By Anna Quinn
Today my to-do list includes:
Driving the kids to two different schools
Getting the upstairs heat fixed
Cleaning the kitchen
Chipping away at Mt. Laundry
Working on a local charity race
Writing this post
My day has a lot of busyness and maybe not a lot of deliberate purpose. Most of these things are good and necessary, but do they really satisfy? Am I made for more?
Many times my life feels defined by the immediate—by spilled milk, sick children, text messages, and volunteer sign up sheets at school and church. In her new book Restless, Jennie Allen encourages us to examine our lives. What are our greatest passions? What are our greatest hurts? When have we been the happiest? If we could dream big, what would we do? God gave us our talents, weaknesses, and yes, even our sufferings. How might he want us to use those unique elements to do something marvelous for His glory?
Restless encourages us not to fit into a mold, but to embrace who we really are in Christ. Using the life of Joseph, Allen explores how God uses all circumstances in our lives for our good. Often our greatest strengths spring from our sufferings. As we work through the book, Allen provides journal pages to help explore our own life stories, looking for common themes and experiences. By surveying our lives, we can find threads that help us see our unique gifts and passions. We cans serve God more fully by connecting our experiences and our emotions to the needs around us.
Restless provides practical help for a difficult task. Discovering who we are in Christ is a lifelong process, but Allen helps us see how our unique gifts (even housework and carpooling) can be used, in big and small ways, to God’s glory. She encourages us to embrace our freedom in Christ and reminds us that while our hearts are restless, our true rest is found in Him.
To read an excerpt from Restless, visit the Patheos Book Club here.
Anna Quinn and her family live in Tennessee, where she is inordinately involved in church and school volunteering, fundraising (chocolate, anyone?), and chauffeuring. She is learning to say “no” and prays that maybe, occasionally, she throws some decent mothering into the mix. Writing still holds a mystique, and Anna now employs her Vanderbilt University degree writing book reviews and cultural articles for the e-zine Six Seeds.tv.
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