soul cravings

I finally finished Erwin McManus's book Soul Cravings, just in time for starting his new one, Wide Awake, for the sermon series and book club. I love that I'm part of the Mosaic community, its such an exciting time here.

In Soul Cravings, Erwin explores exactly what the title says, what the soul craves. He says "Your soul craves truth, beauty, wonder, love. Your soul craves to dream, to imagine, and even simply to understand. Your soul craves to connect, to commune, to create. When you cannot see the possibility of these things, when you give up on them, when you are no longer changed by the pursuit of what seem to be ideals outside your reach, you starve your soul and you lose yourself. God has placed cravings within your soul that will drive you insane or drive you to him". Through this book, I've been able to get more of a glimpse of how God made us, for intimacy, for meaning. Our souls long to know the love God created us in, and created us for. Our souls long to be in community with others, to share our lives.

One thing that really struck me from this book is how if we are not connected to our source, being God, we will truly die. We cannot live without Him, and if we live a life in connection to Him, our souls will be fully alive. Until we know we were created with a purpose and for a purpose, wewill never be satisfied with the life we have. God is with us on this journey, He wants to take us where we cannot go alone, to become what we cannot be alone.

Another thing Erwin speaks about is the importance of hope in our lives. When we don't have hope, we feel powerless to change anything, but when we have hope, we are able to see the beauty and potential of every circumstance. He says, "hope empowers us to pursue our dreams, dreams are the art form of hope, they paint a picture of the life we desire". He also says, "God never intended for us to live hopeless lives. When we treat the future as something that happens to us, we become passive, apathetic, and even paralyzed. When we embrace our unique place in creation, when we believe that God has created us to create, it begins to change everything for us. It not only empowers us to live, but it holds us responsible for life. Not only our lives, but the lives of everyone we could affect for good."

Our sermon today was the introduction for Wide Awake. The pastor talked about our dreams, and how it affects not only ourselves. If we choose not to live with hope, live our God-given dreams, we not only affect ourselves, but everyone around us. Every one of us has been called to something unique, and if we move away from that dream or call, the people around us suffer. We talked about Jonah, how he ran away from the plan God had for him, and he didn't just affect him, but those on the boat he was on. Jonah was sleep walking through life, and God didn't punish him, but woke him up and pulled him back to the life and dream God had for him.

It was a wonderful and busy week. I started subbing on Wednesday, had Thursday off, and subbed again on Friday. Wednesday I had a second grade class, they had so much energy! Friday I had a sixth grade class, I really enjoyed being with those kids. Friday night we had our Wide Awake book club. It was great to have that community. Saturday was a chill day, then Erin, Lena and I went to the Hotel Cafe Tour to see Meiko, Jaymay, Erin McCarley, Priscilla Ahn, Laura Jansen, and Holly Conlan. It was 3 hours of amazing music, they were all such talented artists.

I'm looking forward to this week, looking forward to recognizing my unique dreams and soul cravings :) Its an exciting place to be in!