Lessons of a Bad Girl

Don't let her gentle smile and easy laugh fool you: Liz Curtis Higgs is a bad girl. As fans of her "Bad Girls of the Bible" books know, Higgs is in touch with her dark side, and she's scoured the pages of the Bible to learn how God deals with women like herself. The result is a series of serious-fun books that bring the Bible's female characters to life and mine their often-dark stories for rich spiritual lessons.

Higgs is a prolific writer, with bestselling Scottish historical novels and children's books in addition to several Christian teaching titles. She sat down with Patton Dodd last summer to discuss her work in anticipation of her latest book, "Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible."

For our readers who are not familiar with Bad Girls of the Bible, can you explain why you’ve written this series of books?

The lives of biblical bad girls have always fascinated me, probably because I have trouble identifying with the good girls in Scripture. Ruth, Esther, and Mary were faithful, courageous, and innocent, while I am clearly none of the above. I stumble regularly in my walk with Christ, am not always brave, and am anything but innocent.

When I embraced the grace-filled life 25 years ago, I found out the church was full of women like me—hiding a shady past or a questionable present, longing to connect with other sisters who've been down the same road, and searching for answers about the depth of God's forgiveness. To help answer those questions, I've explored the stories of 24 infamous women, including Jezebel, Delilah, Bathsheba, Herodias, and other ancient sisters who took a walk on the wild side.

What have you learned about God and his character by looking closely at these tales of bad girls?

As Jesus said, "No one is good—except God alone" (Mark 10:18). God's divine goodness stands in sharp contrast to our badness, and that of these women. When we discover that God extended mercy to the woman caught in adultery, that he reached out to Rahab the harlot, that he delivered Mary Magdalene from her seven demons, we can begin to accept his unconditional love for us, flaws and all. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1).

What have you learned about yourself from looking at these biblical bad girls?

First, I discovered how very much we have in common. My own temptations and sinful inclinations became very apparent as I dug into their sordid stories. Some are cautionary tales with gruesome endings, such as Jezebel being shoved out the window and trampled by horses. Others give us hope, like the story of the unnamed prostitute who anointed Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. The Lord's response—"Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much" (Luke 7:47)—offers a balm to us all. Whatever the outcome for each bad girl, I found a point of identification with her situation and with her sin, and so learned from her example.

You say you were a bad girl. Can you give us a taste of your bad girl story?

In a nutshell, I threw away a decade of my life in pursuit of pleasure: sex, drugs, drinking, spending; the more risk involved, the better. It's a miracle I survived without getting arrested or contracting a disease. When I hit bottom, two dear souls—new to the faith and full of grace—gathered me in their arms and loved me back to life. They didn't say, "Believe in God;" not at first. They said, "God believes in you. God loves you, Liz. God has a plan for you." I was skeptical, but I was willing to listen. What I heard was the unwavering truth of God's grace: "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Finally, I believed those words and realized I was loved and I was forgiven. His grace truly is amazing.

What do you believe are the core pressures facing women today? How does your work address those pressures and offer guidance?

Perfectionism is a biggie. We feel a huge amount of pressure—much of it self-imposed—to excel in every arena of our lives: work, school, church, home. We extend no grace to ourselves, instead pushing, pushing, pushing, which not only wears us down but also negatively impacts those we love. No wonder we're all stressed up with nowhere to go!

Continued on page 2: Sarah and Rachel--bad girls at heart? »