Alright remember the book The Road to Grace? Funny thing happened. I picked that book up at the library without knowing it was the last book in a three book series. I found this out after I finished it. That weekend my parents came up for a visit and my dad brought the whole series for me to read. He didn't even know I had read the last one! So I read the last one then the first and second one but it didn't really spoil anything. The last book could have stood on it's own. So this book is about a man whose wife is killed and he looses her and his job, his house, his cars, everything. So he packs a bag and starts walking. Walking as far away from Seattle as he can. Key West, Florida is his destination. The journey is what matter though. The author delivers and there is so much good stuff in this book. "In each of us, there is something that, for better or worse, wants the world to know we existed." We all want to be remembered. We all want to leave our mark, do something good. You know what the best thing to be remembered by is? Love, the love of Jesus. Now that is something you take with you when you go. "It's a shame that humans don't come with reset buttons." Oh how I wish we did! "How can you hurt a person you love more than yourself? It's like punching yourself in the head." "We can deny reality, but we can't deny the consequences of denying reality." Sure we can deny what is happening but the doesn't change the consequences, they still happen. "When your mother died, I felt as if half my body had been amputated. The half with the heart. At first I wasn't sure if I could keep going on. Frankly, I wasn't sure why I would want to." It hurts so much when someone we love dies. But we must live. "The only way to remove pain from death is to remove love from life." No thanks, guess I will take pain if it means I get to love and be loved. "It is in the dark times that the light of friendship shines brightest." We all need friends and no better time to know who they are then when the darkness closes in. "You can tell a lot about a man by watching how he treats those he doesn't have to be nice to." So true. What are they like when they think no one is looking? "I just wonder why it is that we blame God for everything except the good." Sometimes we forget to give credit for the good but are quick to pass judgement when the bad happens. "That's all that death requires of us, to give up living. The thing is, the only real sign of life is growth. And growth requires pain. So to choose life is to accept pain. Some people go to such lengths to avoid pain that they give up on life. They bury their hearts, or they drug or drink themselves numb until they don't feel anything anymore. The irony is, in the end their escape becomes more painful than what they're avoiding." We have to accept the the rain because there is always a rainbow to follow. "You know, she's not really gone. She's still a part of you. What part of you is your choice. She can be a spring of gratitude and joy, or she can be a fountain of bitterness and pain." The people who pass from this life that we love would want us to live and remember them with joy not sadness. "Some people in this world have stopped looking for beauty, then wonder why their lives are so ugly. Don't be like them. The ability to appreciate beauty is of God. Especially in one another. Look for beauty in everyone you meet, and you'll find it. Everyone carries divinity within them. And everyone has something to impart." Always look for the good, for beauty. It is there, sometimes it is just hidden.
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