Space for God by Don Postema

There are a few books which are so significant and so full of depth, books which, for me, have been life-changing and transformational, books that are sometimes difficult to explain, describe, or discuss with a friend who hasn’t read them, other than to say, “You need to read this book!”

Are there any books like that for you? (Hey, this might make a good Facebook list.)

Anyway, by way of example, here are four very different books which have been transformational for me, books of significance, books I will read again sometime soon:

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Bread for the Journey by Henri Nouwen
Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

And then there is Space for God by Don Postema. I am so glad our church has a Saturday morning small group walking through the book together. They will be changed. I cannot review this book adequately, at least not today. The best I can do is to let Don Postema speak for himself by sharing a brief quotation from each of the first four chapters:

Making Space

If we are to live with any authenticity, we must join those “saints and poets” who grasp life at depth. To live so deeply is a special challenge, for it is so easy to be superficial. We are so busy….

Perhaps we need to flop into a chair more often—before we are exhausted. We need more leisure time to touch those inner dimensions of our lives, to ask some fundamental questions, or just to be.

I Belong

Most of us know that feeling of being alone, isolated. It’s not the same as choosing to be alone once in a while, or being independent at times. It’s the feeling that no one is near, that no one remembers….

Even when events and people say, “You don’t belong,” God’s gentle voices reassures us: “You do belong—to me.” Knowing that [we belong to God] does not solve all our problems, but it can give us a perspective on loneliness. It can help us understand that we do not have to be greedy for attention as a solution to loneliness, we do not have to cling to people for our identity. We get our identity from God.

Gratitude Takes Nothing For Granted

Greed grabs. Gratitude receives….

Gratitude takes nothing for granted. When you are truly grateful, you recognize not only the dinner someone prepared as a gift, but also become aware of the person who prepared it. You are cognizant of the concern it took for someone to call, to send a card, to give a compliment. You are aware of the love involved in a routine offer to do the dishes, fix a leaky faucet, take out the garbage. You may get a glimpse at the wonder of friends and family….

Gratitude is the appropriate response to belonging.

Gestures of Gratitude

Gratitude recognizes that a gift has been given, a favor has been done by someone. There is a gift and a giver. But there is more. Gratitude also calls for a response to that gift. We thank the giver with an expression of appreciation—a handshake, a hug, a note. A gesture of gratitude completes the exchange, closes the circle, lets the love flow back to the giver…..

Actually, the exchange is more like a spiral than a circle—a spiral in which the giver gets thanked and so becomes the receiver, and the joy of giving and receiving rises higher and higher.