Looking For God

Tonight we are finally finishing up our latest book we are reading in Bible Study. Its called "Looking For God" by Nancy Ortberg. Her book has been pretty good, minus a chapter or two, but the latest chapter we read I loved. There is one paragraph that really stood out to me. In Chapter 16, its called "Longing, Aches, and Pains" and this is the paragraph that I loved.

"Every longing is an echo, an ache for the perfection that we were created in the image of. If we pay attention to the pain, struggle with it and live in it, we grow. We know God more deeply. He is more real to us and intersects our lives. We understand how we can apply the love of God and the power of the Cross to our lives. If we ignore the longings and cover them with platitudes about blessings, we lose. We miss the chance to apply God to our lives. He becomes a chiche and we, a joke"

And then she went into telling us about when her first daughter went off to college and was living in the dorms, she gave her a "mistake journal". She explained to her daughter that this was a journal to write down at least 3 mistakes she made that day. After writing in the journal each night, she could place it under her pillow, or on the night stand, or where ever, and could fall asleep knowing that the earth was still spinning on its axis, God is STILL in control and loving her, and tomorrow was another day. She stated that there is something very powerful about dispelling fear by realizing that your mistakes are not stronger than God's love for you.

I just loved that!