I am not generally one to plug other's works, especially not online, but I've been reading a book lately that has really meant a lot to me. Over the course of just days I feel like a huge burden has been lifted off of my soul, like I've been set free to see things I couldn't see and realize things I never realized about myself, God, and our relationship. And it all started with a book. A book about walking with God.

I see how my relationship has been so attacked lately. It was so good and so sweet before. And then life happened; things, people, events all began getting in the way. It felt so arranged, like a conspiracy to destroy my relationship. And then, even when there was time, my heart was so beseiged, so enslaved and trapped by such horrible lies, lies about me and God, life and love. Lies that kept me from trusting myself and trusting God. And it took this book for me to see how deep these lies had become embedded in my heart, how deceived I had become and how enamored I was of these psuedo-truths.

And I saw freedom. I not only saw the chains, but I saw the key, the open door, and God standing there, smiling, waiting for me to give my heart back to him again. And I know that there is danger in freedom, for freedom is always attacked. There is always one who does not want us free, whole and healed, truly alive in God. I know that the attack, the evil will not stop. But I feel a little more prepared, for my heart has found its way back into God's heart again. And I know this is a battle I will spend my life fighting, a battle to keep my heart in God's heart, my trust in God's hands, my life in God, but it is one thing to be on the battlefield, and quite another to be aware of the battle and prepared to fight long and hard for something so worth having. I feel I am willing to fight, fight hard for this relationship. It is the thing in my life most worth fighting for, most worth giving everything for, most worth dying for and living for.

And my hope is that everyone can find this relationship with God worth more than anything else, worth everything and then some. There is nothing better than finding that one thing that makes life worth living, that brings the kind of joy we all dream about in those half-awake moments before the dawn when we can't sleep for worry.The kind of joy that we would die for, that we would sacrifice everything for, that we crave with the kind of passion we bury deep inside of ourselves for fear of driving ourselves mad--or worry that we already are. It's there, it's real, and it can be found. Sometimes it just takes a lot of long, hard looking. Sometimes it just takes a smack on the side of the head. Sometimes it takes one word, one conversation.

Or one book.