Walk Worthy Press: What Matters Most by Renita Weems

Author Testimony

"Now, some devoted readers who have kept up with my writings over the years will find this difficult to believe: but I didn't know one important passion of mine until I finished writing my latest book What Matters Most:Ten Lessons of Passion from the book of Song of Solomon. Before writing What Matters Most I might have said that I'm passionate about writing, which is true. I would have said that I'm passionate about teaching, which is also true. I might have even put my hands on my hips and declared out loud that I'm a passionate woman period! Folks who know me know that there's a lot of truth to that statement. But while writing What Matters Most I heard thunder in my soul. I cared. Certainly I've cared about every book and every topic I've written about before. But this time and this book were different. I must confess that I care deeply about the lives of women and girls. Believe me: I do love men, and I'm grateful to God for my good fortune over the years in knowing and having been loved, nurtured, and supported by more than my fair share of righteous brothers (including my husband, father, brothers, mentors, and a few colleagues). But for reasons that aren't always clear even to me, working with women and girls has always been a passion of mine. What I might have previously described as a quirk of mine must now be reframed as my passion. I am passionate about improving the lives of women and girls.

Guess what? I don't believe for a minute that God is disappointed in me for caring as I do about women and girls. I believe it's the fire God put in my belly for reasons of God's own.

The passionate, headstrong, stubborn woman in the book of Song of Solomon proved a wonderful example for my latest effort to breathe new life into women's stories in the Bible and to give women today new role models on how to combine their faith and their passion. The only name we have for her is "the Shulammite."

What we know about her comes through the lush, evocative, playful lyrical poetry that we find in Song of Solomon.. Our heroine beckons us back to what really matters in every woman's life, her desire to live a full and fulfilling life based on those things dear to her. She starts out at the beginning of the book investing all her hope for self-fulfillment in love and romance. But eventually, through a series of experiences and decisions she was forced to make, she learned that passion is about more than sex. The Shulammite whose life I retell and recraft in What Matters Most forces us as women to look at all the ways we've conspired against ourselves, betrayed ourselves, and betrayed God by not being our best selves, our true selves, the women we were created to be. She represents the juicy, outrageous Shulammite in all of us who yearns to make choices and take risks to live a life ignited by her own inner flame.

When the time came to sit down and write this my fifth book on women's spiritual growth and inner wisdom I had in mind every woman I've ever encountered who has drawn a blank when asked to describe what she's passionate enough about to risk things precious to her in order to pursue. I thought about every women who answered honestly, "I don't know what my passions are." After reading about the Shulammite in What Matters Most, using the bible study questions there to prod your own soul and to inspire your conversations in your women's bible study group, I trust every woman will be able to answer the question about her passion with the same clarity that I now can. "

Renita J. Weems

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