Some books just read fast and before you know it, you are out of pages - desperately seeking something new. That is where my troubles lie this week. I know something great will come along.
Here's what I read:
Here's what I read:
A year ago I read the book 'Just Show Up.' It too was by Kara, the second book as part of a trilogy, so to speak, of her life. In The Hardest Peace, the first book, Kara tells the story of her past, finding Jesus, having 4 children, setting out on a path she thought would take her straight through to old age.
However, God had a different plan - stage four terminal cancer.
Even though a book of this topic may seem depressing, I promise you it is not. Every chapter, every passage is a gentle reminder at what a precious gift life is and how present God is every day if we chose to see it. Here are a few passages that really spoke to me:
"Everyone in that room felt the tight grip of life, this life that we cling to. We all had to confess how we see the picture of life as life itself. None of us have the strength to loosen our grip, untie the knots, open wide our hands to the loves we love. We lack imagination for life beyond what we can see, feel, smell, and taste. We are reckless in our grasping for more time, and forget the best is yet to come."
"Cancer is a gift. There, I said it. I can say that cancer and suffering give the beautiful gift of perspective. It is the gift you never wanted, the gift wrapped in confusion and brokenness and heartbreak. It's the gift that strips all your other ideas of living from you completely. The beautiful, ugly raising to the surface of the importance of each and every moment. I have loved motherhood in all it nuances but I lived each moment gluttonous. I ate and ate on the joys of parenthood with no thought of it ever coming to an end. I expected a long life; I may have even thought I deserved a long life."
"Cancer has slowed me, caused me to look at my activity and the purpose in it. I look at the precious lives in my home and long to pour my heart into each moment. Maybe it shouldn't have taken cancer to begin to live this way. Maybe, just maybe, this gift was given to me to being to look at the loves in my home and seek their hearts in the way I loved those who passed through my home. I still open my home, share my heart, live before whoever wants to watch, but boundaries on my time have been established. Perhaps it should not have taken cancer to create such a space in my life, but that was what it took to change my pace."
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