Wait: Thoughts and Practice in Waiting on God
by Rebecca Brewster Stevenson
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This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Rebecca Brewster Stevenson will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.GENRE: Christian Inspirational, Non-fiction
What are you waiting for?
Everyone has endured the endless traffic light, the queue that goes nowhere, the elevator music piped through the phone line. But what of those periods in your life when everything seems on hold? When you can't do the next thing in your professional or personal life because you can't get to it?
Waiting—be it for health, a life partner, a child, a job—can be an agony. The persistently unrealized goal feels like an endless road. And hope's constant deferment can be exhausting. A firm answer against the thing you're hoping for—"no"—might be easier than this constant lack of closure. It might be easier to give it up.
But what if waiting means to be something else? Waiting doesn't have to mean idleness. Our prolonged state of need might teach us to look beyond the desired goal to something infinitely better. We find lessons on this throughout the Bible and, if we are paying attention, in our own lives.
Rather than fostering frustration, periods of waiting might have great truths to tell us. It might show us that hope is worthwhile. Waiting might even be a gift in and of itself.
Read an Excerpt
If you have asked God for something, and he has not said "yes," or "no," if you are among the loved ones enduring his seeming silence because he has asked you to wait, if you are standing on a proverbial sideline or platform somewhere, then I am asking you to shift your gaze. Don't look at the game. Don't squint at the stick. And don't think for a minute that, just because I ask you to shift your gaze, that the thing you are gazing at--the thing you want and are waiting for--is bad. It's not. But there is something to be gleaned from the sideline itself--and this is what we must attend to. You are on the outside, looking in. But look around you. Everyone is on the outside, and this has been true from almost the very beginning.
About the Author:
Rebecca Brewster Stevenson is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has a master's degree from Duke University and has lived in Durham, North Carolina for over 20 years with her husband and three children.
Before dedicating herself to writing full time, Rebecca worked with Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill to develop the curriculum for their humanities department; she also worked as an English teacher at public and private middle and high schools in Durham and Pittsburgh.
Rebecca's debut novel Healing Maddie Brees was published in 2016 to literary acclaim. Her beautifully crafted personal essays on her blog "Small Hours" have earned her a strong audience of readers who enjoy her explorations of themes relating to family, marriage, faith, writing, language, literature, and film.
"Rebecca Brewster Stevenson's writing is consistently powerful, complex, honest, and hopeful" (Andy Crouch, author, Culture Making and The Tech-Wise Family). Rebecca's writing has also been called "exquisite" (Stephen Chbosky), "thought-provoking" (Barbara Claypole White), and "gorgeous" (Kirkus Reviews).
Website: https://rebeccabrewsterstevenson.com
Blog: https://rebeccabrewsterstevenson.com/blog/
Light Messages: https://www.lightmessages.com/rebecca-brewster-stevenson
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RebeccaBrewsterStevenson
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Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rbstevenson1
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
Rebecca Brewster Stevenson will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveawayFollow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
Thank you so much for taking time to bring to our attention another great read. I enjoy these tours and finding out about many terrific books.
ReplyDeleteHaven't read anything inspirational before but I do like the premise of this one so I'll give it a go
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting me and my book today!
ReplyDeleteI love the cover, thanks for the chance!
ReplyDeleteI do, too! It's a detail of a painting called "Further Up, Further In," by Hilary Siber. I talk about the painting and what motivated the artist to paint it in the book. :)
DeleteI can't wait to read this one, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it, Victoria. :)
DeleteThank you to this blog for the intro to Rebecca Brewster Stevenson and her work. I will certainly give her work a read.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Audrey! I hope you enjoy it.
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