Heaven is for real

I know this is long overdue; the past week has been craaaazy busy. I won’t get into the small details of what kept me from blogging (exam, girls weekend, work) but here is the book review I said was coming soon … 2 weeks ago. Lol.

So many favorite quotes from this book but I chose this one: “Intellectual honesty: to be willing to accept reality and to call things what they are even when it is hard.”

Heaven is for real

by Todd Burpo

So, I have read The Shack by William P. Young which was a great book about heaven and god and having faith in the big guy. I recently read Heaven is for real, which is the same idea… heaven, god, faith.

This book though, is a true story and very, very, touching.

It’s one of them “feel good” books. You can’t read this book without finishing it feeling a new sense of faith and a newfound relationship with God.

It follows a little boy who gets very sick, he walks away from his experience at the hospital with a piece of heaven!

His father is a pastor, which sounds like it is going to be a preachy, blah, blah, “you’re just making this story up because you are a bible bumper” kind of book.

Trust me, it isn’t.

I only started the book because I needed a quick read while I was home one weekend and honestly I didn’t have intentions on reading it before I picked it up. Once I got going though, I swam through half of the book in a matter of a few hours.

It was delicious.

The author (the pastor, the little boys dad) is actually quite funny, and very real. He allows you to remember all “men of god” aren’t tightwads who don’t know how to laugh and make mistakes. He lets you into his world, and shows you that no one is perfect. We all get mad at God, and take frustrations out on him.

The other thing he shows us is that God is Love.

Such a simple, cheesy, elementary saying. Yet so true.

I took away from this book the feeling that it is okay to feel. It’s okay not to understand. As long as you realize you can apologize, and understand it isn’t God who is creating a mess in our lives. God loves us and he would never turn on us. He is always there with open arms, loving us and protecting us.

Another large theme in the book is childlike faith. So often our prayers turn into “adult” prayers…. You all know what I am talking about… we talk to God like we try to impress him. Lol. Like if our prayers “sound” right, they will be more effective or something.

Bottom line: Get back to the basics. God is real and loves you for who you are. Don’t pretend to be something else, because he knows what you are doing and DON’T take lifes complications out on him. You can’t see the big picture like he can, and you don’t know what kind of precious wonders he is holding just around the corner for you. Trust in God, and have a little faith. He will surprise you every time J