Reading Power

            In recent weeks, God has gotten my attention through reading. 

            First was discovering Christian author James L. Rubart.  After finishing his novel, The Five Times I Met Myself, I knew I wanted to read more.  The other book of his on the new fiction shelves at Bartlesville Public Library was The Long Journey to Jake Palmer.  I finished it the day before its March 5 due date.  Absorbing storyline and profound truth packed into 374 pages, the book tells the story of the protagonist’s difficult path to healing of old emotional pain and, finally, the freedom in living into his God-given destiny.

            A few hours later that same Sunday evening, I decided to finish reading a brief Parker J. Palmer book, Let Your Life Speak:  Listening for the Voice of Vocation, which had showed up at the top of the library’s e-book home page.  I’ve read at least one other book by Parker Palmer before and loved his perspective and his way with words, so I immediately checked it out.  I’ve been reading this book in short spurts.  To my amazement, his last chapter’s discussion of leadership dovetailed perfectly with the ending of Rubart’s novel.

            Both books speak of the power of transformation.  It’s interesting that our Bible Study Fellowship lesson from February 27 covered Romans 12:1-2:  Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  (NIV)

Those two verses seemed to sum up the truth God was emphasizing to me.  Then, the March 7 lesson on Romans 12:3-8 spoke more specifically into my life.  Along with the 40 Days of Prayer series we are doing here at Good Shepherd, I’m receiving the encouragement God seems determined to give me.  Incidentally, one of the recent readings was Romans 12:1 from The Message:  So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

            Let me backtrack a bit.  It’s been a year since I finished cancer treatment, and I have not jumped back into life as I thought I would.*  Energy and motivation levels run low at best.  I am wary of making commitments I cannot keep.  My daily life plods along at a snail’s pace. Bothersome physical ailments weigh me down.  I guess I thought that once the cancer treatments were done, the fibromyalgia would disappear, too.

            The book about Jake Palmer, the book by Parker Palmer, and the Romans verses I’ve read over the past few weeks remind me that my identity is in Christ, not in what or how much I can accomplish each day.  My part is to offer all that I am to my Savior and stay “tuned in” to his purposes, which are spelled out in Scripture.  Pray, read my Bible, love the people in my life, keep trusting God, and learn to trust him more.  Take care of my body.  Do what I can and rest when I need to.  Ask God to direct my days.  Use the gifts he’s given me to bring him glory.  And thank him for everything along the way.

*Except, of course, helping out with my darling grandchildren!