Here’s the Joy Looks Back Over 2021 and Looks Forward

With as full as my life has become, I believe I may have reached my peak of blogging prolific-ness in 2017, with 68 posts. This year it was only 35, but that still felt like a lot to me!

With the exception of my main evergreen post (“Why Did David Lift His Eyes to the Hills,” which always outranks all my other posts by far), this year’s most popular post was one I wrote in 2019, “‘Your Empathy Is a Sin’: A Response to Desiring God.” One of the most poignant comments on it came from an exvangelical who said she was thankful to find a Christian who was refuting this damaging teaching.

I was glad to see that “Those 365 ‘Fear Not’ Verses in the Bible” was a popular one this year, and I hope it helped bring freedom to many. (It also was edited into a chapter of Untwisting Scriptures #3).

I think one of my own personal favorites of 2021 was “A Prayer for Anna Duggar on Mother’s Day,” because my heart goes out to this young woman. Anna Duggar was thrust into the spotlight of the nation when she married Josh Duggar, who was convicted this year on child pornography charges. Anna touches my mother’s heart, and I ache for her and her children.

So, which post did I write when I was the most angry? Probably “To Church People Who Think Husbands Should Rape Their Wives”—and you can tell how ticked I was by the title. I hate the toxic teachings of false teachers, but I always hope that any anger I feel doesn’t come across too much in my writing. I don’t want it to turn people away.

Much of this blog refutes false teaching, but I also love to just present straightforward truth. I think my favorite one of this year was “6 Ways ‘The Gospel’ Is So Much More than You’re Usually Told.”

Two new books in the Untwisting Scriptures series were published this year! You can see them here and here. I also recorded the second one in audiobook form, which you can see here. (Also you can listen to a sample chapter here.)

This year, Heart for Survivors became an official 501(c)3 nonprofit. I’m very grateful for those who contributed to help abuse survivors get on their feet and move forward with their lives.

This year I finally started a Facebook Page, “Rebecca Davis–Untwisting Scriptures.” There I’ve written shorter pieces and added many graphics of pithy quotes excerpted from blog posts and book chapters.

To wrap things up, this year I also spoke at a couple of retreats and had several lovely podcast interviews, including three with Julie Roys of The Roys Report, one on each of my three (so far) Untwisting Scriptures books. You can listen to those here and here and here. (In the last case, there’s also a video.)

What’s coming up in 2022?

In March, I’m on the roster of Heather Elizabeth’s Safer Spaces Summit. You can see more about that here.

In April, I’m scheduled to speak at the Called to Peace retreat in North Carolina. You can see more about that here.

In September, I’m scheduled to speak at Heather Elizabeth’s Held & Healed Retreat in Virginia. You can see more about that here.

I also hope to do another Untwisting Scriptures book in 2022, focusing on Righteousness and Wickedness: how they are typically presented in evangelicalism, and what I believe they really mean according to the Word of God. If you subscribe to my blog, you’ll be invited to be an early reader of this upcoming book, challenging me and giving me pushback in the ways my wise and thoughtful readers are so good at. Also, early readers that give insights into my topics may end up getting quoted in my book (with permission, of course!).

This year, as in the past, I had some absolutely lovely posts by guests authors. If your writing matches with the mission of Here’s the Joy, I invite you to submit your article to me for a guest post for 2022.

With all the difficulties that many of us have experienced in 2021, we still have great hope in the Lord. As always, my prayer and longing for the church of our Lord Jesus Christ is that many, many will rise up who will eschew false and damaging teachings and will rush to embrace the wounded and harmed the way the Good Shepherd of our souls does for us, gently and wisely leading them to Him and His salvation, through word and example. May we hear many who say, with the Psalmist in Psalm 18,

He sent from on high, he took me;
    he drew me out of many waters.
He rescued me from my strong enemy
    and from those who hated me,
    for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
    but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place;
    he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

God bless you and yours in 2022. Happy New Year!

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Go here to download your free Guide, How to Enjoy the Bible Again (when you’re ready) After Spiritual Abuse (without feeling guilty or getting triggered out of your mind). You’ll receive access to both print and audio versions of the Guide (audio read by me). I’m praying it will be helpful.