Margaret Feinberg, is one of my most loved and respected authors. She has has been through a brutal fight with cancer and shares some very unexpected lessons she discovered along the way. These nuances are expressed in her new book and Bible study “<em><strong>Fight Back With Joy</strong>”</em>.
It’s inspiring to learn how Margaret has been practicing a defiant joy, and I thought you might like to get an insider’s look, a sneak peek of the video and read an interview with Margaret.
<em>http://www.margaretfeinbergstore.com/products/god-bless-this-hot-mess-t-shirt </em>
“The Secret To Living A Defiant Joy”: An interview with Margaret Feinberg
Through a brutal fight with cancer Margaret shares the unexpected lessons she discovered along the way in her new book and Bible study “Fight Back With Joy”.
<em>Preview the 6-Session DVD Bible Study, here.</em>
In her newest book and Bible study, Fight Back With Joy. She shares how the book was born out of her fight with a life-threatening illness. What is your difficult diagnosis, and what has your journey to health entailed?
For the last 18 months, She's been battling breast cancer. Breast cancer isn’t just one disease it represents thousands of different diseases with their varying components and factors. Being diagnosed under the age of 40 is significant. She's been through a brutal year of chemotherapy, radiation, and more surgeries than Anyone would want to count or even want to remember.
Why did she write "Fight Back With Joy"?
She had studied joy for a year and was putting the finishing touches a book on joy—just two weeks from turning it into the publisher, when she received the diagnosis. She had been pursuing and activating joy in her life in the relatively good times, now she had to do it in the midst of darkness, depression, and torturous pain. Through the process, she discovered the breadth, depth, and power of joy—that despite hundreds of sermons and many decades in the church—no one had told her of before.
In Fight Back With Joy book and Bible study, she really pushes the reader to reevaluate their definition of joy. Why do you think this is so important?
Much of the teaching I’ve heard on joy over the years is oversimplified. I remember those days in Sunday school learning that JOY is spelled Jesus, Others, Yourself. While that made perfect sense at 9 years old, I’ve seen how distorted that can become as an adult.
I see friends who love Jesus but spend so much time pouring into their kids, grandkids and others that their joy looks something like this: jOy.
Technically, it still spells joy, but more than anything, these men and women who are so exhausted, so empty, so running on fumes from pouring into others need to pause and take time to focus on themselves. Laying hold of joy right now will require them to reevaluate for a season and discover the joy that comes with JYo.
I also noticed how most of the definitions of joy define it more by what it isn’t than by what it is. I constantly heard that happiness is based on circumstance but joy is not dependent on circumstance.
Biblical expressions of joy turn out to be far different than what I had been taught. She is now convinced the writers of the Bible would say that, the reason we have joy is because we have great circumstances. If you are a child of God, you are drenched in the grace and mercy of God.
No matter what you’re facing: Your circumstances are better than you think.
If you’re not experiencing joy, perhaps it’s because your definition of joy is too narrow.
On a scale of 1-10, how hard was it for Margaret to write this book and Bible study?
An eleven! This journey has been the most painful experience of her life. And, to share about it requires some vulnerability. Okay, a lot of vulnerability. And, that’s really, really hard. But she feels like she's finally ready to share what God has stirred in her heart along the way because although cancer has been the most painful journey—it has also been the most joyful. And no one is more surprised than She is
Pick up a copy of Fight Back With Joy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble today.
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Sweet Charlie, thank you thank you thank you for this. So honored, humbled, and grateful.
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