Meet megan
Born gentle and working my way back.
One of the first words I learned was God’s name. I have an audio recording where I am less than two years old and referring to Jesus as “Jesus O’Brien,” my maiden last name. I’ve loved telling people about the Bible from the time I could talk. Other early passions include song-writing, playing drums, putting on theatrical plays with my three sisters, exploring my family’s antique shops, and modern dance.
It’s fascinating to me how a painful life event can change one’s direction in life, either for better or for worse. After a spiritual bruising at age 14, I spent two and a half decades apart from God, searching for what I believed would be the sure-all solution to personal fulfillment: finding a lasting relationship with a partner. I tried a number of approaches, none of which worked.
I came to Jesus during the darkest times of a failing marriage. Every domestic violence story is different. Mine involves a wounded man with a tragic
childhood and our impossible dream of a happy family without God. I hung on for three turbulent and, at times, life-threatening years until God stepped in and showed me the reality of a bigger love.
Not only was God’s love bigger than what was going on in that marriage, but bigger than my need to find my identity within any romantic relationship, including unhealthy ones, which was basically the story of my life. It was through God that I experienced my “ah-ha” moment. I remember the day he spoke to my heart and invited me into his deeper love.
“Megan, you’ve put so much into your relationships. Why not try putting me first for a change and see what happens?”
Through Jesus I learned how to let go of what was broken and put all of my trust in him—a very difficult thing to do, breaking a 25-year habit! Yet what I needed for completion was a real and vibrant relationship with him.
A woman recently told me that Christians seem to think that they are better than others (she is one of those people we all admire who can do what three or four people do combined). I told her that I supposed it was just the opposite. People who go to God do so with an awareness of how incapable they are without him—many of us worse off than most.
But God can give out new hearts to whomever he wants, including undeserved people like myself.
Ezekiel 36:26 reads, “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Although it’s a gradual process, I believe God is making me into the gentle person I was created to be. If he can do it for broken individuals such as Legion, Mary Magdalene, and the apostle Paul, why couldn’t he do it for you and I?
The Bible says that if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. (1 Cor. 5:17)
Since that day God spoke to me in my kitchen, I’ve never turned back. God has given me so much to be grateful for. I now want to give back that love. I love advocating for women because, being the creative, expressive beings that we are, our wellbeing radiates outward to bless so many people!
As great as things can be going, no one is truly well until they’ve made God their everything. At one time I wrote books that no longer align with my faith. My new mission is to write words that prove God’s love is more than enough.
Come, my love, let us go out to the fields and spend the night among the wildflowers. –Song of Solomon 7: 9-11
I now wake each day thanking God for his presence in my life and the new life he’s given my two kids and I. I re-married a gentle man who loves the Lord as much as I do and my bestie is my mother. I belong to two local Bible study groups here in sunny, southern California and love my church family.
Professionally speaking, I’m a trained domestic violence recovery leader for ARMS Ministry (Abuse Recovery Ministry Services). I serve in prison ministries using my testimony about the radical changes God has made in my life. I have dual master’s degrees in writing (USC) and education (Portland State Univ.) and attended Multnomah Seminary for a year of Biblical Studies. I’m honored to have been mentored by a number of formidable authors, which you can read more about here.
Also, I LOVE to travel so, if you can, drop a comment on my blog and let me know where you’re from!