"A New Kind of Normal: by Carol Kent

I found this book...I think I bought it at women of faith...I just thought I'd blog some of the things that stood out to me....kinda like a book report...

The subtitle is "Hope-filled choices when life turns upside down"

Life isnt like a book. Life isnt logical or sensible or orderly..Life is a mess most of the time...and theology must be lived in the midst of that mess.
----Charles Colson

When suffering shatters the carefully kept vase that is our lives, God stoops to pick up the pieces. But He doesnt put them back together as a restoration project patterned after our former selves. Instead, He sifts through the rubble and selects some of the shards as raw material for another project-----a mosaic that tells the story of redemption. ---Ken Gire

When I wonder what God could possibly be thinkin.....I CHOOSE TRUST
"But regret looks backward, and trust looks forward. I choose trust"
"At some point in our lives, most of us will face a faith test. It is that moment in time when what we have always believed about who God is and what He allows to happen in our lives intersects with the reality of our experience--a head on collision between our faith and the hard facts of an impossible situation. It's a time when we sometimes question the goodness of God because we are having difficultly understanding what "trust" looks like. On the surface nothing makes sense. Over time, we wrestle with the question, is God trustworthy? the outward appearance of the situation does not indicate that God intervened in our circumstances. Will we cut and run from our relationship with God, or will we rely on Him and believe His character is still good?"

"When I desperately want relief from unrelenting reality....I CHOOSE PERSEVERANCE" " I believe we find our true self in the midst of suffering, pain and sorrow, not in the absence of it. Dont ask me why this is so; it just is. Maybe it's because trails reveal the shallowness in us or teach us to depend on a Power greater than ourselves. Or because it dims the attractions the world has to offer and casts a bright light onto spiritual realities. I tend to think it's because we find in our suffering a point of identity with Jesus the Christ, the One who suffered in our place. There is no closer fellowship with our Lord than "the fellowship of His suffering." In this place, He reveals Himself and opens up spiritual truth.

So, summarizing her book...."How do we...make it through the next day, but begin to make choices that result in triumphant living, without minimizing the intensity of our sorrow? There's only one way: BY EXPERIENCING THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD THAT WE IN TURN SPLASH ALL OVER THE PEOPLE AROUND US. Experiencing His irresistible love in the middle of catastrophic loss )or even during life's inevitable challenges and disappointments) is so empowering that we automatically keep passing it on to other people. and we live in the constant astonishment that GOD USES BROKEN PEOPLE TO MINISTER TO BROKEN PEOPLE....