This is my friend Jody. 
Yep, that is her in the blue shirt with her back to us. Quietly going about her business. Serving. We met back when we were both young moms of boys. Very busy boys, and while I know we would have been the best of friends, frankly we like a lot of other young moms were to busy surviving motherhood. Yep, we were more than mere friends, we were comrades on a survival mission. I am forever blessed that God brought her back into my life now that we both can celebrate who we have become as wives, moms, writers and women of faith.
Jody is one of the few people I can point to who walks into a room almost undetected. Not that she isn’t stunning, she is. But she leads not with her looks, or her sharp wit or immeasurable depth of brilliance, but rather she leads with her un- yielding ability to seek and to serve. She can measure the needs in the room faster than most of us can enter and find a chair. So it isn’t surprising that her first book would be about finding a way to shore up those facing down the giants in their lives. Those who dare to utter the words , “What does one do when Goliath doesn’t fall?” For those of us who have been there and asked that very question -and felt the shame of asking such a thing- as being seen to have to little a faith… Jody delves right in. I just love her more for that.
“Good Reads” says it like this:
In this honest exploration of faith, Jody Conrad pulls away the mask of Christianity and admits to the ugliness of real life. With compassion and understanding, she joins you in life’s trenches and tells you about the unconditional and strangely hopeful worship of the prophet Habakkuk. Her eloquent words and encouraging insights will lead you to a different kind of deliverance and will help you cultivate a beautiful, wild faith that still worships, still rejoices, still sings of the joys of heaven-even when Goliath doesn’t fall.
The book of Habakkuk? how fitting for Jody to find this little book and glean from it. As if it were some little girl hidden among the crowd, waiting to be found and understood. So true to form. As her friend, I benefit greatly by her advice, her humor and her rather “colorful” way of seeing the world, and her ability to see the heart of those around her. Her bio hits per personality perfectly.
JODY CONRAD is a writer, speaker, substitute teacher, and farmwife. For more than a decade, she has helped children become more effective readers and writers. She also serves as a teacher consultant for the Northwest Inland Writer’s Project where she trains k-12 educators to teach writing. Jody and her husband live in the small farming community of Colfax, Washington, with their two great teenage boys, a deaf dog, and a fish named ’Kitty.’
While this is an older bio – her boys are now in adulthood – the insight on how she sees life is perfectly detected.
I look back on my life more often these days. And it is easy to see all the amazing people God has places on my road. Jody has been one that God placed there who makes me want to be a better person. Not because she is perfect, but rather because she seems to be fueled by the idea that we should finish up this life knowing we gave it all we had. That the talents we have been entrusted with weren’t meant to be hoarded away, but rather used to the betterment of those we share space with.
If you have a friend that is staring down Goliath – I highly recommend this book. If you are looking for a public speaker; I highly recommend this individual . When and if I ever grow up, I want to be just like her.
My Life on the back-roads.
A Cowgirl Called 