{"id":1534,"date":"2011-04-15T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/karenspearszacharias\/?p=1534"},"modified":"2011-04-15T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T16:00:15","slug":"when-we-amaze-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/karenspearszacharias\/2011\/04\/15\/when-we-amaze-god\/","title":{"rendered":"When we amaze God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I went to an art show in Pendleton last night with my friend poet Pam Steele, who has a debut novel coming out sometime later this year. I\u2019ll keep you posted. If you live in the neighborhood you ought to make it over to Pendleton\u2019s Art Center for the show, which runs through May. There is some wonderful work displayed. I\u2019ve been searching for a stained glass to hang in an upstairs window for quite some time. So once the art show is over I\u2019ll bring the above piece home. It isn\u2019 t actually stained glass. It\u2019s a broken glass mosaic.<\/p>\n

You might consider it my celebratory art.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know it then but after I returned home last night, I learned through \u00a0my friend Silas House that Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide? has been named a finalist for the Southeast Independent Booksellers Association. Y\u2019all remember when the book was nominated?<\/p>\n

Well, now they\u2019ve narrowed the list and Double-Wide made the cut. <\/a><\/p>\n

I just want to say thank you to each and everyone of you who bought a copy, read the book, and then turned around and told somebody about the book.<\/p>\n

I received the following email last week from a reader:<\/p>\n

Thank You!\u00a0Karen, I always read your wonderful columns in the Ledger-Enquirer, but I\u00a0must tell you that this latest book, WILL JESUS BUY ME A DOUBLE-WIDE? is\u00a0marvelous. I enjoyed every single chapter!\u00a0Please know that you are only the second author (the first was Borden Deal\u00a0back in college days) to whom I have written a thank you. This book really\u00a0struck a cord with me, and I\u2019m recommending it to everyone.\u00a0Thanks again,\u00a0Martha Ruth Whatley\u00a0Columbus, GA. <\/em><\/p>\n

If only you all knew how incapable I feel most of the time. Do you feel that way in your lives? Like it\u2019s ridiculous that you are doing what you do because shouldn\u2019t somebody have recognized by now that you are hardly qualified?<\/p>\n

I feel less like a writer and more like the person who is piecing together brokenness \u2014 my own, and others.<\/p>\n

Creating, however we do that, is a reflection of Creator God.<\/p>\n

It is a prayer that says I want to amaze you, God \u2014 the way you have me all these years.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I told the women at Bible Study this week \u2014 I just want to do something that leaves God gap-mouthed \u2014 in a good way. I\u2019ve already done enough to stun Him in all the wrong ways. \u00a0I want to be like the Centurion whose faith amazed Jesus. (Luke 7)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Jesus heard these things,\u00a0he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said,\u00a0\u201cI tell you, not even in Israel have I found such\u00a0faith.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It helps to keep in mind that when I\u2019m standing in front of Jesus he doesn\u2019t see all my brokenness \u2014 he sees me as a beautiful mosaic that he\u2019s lovingly and carefully pieced back together.<\/p>\n

Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide? <\/em>is a mosaic of sorts, a piecing together of stories of people that I think have amazed God.<\/p>\n

Do you know such a person, such a story? Who do you know who amazes God?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went to an art show in Pendleton last night with my friend poet Pam Steele, who has a debut novel coming out sometime later this year. I\u2019ll keep you posted. If you live in the neighborhood you ought to make it over to Pendleton\u2019s Art Center for the show, which runs through May. There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[230,1139,1265,1293,1326,1642],"class_list":["post-1534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brokenness","tag-mosaic","tag-pam-steele","tag-pendleton-art-center","tag-poetry","tag-stained-glass"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen we amaze God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I went to an art show in Pendleton last night with my friend poet Pam Steele, who has a debut novel coming out sometime later this year. 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