel, more of His goodness, more of the kingdom, and so we find ourselves at this interesting crossroads as people of privilege who have been given much. But like Jesus told us, to whom much has been given, much will be required.

The life that God has set in front of us is exciting, and adventurous, and risky. Sometimes it's even dangerous. And it's going to ask everything of us, because apparently it doesn't care much for our comfort or our happiness or our safety, and yet it is the kingdom that satisfies. It is the gospel that makes us whole and gives us purpose.

My deepest hope for these years we have on this planet is that collectively we reach across and grab each other's hands and chase after God together. Where we're willing to risk anything for it, or sacrifice anything for it. I think that is the secret to this life. That's the secret to this kingdom Jesus was always trying to explain to us in the gospel. I believe it is worth it, and it is precious. So if you feel restless you are not alone. Let's join hands and chase after God together.
—Jen Hatmaker, author of Seven