Book Review and racing minds

I headed for our church library a couple Sundays ago to grab a book for the week but... I'd read all the Karen Kingsbury books they had. What's a girl to do? I love me some Karen Kingsbury. But my husband had shared some grumbles about my Kindle purchases, so I knew the library was really the way to go. In all fairness to him... he has a point. I've been devouring books lately!

So, our librarian suggested I try Lisa Samson... she said the books were different from Karen's (what?!) but that she thought I'd like 'em. So I gave it a shot.

Quaker Summer it was. I have to admit, it was a bit hard to get into the story at first because it's not structured the way I'm used to, but once I figured out the writing style, I was hooked.

It made me really think about my own life. About the stuff that spills out of my cupboards and my view on the church and what Christ asks of me, of all of us and especially, how slowly we can become worldly - lost in our surroundings and not particularly wanting to leave it's comfort.

I love books like that. That make me think.

But then sometimes I don't.

Sometimes I don't because they challenge my thinking. This one challenged my thinking.

Why do we fill our homes with things? Is it a way to fill a void or to proclaim some unspoken status? Do we serve others for our own glory or for His? Our service... is it meaningful or is it a way to find temporary meaning in our distracted and unfocused life?

What does ask God truly ask of me?

I live in a world unlike the one I group up living in. This one is full of posh and frills. Its streets lined with BMW's, flashy wedding rings, Coach this, Abercrombie that, and expensive perfumes. A world where Christmas is less about Christ and his birth, or even family and friends and more about the latest Apple products and their generation.

If this is what I see... what do my children see? What thoughts fill their minds on this superficial world? Can they see Christ in it? Can they shine their lights? Do they know how to shine their lights?

Do I know? And if I think I do, am I doing it? Am I leaving the world's view of what is "right and good" and clinging to Christ's?

1 John 2:15-17 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever.