Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Pilgrimage: My Journey to a Deeper Faith In The Land Where Jesus Walked





Yesterday my blog included a quote from a book I have been reading.  Pilgrimage: My Journey to a Deeper Faith in the Land Where Jesus Walked by Lynn Austin.  It is another book I received as part of the Bethany House Books review program where I get free books in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book.  The author, Lynn, is feeling dry in her walk with the Lord.  She is slogging through life and feeling really dry.  The whole wilderness experience.  She's also a little depressed after a bunch of major life changes occurred in the space of one year--all her children moving away, deaths in the family, etc.  

She takes a trip to Israel and visits a bunch of Biblically historical locations.  In the process of seeing all these places that she'd previously only read about in the Bible, she has a "moment" and is determined to go home and embrace the changes in her life and move forward in her walk with the Lord.  

I enjoyed the book.  I highlighted probably a quarter of it.  I learned a lot of background knowledge that put the events in the Bible into a new perspective.  She visits King Herod's mountain "fall out shelter"--his fortress where he could go and be safe if the zombies ever attacked.  Here I learn that King Herod was a paranoid man who killed his wife and kids, who killed all the Jewish boys under the age of two in an attempt to eradicate the threat of Jesus overthrowing him, who had vast stores of food and ammunition just in case he ever needed it.  Herod is a prime example of a Prepper.  

There are lots of other interesting facts I picked up from this book, but I won't go into them here.  Mostly I liked the book and would recommend it because it's about life when you feel dry and blah.  I already shared that I was feeling blah a few weeks ago.  I've gone through many highs and lows in my walk with the Lord--times when I felt really close to Him and times when I wasn't even sure He was listening.  

I've approached big changes in my life both with grace and with kicking and screaming.  I used to say that I hated change.  I was a very regimented sort of person who liked routine and had a really hard time when my schedule was thrown off.  Things like vacations and holidays did a number on me.  And major life changes were even worse.  Transitioning from working full time to being a stay at home mom was not a change that I handled with grace.  Not even a little bit.  

I was a flower in a pot who was squished so tight in my root-bound state and refused to budge out of that pot even though God was screaming at me to get out of that tiny pot and move over into the nice, new, bigger pot He had prepared for me.  Nuh-uh, Lord.  I am happy here.  Don't make me change.  

Over the last few years I have come a long way.  I can go on vacation and not turn into a shrew like I used to.  I can look at a messy house and not want to weep in frustration.  But when it comes to big changes, I still have room to grow in saying Yes to the Lord right away.  I've gotten way better, WAY better than I used to be.  And I have faith that I will get to the place where I say Yes right away and embrace the work God has for me and wants to do in me.  

I will leave you with these words from the book:

The question is, am I willing to leave the comfortable, familiar pot where I'm 
currently languishing and trust God to transplant me to a new one?




**Thank you Bethany House Publishers for giving me a copy of this book to review.  All of the opinions expressed in this review are my own.**

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