"...You put a song in my soul when You made me!!"

Alas, that time has come, and spring break is over... ::sigh:: but, thank God, I had an amazing break - with plenty of rest and good food - and I made it back up to GR safely a few hours ago. :-) PTL!!

Anyway, on Saturday I had a couple hours to kill while I was waiting to pick up my grandpa from dialysis at the hospital, and I found myself over at Hastings (a Barnes and Nobles type store) browsing through the books. I could spend days in bookstores... Days. lol. Well anyway, I came across a copy of Rob Bell's Sex God, and, having heard a lot of good things about this book, I picked it up and started looking through it. After about an hour I couldn't put it down, so I decided to buy it. To be honest, I've never been all that impressed with Rob Bell (never did get into Velvet Elvis, and his sermons, though solid, have never seemed like anything too special to me...), but this book has blown me away. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it right now, and every new page impresses me more. God has really just spoken powerfully into my life over this spring break through several people and circumstances, but this book has definitely been the climax -- I don't know if it's just because of where I am that I've been so impacted, or if it's just that good of a book, but either way God has used it to shake me up some and really speak some truth into my life.

Much of Rob Bell's argument is similar to that of Don Miller in his book Searching for God Knows What, but Rob Bell explores some different possibilities with the material. He makes connections between the Fall and man's deep need to be sexual (as Rob would define it: man's desire to be whole, or connected, or complete - both between God and to fellow man - as he was originally designed to be in the presence of God), he focuses on Scripture analogies that paint God as a faithful lover (rather than Great Judge, Father, King, etc.), and explores the spiritual importance of gratitude and contentedness in the Christian's walk with God. Obviously I could go on talking about all this for hours and hours, but I'll spare you the time and instead just say, "If you haven't read this book, take a look at it, and if you have read this book, read it again." haha. Good stuff. :-)

Anyway, that's been me. This week I guess it's back to the chopping block - back to homework and practice and routines and schedules, but hey, that's life, right? May as well make the most of it! :-D Even though I'm not thrilled about starting school again, God really just has done an amazing work in my heart this week, and I've been so encouraged, so that I can honestly say that, in spite of the circumstances, I am alive and well, I've been refreshed, and I'm excited for another new day -- "it is well with my soul." :-)

....Great is THY faithfulness....
"Tú me perdonas,
Me impartes el gozo;
Tierno me guías por sendas de paz.
Tú compasión y bondad nunca fallan,
Y por los siglos siempre serás.

O, Tú fidelidad; O, Tú fidelidad,
Cada momento la veo en mí.
Nada me falta, pues todo proveés --

Grande, Señor, es Tú fidelidad!!!" :-)