Everyday in May: {Day 14: Book Review}

Show me any Shauna Niequist book or any book Shauna Niequist recommends, and I'm ready to jump in! Niequist writes about the connections between food and fellowship, but also the foreword to this book by Preston Yancey. This year I'm working on being more of a Mary and less of a Martha. I want to be present at the table and not in the kitchen.

This book, meant to be read weekly, I devoured (pun intended) in a weekend. I'm not a patient baker, but I did very much appreciate the special care and time in the process of baking fresh bread. I believe the food metaphors and food-centric stories in the Bible are not just happenstance or make for more entertaining reading. God does want us to feed our bodies as well as our souls, and this book really touches upon many of the reasons why.

Some favorite quotes:

• "that the best relationships are the ones we've fought for, the deepest truths the ones we've struggled for, for the sweetest moments of rest the ones we earned following hard work" (p. 13)
• "Jesus is in us constantly polishing the darkened mirror of our souls that is to reflect his glory, a glory we share in with Him" (p. 27).
• "Spiritual disciplines are like a well-stocked chocolate drawer. You never know what you might need at a given time, but the security of knowing you have plenty on hand and having just enough when you need it is vital" (p. 28).
• "God can take our anger, God can take our frustration. God wants it, I think. God wants conversation that's not all supplication and fear and bowing low. God wants anger. God wants the mess. God wants all the rough edges of us over and over so that the Spirit can rush over them again and again and soothe and smooth and comfort" (p. 69).
• "When we intercede, when we trust God enough to offer everything back in prayer, how ever brief or however long, we discover how every circumstance exists in relation to everyone else" (pg. 71).
• Intercessional Prayer "opens us to pray wholly. It emboldens us to see more of how God sees, the whole world, not just us, not just our requests, the Good Shepherd of all the sheep as well as of the one" (p. 71).

Applications: 

• In hard times: "ask them what they've dared God to do lately" (p. 29). 
• Imagine challenges "being taken from you, released from you, and given back to God to worry about" (p. 45).
• Ask God "if there was something ordinary in your day that has more significance than you first understood" (pg. 45)
• "When you find thoughts straying, name them before God. 'God I'm distracted.' And then wait, wait and see if your mind settles back. If it doesn't, take a moment to pay attention to what won't leave you alone" (p. 47).
• "Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your reading" (p. 62).
• "When we are observant, we are included to hear the Spirit prompt us" (pg. 91).
• "Give over to God the trust that time is not in your control, that you are unnecessary to keep the world in motion, that God will provide the time and the space to accomplish all that needs doing" (pg. 93).

Fasting (pg 126-133):

• "Fasting is a gesture of balance, giving up one thing to make room for another" 
• "A fast would be receiving the hunger and returning it as prayer"
• "the absence of food reminds us of its good, which in turn can remind us of the good of the God who provides all nourishment to our physical and spiritual being"
• "Fasting is about connection to God, not about making a show."
• "Sacraments are defined as an outward sign of an inward grace"
• "Fasting prompts us to long for God, to seek God, and to be less distracted by our comfort, which is often our greatest distraction."
• "keeps us mindful that what God has given us is not for us alone, but for all people, that if we grow too comfortable with what we have been given, we will be at its mercy when it is taken away."
• "Fasts should be disruptive enough to the routine of life that you are aware of their inconvenience, which should press you toward refocusing your expectations and awareness of how mich you depend on God."

Feasting (pgs. 138-144):

• "Feasting is an act of defiance against the powers of evil in the cosmos, a declaration the battle has aready been won, God already declared victory."
• "When we come together around a table, when we come together professing the name of Jesus, Jesus tells us he is present with us."

G: "Jesus helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" -Romans 8:26

L: We shouldn't try to create the perfect prayer. God knows our hearts. He wants us to be mindful and help others.

A: Intercessional Prayer... be mindful and talk to God throughout the day.

M: God, I pray that I'd draw close to you throughout my day, not focused on my problems, but rather recognizing and interceding on the behalf of others.