Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Lewis.
Kimberly, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I always thought I knew who I was and what I wanted. As I get older I realize I never had a clue, truly. I grew up in the church, a preacher’s kid, and kind of became burnt out on church very early on in life. I spent my childhood in a perpetual state of loneliness and rejection. I never could really figure out what it was that I was purposed to do. I had temporary desires that I tried to make long term but I could never really finish anything that I started and if I did finish it was a drag to the finish line. I was never able to find fulfillment in any one skill, talent, or passion. I didn’t feel purposed in anything I was doing. Nothing had meaning.
I grew up in the small country town of Jasper, TX and always knew I wanted to move to the city. So as soon as high school was over I left and moved to Austin, TX and attended the University of Texas at Austin. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do at all. Getting this college degree was not fueled by passion or desire, it was just something I needed to complete and it was a drag to the degree, honestly. Being transparent, I actually walked the stage a year and a half before I got the degree. Upon Graduation, I got a really great job but felt empty in it and unfulfilled in it. I couldn’t commit myself to something I hated so much and I lacked the wisdom to know that I needed to persevere through things that I did not want to do in order to grow, I never wanted to go through a process. I didn’t recognize that the process was necessary. I quit the job and uprooted my life from Austin to Dallas and started a business, which also fizzled out.
This was a theme in my life. I was great at getting the drive to start something new and even getting others to support me in it. I started a Masters Degree because it looked and sounded like a good idea but I quit after one semester. I started and restarted my personal blog 100 times and even created personas for myself to make myself feel important and then got exhausted. This was the theme of my life, new things would excite me and then they got old once I realized there was a challenging process involved.
I found myself in a space of frustration, not knowing what my purpose was or what I was called to do. In 2017, I decided to quit my job in Dallas and move to LA and within two months I had made the move. Three days after moving to LA, God really began to reveal himself to me in new ways. After being away from the church for over five years, my relationship with him really gained depth and intimacy. I had been saved my whole life, but I was never following and walking with God in this way. Getting to know God truly gave me knowledge of myself that I had been searching for my entire life. He began to download purpose and passion within me for him and his people. I realized that there was a reason that I never fit in and that none of the things I’d previously tried could fulfill me. He was always meant to be my fulfillment and he was always my purpose, spiritually and vocationally. I had been told my entire life that I had a call to ministry but I never took that to heart until recently. I have since recognized that my entire life I was searching for my God-given passion and my God-given passion is the church and to pour into his people. I began to realize that my passion was to help Christians find depth in their relationship with God and be set free from the things that may be holding them back from the promises that God has for them.
After a series of events and courses at church I found myself wanting more of God’s word on a deeper level, I wanted answers to questions that I was unable to find, and I wanted an understanding of the gap between what I know about God and what I believe about him. As a result, after the encouragement from leaders around me, I started seminary at Talbot School of Theology studying Spiritual Formation. Since being in Seminary I have started a single women’s bible study called Single on Purpose that enables single women around LA to gather, be vulnerable, and talk about purpose and real depth with the Lord.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not.
I think my biggest struggle was wanting it to be a smooth road. As I mentioned, I had a hard time understanding that there has to be a process involved in purpose, usually a painful and difficult process. That’s the way God works, that’s the way he grooms us and forms us into who he’s called us to become. I always wanted things to just be quick and easy and as soon as things got hard, I lost passion and desire. This caused me to be a terrible finisher. But as I began to walk with the Lord, I began to become strengthened in going through the process.
Please tell us about Single On Purpose.
Single On Purpose is a single women’s bible study/support group. Last year, A leader at my church came to me and asked me to lead a connect group for single women based around a book about singleness. When she came to me, I was in a very odd place with my own singleness. I was just about to complete a one year dating fast and I was completely against leading a group of single women because it made me feel like I was going to be stuck being single. I didn’t want to be known for being the single women’s bible study leader.
After much prayer and recollection, I agreed to lead the group. When I said yes, God began to speak to me about the vision of the group. I began to realize that he didn’t want this group to be another single women’s bible study that talks about how to wait for a man, or how God has a man looking for us. He said to me “The biggest thing that is keeping my daughters from walking in complete purpose is WAITING on a man and believing that being in a relationship or being married is part of their purpose.” He revealed to me that Singleness is an assignment and so is marriage. Neither is higher than the other.
So with this in mind, we started in July 2018 with 40 women. We’d meet up twice monthly and discuss topics like surrender, fulfillment, purpose, hearing the voice of God, distractions, vulnerability, and we’d dissect scripture together. The bible study grew to a place that I’d never imagined. We still meet today.
We are different because we are NOT meeting up with the purpose to talk about the struggles of being single, men, or dating. Our focus the God himself and pursuing relationship with him. Pursuing this season of singleness with purpose.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Wow. That’s a very hard question. My childhood was very odd. I didn’t have a normal childhood. I didn’t have many friends at all. I was very isolated. I think that my favorite thing to do as a child was play basketball. It was the one thing I was good at and I felt so good when I was playing. I think the thing I remember most is the first time I made the little league all-star team. I was elated. I remember feeling so accepted and so valued for something I was good at.
Contact Info:
- Website: kimmielewis.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimmielewisla/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimberlydanaelewis
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/singleonpurposela/
Image Credit:
Main Photo – https://www.lc.photos
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