True You: Letting Go of Your False Self to Uncover the Person God Created

by Michelle DeRusha

Overview

Many of us are bent on producing and achieving, striving and hustling for our self-worth. Beneath this relentless drive churns a deep yearning to uncover our true selves and our purpose in this world. Gardeners familiar with the technique called "pruning open" know that the secret to healthy plants and trees lies in subtracting rather than adding. Similarly, we begin to flourish as we let go of our false selves and allow God to prune us open.

With powerful stories and revealing research, Michelle DeRusha helps readers:

- learn how to declutter their hearts, minds, and souls through the practice of directed rest

- let go of busyness, striving, and false identities to embrace their truest selves as beloved children of God

- grow in their relationships, vocations, communities, and intimacy with God

True You offers those exhausted by the pervasive do-more, be-more messages of our society a path toward rest, renewal, and, ultimately, wholeness in Christ.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801077913
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/01/2019
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	841,174
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Michelle DeRusha is the author of 50 Women Every Christian Should Know, Spiritual Misfit, and Katharina and Martin Luther, which is a finalist in the Memoir/Biography category for the 2018 Christian Book Awards. She publishes a monthly column on religion and spirituality for the Lincoln Journal Star and writes about faith in the everyday on her blog, www.michellederusha.com. She lives with her husband and their two boys in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 9

Introduction: A Tale of two Trees 13

Part 1 Know the Tree

1 Leaves and Branches: How We Clutter Our Lives, Minds, and Souls 23

2 Beneath the Canopy: Hearing What's Been There ALL Along 41

3 Broken Limbs: Do You Want to Get Well? 57

4 Seeds of Desire: Facing Your Deepest Brokenness 77

Part 2 Fukinaoshi of the Soul

5 The Hard Prune: Letting Go of the Last Handhold 97

6 The Far Side of the Wilderness: Following God, Even When You Can't See The Way Through 117

7 Rooted: Practicing the Discipline of Staying in Place 135

Part 3 Shaping

8 Twine and Splint: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back 157

9 Way Opens: On Coming Alive 177

10 Water, Wood, Air, and Stone: We Are Better Together 197

Epilogue 219

Appendix 223

Index 227