Reflections from my favorite book.....

So I was writing notes to all the people in my grapevine ministry tonight and I was looking in some books for inspiring thoughts to share. I pulled out the book that has meant the most to me on my spiritual journey. It is Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli. I love, love, love this book!!! This book was partly responsible for my profession of faith and so I thought I would share some highlighted passages with you. This has nothing to do with adoption news because there is none to share right now! We are just waiting for everybody to get in their letters of reference! :) Anyway....hope you enjoy!

"I don't want to be St. John of the Cross or Billy Graham. I just want to be remembered as a person who loved God, who served others more than himself, who was trying to grow in maturity and stability."

"Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God's being present in the mess of our unfixedness!"" Amen! I love that! So true!

This next one spoke volumes to me. It told me I was "ready." I didn't have to get it right. I didn't have to figure it all out.... "We talk our way out of the spiritual life by refusing to come to God as we are. Instead, we decide to wait until we are ready to come to God as we aren't. We decide that the way we lived yesterday, last week or last year makes us "damaged goods" and until we start living "right," we're not "God material."

"Churches are not only awe inspiring; they are odd inspiring, attracting an earthly assortment of Jesus' follwers. The stained glass is extraordinary, but it is also covered with ordinary fingerprints. Dirt from the fields is scattered on the glistening marble sanctuary floors. Hanging in the air throughout the cathedral of Christ is the heavenly smell of incense mingled with the piggy fragrance of sweaty, commonplace messy disciples. - ....."Oddness is important because the most dangerous word in Western culture is sameness. Sameness is a virus that infects members of industrialized nations and causes an allergic reaction to anyone who is different. This virus affects the decision-making part of our brains, resulting in an obsession with making the identical choices everyone else is making. Sameness is a disease with disasterous consequences - differences are ignored, uniqueness is not listened to, our gifts are cancelled out. Life, passion and joy are snuffed out." Amen and Amen, people!

"The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!" Psalm 18:46