We got back last night, and this morning the kids are off to camp. In two days, my parents, sister-in-law, and niece arrive for the week. Brother and nephews follow three days after that.
Many things must happen with all that, but I have a new outlook. Now, let me preface this with how I'm maybe not the poster child for how to pray. Example: last week I thought Emily had dropped my phone at the beach. The next morning I prayed for God to help me find it, and I walked the beach and spoke to the guy picking up trash and found out where the lost and found was, and when I got back to the house, Emily came downstairs and said she'd found my phone in her suitcase. And the first thought I had, I swear, was, "OK, God, never mind. We found it." The second thought was gratitude, I promise, but you see how it goes? Not so good on the whole prayer thing.
So what do I make of it when He/She answers a prayer I don't even pray? In the last month I've read The Shack and Same Kind of Different Than Me and part of The Divine Conspiracy, a
nd I just don't get it. All these Christian best-sellers do nothing for me. They're not bad, mind you, but I yawn and finish them and nothing has changed. I'd read all my beach books plus one (The Glass Castle, very compelling and disturbing) and I stopped by the little book store in Seaside to pick something up for the road. Not the usual mystery; those are gone too fast and I hate spending money on them. Fiction, memoir, essay, bestsellers, I kept walking along and reading jackets and not finding anything. Picked up Eat, Pray, Love. I'd heard of it, cute cover, Anne Lamott has a good blurb on the front. I bought it.I think it was about a fourth of the way through the book that I got tears in my eyes. It wasn't the last. This is a book that will change the way I live. It may not change the way you live. You may have to find your own book. But I know there is one out there for you, or if not a book, a person, or an experience, or something that can come along and say, "Hey, there is something more. Life can been seen and experienced in ways you can't even dream of now." Just don't stop looking. God's still listening, even if you don't ask.
1 comment:
Glad you're back. The book Same Kind of Different as Me made me want to be a better wife. Eat Pray Love however, sort of bored me. Now I only got through the Eat part and was into the Pray part that I just got bored with the author. So it just shows that you're right -- there's an experience, book, or something for everyone.
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