The Catholic Book Blogger
Review by Michele Craig
“For our entire lives, we’ve been conditioned to make decisions based on what we want, and it goes against our grain to relinquish control to anyone, even to God. It seems as if to do so would require us to give up our freedom. But the opposite is true: we are most free and most human when we are squarely in God’s will.”
“Perhaps we have messed up God’s plan for us. It could be that God had a certain job in mind for us that would use our abilities and talents to further His kingdom on earth, but we did other things. Maybe we ignored God altogether and lived a self-centered sinful life. It’s possible that God had religious life for us, but we got married instead. We could be on course, slightly off course, or way off the mark.”
“Even if we are not on course, no worries! Think of a Global Positioning System (GPS). If we do not follow the instructions, the GPS continually recalibrates to lead us to our destination. It does not send us back to the beginning to start all over. We don’t travel the roads that we have passed up. Rather, the GPS sends us to our destination from where we currently stand. That is how it is with God, but infinitely better.”
These are a few of the opening paragraphs of Julie Onderko’s book Discover Your Next Mission From God: Saints Who Found God’s Will-and How You Can Too
And that is where Julie Onderko steps in to guide us with her dynamic and wise words, and compelling saint stories in Discover Your Next Mission From God: Saints Who Found God’s Will-and How You Can Too
Julie explains how to discern our life’s mission -actually sometimes a series of missions throughout our entire life. She provides examples from the lives of the saints- showing how their early lives prepared them for their mission in life. Julie reminds us that all of the saints, the angels, St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother are available to assist us.
To round out each chapter, there is a response and a reflection section to encourage us to pause and soak in the wisdom Julie has revealed. Whew! I felt a lot better after reading this book-it helped me to make a few choices that I did not realize I was ready to make concerning my own mission!
And so Julie concludes: “Relinquishing the power to control our lives and giving it to the One who knows us better than we know ourselves, the One who has all the answers, the One who is most capable, makes perfect sense. Our abandonment to God’s purpose, and the required trust in Him and His plan, is where our fulfillment, our greatest desire, is found.. It is the only answer that will satisfy.”
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