A Million Yeses

By Samantha Orengia

It’s time to dive in. There’s no more dipping your toes in the water before deciding if you like his plans. In A Million Yeses, author Sam Orengia takes you on a road trip, journeying through the fear of commitment you may battle with in your faith and relationships.

She shares her powerful testimony, personal narrative interwoven with Bible stories retold and paraphrased through the beauty of the imagination, as the mirror unveils the fear that buckles you in your seat. Orengia tells a story of how Jesus changes things, how he heals things, and how he takes your faults, your unbelief, and your wavering, and constantly pours grace out in your life.

A Million Yeses challenges you with the calling to stop allowing the fear of what-ifs to keep you from trusting and saying yes to Jesus. Your faith isn’t just a single yes; it’s a million yeses after.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385011209

Samantha Orengia

Samantha Orengia, wife and mother of four, spends her days homeschooling her children, photographing local couples and families, and serving as director of her church’s women’s ministry. She has a background in struggling through her commitment fears with the Lord and a degree in grace.

Book preview

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A

Million

Yeses

SAMANTHA ORENGIA

Copyright © 2023 Samantha Orengia.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked TPT are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB. Copyright ©2016, 2020 by Bible Hub. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1121-6 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1122-3 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1120-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023920669

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/26/2023

Contents

Intro: for starters

01 Where I Started, Where I Wanted To Be, And Where I Found Myself

02 Let Me Let You Help Me: Letting Others Show Up For You

03 We Thinking: These Were His Desires For Me Before They Were My Desires For Me

04 Showing Up When You Want To Shut Down: There Are Buds Here, Too

05 God Speed: His Not-So-Linear Path With Hidden Tunnels

06 Committing To Community: Serving When It No Longer Serves You

07 A Million Yeses

Prologue: When the Hype is Over

Intro: for starters

I’m coming to pick you up! I jump, popping off the couch and kissing my husband goodbye as I spring for the back door. Reaching for my keys and yelling over my shoulder, My friend needs me. I’ll be back soon! Love you!

Next thing you know I’m pulling in your driveway and giving two quick warning knocks before opening the door for myself in a swing, HI! Echoing as an alarm to let you know I’m here (in case you didn’t hear the first), the clicking of my brown leather low-cut boots bouncing off the walls as I come into your bedroom and pull the covers down to expose your gray matching sweatsuit in one fell swoop, the mother in me surfacing as I announce that you aren’t shaking me out of here. We are doing this thing. Time to pull you out of that rut.

Commitment is so hard– am I right? As if the act of actually sitting down with the flint and the brush to work for that first flame doesn’t take effort in itself, let alone a newfound, earth-groveling boldness to step out and resilient courage to stop walking behind the big red curtain. But the Lord is calling us out, friend. He’s standing on the side, holding that rope, ready for the great curtain divide … ready for a new level of faith, obedience, and friendship with the Creator of it all. But it’s going to take one brave yes and a million yeses after. It’s going to take letting the curtains rise and standing in a place of being seen. It’s going to take remaining under that spotlight even when your hands are clammy and you can feel the sweat beneath your shirt. A million yeses, friend.

Over the month of December in 2021, I had begun the process of taking author Hannah Brencher’s writing intensive. In one of the most transforming sessions, we were instructed to write what she referred to as ‘tentpole’ moments on index cards, one card for each moment within the last five years. Tentpole moments are the catastrophic yeses that change our direction. The tunnels we might rather avoid but that are necessary to get to our promised land. Our walk is littered with yeses everyday. We say yes to which shoes to wear, yes to what to eat for lunch, yes to our spouses, and yes to coffee dates. Most are very mundane. But sometimes when we look back in reflection, some of those yeses carried more weight than we gave them credit for. Some of our yeses brought shape to our story. Some yeses are so powerful that our life map is caught up in flames and we’re brought back into the intimate whisper of the Holy Spirit as our guide, drawing our map from scratch. Those weighty yeses are what I’ll now refer to as ‘tentpole’ yeses. They drive a stake in the ground. They change our perception of our paths and sometimes our perception of God.

The reality about commitment is that it’s persistent in its initial yes. Like an engagement ring marking its territory, we say yes, Lord, and every decision afterward is shaped by that first confident (or maybe not so confident) tentpole yes. In these days of Christianity, we are more comfortable living like following Christ is not a game changer. But what if we stopped living like it was water and oil and started living like it was food coloring, tinting every single part of the whole? What if we stopped building walls around our yes to Christ and started allowing Him to permeate every area He pleased?

Will you walk with me, friend? Can I help you find your matching sock and we can tie our shoes and get out of here? I’ll drive, but you’re not completely off the hook. As much as I wish I could take this hard, weighty chore, plop it on my back, and carry it for you every day, I can’t. Committing to those dreamy dreams He’s given you takes staying awake on the ride and calling out the directions as the GPS guides. It takes being intentional on intentional on intentional, even when your limbs are tired and heavy and the recliner is calling. And you know the fun thing about the Lord? When we surrender to Him, He aligns our passions with His dreams for us. So that far off thing that you’ve been ashamed to say out loud because you kind of sound like you’re living with your head in the clouds? Maybe it’s more tangible than your self talk wants to admit. Maybe you’ve just been listening to the wrong voice.

While we drive and you gaze out the window, take note of the land and how to build accordingly. The Lord can speak the same dream to two of us, but maybe it looks differently based on where we’re at and the tools He’s given. This will take more than looking out the window of what others with similar dreams have built. This isn’t a new development with all the same stoops, pillars, and attached garages. You are not them, friend, and it’s time to trust that the Creator of the universe doesn’t just have nine road maps that He pulls out according to your passions and gifts. He’s more intricate than that. This is the God of Abraham, who told Him to leave it all and just start walking. This is the God of Moses who asked him to walk the road of a million yeses. The original GPS navigational system has spoken. Will you follow?

This is my journey, and these are my yeses. I’m not there yet, friend, but I’ve seen amazing landmarks and reached mile markers I never thought I’d see beyond my dreams. He’s carried me, and it’s only because of my deciding that this ring and that vow would permeate every day after.

The days of writing this book, I battled. I couldn’t understand how I could read incredible prophets like Lou Engle and Dean Briggs, simultaneously writing a memoir. Who is going to want to read the story of a small girl who goes to a country church and leads a small ministry? One night as I laid battling the unworthy thoughts, the Lord turned my eyes from the lies to praise with a single phrase:

Your testimony has the power to change things!

This is that! Thanks be to Yahweh, this is more than just my story. This is His story weaved through mine, sealing my past in His glory! In the book of Revelation, we read, They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony … (12:11 NIV) We get to throw the enemy under our feet by the blood of Jesus and – don’t miss it – our testimony! The word testimony has always felt intimidating to me because I always imagined it as a single lightning strike moment where everything shifted forever and then it was finished shifting and suddenly everything was just God’s good easy way with no fleshly failures. I share this because if this is you, locking what God has done away within you because your story wasn’t cut and dried, it’s time to speak truth over yourself and unlock that vault, throwing the key into the abyss. Your story – your life every day – is your testimony. It is the story of how Jesus changes things. How He heals things. How He takes our faults, our unbelief, and our wavering, and constantly pours grace out over our lives. How He can quickly change things in the flash of a moment, and how equally powerful are His slow transitions. His timing is always best, which means your story is lathered in His Spirit. And where the Spirit is, freedom is contagious and available.

So take heart, because this is more than my story. This is my contagious, powerful testimony, and if you’ve picked it up I’m believing you have seen the lack of commitment and consistency in your own life and you are searching for the solution to transform you into someone who does hard and builds the kingdom in the big ways the Lord has invited them into.

Let’s pray:

Lord Jesus, I give you my testimony and ask you to simply do what you say you do – infuse my weakness with your overcoming strength. I said yes to you that day in the car,