Beach reads (so far)

Eat, Pray, Love

by Elizabeth Gilbert

(image from Amazon.com)

I've always wanted to read this book but have *sigh* "never really had the time." No, seriously. 

Last week, I went to the Eclipse premiere and saw the preview for the Eat Pray Love movie coming out later this year, I believe, with Julia Roberts as the leading actress! The preview made me want to see the movie, so I resolved to read the book immediately (because the book is always better, right?). I picked it up at Target right before leaving for the beach this week and read it in less than 48 hours. This is one of the best books I've ever read - hands down. It chronicles the spiritual journey of Elizabeth, or "Liz", as she goes to Italy, India, and Indonesia, basically on a journey to find herself and to find happiness. Her descriptions of each place make you feel as if you are really there - it's incredible. She also faces many questions that many of us often have about ourselves and about joy and satisfaction. Word of advice: READ THIS BOOK!

Pretty in Plaid

by Jen Lancaster

(image from Amazon.com)

I also picked up this book at Target. Let's be honest - the pink and green argyle caught my eye and basically that is the reason why I bought this book. I read the back - "Before she was bitter, before she was lazy, Jen Lancaster was a badge- hungry Junior Girl Scout with a knack for extortion, an aspiring sorority girl who didn't know her Coach from her Louis Vuitton, and a budding executive who found herself bewildered by her first encounter with a fax machine. In this hilarious and touching memoir, Jen Lancaster looks back on her life-and wardrobe-and reveals a young woman not so different from the rest of us." -  and thought it would be a fun and light-hearted read. It was a fairly easy read - again, read it in less than 48 hours (plenty of pool/beach time permits this!). Her writing style is very entertaining. I loved that she associated each part of her life with a particular item of clothing, and in the introduction she notes that that is usually how she remembers events in her life. It was a cute book! She has a few other books published as well.

These books have been enjoyable. Today, I hope to start on this book:

The Piano Teacher

by Janice Y.K. Lee

(image from Amazon.com)

I received this book as a gift at Christmas and have yet to read it. I am looking forward to reading it during the last few days of my trip.

What books have you read this summer? Any good reads that you would recommend?

It's been a while!

I haven't posted in quite some time! Over a month, I believe! Don't get me wrong, I love blogging! I'm not a pro by any means, but somehow a lack of followers sort of un-motivates one to continue! Though I must thank my most loyal follower, my sweet significant other, who happens to be both of my followers!
I have, however, been out of town a good bit - mission trip to Colombia, working two weeks of church camp, and now enjoying a week at the beach with my family - and contribute my lack of posting to those activities. In spite of the small numbers, I will continue blogging because it is something I really enjoy doing. If anyone has suggestions or comments, please feel free to share!

What will it take....

....to hear God?

I can't say that I have this completely figured out, but for me, this is what it takes:

• TURNING OFF THE COMPUTER: This I struggle with. Whenever I am looking for a distraction or am just bored, I check my e-mail or Facebook or look for something on eBay. I often just leave me computer on with the e-mail window minimized so that if a new e-mail comes, I can open it and read it at a moment's notice. Today I am counting the number of times I check my e-mail, and I am afraid of how high that number is going to be.
• NOT STAYING ON THE PHONE: This has become a lot easier since I went to Costa Rica. While there, I did not have a cell phone. My only means of local communication was the house phone. My phone wasn't always in my pocket, and to be completely honest, it was so nice. Don't get me wrong, I love to text or use BlackBerry Messenger, but it's pretty liberating to not have a phone and to not be responsible for every message, call, or e-mail that goes to it.
• APPRECIATING TIME ALONE WITH MY THOUGHTS: I thrive in busy-ness. I feel like I am at my best. I had a better GPA during a semester when I had 27 hours (3.8) as opposed to a semester when I had 16 (3.1) - not saying that anyone should try to take a load of hours or more than you can handle - I just had to do it to graduate. I love to work, to have things to do. But I tend to avoid alone time and the quiet because I don't want to be alone with my thoughts. But I think think that this is very necessary if we are to do some self-examining and reflection and talking to God.
• SPENDING TIME WITH OTHER BELIEVERS: Sure, there are times when we may be "alone," like if you are the only Christian in your office or in your home. But quality time with other believers who challenge you and hold you accountable is in my opinion so crucial to living the life God wants you to live. We each need support and encouragement, accountability and challenges. Love itself is based on relationships, and if we are to love God and love others, we need to spend time talking with those people who also love the Lord.

What does it take for you?

The Shack

I am currently reading the third book on my summer reading list - The Shack by William Paul Young. I have heard so many wonderful things about this book and have always wanted to read it, and now I have a lot of free time that permits me to do so! So I picked up this book a couple of days ago when my dad and I took a small road trip to a small Georgia town where is teaching at a youth camp this week. The hour and fifteen minute drive there and back gave me plenty of time to read, and once I got started reading I just couldn't stop! This book has a lot of food for thought, and I am only about halfway through it right now.

I won't divulge too many plot details, but what I would like to do is to share some quotes from the book that have really struck me and that have challenged my thinking and beliefs.

"Humans have a great capacity for declaring something good or evil, without truly knowing."
I read this sentence, and re-read it and re-read it. How true is this?! I mean, think about it! Everything that we know and judge is based on our own ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, fair and unfair, often by our own standards and not necessarily by the standards presented in the Bible. The character to whom this was told acknowledges this:
"I guess I would say that something is good when I like it - when it makes me feel good or gives me a sense of security. Conversely, I'd call something evil that causes me pain or costs me something I want."
"So it is pretty subjective then?"
"I guess it is."
The character then begins to realize how individualized our perceptions of good/evil and right/wrong are.
"To be honest...I tend to sound justifiably angry when somebody is threatening my 'good,' you know, what I think I deserve. But I'm not really sure I have any logical ground for deciding what is actually good or evil, except how something or someone affects me."

Taking this into consideration, I began to think about how I discern good from evil and I realized that I do this same thing - I base the good or evil in something on how I am affected. And this is not how the Lord intends for us to measure good and evil.
The character to whom Mack is talking (Sarayu) then responds:
"Then it is you who determines good and evil. You become the judge. And to make things more confusing, that which you determine to be good will change over time and circumstance. And then beyond that and even worse, there are billions of you each determining what is good and what is evil. So when your good and evil clashes with your neighbor's, fights and arguments enure and even wars break out..."
So on my terms, cancer is bad. Death is bad. But I measure that by how it affects me. If someone close to me were to have cancer and die, I would think that it was awful and terrible because of the suffering that that person and myself and others around me were experiencing. But does that necessarily mean that God wants any of us to suffer? I don't think so. I think that God has more things going on than we can realize and that they are all working together for our good.

Mack later confesses:
"I can see now...that I spend most of my time and energy trying to acquire what I have determined to be good, whether it's financial security or health or retirement or whatever. And I spend a huge amount of energy and worry fearing what I've determined to be evil..."
Wow. Punch in the gut. I don't think that the author is necessarily putting down our desires and efforts to do things that are "good" (or that we perceive to be good), but maybe he is asking us to examine where we expend our energy and time and if we have the right focus and right intentions.

"So is there a way to fix it?" asked Mack (and Tonya!).
"You must give up your right to decide what is good and evil on your own terms. That is a hard pill to swallow; choosing to only live in me (the Holy Spirit). To do that you must know me enough to trust me and learn to rest in my inherent goodness."

Can we do that? Can I do that? Can I really give up my ideas of good and evil and live completely guided by the Holy Spirit? Thinking about that is scary, but it also seems a bit liberating, to think that I don't have to take the time and effort to figure out what is "good and evil" - I just have to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide me.

What seems right to me may not be right, or vice versa. But it's not my job to figure that out. Romans 8:28 says that GOD causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose for them. It doesn't say that Tonya works all things out, or whomever. God does! Look at Hosea. What he did by taking a prostitute as his wife and loving her was probably viewed as something absolutely crazy by the people around him. And even if this were to happen today...can you imagine what people to do if someone who we considered to be holy and good said that God told him to marry a prostitute? Would we believe him? Probably not, unfortunately, even if God really had told him to do so. But Hosea was focused on the bigger plan and bigger purpose.

So the big question is......What would we be able to accomplish for God and show to others if we learned to be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that we let Him decide what is good and evil for us?