Would you consider your life stretched to the limit? Are you a burn-the-candle-at-both-ends kind of gal with lots of room for improvement when it comes to creating margins for rest? But you actually love it and wouldn’t want it any other way? Well, so does Lisa Harper. In her humorous and packed-with-biblical-wisdom way, Lisa shows us that it is possible for a frazzled nature to be glorifying to the Lord. Every late-night conversation with a hurting friend and each precious, adopted child needing a little extra tender loving care―exhausting, yet imperative, ways to be extensions of the gospel. In each of these vignettes illustrating Lisa’s overextended life, we learn that even in the middle of our own pure motives and hectic schedules, it is only by resting in God’s sovereign mercy that we are able to keep risking our hearts to serve his people and fulfill the callings he has placed on us. Real life . . . abundant life . . . g odly life is about loving Jesus and the people he allows us to rub shoulders with well―which means some days you’ll be stretched emotionally and physically. You’ll feel overextended. Thankfully God will expand our hearts and calendars to accommodate the calling. He is in the business of supplying us with new mercies every morning . . . new candles to burn, for more lives needing his light. Rarely are the terms “hilarious storyteller” and “theologian” used in the same sentence—much less to describe the same person—but Lisa Harper is definitely not stereotypical! She has an earned doctorate from Houston Theological Seminary, has published extensively, and teaches the Bible around the world, but she’s also a frequent belly laugher. She describes her greatest accomplishment as being Missy’s mom through the miracle of adoption, followed closely by learning to wake surf in her sixties. Overextended ... and Loving Most of It! The Unexpected Joy of Being Harried, Heartbroken, and Hurling Oneself Off Cliffs By LISA HARPER Thomas Nelson Copyright © 2013 Lisa Harper All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8499-2192-6 Contents Foreword...................................................................xiiiChapter 1 Living a Jesus Way of Life.......................................1Chapter 2 Middle-aged Stretch Marks........................................21Chapter 3 Taking the Agnes Challenge.......................................45Chapter 4 Blasting Through Burnout.........................................63Chapter 5 Can a Broken Heart Still Breathe?................................81Chapter 6 Fattening Up Our Love Capacity...................................101Chapter 7 The Glorious Stretch of Gratitude................................125Chapter 8 The Sweetness of a Second Wind...................................143Chapter 9 Learning to Let Whatever Will Be, Be.............................161Chapter 10 Carnivorous Commodes, Towering Cliffs, and the Liberating Love of Christ..................................................................179Acknowledgments............................................................197Notes......................................................................199About the Author...........................................................203 CHAPTER 1 LIVING A JESUS WAY OF LIFE Tell me, what is it you plan to do withyour one wild and precious life? —Mary Oliver March 27, 2013 Soon after I woke up this morning, I wanted to kickEve in the shins. After six months of no visits frommy uncle , no time of the month —or as our fifthgrade PE teacher so indelicately referred to it, no MEN-STRU-A-TION cycles—now it chooses to appear in fullglory while I'm staying at a guesthouse in a third-worldcountry without any supplies or a Walgreens around thecorner! Ugh. While I'm a tad grateful this proves I'm notin full-blown menopause yet—especially since I'm aboutto become a first-time mom (which I'll explain later)—I'mnot at all happy about having to deal with this today,when I'll be spending the majority of it waiting aroundin hot, overcrowded Haitian government offices with norestroom facilities. So after I finished my coffee I carefully approachedMadame Suzette, the beautiful and gracious proprietressof the guesthouse and asked tentatively if she had any"feminine supplies." It was the beginning of a stilted, awkwardconversation because like many of the Haitians I'vemet, Madame Suzette is very reserved and dignified ...especially when it comes to personal matters. And here Iwas trampling propriety less than forty-eight hours afterarriving from America. To complicate matters, her Englishis heavily accented and my Creole is horrible, so it took alot of gesturing and repetition before she said, "Oui, oui"and seemed to comprehend that I needed "private products."She nodded to one of her assistants standing meeklybehind her and said something in Creole, to which theyoung woman responded "Oui, Madame" and scurriedoff—presumably to retrieve the unmentionable