Were you expecting to read a story of big discoveries and phenomenal changes? It doesn’t happen that way with me. The changes in my life have been slow, step by step, bit by bit. Sometimes I went through dark periods; sometimes I’d attain a wonderful goal. All of the experiences have shaped and refined, which is what they are supposed to do. But every once in a while I turn and take a look behind and realize I've arrived at a new season in my life. That’s the way real life is, friends. We climb and climb, often sensing no movement, only struggle. But there is a journey and it is taking us higher!
Everyone’s had a dream. Mine was to go into musical theater. When I was a child, I’d sing in bed at night, imagining myself Judy Garland doing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to large audiences–until my mother would open my bedroom door and demand that I go to sleep! Growing up in Los Angeles, the dream seemed possible and attainable. I was a member of a phenomenal high school choir that spawned a number of talented performers in music, dance, and acting. I wondered if I could be . . . a star!
But I feared auditions. As we all know from “American Idol,” auditions can be brutal, and I had no faith in my gifts. I went off to college to pursue a different dream, still unfocused and insecure, not knowing where I fit or how to make myself fit somewhere. The only thing in which I was truly confident was the decision I’d made as a teenager to follow Jesus Christ, and even during the challenges of growing up, my relationship with Him was (and is!) the central focus of my life. I went off to a ministry training center in the Midwest where I lived and breathed and studied the Bible. I believe passionately and profoundly that it is God's word to mankind about Who He is. “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life,” said Jesus. I steeped in those words. I then followed a new dream: to teach it and share its power to transform with anyone who would let me.
While traveling the country speaking in churches, I met my husband. We married and moved back to Los Angeles, where I got a job and began reevaluating my life (again!). I wondered sometimes if perhaps I didn’t really have a call on my life after all. Maybe the ministry years had just been a season and I was supposed to do something else. So I did something else for many years, still trying to figure out where I belonged.
I wrote a book, The Prodigal Brother, about one of those hiking experiences. Struggles have a purifying purpose: they force us into a deeper walk with the Lord, and that's a good thing. God doesn’t always like to tell us what He’s doing while we’re going through it, because we might waste our time trying to talk Him out of it! Let me help you as you walk. Let me help you see how the Lord has you by the hand and is taking you to the places He wants you to go.
Here is my dream: to help you discover the wonder in "fearfully and wonderfully made"!
Now—what’s your dream?
People Set Free Ministries is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) religious organization, incorporated in California. Contributions to the ministry are tax deductible.
For those who are interested, Sue considers the Lausanne Covenant an eloquent statement of faith that she embraces as her own.
to help others catch a glimpse of what they were made to be! She seeks to illustrate the truth proclaimed by the psalmist thousands of years ago: "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made . . ."
Do you know what you were made to be? Start with free and go from there! God wants you free to feel confident in your personality, free to understand how to relate to others, free to set aside your preferences and meet someone else’s needs. Freedom gives you determination and fearlessness to walk in the light and do the things God has given you to do. It allows you to see obstacles as life lessons that can shape and transform your vision. Freedom is Sue’s favorite subject, and she communicates it with humor, depth, and fresh applications of familiar scriptures. Her gift is to remind believers that the Spirit of God makes his home in each one of us, and "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
See what business
Sue is up to!
Sue quoted on CNN.com
(click to read)
Click for more about my book.