Lost and Found

Sarah Jakes

Description

Don't let your past keep you from a full future.Like every girl, Sarah Jakes dreamed of a life full of love, laughter, and happy endings. But her dreams changed dramatically when she became pregnant at age thirteen, a reality only compounded by the fact that her father, Bishop T.D. Jakes, was one of the most influential megachurch pastors in the nation. As a teen mom and a high-profile preacher's kid, her road was lonely. She was shunned at school, gossiped about at church. And a few years later, when a fairy-tale marriage ended in a spiral of hurt and rejection, she could have let her pain dictate her future. Instead, she found herself surrounded by a God she'd given up on, crashing headlong with Him into a destiny she'd never dreamed of. Sarah's captivating story, unflinchingly honest and deeply vulnerable, is a vivid reminder that God can turn even the deepest pain into His perfection. More than a memoir, Lost and Found offers hope and encouragement. Perhaps you, like Sarah, find yourself wandering the detours of life. Regardless of how lost you feel, you, too, can be found.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441264442
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

© 2014 by Sarah D. Jakes, LLC
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www . bakerpublishinggroup . com
Ebook edition created 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-6444-2
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations identified NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This book recounts events in the life of Sarah Jakes according to the author’s recollection and perspective. While all the stories are true, some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.
Cover design by Peter Gloege | LOOK Design Studio
Front cover photography by Brian Braun
Back cover photography by Will Sterling
Author is represented by Dupree/Miller & Associates
Because of family I’ll never be able to fully thank, friends that could never be replaced, and a blog that encouraged more people than I’ll ever get the chance to hug . . .
For the tears I cried and the ones I held on the inside. For the truth I wanted to erase and lies I thought I had to tell.
Then there are the two hearts that grew inside of me that protected me from dangers I’ll never know.
The insecurities I thought I could never love and the past I tried to escape. Because I believe all things, even our missteps, work tog ether for the good of those who love Him.
I gave Him my pain. I gave Him my shame. And He gave me the grace to heal.
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Dedication 5
Foreword by Bishop T.D. Jakes 9
Introduction: Getting Lost 15
1. Growing Up Jakes 21
2. New Worlds 47
3. Motherhood 67
4. Blueprint for the Future 87
5. Complications 103
6. Constellations 119
7. Stripped 133
8. Wedding Bells 151
9. The Honeymoon’s Over 169
10. Playing Games 185
11. Every Ending Is a New Beginning 203
12. Grace on My Shoulder 219
Conclusion: Being Found 229
About the Author 235
Back Cover 236
Foreword
I NEVER THOUGHT as I rushed down the hall to the delivery room to visit my newly born daughter that the day would eventually come when I would be writing a foreword preparing your heart for one of the most riveting experiences of her life and my own. At that time I hadn’t been established as a writer myself, so I guess it was totally beyond my imagination that a day like this would come. Who would’ve thought that this little bundle of purity and protoplasm would bud and blossom through thorns and thistles and ultimately evolve to the degree that she has indeed been transformed.
I came into the hospital room; I had not long to refresh myself after her mother’s labor. Neither my wife nor I had caught even a minimal amount of sleep. So I was back at the hospital, dressed in a black suit and a black clergy shirt as it was Sunday morning, and I had in my hands a brand-new red and white ruffled dress for the baby to come home in later. She was the newest member to the Jakes clan. I also had in my other hand a worn Bible whose pages promised the Savior would never leave me nor forsake me. He didn’t leave me. But I would come to learn that His promise wasn’t to my wife and me alone but would also extend to our seed!
Later I would lift her up into my arms and feel her fragile little body fit neatly in my hand, almost like the Bible I had when I arrived. Little Sarah, laying in white sheets, cooing from her crib, was almost as red-faced as the dress I had bought her. She looked up at me with walnut-shaped eyes that were almost as dark as a fine piece of onyx. She smiled a coy smile that would later be the catalyst from which I would become solidly and sometimes completely wrapped around her little finger. Some of you will remember I wrote the book Daddy Loves His Girls . I guess it is the way that many fathers experience waves of that protective love in the presence of their daughters. Anyway, her toothless grin radiated sunshine from her bed, and I can still remember the sweet scent of fresh baby oil and powder coming from her body. She was simply amazing!
What a surprise she was to us all. Her older sister was less than a year her senior. I had already been juggling twin boys, and now two girls, in my arms simultaneously. I was a struggling pastor who had lost his job at a chemical plant and was fighting to feed my family between feeding a small flock of church members in a rural area when she was born. At that moment I was uncertain that I would ever be able to adequately feed either the church or the children the way I desired. But I purposed in my heart to give both my best! Still, none of those bleak realities diminished the dimples on her cheeks or the effervescence of her radiant eyes as she stared at me from the crib.
Given the turbulence of the times in which she was born to us, I should’ve known that this was the beginning of an adventure as wild as an Indy 500 race car on an oil spill! I can assure you of one thing, there was seldom a dull moment back then. So when Sarah tells her story, all I can say to you is fasten your seat belts; you are in for a real ride!
Given our meager fare, and my concern with girding, guarding, and guiding my family, I was more preoccupied with provisions than purpose. This is a common proclivity among men. I looked at her and thought to myself, How am I going to feed another mouth? Still, as I gazed at her somehow she distracted me from my focus on my responsibilities, and I found myself smiling at her little face.
For a moment I was wondering how this new arrival would affect our lives, and not just how she would add to our already strained budget. To all of this she just looked at me, opened her mouth wide, and yawned! She was something else. She was totally oblivious to the world’s economy, my layoff from the job, or anything else. It was nap time to her. That was all that mattered, and she just dozed off, fast asleep in my arms, leaving me to figure the rest out!
These were the early years of our lives. It was the beginning of a saga that would often be filled with uncontrollable laughter, as all my children have a real sense of humor. And at other moments we had an unspeakable concern and anguish as we steered all five children through the turbulence of adolescence. And if that weren’t enough to make your green eyes blue, we would be destined to figure it out while adjusting to living in the public’s glaring eye. We had gone from a simple rural life in a small town to life in the very fast lane of a cosmopolitan city. It was a world as foreign to us as a sky loft apartment on the planet Mars! But I guess it doesn’t matter the backdrop, life is always an adventure from which only the strong survive. All of us have a story to tell. But not all of us survive to tell what happened and how we triumphed over the many tragedies that happened along the way.
The path we were to travel was as curvaceous as the West Virginia roads where Sarah made her entry into this world. Even back then we had some battles, but none of those challenges prepared us for the category-five storms that hit us when we loaded up the truck, like the Beverly Hillbillies, and headed to the bright lights and bustling highways of Dallas. In a few short years we would lose both my wife’s mother and my own. Illness would strike my wife multiple times and back pain would drive me to surgery.
I was too young myself to understand that all storms have an expiration date. I didn’t know that tough times are a part of life. That there is an end to tears and that they do dry up with faith and prayer. Little did I know that after deep pain and heartburn beyond belief that wisdom falls like the morning dew and that we would collectively become eyewitnesses to the transformation of a human soul from the best front-row seats imaginable. These are the seats you sit in when the drama you see on television and read about in the papers is now being acted out in your house!
I guess I should at least warn you. Do not expect a Sunday school storybook filled with Christian colloquialisms and religious rhetoric. Nor are you about to read a stereotypical memoir of young ladies’ or little girls’ experiences while growing up. Instead you will see the perspective of one little girl whose childhood was nearly stolen by “grown woman” experiences. But today she has become a tool fit for the Master’s use.
I will leave you now for Sarah to share the life lessons that have come our way. I pray that it ministers to you as it did to me. And I pray that your thirst is quenched at the living well of Christ’s eternal spring, as He deserves the glory for this book and the outcome of this story. It is to that eternal fountain that both my daughter and I invite you to come. Come and drink from the place where lost souls are found and lost passion is reborn. This is the gushing geyser of truth that may very well ignite your dreams to flourish as you encounter what God does with a child whose parents’ prayers are answered in her response to His sovereign call. No matter how bleak the night, hold on. Joy really does come in the morning. For a moment we almost lost her to the dark night. But like the father of the prodigal son, her mother and I are thrilled to see her come ba