Restless: Because You Were Made for More by Jennie Allen, ©2013 ~ published by Thomas Nelson

Oh! You are going to love God's tapestry. What looks like a mishmash of threads on the back looks like a super adventure on the front! Wait until the final picture is revealed ~ then you will know why all the color is in one spot. You are the depth of color! [I would guess mine will be p-u-r-p-l-e among beautiful hues ~ those He has given me.]

You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.
  --Saint Augustine

We each long to be at home with God ~ His sweet presence ~ His singing over us! How He delights in us. Psalm 139 is so, so special to our hearts. Here is a beautiful beginning quote from Jennie on page 4:

I want to dream of what our purposes may be.
   The conviction to write this book was born out of conversations with many of you. Since I wrote the first book, Anything, the most consistent thing I have been asked is some version of this question:
   "I am in. I am all surrendered to God. But now what? I don't know what he wants me to do."
   Every single one of us is designed to fit into a unique space with unique offerings. God's will for every one of us will look different. There is a framework within the commandments of Scripture, and within it we are free to create lives reflecting God and his passions here.

A quick overview of Jennie's study with us ~ Using the story of Joseph, the dreamer, Jennie explains how his suffering, gifts, relationships––all of the threads of his life––fit into the greater story of God and how our stories can do the same (Genesis 37-50). What would happen if God got bigger than your fear and insecurity, and you spent the rest of your life running without reservation after his purposes for you? You were created for more.

Part 1 is The Call; Part 2: The Threads; and Part 3: Living on Purpose

WooHoo ~ Join Restless Project LIVE with Jennie Allen and Jamie Ivey

Monday, March 10, 17, 24, 31

At 8:30 pm CST / 6:30 pm PST

Jennie Allen 

Founder of IF:Gathering
Author of Restless

Connect with me: 
 jennieallen.com | twitter | facebook

These Monday night chats are a place to connect with other women who are reading Restless and dive deeper into the material in a book club experience. For the book club you don’t need the Restless study guide, just a copy of the book. Don’t have the book yet? You can get it here from FaithGateway at 20% off. To interact with us during the live chat, post your questions on my Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag #restlessproject. Jamie Ivey & I will do our best to get through as many of your questions as possible LIVE. And if you miss the live chat? Don’t worry! The video will be posted on my blog the very next morning! If you have questions, post them in the blog comments, and Jamie & I will be stopping by periodically to answer as many as we can.
If you want to read more about how it works, visit my blog. 

I hope you will dive in! Sorry I am tardy in getting the info to you. Jennie is posting the video on her blog for catch-up. I love how Jennie writes. It is like sitting alongside and sharing Scriptures together and dreaming, what can be a reality ... for us, for each of us.

Book Description ~ A practical plan to identify the threads of your life and how to intentionally weave them together for God's glory and purposes.

Restless explores the fact that God has called each of us to do great things in his name, and then helps us discover what that might mean for each of us individually. Jennie says, "We are called to dream but we're afraid to. But because we are called, when we don't act on it we become restless—restless to find purpose, to make a difference in the world, to matter."

Jennie doesn't suggest women add one more thing to their to-do list, but instead invites them to stop and listen where they are. She frees them to be themselves and to see themselves as valuable. In addition to this permission to dream she helps them get over themselves and their issues and then offers a simple process on highly designed journal pages to identify the raw materials—the unique threads—they've been given by digging into five areas: Gifts ~ Suffering ~ Places ~ People ~ Passions

Using her own story and that of women with whom she has walked through this process as examples, Jennie weaves in the story of Joseph the dreamer and how God used his threads to fit into the greater story of God. Untangling the threads of our lives and assembling them together in one place reveals a beautiful plan designed by the Creator himself:

God's Agenda + my threads + the need + the Holy Spirit = my purpose

And since living out our purpose is often filled with uncertainties Jennie addresses the doubts, fears, and challenges that hold women back from what they've been called to do. This repositioning of their lives is not a promise that all things will be perfect, or will go perfectly, but a promise that it will be the start of the best part of life—the part that completes what we were made for.

***Thank you to HarperCollins Christian Publishing for sending me a copy of Jennie Allen's Restless: Because You Were Made for More to review as part of BookLook Bloggers. This review was written in my own words interlaced among Jennie's. No other compensation was received.***

Also available is an 8-week Bible study ~ Restless