Living Unashamed by Tracy Williamson

In just 7 days on Sat 2nd Sept, I will be launching my new book Unashamed.  It seems hard to believe it is now finally at that moment of release as it's taken me two years and 2 extended deadlines to get to this point.  

Unashamed has, more than all my other books, come out of the core of who I am and reflects the journey that we are all on, to know ourselves and to live as God's beloved children and in that process to see His love transforming and healing those life wounds and scars we all carry.  

I grew up with many such scars, the trauma of the illness at age 2 that caused my deafness and sight loss and my first exposure to human violence;  the years of teasing and bullying at school because of my deafness not being diagnosed.  The loss of my dad when I was just seven; the years of living with an abusive stepfather and the resulting denial and burial of all my dreams, longings and talents.  I was told repeatedly that I was a nothing person and I believed it.  Yet inside me, throughout all those years there was a tiny flame still flickering: the me that God had created in love and Jesus had died to save and make His own.  

Unashamed tells that story of how God drew me into His love when I was at the point of deepest despair and then began that ongoing transforming work of healing and setting me free.  Over the years He has shown me many keys to living in wholeness,; keys which I've explored in this book like reshaping rejection, overcoming fear, taking time to mourn, choosing forgiveness . . . One of the most liberating keys was the vital importance of listening to Him, having an open heart to hear His voice of love and choosing to make His Word of truth my foundation instead of all the destructive lies.  He spoke one of those words when I was a very young and very, very anxious Christian.  He stopped me one day when I was walking through a beautiful landscape and told me simply to look.  And as I did look, properly look, and saw the fields glittering with dew, the majestic trees in the distance, the tiny wild flowers in the grass, the birds carefree wheeling above me, He dropped this amazing thought in my heart 'None of this is as beautiful to me as you are.' I was stunned.  He was calling me beautiful!  I'd been called shameful, ugly, mental for so many years but God was calling me beautiful.  I discovered it in the Bible too and so that word became a deeply transforming foundation stone for my healing.

As I wrote Unashamed, the most amazing thing was that God gave me beautiful prophetic words and pictures for the future readers and these are woven into the book.  It's a book of stories, my own and others, of teaching keys, of the kind of reflections that He has led me on over the years.  It's an account of God's love and power to make us whole of His joy in us as Father and the power of the cross.  I've also tapped into my deep desire, unfulfilled as yet, to try writing fiction and have included four little parables about transformation,  all from nature.  Here is a glimpse for you from Caterpillar's Tale:   

'Somehow, Caterfly knew that now wasn’t quite the time to soar and glide.  That would come. But he had WINGS. How could that be?  But it was. Blue was calling.  His yearning would be fulfilled.  

And tomorrow arrived and Butterfly opened his eyes and peeped and saw the glory of Shiny Gold and Blue.  And something else, a sweetness, a hunger, a desire calling him, ‘Come’, ‘Come’.  He rose and flexed and the most amazing thing, wonderful colours unfurled all around him.  His wings, healed and ready, so colourful, so awesome.  Could that really be him?  Yes him! But not quite, for Caterpillar and even Caterfly were transformed.  He had become. He was now -  Beautiful Butterfly. 

And with a shake and a flash of the deepest red and most exotic of patterns, Beautiful Butterfly rose, soared and was embraced by Blue. 

  

Tracy Williamson is an Author and Speaker working with blind singer/songwriter Marilyn Baker for the music and teaching ministry MBM Trust.  Unashamed is Tracy's 9th book.  If you'd like to know more about Unashamed please visit its website https://www.unashamed.org.uk/