
By Michele Cushatt
I Am
A 60-Day Journey to Knowing
Who You are Because of Who He Is
Am I enough?
From the moment a woman wakes until she falls, exhausted, on her pillow, one question plagues her at every turn:
Am I enough?
After all, the pressure to do more, be more has never been more intense. Online marketing. Self-help books. Movies, magazines and gym memberships. Even church attendance and social media streams have become a means of comparing ourselves to impossible standards. Am I pretty enough? Hip enough? Spiritual enough?
We fear the answer is “No.”
When a brutal bout with cancer changed how she looked, talked, and lived, Michele Cushatt embarked on a soul-deep journey to rediscover herself. The typical self-esteem strategies and positivity plans weren’t enough. Instead, she needed
a new foundation, one that wouldn’t prove flimsy when faced with the onslaught of day-to-day life.
With raw personal stories, rock-solid biblical teaching, and radical truths on which to rebuild your life, I Am will help you:
• End the barrage of negative self-talk with an empowering new narrative.
• Refuse to ride the rollercoaster of others’ opinions and start believing what God’s says about you.
• Break the people-pleasing cycle and find rest from the ruthless drive to prove your worth.
• Stop agonizing over past regrets and failures and make peace with God’s sovereign plan for your life.
• Leave insecurity behind as you exchange temporary fixes for an identity established on God’s unchanging affection.
A note from the Author, Michele Cushatt
Do you ever wish you were someone else? Maybe not every day or all the time, but you have those moments when you take a long hard look at yourself and wonder: Who AM I? This is SO not how I imagined ending up.
Yes? Me, too. In fact, for most of my life, I’ve been running away from the real me and, instead, chasing this image of who I wanted to be.
I wanted to be this amazing wife and mother, a smart businesswoman, a world-changing Jesus follower. I wanted my life to matter, to make a difference.
Problem is, most days I feel about as far away from those things as the sea is from the sky. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to get it right. I wake up early, I stay up late, but the to-dos are never done. I start the day determined to love my husband and children better, but then I want to wring their necks usually before dinner. I read my Bible and pray, but I keep blowing it, making mistakes, and acting anything but Jesus-like.
The short of it is this: As much as I put on a confident front, most days I struggle to like who I am.
For me, this struggle got more personal when a cancer diagnosis and resulting surgery and treatment radically altered my body, my relationships, and my abilities. Then, like a hurricane forever changing the landscape, I no longer recognized myself. I felt lost in my own life and struggled to find any worth.
Our stories may be different, but the tension is the same. The pressure to do more, be more has never been more intense. But, sooner or later, something interrupts our efforts at significance.
And in spite of all the promises of modern self-esteem strategies and self-help plans, simply attacking the symptoms of our dissatisfaction isn’t enough. We need to find our way back home, to the core of who we are, who we’ve always been, from the very beginning.
This is why I wrote I Am: A 60-day Journey to Knowing Who You Are Because of Who He Is. Because you and I, we’ve been buying into the wrong standards, believing the wrong promises. I Am turns the words of God himself into our clearest mirror, revealing a value that cannot be affected by either our best offerings or our worst failures.
It’s time we stop chasing after value and instead receive it. Join me, and let’s find our way home, together.
Michele
The I Am Manifesto
Download the I Am Manifesto. It’s a one page reminder that you are enough – maybe not who you thought you would be but more. Undone. His. Enough.
What People Say about the Book
“Michele Cushatt has earned the right to be heard. Period. If you’re looking for a couple of months’ worth of platitudes, you’ve chosen the wrong book. Textured by Michele’s physical and spiritual scars from battles you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, I Am will both convict and thrill you.”
“When Michele says journey, I start packing up my knapsack, because I know my truth-telling friend has paid a price to know what she knows. I encourage you to join in and encounter your own “burning bush” on this illuminated path of discovery. And plan on camping out on her brilliant questions. I’ll bring s’mores.”
“If you ever struggle as I do with the question, ‘Am I enough?’ this book is for you. Michele didn’t learn these powerful lessons from the comfort of an armchair as a spectator of the lives of others. The personal, practical wisdom she shares came from deep, dark places and will bring light and healing to all who dive in.