Two years ago, Mary Morlan “Mo” Isom ago spoke to the Business Council of Alabama’s Interfaith Service, the traditional conclusion of the BCA’s Governmental Affairs Conference at Point Clear.
Isom was a soccer star in suburban Atlanta from a young age. An All-American goalkeeper for Louisiana State University’s women’s soccer team, she once scored on an amazing 90-yard kick that’s widely viewed on social media.
At age 20, on the outside, Isom seemed to have a great life. Inside, she was a wreck. Her story told at the interfaith service of overcoming tragedy and her message of hope and faith brought tears to some eyes.
Now 26 and with her husband a mother of a baby girl, Isom has written a book about overcoming destructive tendencies from an eating disorder, her life experience as a star, record-holding athlete at LSU, and a hedonistic lifestyle that is painful to read about.
She blamed God for wrecking her life. But an automobile wreck revealed His presence and set the stage for a new life filled with the Holy Spirit. How she was transformed into an amazing and graceful missionary, wife, and mother is revealed in her powerful book that is being released today.
Her book, Wreck My Life Journeying from Broken to Bold,” published by BakerBooks, is dedicated to her late father, Big John.
Wreck My Life is available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Christianbook.com (1-800-Christian), Family Christian.com, and LifeWay.
“Mo Isom reminds us that each and every one of us is SPECIAL,” BCA President and CEO William J. Canary wrote for Amazon.com. “Those of us blessed enough to know Mo Isom understand that Wreck My Life is a very important book and a blueprint for how to navigate life. This book is for everyone.”
With amazing insight and reflection, Wreck My Life painfully reveals how Isom found God in her life – after wrecking it, she explains – in order for her to present the message of her Christian faith in inspirational public peaking, blogging, and writing.
“I had a lot of learning to do, and a lot of painful growing,” Isom writes. “I welcomed it.”
The year 2009 brought turmoil and tragedy to Isom’s life. The year began with the death of her adored father by his own hand. The trauma of that year concluded with her recuperating from a near-fatal wreck on Interstate 85 while traveling from college to home for Thanksgiving.
Tangled in and dangling from her seat belt upside down, concussed, confused, bleeding, and severely injured, Isom ended one life and began another of renewal through her faith.
Isom writes that God took her wrecked life and gave her the inspiration to create a new one filled with good works and her faith. “I believed faith in Jesus Christ was my only hope in relationship and reconciliation with God Almighty,” she writes.
Her story includes an amazing attempt to make the LSU football team as a kicker.
“After all, what the worst that could happen?” she writes. “Besides, you know, that I could be hit by a three-hundred pound lineman and die.”
Isom recounts how she told her mother about wanting to play for the Bengal Tigers, which her mother realized was a radical challenge that could only have come from God. “She playfully reminded me that as soon as I was flattened like a pancake after a bad snap I was going to regret that bold faith,” Isom writes.
She trained with the players, trained hard. The 2010 season approached. The team already carried a passel of kickers. LSU head Coach Les Miles had to tell her no.
Isom knew that making the team was a long shot. She moved on with her mission work and sharing her amazing story.
“We are able to invite others to step out of their wreckage and step into a journey where they can voluntarily allow God to wreck their lives for His glory,” Isom writes. “The one who wrecks our lives … invites us into His story.”
On the Web at www.moisom.com.