Today’s guest post comes from Renee Ronika Klug of Quiet Anthem. I’m so happy to have Renee contribute to What a Woman is Worth because she is gifted at spinning stories straight from her heart in a way that catches you right up. I hope her words here today will bless you. –Tamára
(I am continuing to share a guest post once a week as I’m busy editing WaWiW. If you’d like to submit one, please see my guidelines here.)
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I met Everly and her ex-husband George while we were studying abroad in London in 1997. They were in the first six months of their relationship, giddy Christians, waiting for marriage to have sex, totally smitten with each other. My clearest memory of George was when we were in front of the dormitory smoking cloves, and I asked if Jesus would approve of our doing so. George shook his head and said, “I think Jesus would join us.”
I’ve experienced several Jesuses in my 15-year tenure as a Christian: the hater Jesus—the one who only likes you during your obedient bouts; the indifferent Jesus—the one who couldn’t be bothered with you since you’ve been so disobedient; and the real Jesus—the one who stands by your side regardless of your mood.
George abandoned Jesus shortly before he left Everly to pursue a writing career, to boink random women, and to marry the richest of those women even though he was still married to Everly. He is the kind of writer who likes to aggravate the up-and-coming, to remind them that his words have as much power as their celebrity. The magazines that syndicate him run apologies for his lambastes.
I have spent the past year and a half walking beside Everly on her unforeseen mission to overcome. We have cried and prayed and marveled over why George has discarded his life.
Last night, I had a dream in which I was sitting at a cafeteria table with my husband and a male friend. George swaggered up to us and started picking a fight with both men. Once he finished his tirade on my husband, I looked up at George from where I was seated. He was ten feet tall. I felt the presence of Jesus enter the room. Immediately, I saw George for who he was, and I said to him, in a delicate voice: “You’re insecure.”
George began to weep. He turned to see Everly there, and she kissed him on the cheek—in an act of grace, not romance. George sat down at the head of the table while I told him of Jesus’ love for him. I told George that he was not forsaken.
I glanced around at the table, now filled with friends from motley areas of my life who have been questioning Jesus for years. They were crying because of the overwhelming presence of love. At the opposite end of the table, a girl pointed at George and demanded, “How can you guys accept him so easily after all that he has done?”
In my dream, I looked at her and said, “Because that’s what Jesus does.”
The real Jesus appeared in my dream last night to remind me that—smoking cloves, philandering, fighting, or not—none of us is excluded from His love. He came to set the George in each of us free.
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Renee Ronika Klug wants people to be free to express themselves as God intended. She is an English professor, writer, and the founding editor of The Anthem Exposition, an online writing community for women to share their stories of having overcome any of life’s adversities. Renee, along with her composer husband and their two young daughters, recently uprooted life in Colorado to live by faith in her native Phoenix, Arizona.
She writes out her story of overcoming at Quiet Anthem. Connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks for the introduction to Renee, Tamara! I’m off to Quiet Anthem!
Hi, Kasey. I welcome you.
Renee! I am undone, my friend. Beautiful grace, beautifully written.
It’s good to be undone, yes? That’s how I felt when I woke up. My anger toward George, against my will, was replaced by compassion. Leave it to Jesus to mess up our humanity (and theology). Much love, friend, and thank you.
so well said; thanks
Thank you, Kathie.
Best thing I’ve read all week!
Wow. I guess since it’s only Monday I won’t let this go to my head.
I appreciate your reading, Erica.
Oh my. In tears. Powerful.
I assume this is Tamara’s mom, but I always am grateful for motherly support. Your daughter is amazing.
There’s a line from O’Connor’s “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” where the protagonist half-dreams, imagines a tent full of people being told that they are temples of the Holy Ghost and they all respond, half-dreamily, so as not to wake the child figuratively in their midst, “Amen, amen.”
And here, I read, my heart whispers, so as not to wake the child among us, “Amen, amen.”
Oh, Flannery. Preston, you and I need to swap libraries, but I imagine there would be so many repeats we’d do better sitting over coffee gushing about our shared favorites. If this even remotely hearkens O’Connor for you, then I am beside myself–with humility and gratitude. That woman knew how to knock people upside the head with Jesus without seeming at all violent. If you haven’t read “Revelation,” you should. Thank you, friend.
Beautiful, Renee….
It’s amazing how our eyes our only truly opened when Jesus’ presence comes on the scene.
Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Jesus is beautiful like that. Thank you, Dan.
Thank you for this loveliness, Renee. Beautiful truth, beautifully told.
Thank you, Pastor DT. I’m not much of a literal dreamer, but this dream struck me–and my theology–so hard that I had to write it out.
The real Jesus is my favorite. Thank you so much for sharing this glimpse of him with us, Renee.
I thank you, Tamara. But, really? I thank Jesus for you. He delights in you.
Renee, your words, written here, are a gift. They paint such a poignant picture of the tender, gracious, and merciful love that Jesus extends to us ALL. It reminds me of the verse in Romans (3:10) that reminds us that “There is no one righteous, not even one.”
The real Jesus indeed. Confident in who He is, able to humble Himself to my level, thanks for detailing Him today.
I want this dream to come true. I know it is true behind the scenes, but I want it to be true out in the open, for real words of disappointment and then grace to be spoken over insecure people who have wronged people I love. Too often, it’s just a cold war where nothing is addressed but all are leary and weary.
Thank you for the reminder of this Jesus I am supposed to imitate, and the Holy Spirit who has promised to make me into the kind of person who maybe, sometimes, imperfectly, can actually do it.
Renee,
Thank you for writing this. Thank you for dreaming it. Thank you for sharing it with me then, and now. I’m only beginning to begin to fully realize the depth of grace, and powerful, fierce love that is in even a glimpse of Jesus’ presence.
I love you, friend. You are a blessing beyond comprehension.
I love you, Les. You do realize the capacity of grace you carry, yes?
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Love being reminded of incredible truths via our dreams. Beautiful.
We are all “George,” aren’t we? Wayward, like the woman caught in adultery. What does Jesus say? “Where are your accusers?” “Neither do I condemn you–go, and sin no more.” Yet we are often insecure, and fear coming to Him–because our view is distorted. We forget that He doesn’t condemn, that there is always hope as long as we draw breath.
In short, if a Jeffrey Dahmer can find Him in prison, He’s never beyond George.
You.
Or me.
God help me embrace that today.
Beautiful post, Renee!