I have now made it about halfway through Anything by Jennie Allen.  I told you a few weeks ago that I was taking my time, savoring and learning as I read.  It’s so good, you guys.  If you haven’t read it, you should.  There is so much information in this book of hers.  This is the first book of Jennie’s that I have read and I can’t wait to pick up some of her others.

A few quotes I’m loving so far:

• You have to thank God for the seemingly good and the seemingly bad because really, you don’t know the difference.
• Pretending to be good halts God’s movement in our life.
• Grace is scary insane.
• The state of our invisible hearts takes precedence over all the good behavior.
• It is too easy in this country for blessings to become rights, for stuff and money to become what calls the shots in our lives.  And before we know it, God’s gifts have replaced God himself.

That last one got me, y’all.  We are so used to our comfy beds and our warm houses and our abundant foods.  We don’t look at those things as blessings, but as our rights.  And that’s just not true.

I’m so upset about this whole refugee crisis.  I don’t know what the solution is, but I know that it is only by God’s grace that I am not one of them.  That I am not running for my life with my family in tow.  It breaks my heart and it has been eye-opening.  I no more deserve to be here, relatively safe in the United States, than they deserve to be over there, living in a war-torn impoverished country.

This life I live is not a right.  I did nothing to deserve it.  I have this life because God chose to bless me with it and I pray I never forget that.