When city glamour girl Erica Bartle got married and moved to a little town near the Gold Coast she went into culture shock.

You can ‘read the Bible with’ Erica as part of Bible Society’s Live light in 25 words campaign. Go to 25words.biblesociety.org.au/me for more.

After a stint as beauty editor for the popular girl’s magazine Girlfriend, Erica was made deputy editor. She was “immersed” in the magazine world.  And, as a self-titled “all in, all out” kind of ‘gal, the absorption did not prove healthy.

Brought up as a Catholic, Erica went to church as a young girl, but Christianity had fallen off her radar for several years. Then she met Jim, an outspoken, Jesus-loving, motorbike-riding Queenslander on holidays, and everything changed.

“I met my husband on a summer holiday. He’d been ‘born again’ and was very out there in terms of faith. His joyfulness, his excitement and fervor rubbed off, and made the concept of exploring Christianity more attractive.”

Erica describes her journey to Christ as “an extremely tumultuous time”. While she was exploring Christianity, she got married, moved to a new state, and a very different style of living in a small country town. She left her high profile, glamorous job. She had become a Christian, but she says she was desperately holding on to parts of her old life – particularly, her connection to the magazine world.

Her blog, Girl With A Satchel, which she started writing while still at Girlfriend, a compilation of thoughts on fashion, celebrity and the media, became the last link to her former life.

“Instead of bringing to the blog some sense of my new life and all the potential that was held within it, I tried to maintain desperately my connection to my old life.”

“My identity was so very linked to the blog and who I had been in Sydney, my role on Girlfriend, I wasn’t allowing God to mould and shape me as he wanted to.”

Amidst her struggle with identity, Christianity and a new lifestyle, Erica developed anorexia.

“I really did go into culture shock after coming to the Christian faith. Jim and I got engaged, I was immersed in the magazine world, and I was navigating this wonderful thing called Christianity, but at the same time, I was terrified of it and what it would mean for my life.

“I felt like I was plunging into a rabbit hole, into a world that was completely unfamiliar.”

Erica found it difficult to adapt to life in Mount Tamborine, a “small, sleepy, family and community-oriented” town in southern Queensland.

“In Sydney, my career and being seen and heard was what I aspired to. I think the move fed into the anorexia. You know, you’re looking to control your world amidst change. And I went down the wrong path.”

Erica says her struggle with anorexia gave her a new understanding of what being a Christian really meant.

“The concept of grace was the most difficult,” says Erica. “That provision of grace, every single day, that I didn’t need to punish myself for the mistakes I made. I lacked the overarching narrative that the Bible gives us about what Christ has really done for us. It wasn’t until I really got into the Bible, read it cover-to-cover that I really truly grasped how wretched and sinful I was, and how wonderful it was to have Jesus.”

“I surrendered my struggle to God and things started to get better. That meant being obedient to God – instead of going out to exercise, I read my Bible.

“As soon as I started submitting to God, and not letting the anorexia win, I found in God this great, merciful, all-loving, nurturing Father. Feeding on the Word really gave me the nourishment I needed – I think I was a spiritual anorexic too.”

Erica began reading the Bible more and more, “getting hold of the meat in the Bible to get me back on my feet.” She says she relied heavily on the words of Isaiah 58:11 that says God will keep you strong and well.

When speaking of her anorexia now, several years on from her lowest point, Erica says it’s still an ongoing struggle.

“I’d caution other Christians, particularly young ones – be wary of your mind, and the messages and images you allow in. They can so corrupt your thinking. It wasn’t until I began to replace all the wrong messages I’d received with God’s ones from scripture, from Jesus, that I could deal with this intense self-battle raging inside me.”

The legacy of an eating disorder is Erica’s “crucible, eternal shame and that reality which ultimately drew me nearer to God.”

“It can crop up again and again in my vulnerable moments, like in the bathroom on a bad day, at which time I have to desperately look up to Jesus and away from myself in order for it not to get the better of me. Once the seed of sin has been planted, it is hard to root it out and usurp it with God… but we must!”

Erica says the words of the Bible saved her.

“I found such comfort in Paul, the struggle of the inner man, between the wretched human sinful self and the one who wants to honour God. I found, in that scenario, the opportunity to permit myself time and grace to heal, without getting too frustrated.”

Christianity in the world of magazines is also something Erica continues to struggle with.

“It’s the problem of relating to an industry that doesn’t honour God in any way, yet wanting to relate to that industry as part of my work as a Christian,” says Erica.

And yet, as she grows stronger in faith, and delves deeper in the Bible, Erica says she finds it more and more difficult to relate to that world in any way.

“I haven’t picked up a woman’s magazine in over a year,” she says. “It’s a deliberate thing – I felt strongly that God says ‘do not make idols’. Those magazines can come to usurp Jesus as the central part and sole nourishment in life. And I’m an all or nothing kind of person.”

Erica’s blog, Girl with a Satchel, described as “hugely popular and thoroughly engaging” by women’s magazine stalwart Mia Freedman, has also had a transformation.

“About 18 months ago I went back to my blog and edited out any of the content that I believed wasn’t God-honoring. It’s a process of rebuilding the content from the ground-up.”

Keeping the pace and content expected of the popular blog proved difficult for Erica. Yet after spending a year delving deep into God’s word on a daily basis, “re-educating” herself on life, Erica says a whole new world of content opened to her.

“It’s easy to get caught up with news and what’s happening every day without taking adequate time to reflect and ask God before posting a story, or my thoughts on something. Now, I try to take the time to consider what Jesus would think on a particular matter.

Erica says readership of the blog is less important nowadays. She’s taken a part time job at a not-for-profit, advising on communications, to take the pressure off producing a commercially-viable blog, at least for the moment.

“I don’t check my readership these days. Jim and I decided this year I would focus on quality over quantity and just enjoy my work.”

When Erica started going down the road of faith on the blog, there was hostility from some of her regular readers which was “uncomfortable, but expected.”

“But there are still lots of non-Christian readers who are very loyal and continue to read. And at the same time, the blog has attracted this wonderful group of Christian readers who appreciate the more indepth tone and outlook of the blog now as opposed to the superficial fluff and puff of the magazine industry.

“That’s not to be derogatory – there is lots of good stuff to be said about the industry too. It’s just not for me anymore.”

“My key concerns in this regard are this: as Christians, we should strive not to serve that which we truly do not believe. I lost my faith in the women’s magazine industry long ago, and cannot serve its purpose.”

Erica is part of the Bible Society’s Live light in 25 words campaign, and you can ‘Read the Bible with’ her in October, where she’s prepared a series of daily devotions. Erica says she’s a passionate advocate for Bible reading, given the impact it’s had in her own life.

“As a new Christian, I didn’t realize the real change in my life until I started reading the Bible in more depth. It’s an endeavor every Christian should be part of.”

You can read Erica’s blog, Girl With A Satchel here.