Lavender: when following Jesus smells like wasting your life

Do you wonder if you're wasting your life? Do you wish your days were more productive? Are you trapped in the lie of defining your own worth? When you wonder if you've wasted your life because you don't see fruit from all your investment in your calling, don't be trapped in the lie of defining your own worth; instead, trust that God values your obedience as a fragrant offering poured out on him in worship.What seems like waste to you is worship to Jesus. Learn how he cares for people who obey him even when it doesn't make sense. See how he accepts our trust as an offering poured out on him. Come "waste" your life on Jesus, and rediscover your joy. Lavender is Hannah Frost's intimate story of failure in ministry, miscarriages, and "God winks" along the way. She weaves together humorous anecdotes from her own life, Bible passages, and deeply personal stories to show how she learned to see waste as trust and to see her trust as the ultimate gift of worship. Part one: WorthIt's easy to get overly focused on the value of our own lives and activities. We live in a culture that emphasizes cost-benefit analysis and efficiency in using resources. But much of the time, following Jesus doesn't seem to bear much measurable fruit. This section is a challenge to let God be the judge of our worth. Part two: Waste and WorshipSometimes the path of trusting and obeying God looks like a waste from a human perspective. Our determination to keep walking the path of obedience even when it doesn't make sense is counted as worship to him. Waste is trust, and trust is worship.Part three: Waiting and the WordHow can we know we're walking the right path? We need to learn to hear God's voice by being in his Word so we will be sure we're obeying him even in the absence of visible fruit. Part four: Ways to PracticeThere are ways we can learn to listen to God's guidance and practice worshiping him by trusting and obeying. This section offers some practical suggestions for application of this message.