Lavender: When following Jesus smells like wasting your life

by Hannah Frost

Do you wonder if you’re wasting your life? Do you wish your days were more productive? Are you trapped in the lie of defining your own worth? When you wonder if you’ve wasted your life because you don’t see fruit from all your investment in your calling, don’t be trapped in the lie of defining your own worth; instead, trust that God values your obedience as a fragrant offering poured out on him in worship. What seems like waste to you is worship to Jesus. Learn how he cares for people who obey him even when it doesn’t make sense. See how he accepts our trust as an offering poured out on him. Come “waste” your life on Jesus, and rediscover your joy. Lavender is Hannah Frost's intimate story of failure in ministry, miscarriages, and "God winks" along the way. She weaves together humorous anecdotes from her own life, Bible passages, and deeply personal stories to show how she learned to see waste as trust and to see her trust as the ultimate gift of worship. Part Worth It’s easy to get overly focused on the value of our own lives and activities. We live in a culture that emphasizes cost-benefit analysis and efficiency in using resources. But much of the time, following Jesus doesn’t seem to bear much measurable fruit. This section is a challenge to let God be the judge of our worth. Part Waste and Worship Sometimes the path of trusting and obeying God looks like a waste from a human perspective. Our determination to keep walking the path of obedience even when it doesn’t make sense is counted as worship to him. Waste is trust, and trust is worship. Part Waiting and the Word How can we know we’re walking the right path? We need to learn to hear God’s voice by being in his Word so we will be sure we’re obeying him even in the absence of visible fruit. Part Ways to Practice There are ways we can learn to listen to God’s guidance and practice worshiping him by trusting and obeying. This section offers some practical suggestions for application of this message.

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 12, 2020

Reviews

[Mark Lawry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long loved and admired the author as a very close friend. I try to read all the books written by close family and friends. Since I'm not a Christina she warned me this was a book written to Christian women. I'm also not a woman. So I am not the target audience of this book and therefore not qualified for any real review. I'll have to chat over the content in person on one of our next visits. Yet, I'll say a word about the author.

When I first got to Fort Carson Colorado years ago she was a 19 girl at the U.S. Air Force Academy. We figured we should climb Pikes Peak. That's what one does when you show up to Carson and you have a close friend at the Academy. At about 10,000 ft I was just spent. I had the bag with the dry socks, water, snacks. She took it off me and I think she dragged me that last several 1,000 vertical feet. Being in an infantry brigade I had quite frankly believed I was in relatively good shape. Evidently not. At some point after this she felt a calling to head off to Russia. With just a class in Russian she was soon fluent. Since she so quickly learned a new language, heck, let's move again and learn another language from scratch in just a few months. In this next country she acquired a pretty respectable job with quite a bit of responsibility. She describes this job in the book. After a mind blowing short span of time she was doing this job that required some degree of sophistication in her 3rd language. She had to speak well beyond asking for the bathroom and a menu in English. This is my own level of language skills after years of being overseas. She is a smart lady. I was struck by the title of her book, a book about feeling that one might be wasting their life.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book. Ms. Frost writes a fascinating account of her life as a cross cultural worker. She adds so many practical tips for walking with Christ. Her writing is easy to follow and engaging.

She seems to have a passion and ability to write about what matters in life. She is a young woman but wise beyond her years in her lessons about waiting on God and trusting God. She really inspired me to ponder what trust in God means. I thought her explanation was as good as any theologian (maybe better.)

Hope to hear more from her. She has a blog that is worth checking out. https://travelercomeshome.com/