A Backstage Pass
Reflecting on All My Knotted Up Life, by Beth Moore
After learning Portuguese to church-plant in Brazil, one of the unexpected privileges that came my way was facilitating English-speaking women’s Bible studies. Our group was a diverse convergence of women from nations such as Germany, Israel, Mexico, and the US, but we were united by the English language and by our identity as foreigners, trying to adjust and humoring ourselves with stories of how far we had to go in that process. We were all at different places in our faith: some of us were committed to Jesus, and others, just curious about Him.
Since English Bible study content was unavailable in our context, anyone from our circle who would be traveling to the US and back, volunteered to sacrifice a hefty portion of their baggage weight allowance to return with study materials. Alongside books by a favorite author, Beth Moore, came DVD’s of pre-recorded teaching sessions that transported us to a women’s conference in another hemisphere, and, even more importantly, transported us into the pages of the Bible. If you participated in her studies, you loved her like a sister, or a friend, or a mentor.
I probably considered her to be all of those in my life. You never knew if her insights would draw out laughter or tears, but what you could count on was conviction in your heart to love Jesus more, consume His Word more passionately, and respond to His Spirit more fully. Studying the Bible under her leadership anchored me to Christ during those years of feeling tossed in unfamiliar waters, far from home.
Her memoir, All My Knotted Up Life, pulls back the curtain to her world off-stage. In the self-deprecating but profound style we’d expect from her, Beth addresses the chaotic childhood she endured, the call to ministry she followed against all odds, the marriage she was committed to, the devastating misuse of power behind the scenes, and the life she’s pursued more recently. Where praise is deserved, she honors individuals by name, and where critique is given, she writes in generalities.
If your family life or your church life is turning out to be more like a tangled knot and less like a perfect bow tie, you’ll find camaraderie in Beth’s memoir.
