Next minute:
WOO HOO!"Kneeling with Giants" made #7 in @adulcia 's "Top 20 Christian Books List"!@ivpbooks@adriannawright bit.ly/UeSxq0
— Gary Neal Hansen (@garynealhansen) December 5, 2012
@ivpress @adulcia Okay, it was #8, but I was so excited I apparently blinked at the wrong moment.
— Gary Neal Hansen (@garynealhansen) December 5, 2012
"Slow down," I thought, "It's just lil' ol' me!"
I'd never have imagined a book review (unsolicited and un-sponsored) on my blog would lead to an international skype call between my study group and the author. (Thank you so much, Gary, for being willing to sacrifice your sleep at 2:30am to meet with us). Sometimes the unimaginable happens in the blog-iverse. God's kingdom knows neither geographic boundaries nor time-zones.
Unlike nearly every other book about prayer I've read, Gary doesn't write about what he thinks prayer should be, instead he points the reader in the direction of historical "Giants" such as Benedict of Nursia, Augustine of Hippo, John Calvin, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila and Andrew Murray, and several others. Gary provides very practical guidelines for putting each tradition of prayer into practice. This is what makes Kneeling with Giants such a powerful resource. It's not the book itself, the book just points the way. It was in the actual praying and entering the very presence of God that I found myself glimpsing depths I'd previously only lightly touched the surface of.
Our study group has now reached the end of the book (Gary, you can tell your son we have now read all the words!) but I feel I want to go back again and again to these prayer traditions. I will certainly be spending more time with Teresa of Avila, the Puritans and the anonymous medieval author of The Cloud of Unknowing, among others.
My journey into prayer has barely begun. Who wants to come along with me?
that is so exciting!! :o)
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post, Claudia! The Skype call was fun, even if at 2:30 a.m. I'm not entirely coherent. Great to make connections across the many miles and time zones.
ReplyDelete