Sick of Me {A Book Review}

Our world is filled with fake facades, from the unrealistic filters used on social media to the “holier than thou” personas seen in certain hypocritical believers.

To combat the fake trends, a new trend has emerged—one that fights the facade with transparency and vulnerability. Instead of being filtered or super-spiritual, we’re told to be real and honest. And rightly so. We should be getting real with each other about our junk.

But should we stop there? Should we gather to simply commiserate about our current version of “me”? Is community about more than just feeling understood by one another in our hard places, or does God have actual change in store for us beyond brokenness

In Sick of Me, Whitney Capps shows us that spiritual growth means being both honest and holy—that we can come to Jesus just as we are, but we cannot stay that way. While virtues like vulnerability, honesty, and humility are desperately needed, we should fight for more. After all, the gospel is a change-agent.

Whitney calls us beyond trendy transparency and into something better: true transformation. If you want to be honest about all your junk, but are also sick of staying there—Sick of Me is for you.

Whitney Capps is a national speaker for Proverbs 31 Ministries and a writer for the new Bible app, First 5, reaching more than 1,000,000 people daily. As a Bible study geek, Whitney’s delight is to dig into God’s Word for profound yet practical truth. A communicator at heart, Whitney comes alive by sharing those truths with any gal who will give her even a few minutes. In her former life she served as a Talent Acquisitions professional at Chick-fil-A’s corporate office, which gave her a deep love for helping women connect their passion with their purpose for the glory of God.

A girly-girl living with all boys, Whitney and her husband Chad are raising their four sons, Cooper, Dylan, Ryder, and Tate just outside Atlanta, Georgia. Her house is wild, loud and littered with Legos. Whitney is addicted to shoes, jewelry, and ice crunching. Additionally, Whitney served her community as her local Bible Study Fellowship Teaching Leader.

If I were to be 100% honest, I was first drawn to this book merely for the cover and title alone. 'Sick of Me'? Oh yes, I felt that! As a perfectionist and someone who deals with constant anxiety, I am constantly plagued with ideas of not being enough, and wishing I could be someone different. Perhaps many of you see the title and think the same thing yourself.

But let's be very clear, this is NOT a self help book. As she says in the book, " Self help's endgame is my happiness. Sanctification's goal is my holiness."

Oh, what a big difference that is. To be honest, there are books right now that are very popular in the Christian women community (even put out by Christian publishers) that definitely fall much more into that self help category. They tell us if we only try harder and put in the work, our lives will be better. Happier. That's not a biblical message in the least. This is saying that WE have the power. 'Sick of Me' shows us MANY biblical examples that instead remind us that GOD has the power to change us... but that we must truly want and be willing to accept that transformation. What a contrast this was... but an important one that I think so many of us women need to hear.

But I must say, this was a tough book to read. No, not in that it was intellectually challenging to read. In fact, I finished it in about a day, and found that it was really written in a way that women could relate to and understand. No, it was that understanding that made it tough. It was reaching us right where we are...making us deal with ideas and truths that we might not want to truly deal with. Still, it wasn't written in a way that put us down for those shortcomings. In fact, Whitney shared throughout that these were areas in which she struggled to...and that knowing these truths and actually putting them to action are two very different challenges. I found this refreshing. I think- especially again coming for someone with many insecurities- had it just said what we were doing wrong without also sharing in that personal part of it, it would have been very disheartening. It could have said, 'you're just not good enough'... but it wasn't that at all, and I appreciated that.

Overall, it was a really great read and one that I feel most women can truly get a lot out of.

'Sick of Me' is available to purchase at your favorite Christian book retailers.