[This week we’re celebrating the one-year anniversary of The Well-Watered Woman! In this article originally posted on book launch day, Gretchen reminds us that looking forward to the end provides hope for the hard middle and the everyday mundane. Read on to find out why she needed these specific truths as she labored through each process of bringing The Well-Watered Woman to life. In celebration of the book’s anniversary, find signed copies and the Book Club Bundle on sale in the Well-Watered Co. through Friday, April 8, and be sure to enter the Book Anniversary Giveaway on @wellwateredwomen's April 4 Instagram post! Giveaway closes Friday, April 8 at 9:00 am ET.]

Hope for the Woman Who's Stuck

For the longest time, I’ve felt like I’m stuck in the middle without an end in sight. I’ve heard it said that writing a book is like birthing a baby. But a baby comes in nine months, and a book takes at least two years. Write, rewrite, edit, and repeat have been the theme of my days since 2019. And the only thing that kept me going was the hope of seeing this project brought to completion. As a matter of fact, the very first words I wrote for The Well-Watered Woman were about the ending of the entire Story of Scripture. Because I needed that vision to sustain me through the valleys I’d be trekking through. 

Hope is just like that—it’s an assurance of things hoped for, even when they remain unseen (Heb. 11:1). It’s an anchor that keeps us fixed even when waves crash against us (Heb. 6:19). Hope is what holds us when we feel like we are stuck in the hard middle of life. And as Christ-followers, we’ve been given more than enough hope of the joy that is to come to sustain us through today and tomorrow until we are with him in eternity.

HOPE IN THE BEGINNING AND THE END

Knowing the beginning and the end of your story will give you hope. And it gives an eternal perspective as you live out the “middle” of your story in everyday life. The middle of your story and the middle of the entire Story of Scripture is one of redemption and restoration, hope and healing. From Genesis 3, stretching through all sixty-six books of the Bible, ending in Revelation, God is working and weaving his ways into this fallen world and into our hearts.

In the beginning, God created the world in perfection to glorify him. Not long after, Adam and Eve rebelled against God and sin entered the world. But from the fall to our future glory, God never stops working his plan of redemption for his people.

You will not get where you are supposed to go if you do not know where you are heading. It is knowing what God has in store that keeps your feet moving when you reach the end of yourself on this journey called life. As I have struggled with panic attacks, I have reached the end of my self-sufficiency and strength. In insecurity, I have reached the end of my ability and pride. In waywardness, I have reached the end of my vain attempts at being “good” apart from Jesus. And in suffering, I have reached the end of my resources and comforts.

But every ending I have faced on earth isn’t really the end of my story or of the Story. It’s the beginning of knowing Jesus—an arrow pointing me to the hopeful end that is still to come.

THE HOME WE ARE HEADING TO

In the final chapter of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, the apostle John describes unspeakable joy and an unexplainable place. He writes of the home you are heading to if you have committed your life to follow Christ. This place is a haven of perfection, the forever dwelling place of the glory of God, and is even better than the original garden of Eden.

Imagine it:

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever." (Rev. 22:1–5) 

Well-watered. Abundant. Perfect. Free. Joy in the eternal light of his glory.

EVEN BETTER THAN THE BEGINNING

This is where we are heading, the finish line of this journey of following Jesus. In the end, all wrong will be made right, all pain will be healed. All suffering will be redeemed, all darkness will be illuminated, and all hardship will be relieved. All tears will be wiped away, all questions will be answered, every desert will become a fruitful garden, and every broken heart will be mended. The ending of the Story is one of hope and is one that is even better than the beginning. And it is with the end in mind that we begin our journey to becoming well-watered women.

Ultimately, the inner workings of God’s redemption in your life are a slow-moving, often unexciting, and unseen daily journey. This journey is made of ascending rocky hills of hardship and descending into the lower valleys of suffering. All the while, though, God is moving you towards knowing Christ more in the middle of the mess of the everyday mundane.

THE ENDING IS A GOOD ONE

I wrote The Well-Watered Woman in the hard middle of my own story. I am still in progress as I grow in grace each day. The point of this book is not to look to me, but to look to Christ, who holds all things together. This is not a book that will solve every problem of your life or enable you to avoid any other upcoming desert season. It’s a book that is a cold drink of water to your soul on a hot summer’s day. And it is a hand to hold as you walk through the ups and downs of your life journey. It’s a book that will point to Jesus like a giant neon blinking arrow.

The hopeful end of the Story of Scripture fueled my fingers as I typed each word for The Well-Watered Woman. Now that the day has finally come for women to read it, I am realizing that this is not the end to the hard middle, but another beginning. My prayer is that every woman who reads this book feels compelled to hold onto the end of the Story with confident hope as we continue to walk through the hard middle.

HOPE FOR YOU

If you feel dried-up, thirsty, and at the end of your rope, this book is for you. I pray that Jesus is glorified and lifted high on every page of this book, as well as on every page written of your life story.

The ending is a good one, not only of this book or of your life but of all of Scripture for the believer. Hold tight in the middle. Remember the beginning, and plant yourself by the streams of living water that run faithfully in every season—in snow, drought, rain, sunshine, and desert storms. The well-watered life is one of becoming, not one of arriving. Join me as we embark on this journey of becoming well-watered women, rooted in truth, growing in grace, and flourishing in faith.

BECOMING WELL-WATERED WITH YOU,

GRETCHEN

 

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