Embracing the Unknown
Mini-Documentary with Janet Easter
While taking a year off of her work as the co-founder and creative director of Verily Magazine to focus on motherhood, Janet Easter was confronted with a great unknown: who she is without work.
A few of our favorite moments
Janet's Letter to You
(Click on the letter to enlarge)
My dear friends in Christ,
If there is one thing I can say, try with all your might, as an act of faith, to remember you are deeply loved. Our Lord aches for you and always does the most merciful thing at every moment in our lives...because He loves you. Above all else, your identity lies in being a daughter.
If these words sound like a hollow echo, you are not alone. I didn’t always remember this, even now, it is very difficult for me to comprehend this truth. Through most stages of my life, I placed my identity in my relationships, my passions, my appearances, and most recently, what I was doing, my work. Even in the name of something good, like “bringing about the Kingdom” or “serving others,” it can so easily consume us and we find ourselves relying on our “good works” or vocation as a safe facade to hide behind.
I truly felt called to start Verily, and God assembled an incredible team of young women to accomplish it and reach millions of women over the past six years. But, it wasn’t until I stepped away from Verily after the birth of my first born, and someone asked me, “What do you do?” that I was surprised to be ashamed to admit, “I’m just a mom.”
I hadn’t realized how much I hid behind the “good work” I was doing. And, through His Mercy and Mary’s sweet lessons in humility, I have slowly rediscovered that it never was really about my mission, but rather about remembering again and again that I am a daughter worth dying for.
God doesn’t just call us for one grand work, one great mission, one all-consuming task that will leave our mark on the world. He has many missions of love for us at different stages of our lives; whether that be blazing trails in media, giving years in missionary service, striving to build a strong marriage, or offering up every poopy diaper and two-year old tantrum.
"(God) has many missions of love for us at different stages of our lives; whether that be blazing trails in media, giving years in missionary service, striving to build a strong marriage, or offering up every poopy diaper and two-year-old tantrum."
It is His love that is grand, His promises that are great, and His Mercy that is all- consuming. The more little we become, the clearer we may hear what we are called to do in the moment right now. Because, in the end it’s not about exactly what we do, but whether we have done it in love.
Walk in faith, dear ones, and never be afraid to throw yourselves into His embrace. Open your hearts, as scary as that may be, to what He is calling you to do right now, and take one step forward. Remember your true identity, and remember you are not alone.
With all my love, in Christ,
Janet