Wendy Speake
9 min read ⭑
“Today my toil includes returning to the dark — that I might invite others who are languishing there to join me for this journey back into the light. Praise opens what pain has closed.”
Wendy Speake is a trained actress who spent her time in Hollywood longing to tell stories that would encourage and strengthen women in their faith. Today, she spends her time doing the things she dreamed about — speaking, writing and using poetry and drama to share God’s Word. She’s written several books, including “The 40-Day Sugar Fast,” “The 40-Day Social Media Fast” and the companion resource, “The 40-Day Feast.” Her new book, “A Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving,” helps readers approach God honestly, regardless of the season they’re in, and understand the power of praise and giving thanks in breaking past barriers.
In this interview with Wendy, you’ll learn about the meals that taste like home to her and how her mother loved others deeply through food. You’ll discover how she connects walking physically and walking spiritually and how her ability to feel deeply is both her superpower and her kryptonite. Continue reading to hear these stories and others that Wendy shared exclusively with Rapt.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
Food is always about more than food; it's also about home and people and love. So, how does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind your web bio?
No matter how long it’s been since my mother’s death, her recipes will always taste like home. Lemon bars in summer, sweet and sour pork chops in the fall, chocolate pecan pie at Christmas. Leftover meat from dinner one night became the filling for a burrito the next, and sometimes we’d eat in front of the TV together on school nights. My older brother had a folding table with “The A-Team” on it, and mine was covered in Smurfs.
I loved the way she would start making brownies when my friend Monica came over after school or cut out cookies when Kerry stopped by. She knew every friend's favorite treat. Food was her love language, and I was her primary love.
I can see her standing at the stovetop stirring a pot of something, her hips moving from the motion. And in my memory, I can see her at the sink, steam rising from the sudsy bubbles, cleaning up after dinner. It was all a love offering — every meal, every dish, every bite. Today I continue her culinary love legacy from my own home kitchen with those most dear to me.
Fabian Kleiser; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
What “nonspiritual” activity have you found to be quite spiritual, after all? What quirky proclivity, out-of-the-way interest or unexpected pursuit refreshes your soul?
Oh, this question is hard because it all feels like worship: the walking and the gardening, most obviously, but even trips to the grocery store. I pass people in each aisle, making eye contact, looking for words that might bless and uplift.
Perhaps one day I’ll write a book called “Grocery Stories” where I share encounters that I’ve had with individuals. The woman bent over her steering wheel, crying in the Sprouts parking lot one night. I gave a gentle tap on the window to check on her. Her husband of many decades had recently died, she told me, and shopping for one person was so hard. So I offered to pray for her heart. Then there was the time, a day or two before Christmas one year, when another single woman was standing at the deli counter ordering a single serving of sliced turkey with a side of stuffing. I asked her if she had plans for Christmas Eve. When she said no, I invited her to join me and my family for church and dinner.
And I can’t forget the lady that my toddler ran his miniature cart into at Trader Joe’s. Boy, was she mad! But we purchased a bouquet of flowers at the checkout counter, and that same little careless boy learned to show care for another out in the parking lot beside her blue Buick.
I’ve come to believe that there’s no such thing as secular. And no one place is church.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness; every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re all broken and in this thing together. So, what’s your kryptonite and how do you confront its power?
Years ago I heard that every person has a superpower, yet most people discover that their superpower also has the potential of becoming their superweakness, too. A highly disciplined and self-controlled person might swing so far that they feel the right to control others. A super-giving, generous heart might rob others of the joy to generously serve.
I was young when I discovered that my superpower is my ability to feel deeply and express myself from those deep places. However, if I am not careful, I can get lost in the depths of my emotions. And when that happens, my ability to creatively express myself drowns there, too.
Recently I was invited to speak at a women’s event in Houston, Texas, and though I was prepared with three back-to-back messages, I awoke that morning feeling fearfully fragile. I texted my dad: “I feel tenderhearted this morning.” His reply came, quick and confident: “Tenderhearted is your superpower; don’t let it be your Kryptonite.”
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
I slipped in the shower. Just barely. The truth is that I caught myself before I even went down. The fall lasted only a nanosecond and was never really a fall at all. But that near-fall took place smack-dab in the middle of the hardest season of my life and revealed just how broken I was. For in the split-second that followed the nanosecond, when I realized that I had caught myself, I erupted into tears. Overcome with grief, heartbroken that I had not actually fallen, had not died, I finally realized the depth of my despair. And thus began the work to repair.
Though there were years of pain that led me to that dark season of the soul, the transforming toil started when I turned, intentionally full-faced, back to the light of God’s presence and countenance. The invitation was simple, though it felt complicated and even impossible at first. God invited me to thank him and praise him for being good when life felt awful!
There are seasons when praise flows naturally out of an already grateful heart. Other times, however, it feels more like a sacrificial offering. For me, it was in that sad season of bringing him my thanks when I didn’t feel thankful, and blessing his name when I didn’t feel blessed, that the Light of the World brought me back into the light of day once more.
Today my toil includes returning to the dark — that I might invite others who are languishing there to join me for this journey back into the light. Praise opens what pain has closed.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Whether we’re cashiers or CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need God’s love flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
There have been times when I have known without a shadow of a doubt that God had called me, specifically, to a task: “Tell this story, to these people, at this time ….” The Holy Spirit inspires and invites. But the work didn’t come fast and furious; instead, it was slow and laborious. The work of writing and ministering took muscle, daily.
Other times, however, the work does not feel like work at all. Inspiration wells up, popping the cap off a fire hydrant at noon on the hottest day of summer. Words of encouragement surge up and out, spraying everyone for blocks and blocks around. It’s obvious to me at those times that the Holy Spirit did a work. He was the source of the flow and the living water flowing out. He is the one who uncapped the streams of refreshment for the benefit of others, and the one who invited me to join him in the refreshing word. I was merely fingers — flying feverishly over a keyboard.
Either way, whether worried that I’m wringing words out one at a time or they’re flying fearlessly fast, I have given God my yes: “Here I am, send me.”
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So, let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you in this season?
In this season I have not been able to take figurative steps forward in my spiritual life unless I am taking literal steps, too. Walking physically has enabled me to keep in step with God spiritually — and in his plans for me each day. So I walk with him and talk with him, and as I walk and talk, I also listen.
I have been faithfully reading God’s Word for 40 years now. I started when I was 12 by reading through the poetry of the Psalms. Today I am 52, and in this season I am enjoying listening to God’s Word aloud. As I walk with the Lord, morning and evening, I often have my earbuds in and God’s Word keeping me company.
Literally and figuratively, keeping in step with the Lord.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed reality and changed your heart?
Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”
Live in the Bible.
It is my desire to write good books, it’s true, but I did not write The Good Book. If there were three resources I could point people to, it would be these: the Bible, the Bible, the Bible. Morning, noon and night — live in the Bible.
That said, there are other books and studies that inspire the reading and the application of God’s Word in our daily lives. So I will take a moment to share a few of those now:
1) “The Bible Recap” by Tara Leigh Cobble is a beautifully readable and applicable commentary for those who want to dive into God’s Word, cover to cover, and read it for themselves in the span of a year. I cannot recommend this book enough! It is for the novice and the veteran, the Bible-curious and the Bible-confident.
2) “The 40-Day Feast” was a book that I wrote to encourage Bible believers to become Bible readers. Again, this resource is easy to both read and apply and inspires Jesus-hungry men and women to whet their appetite for the Word of God. The Bible is readable and “eatable” — and serving it up for you is the joy of my life.
3) “Hinds’ Feet on High Places” by Hannah Hurnard is a moving allegory of little Much-Afraid. There is no other book outside of the Bible that has applied so clearly to my own spiritual journey, up to the High Places with my Shepherd and Savior, quite like this one.
But let me bookend the answer to this question with the same Spurgeon quote I began it with: “Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”
Live in the Bible.
Certain things can be godsends, helping us survive, even thrive, in our fast-paced world. Does technology ever help you this way? Has an app ever boosted your spiritual growth? If so, how?
My mornings once began with the reading of God’s Word from thin, cool Bible pages. I kept that leather-bound book on my bedside table for years, except for the seasons when I slept with it tucked under my pillow. But then, about 17 years ago, I got a smartphone, and looking back I see how dumb that may have been — at least for my spiritual life.
Where once my Bible had lived, both physically and metaphorically, always near and available for me to reach out and take hold of, this device now occupied my table and my thoughts. It’s amazing how easily a device can become “devicive,” dividing us from God’s Word if we’re not careful. It’s frightening how quickly my phone can push God from his throne — at the center of my life.
Of course, there are apps on my phone that I love, apps that build me up and send me on my way to represent God in the world each day. The pixelated glow of my screen has the potential to snuff out my life if I’m not careful. So careful I must be! I open up a real Bible and write in a real journal and gather at a real church, full of real flesh-and-blood people! But also I open up my Holy Bible app and listen to God’s Word read aloud to me as I walk each day. Lectio 365 is my favorite morning and evening devotional, and it lives on my phone as well! Audible has been a wonderful way for me to consume more books, and I love-love-love Amazon Music and all of my worship playlists (with some ‘80s rock thrown in).
In the end, I keep coming back to this clear commitment: the Word before the world — the Word before the World Wide Web.
A few years ago I wrote a devotional called “The 40-Day Social Media Fast,” and ever since then I have taken my own annual social media sabbatical. I’ve learned that sometimes I have to “go dark” in order to experience the Light of the World again! Yes, when I put my phone down, I am able to lift my eyes up!
QUESTION #8: dream
God’s continually stirring new things in each of us. So, give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
I have half a dozen stories living rent-free in my mind these days. I wonder if they will pour out of me in the form of a novel or as a screenplay. Before I became a mother and then a writer of nonfiction (typing on my laptop during my children’s nap times), I was an actress. During my years in Hollywood, I also dabbled in screenwriting. It’s been a couple of decades since I tried my hand at a screenplay, but the idea of playing in that world again excites me.
Wendy’s commitment to daily put “the Word before the World Wide Web” is a reminder of the power of anchoring ourselves in truth before letting the world shape our thoughts first thing in the morning. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2, ESV). Take a minute and reflect on what you first give your attention to in the morning. Is your mind being shaped by the world or the Word?
Wendy Speake is author of the new book, A Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving, as well as The 40-Day Sugar Fast, The 40-Day Social Media Fast and the companion resource, The 40-Day Feast. She is also co-author of the popular parenting book, Triggers: Exchanging Parents’ Angry Reactions for Gentle Biblical Responses. As a trained actress and heartfelt Bible teacher, Wendy ministers to women’s hearts through storytelling and biblical life applications. She utilizes drama, poetry and the study of God’s Word. During her career as an actress in Hollywood, Wendy longed to tell stories that would edify and encourage women. Today she does just that — writing books and speaking to live audiences, always looking for opportunities to move her readers and listeners closer to Jesus!