“Maybe I risk too much, dream too much, dance too much…
then again, He's asking you to dance, too..

-Breathtaking

Amber Nicole Metz has been to the valley of the shadow of death and back, and is taking the world by storm with this message:

Jesus Christ is enough. God’s sovereignty always prevails.

When she turned nineteen, Amber’s health deteriorated and forced her to face the disease she’d waged against her entire life, cystic fibrosis.  Amber dropped out of Cedarville University returned home to await a double lung transplant. After enduring two ‘dry runs’, where a transplant looked like a real possibility and then did not become reality, the lungs she desperately needed came on September 25, 2005.  It would be an understatement to say Amber has not looked back since.

Now over two years since surgery, Amber is doing well and is breathing deeply for the first time in years.  She spent the entire year of 2006 formulating the 165 or so e-mails she wrote while she awaited – and up to three months after – transplant into her now published book, Breathtaking.  She signed with Pleasant Word on November 1, 2006 and in mid-December 2007 held the first printed copy of Breathtaking.

Amber’s desire is to proclaim along with the Apostle Paul that it is through our weaknesses that Christ is most glorified (2 Cor. 12:9).  

In her words…

 “God is not our twenty-four hour vending machine.  When it says in Matthew 6:33 to “seek ye first the Kingdom of God”, it means just that; we are to seek Him above all else.  Sure, he wants to bless and prosper us, but you know with what?  His presence.  That alone should be the desire of our souls.  

The Christian life is by no means supposed to be about us and what we can get out of God.  We live for Christ and Christ alone.  His glory should be the desire of our hearts, no matter how He so chooses to manifest Himself. Christ bled and died for the Redemption of the world, creation included. Sadly, many facets of the Church expect Him to cater to their every whim without even a hint of devotion and sacrifice on their part. May it never be! As Jesus said, “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” (John 11:6).

The favor of God is more than just financial or physical well-being.  Not to say that Jesus does not desire to bless us or does not do miraculous things, hardly the case! I think we need to check our definition of ‘blessing’, though, and make sure it lines up with Scripture.  True freedom comes from truly knowing Him, of wanting more of Jesus Christ and nothing else.

I know very well He could have healed me on the spot, if He would have so chosen. I also know I would have been with Him in Heaven right now if He had not chosen to deliver me, raising me up for such a time as this. Either way, the glory’s not my own but His. I can say with the utmost confidence that I’d rather be sick and on my death bed but completely in love with Jesus Christ than well and oblivious to Who He is and what He wants to do in our own hearts and in the lives of the ones around us.

I’ve been to the valley of the shadow of death and back, and I will never forget what He showed me during that time.  I feel so blessed to know where I am today and to be able to bless others through my story. I’ve given up much in order to have the richness of truly knowing Jesus Christ as not only my Lord and Savior but Best Friend, First Love, my Beginning and my End (Romans 12 & Philippians 3:8-13).”

Amber is the founder of Breathtaking Ministries and currently a full-time student through Moody Bible Institute.  She is also an avid speaker on behalf of organ/tissue donation awareness and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. 

Her life verses are Job 1:21, Psalm 73:26-28, Isaiah 26:8, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, and 2 Timothy 1:8-10.