There's no part of my life that is not touched and impacted by Jesus Christ and the finished work of the cross.

Whether that is in something as heavy and important as raising children or as simple as finding cheaper makeup that's still high quality and isn't going to give you cancer.

He's in all of it and here's the even crazier part. He cares about all of it because he cares about everything that you care about because he cares about you.

You're listening to She with Jordan Lee Dooley, a personal development podcast for the everyday woman. Come invited, leave ignited.

Here's your host, Jordan Lee Dooley.

Hey Blake, welcome to Sheet. Hi! I'm so excited for this conversation because I got to get a sneak peek of your book and got to write an endorsement for it and just had a little bit of an early peek into the message that you've written.

I think it's so timely in so many ways, but I would love if you can start off just by telling us a little bit about your background and what inspired you to write confessions of a crappy Christian.

Yeah, absolutely. I am a podcaster like you are and an educator like you are. We run in very similar circles but also very different.

Yeah, I started confessions of a crappy Christian. The podcast was like the first outlet and really was just looking for a place to have like messy, authentic conversation, not like the curated imperfection that you were getting from the internet a lot at that time is four years ago.

Things have changed.

But it just really resonated with people. I was like postpartum, I struggle with anxiety. Just was kind of just showing up as I like am like every day and people were really interested in that.

So over the last four years it's grown. You know, now we offer courses and community and coaching and I've retired my husband off of the business and all that kind of stuff.

I've been working with a couple of years ago. I was actually approached by my publisher kind of like, hey, have you ever thought about writing a book? And I was like, I'm thinking about writing a book since I was 12, but okay, you're like not fangirling or anything.

No, not freaking out at all.

And yeah, so the last two years have just been this really wild ride of writing this book, pouring my heart and soul into it, having the conversations that if it was like I think a lot of Christians feel like they can't have or supposed to have or if they do what should be in whispers in, you know, private conversation.

And I'm kind of like, let's talk about it.

Yeah, well, that's why I think this is so timely because I think there are so many things going on in our world and that we are faced with in culture and all those things that so many don't even want to touch with the 10 foot pole and even even maybe not necessarily online, but just within their own relationships because they're afraid like, is this going to make me look bad as someone not going to agree?

Like, how is this going to come across? Are they going to doubt my faith? Like, there's so much. I don't know, like plasticness. I think that can exist in the church unintentionally.

Yeah, because of fear. I think a lot of time.

Yeah, I agree. So I'd love to know a little bit more about the process of writing this because as I know we've talked about this as we've kind of like been on this writing journey a little bit together, but especially with this being your first book, what is something that you learned as a writer or something that surprised you in the process?

Like, I would just be curious your take on it.

Yeah. So when I broke my, you know, my first draft or whatever, my publishing team or my editing team came back and they were like, hey,

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