Walking with God

I am about half way through reading "Walking with God," by John Eldredge.  He is one of my favorite authors.  Only another tightly-wound type-A person is able to really get into my head and share deep new thoughts, like he does.  This book is great!  I picked it up thinking it would give me more insights on what steps I can take to get closer to God.  But it is so much better than that.

Eldredge really gets people like me.  He, too, would like a step-by-step manual on how to "do" Christianity.  But this book, like all of his others, is about "being" not "doing".  He, too, struggles with just remaining in the presence of God, and connecting at the heart level.

This book is about his struggle to listen to God.  Wow!  I struggle with that, too.  I spend a lot of time talking to Him, but listening is really HARD!  I love the way this book shows and describes how this plays out in real life.  As everyone that follows this blog knows, I have been struggling with prayer for years.  I am voraciously reading and studying everything I can find about prayer, but have still come up so empty.  I think what I am learning now, about listening, is at least part of the key to my struggles.

Not only does this book open up a whole new world in the area of prayer, it also delves deeper into spiritual warfare.  He explains a lot about agreements that we make with the enemy and how that plays out in our lives.  I can identify with many of his examples.  I have realized that when the voice in my head reminds me in a given situation: "This is just like the last time.  Won't you ever learn?  You need to protect yourself.  You can't open up to people.  You need to keep things inside.  You are really on your own in this world," etc., I am really making an agreement with the devil and allowing him to control me.  I need to recognize it and not make the agreements and allow Satan a stronghold in my heart.

He also mentions something that totally intrigued me:  He thinks that when someone is struggling with an issue, such as doubt, that this is part of spiritual warfare.  And the same spirit that is pushing the person into this struggle can catch on to us when we try to help that person fight it off, causing us to struggle with it, too, unless we are aware of it.  I don't know if I agree, but it is an interesting concept that I think I will ponder for a while.

Very interesting book.  Can't wait to finish.

How people grow

Our Pastor recommended to all of our small group leaders that we read a book, by Townsend and Cloud, authors of the "Boundaries" series, called, "How People Grow."  My first impression was, "Oh,no!  Not another psychobabble book to help us feel good.  Ughhh!"  But because I have had life-changing help from the "Boundaries" books and am familiar with and trust the authors, I decided to read it.

I finished it this week, and what a blessing I found.  It wasn't about how people grow, with step-by-step charts on growth and development and lots of psychology, as I had expected.  It was a refreshing look at examples of how people have experienced growth, or not experienced it, as the case may be, and lessons we can all learn.  It was just like their other books, in that it offered tangible lessons that I can and will apply to my own life, as I grow in relationship to God and others, and as I help others in their life journeys.

For example, in a chapter on temptation, they write:

This is exactly how temptation occurs.  Satan tempts us at our weakest moments and in our weakest areas.  We need something, or we are in pain.  And the temptation answers both of those for the moment.  If someone needs love or is lonely, the deceptive sin of illicit sex (the lust of the flesh) can momentarily masquerade as love.  If someone needs validation, the lure of power and the "boastful pride of life" can trick him into feeling as if his existence is worthwhile because of that power.  If someone is feeling "not good enough," the lure of materialism and the "lust of the eyes" can momentarily dull that pain.  In those three areas, John tells us, "Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world -- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does -- comes not from the Father but from the world" (1 John 2:15 - 16).

The book then goes on to describe ways that we can avoid temptation and recognize it for what it is.  It explains several reasons that people go through suffering, and how we can grow and help others through this process.  It shows how to be good friends to our suffering brothers and sisters, without being like Job's friends, who were of no help to Job at all.

I am so grateful for the lessons I have learned in this book, and encourage everyone that reads this blog to give this book a try.  It might open up a whole new life to you.

Hiking with My Daughter

Yay!  My daughter came home on leave for a few days, and we got to go hiking, (and to a barbecue, and the 4th of July fireworks display in our community, and to a rodeo, and to a birthday party, and to church, and out to dinner, whew!).  We hiked to a new place on Sabbath afternoon:

It was so refreshing to get to renew our relationship in the splendor of God's creation!  What a blessing!