books and escapes into holiness

I have been reading a lot lately.  in this week alone I have read 3 amazing books.  there seems to be a central theme and I didn't go for this by the way but GOD did.  and that theme is GOD and the beliefs we all have.

The first book I read was the Novelist. ( don't remember the author)  but It is about a Christian woman who writes action novels and takes a job teaching a community college class about how to write a novel.  Her student challenges her to bleed into the book. She writes an allegory for her troubled son and for the class.  
She quotes my scripture.   Jer. 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you " says the Lord" plans to prosper you and not to harm you to give you hope and a future".   Yes that is my life's scripture,  keeps me grounded and remembering that this life I have isn't about me.  Yes I am going to fall on my face MANY MANY more times but he loves me and wants me to hope but he isn't afraid to let me fall so I can remember it.      ( the author of the Novelist talks about this also)

The second book I read was called Catalyst by Angela Hunt.  It is a teens book about the daughter of a minister who is struggling with accepting that things happen for a reason.   You need a million boxes of tissues for this book.  I read this book because I read and saw the movie for  the book SPEAK about rape of a 14 year old High School Freshman.   Both books are powerful and real and raw.  She writes in a way that most writers today have forgotten.  She connects to the reader in a scary kind of reality through their youth.

Lastly, I read the book Go Down To Silence.  PLEASE read this book.  It is a book about a survivor of the Holocaust and the horrors he has seen the estrangement from his youngest son and the generosity and love of God to put Christian people in the role of protecting and helping many Jewish families ( mostly children) survive.  It is about the reconciliation of the people of the world to their one true GOD.    the natural chosen people of God and those that have been cut and cultivated and brought into the fold of God's love and embrace.  There is a part of the book where the little Jewish boy looks up in his hiding and sees Jesus on the cross and is told that he too was a Jew that God sent to die on the cross by the Jews so that all can again be His chosen people.     There was a severe vivid cruelty explained and a Severe and tender Love in this book. 


I want to write so that people feel as moved as these books have made me feel.   To have the power to stand up and have the courage to meet your fears and forgive them and let them go.
 I get that feeling most from Go down to Silence because the main character Jacob faced his fear and faced the man who took his father and uncles and cousins to the death camps and instead of killing him he let him go.   I want to be able to do that to the many nameless faces that touched me and hurt me as a tiny girl.    I want to face them and tell them I forgive them for the evil they did to me.  Maybe I don't need to tell them I just need to say it out loud. 

I think a lot lately about God being my shepherd in the valley of the shadow of death and being thankful for his rod that sustains me.   I wonder if I will ever live up to that thankfulness.  There is hope that He knows I am thankful even if my actions sometimes say otherwise. How can I fathom how AWESOME my God is?