Your Life – a Treadmill, a Saga, or a Pilgrimage?

   Heaven behind me, heaven around me, and heaven before me. “There is no time or place that is not heaven”.  All The Way To Heaven by Elizabeth Sherrill is a book about her spiritual journey, but it also speaks to every follower of Jesus in so many ways.
Each of us can see God’s hand on our lives when we look back- maybe even before we knew He was there; in our present life – one a mixture of grief and joy, despair and hope; then, of course, we look to the future, where we will live the longest (forever, in fact), and sometimes we may even catch glimpses of our future home even in this  present life.
Elizabeth shares what she’s learned on her own life’s journey, how God spoke to her uniquely, because she is unique. Just as we all are. Why should we think that our relationship with God is supposed to be a cookie cutter one? That was so freeing to me, to realize that My relationship with God is not meant to look like my friends’ , my sister’s, my husband’s, or my children’s.
I was also comforted in realizing that no matter what has happened to me, what is happening to me, or what will happen to me—God is there.
There are so many wonderful stories and quotes in this book, but  I’ll whet your appetite with just a few. I really recommend you read this book for yourself, though.

“ God doesn’t set us a task and come back later to see how we’ve done. He goes with us every inch of the way. “ Brother Andrew

Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That is how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen

Oh, and THIS one:

Holiness is not a personal achievement. It is an emptiness you discover in yourself. Instead of resenting it, you accept it and it becomes the free space where the Lord can create anew. To cry out, “You alone are the Holy one, You alone are the Lord”; that is what it means to be pure of heart.

St. Francis of Assissi
Okay, one more and that’s it.

Earth’s crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God.
And only he who sees takes off his shoes.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
This book itself is on a pilgrimage, visiting homes of bloggers around North America. Which means, I’ve had to say farewell to a new friend. 
I can see another book order is in my future.