If God Disappears

Mia came home from school yesterday wanting to tell me her plans for the future. She's gone through several phases (as most kids do) about what she wants to be when she grows up. She's wanted to be a teacher, veterinarian, singer, famous (how didn't matter, as long as she was on a toothbrush), ballet dancer, and always a mommy. This is what she said today. "Mommy, do you know what I'm going to be when I grow up? I'm going to be a mommy and someone who flies around in outer space." Astronaut, I interjected. "Yes, an astronaut. And you know what I'm going to do with my daughter until she's ten? I'm going to hire a babysitter who will take care of her when I'm in space. But I'll come home every night and protect her and make her supper. But when I'm flying around in space, Daddy will be with me. Because that's what he's going to do too." Why a babysitter until her daughter is ten, I'm not quite sure.

Jesse loves astronomy and looking at the stars. One of the last nights before school, he took Mia on a "date." They waited until dark (which meant long after her bedtime), took some juice boxes and a blanket, and laid out in the lawn looking at the stars. She can point out Venus and several stars due to the time she spends with her daddy. I think it's awful sweet that she wants to have a career with him doing what he loves best. Unfortunately, I don't think that his degree in Business will get him into space.

If God Disappears by David Sanford is a powerful book about the times when we question God in our lives and how we can seek and find him. Sanford picks nine crises that when they strike can make us wonder what God is doing or if He is even paying attention. Sanford offers several anecdotes about the ways that God has worked for him and people he knows, and sometimes when God hasn't worked, but we still have to trust him anyway. I can't help but admire Sanford's deep faith after growing up with an atheist father who disapproved of his son's decision to follow Jesus. The chapter about betrayal by the church resonated strongest with me. After the deep pain Jesse and I suffered at our previous church, we are healing at our current one. But it isn't perfect, and we still have issues with commitment there. Sanford reminds me that no church is perfect, but God is there, and I need to trust in and wait on that. The most powerful part of the entire book just may be the epilogue. Sanford tells the story of how Jesus got Peter and his brother to follow him; by meeting them, hanging around, and then disappearing so that they had to seek him out. Perhaps that's just what God does on occasion: disappear so that we seek Him out. The book is intelligent with a great deal of heart, the type you want to read over the course of several readings so that you can really take in the message and let it soak into your soul.

Don't forget that today is your last chance to sign up to win a copy of Tricia Goyer's Sweet September. You have until 10 pm to send me an email. Good luck!