The Life You Long For

September 21, 2020
Singer and songwriter Nockels challenges readers to do away with relying on accomplishments, milestones, or career goals in order to “pursue the dreams God placed in your heart.” Drawing from scripture, Nockels defines the highest calling for believers as “to be loved by God and take your place as His child” and explains how she learned to surrender, trust God to reorder her life, and find joy and contentment in his words. She describes how quarantine living has revealed society’s previous hectic pace—driven by an “outside-in” living, based on the demands and expectations of others—and contrasts this with living “inside-out,” which demands one first embrace “the calling of the Beloved” inside oneself to structure one’s life. Despite the cultural tendency to view bigger as better, she encourages readers to resist lofty expectations for “big, beautiful events” and to replace them with happiness based in treasuring the small joys in life. Christians looking to slow down and form more intimate relationships will enjoy Nockels’s impassioned reminder that God provides a community and love to those who ask.