me? entranced by a book?

I don't usually blog on anything all that serious...mainly because I'd prefer to actually discuss "serious" things with actual people, not just put it out there for whoever to stumble upon. However, I've read some things lately that have provoked my mind in a way it hasn't been in a long time.

I started reading this book (I know, shocker #1). The thing is, I can't put it down (shocker #2). I've never been a reader. I'm not really sure why. Maybe because I was forced to go in so many bookstores as a child with my dad and brother that I was turned off at an early age. Maybe its because I just simply enjoy conversation more than reading words. Maybe its because I fall asleep within the first paragraph usually...who can know really. However, I have recently began reading Girl Meets God, by Lauren Winner. Its about a girl who became an Orthodox Jew convert and then later converts to Christianity. I'm fascinated by her thoughts. I fascinated by how smart she sounds when she writes, which leads me to think she is actually smart when she doesn't write as well. It makes me want to write and want to think deeply about life and God and my faith. It makes me want to get coffee and sit and read all day on a rainy saturday - granted I don't like coffee and I don't like to read.

Here's a quote that I processed for long time last time. It just makes me think...not in a "gosh, this girls got it all figured out" kind of way, but in a "I really want to think about God" kind of way...maybe that doesn't make sense, its ok.

"Here is the thing about God. He is so big and so perfect that we can't really understand Him. We can't possess Him, or apprehend Him. Moses leanred this when he climbed up Mount Sinai and saw that the radiance of God's face would burn him up should he gaze upon it directly. But God so wants to be in relationship with us that He makes himself small, smaller than He really is, smaller and more humble that his infinite, perfect self, so that we might be ablt to get to Him, a little bit."

She goes on to talk about God shrinking Himself down into "manger finiteness" and then quotes another author who says, "For people with bodies, important things like love have to be embodied. That's all. God had to be embodied, or else poeple with bodies would never in a trillion years understand about love."

now maybe none of this makes you think. maybe it makes you think, "wow em, you're really simple minded if this is what makes you think...I thought about this years ago." which is fine. Either way, I encourage you to think...about life, about God, your faith. Maybe it will inspire you to meet with friends and discuss what you think about those things. Maybe you too will long for a rainy saturday to sit in a coffee shop and read even when you too don't like coffee and don't like to read.