Joining us today is Kathi Macias, author of Beyond Me: Living a You-First Life in a Me-First World. She’s going to tell us all about this powerful new book and what she’s up to next.
Q: Thanks for being here, Kathi. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
A: I was born and raised in Southern California in the beach heydays of the fifties and sixties. Though I grew up in a close-knit family, we were not Christians. I attended church with friends whenever I had the chance, but it wasn’t until I was twenty-six years old that I received Jesus as my Savior. I published my first book in 1988 (a women’s devotional that became one of Regal Book’s bestsellers), and have been writing/editing/publishing ever since.
I’m married to my junior high/high school sweetheart, Al, and we live in Southern California and spend what little spare time we have riding our Harley—hence, my road name of “Easy Writer.”
Q: Have you always gravitated toward Christian and inspirational writing?
A: Not really, since I started writing before I became a Christian. Still, looking back, I see that my writing all had a sort of “spiritual searching” quality to it. Since I’ve become a believer, the only writing I’ve done that wasn’t Christian was newspaper work and my writers’ workbook.
Q: Tell us about Beyond Me.
A: I’ve authored a lot of books over the last couple of decades, but Beyond Me is the “book of my heart,” the one I’ve worked on for many years. It has been a real labor of love because it is what God has been teaching me for the thirty-plus years I’ve known Him. And because I tend to learn things the hard way, God had to walk me through the message of this book many times before I finally “got it.” (And, of course, now that I’ve said that, I’ll probably find myself walking through it yet again!)
The main point, or “heart message,” of this book is that God has called us to lay down our lives—daily, over and over again, as we grow more and more like Him, the Supreme Model of You-First Living in a Me-First World. As a result, our sacrificial living may very well not be appreciated or understood by a world that practices and applauds the exact opposite, but we must continue to model that you-first life anyway—even to the very ones who reject our attempts to do so. Though there are other points present in the book—unconditional love, the cost of discipleship, the continual need for “attitude adjustments”—they all revolve around the central theme of God’s calling to model a you-first life in a me-first world.
