Read any good books lately?
Saturday evening we attended the Summer Mission trip fundraiser for the youth at our church.
I have been careful to choose healthy eating for six weeks now and as I faced a plate of lasagna and garlic cheese knots followed by amazing chocolate chip cookies, it was a reminder of why I love all things cheese/carb and caloric and since it was for a good cause I am quite certain not a single bit of it harmed me.
We sat with some old friends and met some new people, all around our age and as we were talking near the end about getting older and such..because we all are…one of the men commented on how one of the nice surprises about reaching certain stages of life is that he doesn’t really mind that he can’t do certain things anymore.
I get that.
Coming to terms with the reality of life, its longevity and brevity and all of that, has a way of motivating me to set priorities on how I spend my time.
I recently cleaned out a couple of bookcases and made a stack of “keep”, “give” and “oh my gosh I never read this one”.
Ok…so the “give” stack was the smallest…and the “oh my gosh…” was the largest and actually was more like three very tall stacks.
I set those in a closet in the spare bedroom and have been determined to work through them.
Two were bible study type books and after spending a couple of weeks working on them and realizing they were not teaching me anything nor encouraging me nor enriching me…I felt no sense of regret in donating one that was just a book…and pitching one that had entries from me and therefore would not bless anyone.
So whether you are my age or quite a bit younger, let me encourage you to not waste time on reading something just because you purchased it or received it.
Not all books have to be read nor studies completed.
Now on a positive note I have a recommendation of a wonderful book that has been touching my heart in powerful ways.
Actually two, because when I tracked down which friend had given me the first one she informed me she had another by the same author and dropped it off on my front porch a few days later.
This might explain my large collection of books, by the way…I have people who feed my habit. And I love them for it <3
But about those two books.
Both are written by Shauna Letellier:
Remarkable Faith and Remarkable Hope
Shauna has taken biblical accounts that we are familiar with and by studying other literature written around the time and culture she has filled in the details to bring the stories to life for us.
She acknowledges that this is not “scripture” but her musings about how the real life human beings experienced their personal encounters with Christ and were transformed by His love and mercy and grace.
I have found them inspiring and relevant to walking out this faith journey in my own life.
Cultures, clothing, politics change…but human beings have the same struggles from generation to generation and God offers the same comfort, guidance, hope and help with the same power that extends from creation to restoration.
What are you reading/studying right now?
Is it a chore or are you hearing God speak to you and is there fruit being developed in your life?
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