Erica Wiggenhorn
12 min read ⭑
“When we cannot offer grace to ourselves, we’ll never be able to offer grace to those around us, and we’ll fearlessly guard our positions, refusing to let them in our lane. We need to deal with this lie of the enemy that is keeping us in bondage and breaking apart our relationships.”
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
There's much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?
My favorite thing in the world to eat is tacos. I have a group of friends here in Phoenix and we refer to ourselves as the QuaranTEAM because even during shut down we met together weekly and ate tacos. For the sake of our sanity, some tortillas and salsa salvaged a less-than-ideal situation. But the most beautiful friendships are born around the messiest tables, and if tacos are involved, well then, even better.
When something is going on in one of our lives, we'll send out a group text that says, "We need to taco 'bout it." If you ever live in Phoenix, there are a few things you need to know regarding what qualifies as a taco and what does not. First of all, true tacos do not have shredded American cheese. Ever. Secondly, tacos should never be served without chips and salsa. That's like Thanksgiving without a turkey. Lastly, eating tacos alone is pure insanity—you always invite a friend. If you are vibing that tacos for me signify community, then I've answered this question well.
Colin Lloyd; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So, what are yours? What so-called "nonspiritual" activities do you love and help you find spiritual renewal?
I grew up in southern California, so I'm a beach girl through and through. When life feels like it's crashing in on me, I need to stand on the edge of the sea. There, I’m reminded that I will never get to the depths of God's plans or reach the end of his love for me. He is immeasurable, endless, and purposeful. I think of the limits of God. Just as God stops the sea and says, "No further," so he draws a line of protection around me and says to pain, evil, disappointment, and strife after lapping at my feet and threatening to overtake me: "No further, this is my beloved daughter, and you can no longer reach her now. The tide is passed, and you must retreat."
Don't tell any pastors this (Okay, you can tell yours, but please don't tell mine!), but I often feel closer to God with my toes in the sand and the salty breeze filling my senses than I ever have in a pew. God feels bigger, closer, and at work through the wind and the waves. When God feels far away and I long to draw close, I go to the ocean, where I become swallowed up in his presence.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness. Every human too. We're just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So, what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?
After my first book, An Unexplainable Life, became published, I flew to Chicago to meet the team at Moody Publishers. As I buttoned up my coat to walk out the door of our hotel room, my hands began to shake, and sweat poured down my temples. My stomach lurched.
"I can't go,” I said. “Tell them I got sick. They are going to take one look at me and know they made a mistake publishing that book. They'll tear up my next contract, and I'll be humiliated!"
My friend and fellow author cocked her head at me and announced, "You have imposter syndrome! That is a lie from the pit of hell, and we are going to end this right now! You are going to Moody Publishers, and they are going to adore you as much as I do! Now march!"
I had never even heard of imposter syndrome, but when I researched it, my photo popped up. Okay, not
really. But the checklist of thoughts, emotions, and reactions I found fit perfectly into what spiraled within me at that moment.
I made it through the day feigning confidence and enthusiasm, but when we got back to our hotel room that night, I knew something needed to change. I sensed God say to me in my heart, "I wanted you to celebrate today. You walked down the halls with rows of books written by all of your heroes of the faith: Tozer, Spurgeon, Moody, and Pink, and instead of rejoicing at finding your own name on that same shelf, you refused. You allowed a total lie to rob all of your joy."
That moment became the catalyst for me to pursue a journey toward freedom and my latest book Letting God Be Enough tells that story.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?
In my latest book, Letting God Be Enough: Why Striving Keeps You Stuck and How Surrender Sets You Free, I candidly share my struggle with imposter syndrome and the bondage it brought to my life. As long as God's kids live in the lie that God's promises hinge on our performance, we are always going to look for that next round of failure or rejection around every corner.
Growing up in Los Angeles, I saw tourists constantly get bamboozled by their car blinkers. As they entered the freeway, they foolishly activated their blinker to let everyone around them know they needed to merge into a new lane. But blinkers backfire in L.A. Allowing you into my lane means I'm permitting you to progress in front of me. In our frenetic, fast-paced southern California culture, that equates to a cardinal sin. So when we see a blinker, we don't ease off the gas and let people into our lane, we gun it and chuckle, "Oh yeah, there's room for you in this lane as long as you get behind me."
For many of us, we see our striving as culturally appropriate. We signal our sincerity and our passion through performance, gunning it as hard as we can in our lanes. Cutting others off, forcing them behind us, and smugly wondering why in the world they would tell us how badly they want to be in our lane by activating their blinker. Striving, competitiveness, and comparison lead to broken relationships and fractured faith families.
One Barna study says that around 37% of people who leave churches do so because of negative experiences at church or with church people. That means relational fallout is a huge reason people get disillusioned with the church and stop attending. When we cannot offer grace to ourselves, we'll never be able to offer grace to those around us, and we'll fearlessly guard our positions, refusing to let them in our lane. We need to deal with this lie of the enemy that is keeping us in bondage and breaking apart our relationships.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Cashiers, CEOs, contractors, or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it's God when it happens?
Last week, my daughter and I toured a college in Kentucky that she hopes to attend next fall as a freshman. Downstairs held an eating area with a breakfast buffet along with a chef who made omelets to your liking. (Now, that's what I'm talking about!) As I walked up to the counter, I said, "Good morning! How might you be doing today, sir?"
He smiled. "Not bad for a guy who makes people breakfast."
I cocked my head to the side and said, "You don't make people breakfast, you make people's mornings," followed by a grin.
He chuckled while he flipped some eggs with his spatula and said, "Well, when you put it that way..."
Life is all about perspective. He thought he was making eggs, but what if he thought he was making someone's morning? Would that have changed how he viewed himself? I think so. When I can inspire someone else to see their worth, it inspires me to keep working. Write another article. Prepare another message. Outline another Bible lesson.
I imagine a world where we all see ourselves the way God sees us. I highly recommend reading Psalm 139 if you haven't done so lately. We were so purposefully and wonderfully made and then positioned for purpose as well. Even in a breakfast bar. Or maybe especially in one, because it's all about perspective. If my words can change someone's perspective, then I sense God's pleasure over a job well done.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied actions that open our hearts to the presence of God. So, spill it, which spiritual practice is workin' best for you right now?
I love people. My closest friends would undoubtedly classify me as an extrovert. But I crave silence. I hear God best in the shower and while blow drying my hair because the white noise of the water and the electronic wind drown out all other distractions. I get why God put Elijah out in the middle of nowhere with no one to talk to before he received his call. He needed to learn to listen. The noise of this world gives me anxiety at times. It keeps my mind continually on edge as I try to process the barrage of facts flashing across my phone screen, streaming through my radio, or radiating from my television and computer. I need quiet.
I think the noise also affects a community. Restaurants are loud. Conversations are disrupted by dinging phones. There is no true connection. No one feels seen or heard, so we just keep getting louder and our speech gets more jarring as we try to get someone's attention. When I feel anxious or afraid, I pull away to a quiet place. I could never be one of those people who live in a house on a side of a mountain with no one around me because I love people. But I need silence to hear the whispers of God.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources—lots of things that have truly impacted our faith lives. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are some resources that have impacted you?
My social media bio says "Book Devourer," and that's not an exaggeration. I read no fewer than three or four books at a time and work my way through about 35 books a year. So now I have to narrow it down? Well then, I am going to go with the absolute obvious: the Bible. No other book is living, increases your faith, exposes your wounds, and heals your hurts while holding the power to radically transform your thoughts, emotions, and actions.
But before that sounds over-the-top preachy, I have to say that I struggled for years to read my Bible. I started to follow Jesus at 14 years old. I had never seen a wheat tare, plowshare, mustard seed, or millstone. I'm not sure I had even seen oxen. I remember reading my nifty student Bible that my youth pastor handed me after I got baptized and saying to Jesus, "How am I supposed to follow you when I can't even understand you?"
For years, I felt guilty because I did not like reading the Bible. I felt ashamed that I didn’t understand it. Then I would go to church and would hear people say, "God spoke to me this morning while I was reading his Word." What in the world? I had no idea what that even meant, but God never spoke to me when I read Scripture. So it sat on my nightstand and collected dust until I hauled it to church on Sunday mornings.
I lived that way for years until a friend of mine dragged me to Bible study. And I mean dragged because I did not want to go. At all. I did not want people to know how little I knew about the Bible, and I felt like I would be exposed for the Bible-loving fraud I truly was. But she would not take no for an answer. And as I sat around that table week after week in community with women who explained the Bible to me, a light bulb went on in my head, and I began to finally understand the Bible.
This is why I write Bible studies today—for people just like me who don't really like reading the Bible because they don't understand it and don't know what it means for their lives. So I slide up next to them and we walk through Jesus and all the weird stuff he says together.
We all have things we cling to to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season—and tell us what it's done for you.
The Bible will always be my most indispensable resource, but since I already talked about that one, I’ll share a few more as well.
Like I said, silence is golden to me, so podcasting isn't really my thing even though I can name no fewer than 20 podcasters whom I absolutely adore and avidly admire. (Email me if you want some suggestions!). But because I prefer quiet, my favorite resources are usually books.
One devotional that I have reread many times—and still pull off the shelf at the start of a new year—is Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest. The guy packs a punch and it reminds me that I don’t just want to choose good things—I want to choose the best thing. At the end of the day, I want to choose God's best for me and give it my utmost. I don't want to spin in 100 directions, doing a lot of good things while missing the best one.
One of my current reads is Suffering Is Never for Nothing by Elisabeth Elliott, and her perspective punches me right in the gut—in a good way. The world is so full of hurting people right now, and it brings me comfort to know that the hard things we go through hold an eternal purpose our temporal minds cannot fathom.
QUESTION #8: dream
God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So, give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
I am beginning to write my next Bible study on revival. I sense stirrings of revival around me. We are singing about it and talking about it much more than in years prior. With some crazy cultural shifts happening right now, Christians sense a need to solidify their faith.
But as one of my mentors frequently reminds me, "You can't teach what you won't live!" So I'm asking God to bring revival to my own heart and life. To search me and show me where I am preventing him from making me more like Jesus because of a lie I am believing or a habit I won't give up. Asking God questions like that terrifies me because I know hard days are ahead. There is still a whole lot of sinfulness and brokenness inside this heart that needs healing. After all, revival means receiving a new heart so we can live a new life.
I'm not going to give away the whole shebang of where I sense God is leading me with this study, but I’ll share a bit of where I'm going with it.
My work centers around several questions: Do you long to feel a closer connection to God? To hear his voice, experience his peace and live in his joy? This is revival.
How does revival happen, and does it require a certain spiritual checklist or a specific level of maturity to experience it? In my study, which I’m thinking of calling An Unexpected Revival: Experiencing God’s Goodness through Disappointment and Doubt, I’m sharing a unique picture of revival through Ezekiel’s prophecies. God chose to spark revival through people who seemed counted out, cast aside, and disregarded. People viewed by the religious as out of favor, lacking fervor, and full of doubt.
Ezekiel reveals that we are not the first people to believe our doubts and doubt our beliefs when circumstances spiral out of control. But God pursues us with his goodness, desiring to bring revival to our broken hearts. Through Ezekiel, God offers an invitation to:
Experience His goodness while feeling surrounded by wickedness
Reignite our hope instead of losing heart
Listen to the heart of God, allowing him to reawaken us to our purpose
Rest in contentment rather than dwell in disappointment
An Unexpected Revival will spark a fire in our longing hearts to feel renewed excitement in our relationship with God. Instead of going through the motions, checking the boxes, and wondering why God feels so far away, Ezekiel teaches us to come close and invite God to fill us with fresh fire. God offers his joy, peace, and purpose to anyone who seeks it.
Do you long for revival?
We appreciate Erica’s final question: do we long for revival? This isn’t necessarily an easy question to answer. After all, while revival in our own hearts does bring peace, joy, and a renewed sense of purpose, it also has a cost.
That cost is called surrender.
Are we willing to give up control? Habits God wants to uproot? Distractions that lead our hearts astray? Are we willing to let him in and have the freedom to lead us, heal us, and transform us however he wants?
Those are serious questions. But the truth is, personal revival is always worth any discomfort we feel as we hand over control of our lives and hearts to Jesus. Always.
Erica Wiggenhorn longs to bring the truths of Scripture to transform your life. Erica is the author of three Bible studies released by Moody Publishers: An Unexplainable Life, The Unexplainable Church, and Unexplainable Jesus: Rediscovering the God You Thought You Knew. Her latest release, Letting God Be Enough: Why Striving Keeps You Stuck and How Surrender Sets You Free examines how God reframes Moses' identity. Erica regularly teaches in various venues, including internationally. She’s also taught women in the Arizona State Prison system. You can access 3 free Ebooks and connect with her at www.ericawiggenhorn.com.