English Breakfast Tea, M&Ms and the Power of the Holy Spirit

Hi friend, thanks for stopping by the blog today. No, I’m not Susan, I’m Allison. Susan is taking a week off from blogging to be on the road sharing about her newest book. It’s fun but intimidating to be writing here. These literary shoes are a little too big for me to fill!  It’s hard to say “no” to Susan though. She’s very persuasive, and she’s great at instilling confidence. Ask anyone who knows her. You’ll see. Susan has this way of dreaming up fantastic ideas, making you think they’re your own, and then cheering you on as you carry out brilliance. If she comes to you saying “I have this thought. It’s just an idea, but tell me what you think…..” you should stop, listen, and prepare to have your life shaken up in the best of ways.

The thing is, Susan is someone you’ll want to listen to. She’s got great ideas. She’s lots of fun. She likes to cause trouble, and she often breaks the rules (but she’ll deny that). She works hard at everything she does, fully believing that a woman sustained by English Breakfast Tea, M&Ms, and the power of the Holy Spirit can do just about anything. If you stand near her, you’re sure to get swept up in her whirlwind and wind up dizzy, but laughing. If you ask her to pray for you, she’ll do it, and she’ll want to know later how God answered those prayers. She loves people with action, not merely words, and her energy is formidable. She’ll out-yell any cheerleader at a basketball game. Her blood might indeed bleed Carolina Blue and she truly believes Golden Retrievers are God’s gift to humankind. She’s 25 years older than I am but she runs farther, and much more energetically, than I do – every single day. Honestly, it’s pretty humbling.

I’m not the only person who thinks Susan is impressive. Often I hear people say “Wow, I wish I could just sit with her and listen to her all day. She’s so wise.” And yes, she is. But you’ll never get to actually do that, because she doesn’t really sit still. So here’s my recommendation. Go ahead right now and order her new book. It’s called Risky Faith and it’s….well, it’s risky. It’s the kind of book where someone offers you an entire lifetime’s worth of hard-earned wisdom, and then releases you to go make good use of it. Yikes. What you do with all that wisdom is entirely up to you, but I can promise you it won’t be safe or boring. Susan will remind you, though, that it’s actually a book about how relieving and comforting it is to give up all our hard-won worry and hand everything to the Lord. I believe it. I’ve seen her live it.

And as usual, my Mama is right.

Allison Gaskins writes beneath a window in a snug closet of her Virginia home. She is the author of several books, mom to five, and wife of a patient man. She works for Mantle Music and Art House North when she is not busy staring out the window, gathering words.