Musing Mondays is hosted by Jenn at Books and a Beat. Head over there to post your comments or link to your blog to answer this week's questions about your current read or up and coming reads-
- I’m currently reading…
- Up next I think I’ll read…
- I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
- I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
- I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
- I can’t wait to get a copy of…
- I wish I could read ___, but…
- I blogged about ____ this past week…
THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What is your favorite “comfort” read?
Up next I think I’ll read…OK- I feel like this is confessions time. I'm still reading the same book- The Scam and I'm hoping to finish it so I can go on to....I'm not sure. I like to pile a bunch of books up when I'm done with one and I'll read the first 2 pages of each book and then decide- so we shall see.
I was trying to figure out what my comfort read is and the only thing I can think of is the Psalms from the Bible. I love the Psalms. When I'm down. When I'm happy. I need inspiration- it's there. The Bible. Many of the Psalms were written by David. A man that had to run for his life who had been a simple shepherd who played and sang for the King. He hide in caves because God had chosen him to be the future king, but the ruling King wasn't so pleased with that and wanted to kill David. He often hid in caves. That's a man I can relate to! One that's been real down and knows what it is like. Who's seen the dark side of life. And lived to worship and thank God- not just through the good times.
Daniel F. Gerhartz
Some Psalms are of repentance- he sinned with another man's wife, and then had the husband killed (ever notice God's people in the Bible are real human and prone to some real doozies of bad actions?) Psalms written after David confessed his sin. I love the Psalms. I have several Bibles scattered about just opened to them. Old Bibles from my college days with the pages of the Psalms fallen out.
Once when we were down on the bottom- homeless. Crossing the country, 2,000 miles of driving and living in a tent to try and seek shelter with family back East only to encounter rejection and- personally a fist. Fleeing back across the country with only a bit of money. Stuck in Illinois. Down to very little, with 3 cats, a dog and a 13 year old and the car is broke. Now what? I sit down in the car repair place and after sitting there for hours I look over at a huge blackboard next to me and the chalked scribbles on the board clear in my brain and there is written in bold letters- FAITH. Just that. How I didn't see it before? I don't know. I'm praying and I just know before we even broke down on the huge highway someone had wrote that down and I'm sure it was for others too- but at that moment I knew God had meant the word FAITH for me.
How does He always know? OK- yeah He's GOD- but it always takes me by surprise! So I stared at those words and tried real hard. You know when your thoughts are- "Repeat after me- Have Faith".
That night I found one of those clumps of pages that had fallen out of my Bible years ago from repeatedly reading there and it was the Psalms. We had brought bits and pieces of what we could in the car (left the rest in storage in Colorado) and it was stuffed in somewhere. I handed it to my husband and that's all he read till we got back to Colorado. He said they were the perfect inspiration at the time. Generosity from co-workers (they hired him back at almost his old wage), an advance on my inheritance from my family. A chance friendship with a man who maintained apartments in our town here led to him buying my old wooden rockers for hundreds of dollars (they were cast-offs we had) so we could move into a place in time for my Daughter to get back into school. Lower rent, minus paying water and heat. We could finally afford Life! Just plain life (what so many people take for granted) and live, in peace.
How does He always know? OK- yeah He's GOD- but it always takes me by surprise! So I stared at those words and tried real hard. You know when your thoughts are- "Repeat after me- Have Faith".
That night I found one of those clumps of pages that had fallen out of my Bible years ago from repeatedly reading there and it was the Psalms. We had brought bits and pieces of what we could in the car (left the rest in storage in Colorado) and it was stuffed in somewhere. I handed it to my husband and that's all he read till we got back to Colorado. He said they were the perfect inspiration at the time. Generosity from co-workers (they hired him back at almost his old wage), an advance on my inheritance from my family. A chance friendship with a man who maintained apartments in our town here led to him buying my old wooden rockers for hundreds of dollars (they were cast-offs we had) so we could move into a place in time for my Daughter to get back into school. Lower rent, minus paying water and heat. We could finally afford Life! Just plain life (what so many people take for granted) and live, in peace.
Have Faith. Sometimes having Faith- even for a longtime believer like me can be hard. The simplest of words with the grandest of results. Hold on and read the Psalms.
Wow! What an amazing testimony. Sometimes we just have to give it up to God and trust He will bring us through.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting The Book Connection a couple of weeks ago. Hope you enjoy Og Mandino.