Melissa Lees

Hello! I'm glad you're here. I'm Melissa Lees. Besides being an author, I've been married nearly 30 years, am a mother of an amazing brood, love solving puzzles of any sort, as well as painting, knitting, and other stuff most people think is boring. But I'm guessing stats like that aren't why you're checking out my author page. I imagine if you're reading my book on Job, you're wondering my back story.

“Seeing God through the Ashes” came about because of my own crisis of faith. I grew up in a very religious environment. I began going to church three times a week, nine months before I was born. I also attended a Christian college-preparatory school from kindergarten to senior graduation. Though strict and legalistic, I learned vital skills there including memorizing many scriptures and how to use a concordance, Bible dictionary, commentary, and lexicon. I also learned many half-truths which I mixed into my theology. Some were dogma I was taught, but most were due to my perception of what I was being taught. I believe my parents and grandparents, as well as many leaders at my school and church had the best intentions. I am thankful for each of their influence, yet in the end I came away with mixed-up beliefs and a faith that could not withstand shaking.

After getting married and graduating from nursing school, my life seemingly fell apart. I went through seven years of infertility and health issues from PCOS, relationship frustration, a car accident, job crisis, the death of my father-in-law, and a miscarriage at twelve weeks. Complications from my miscarriage nearly disabled me. Worst of all, my religious rhetoric failed me when I needed it the most.

Why was all of this happening to me? If children are a “reward” from God (Ps. 127:3), why was He withholding blessing from me? Why were people in less stable situations than me able to have the one thing I wanted most? Wasn't God the author of life? Was He a liar? Did He even exist? I was obedient—well, more obedient than the people I chose to compare myself to anyway—so where was my reward? How could there be a good God who is sovereign over creation if this is the way He predestines His plan? It was hard to trust a God I did not understand. Everything seemed pointless and meaningless. Religion was a waste of time and energy. Depression loomed darkly.

During that time, my best friend from high-school quit religion became an atheist and a lawyer. Her life choices crashed into everything I was taught. She challenged my beliefs in ways I would not have thought of on my own. My belief-system had to stand up to all of her arguments and criticism, yet I struggled to defend faith to myself because of my own real-world scenario. She pressed on important issues like: Why is Jesus the only way? What about other religions like Islam or Buddhism? How can we trust the Bible if it’s had 2,000+ years to accumulate errors? She insisted that since evolution is real science, God is just a myth to control the actions of the intellectually suppressed. She pushed me to logically wade through the avalanche of arguments against God.

All of the pressure came to a climax in 2002. Nothing in my life brought any spark of joy. There was only duty and hopeless endurance. Just as the darkness seemed about to swallow me whole, I got out my Bible. I decided before I gave up on the church scene, I had to read it all the way through for myself. My family would never just accept that I quit religion; I would need to be able to argue my position and the flaws of Christianity. My friend and a handful of famous atheists had already supplied me with some great ammunition, now I just needed to prove from the Bible that the Bible was flawed. I took all their arguments and tried to vet them. In my tremendous pain, I cried out to God to reveal the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about Himself. If He was real, I needed to know it for myself. This was our last chance together. I asked Him to speak to me without all the baggage of dogma and assumption.

Rather than zapping me with lightning bolts for questioning His existence, God answered my heart’s cry with the most elusive gifts in the entire world—love, joy, and peace. All of the tragedy I had laid at His feet was dealt with in immense care and compassion. Every argument I had used against him was retorted successfully. From Genesis to Revelation, God’s Word explained the goodness of God and also my value, purpose, hope, and security. It is all found in the reflection of His character and the price His Son paid for me.

Enjoying time with my Heavenly Father has become my passion. I’ve spent the years since 2002 getting to know Him beyond just childhood religion. I can’t tell you about the trendiest fashion, who won the game, or the latest reality show, but I can tell you about the character of God—a character consistent in both the Old and New Testaments. My time investment is no longer about having “devotional time” to meet a quota or check a list; it’s about knowing God. Besides the Bible itself, I’ve read books on hermeneutics, translating Greek and Hebrew, history, philosophy, and theology—not for a grade, but to help me on my journey to know God more.

Since experiencing revival in my soul, I have gone on to experience wave upon wave of struggle in the physical realm. Externally life has hardly given our family a break. Yet internally, I have never felt more happy, safe, and peaceful within my spirit. “Nothing can shake me” (Ps. 62). Not because my faith is extraordinary, but because my God is extraordinary.

Time in God’s Word with an open heart and mind to the Spirit of God have taught me that there is nothing contradictory in God’s Word; it all fits together somehow. If it doesn’t, I’ve got something wrong and need to keep looking for answers—usually with a concordance in hand. Seminary is a far off goal in this quest. However, I do have a life which has taught me in ways no seminary text book ever could. For now, I am looking for a chance to share my faith with a hurting and fearful world through “The Book of Job: Seeing God through the Ashes.”

I am not unique; peace that passes all understanding is available for all of humanity. It comes from a world view that believes peace is not the absence of trouble but faith in a God who will transform all of life's circumstances, good or bad, into empowerment to sculpt me into the best version of me possible, able to fulfill my destiny with Him.