Seated With Christ: Living Freely in a Culture of Comparison

Seated with Christ: Living Freely in a Culture of Comparison

As Christians many of us live in a prison of self-absorption. Shackled with pride and despair, we compare ourselves to others constantly in our frantic, unending pursuit of perfection. We can find ourselves trapped in the rhetoric of platform, influence, retweets, and fame, they need a ladder out of the fray. Heather gets to the root of this behavior and charts a path to freedom. Scripture says that God’s beloved are seated with Christ in the heavens (Eph. 2:6), treasured by Him and given a place at His table.

Securely-seated with Christ people can ask themselves hard questions about their lives; they can deal with sin, grieve their losses, and move forward in hope. From a position of security and self-forgetfulness, they can joyfully do the good works prepared for them uniquely. They can celebrate the successes of others, walk out on the fight for acceptance, quit measuring themselves to others, and leap free from cycles of shame.

Dr. Heather Holleman is an associate teaching professor at Penn State, speaker, and author. She designs advanced writing curriculum for the English department and loves helping students thrive professionally. She has written eight books, including the bestseller Seated With Christ: Living Freely in a Culture of Comparison; and an award-winning book on evangelism (co-written with her husband Ashley Holleman) called Sent: Living a Life that Invites Others to Jesus. Her book The Six Conversations: Pathways to Connecting in an Age of Isolation and Incivility (Fall 2022) helps fight the loneliness epidemic by inviting readers to enjoy better conversations.

Heather also serves with Faculty Commons in the professor and graduate student ministry of Cru. She has two daughters and three cats, and she blogs daily at www.HeatherHolleman.com. Her podcast is "The Verb with Heather Holleman." When she's not writing or teaching, Heather is growing a plum orchard, looking for turtles in the woods, or gathering with friends for dinner and a movie.