the power of weddings

Over a year ago I bought a book called Walking with God, by John Eldredge, with whom some of you will be familiar - his most famous book being Wild at Heart, an invitation to Christian men to plunge into adventure and not content themselves with being "nice guys". It took me a year to read his A sacred romance, which, in the same vein, calls all of us to live with God as our Treasure, not to content ourselves with being "nice Christians". It was good stuff, beautifully written, but dense, and uncomfortably challenging at times - hence, I suppose, the year that it took me to get through it.

On my shelves I also had Walking with God, which I realised not long ago was also by John Eldredge, but looked like it might be an easier read, so I brought it on holiday with me.

It is indeed an easier read, consisting of in bite-sized chunks - but in many ways it's no less challenging. It's subtitled Talk to Him. Listen to Him. Really. and it points us to a life of intimacy with God, using the lessons which the author himself has learned, or been reminded of, over the course of a year. I whole-heartedly recommend it.

But none of that is the point.

Today, I have been reading about how We can get so locked onto what we don't have , what we think we want or need, that we miss the gifts God is giving.

Ouch.

I've been at a wedding this weekend. Now, officially, and I thought unofficially too, I'm "fine with the whole singleness thing", had almost resigned myself to it for good, though I've taken a couple of steps recently which would belie this.

But nothing focuses the mind on what you don't have better than a wedding.

And yet, there I was, wearing a beautiful dress I didn't have to pay for because I'd worn it as a bridesmaid last year, surrounded by people whom I can now call lifelong friends, whom I love very much and am so grateful for. Eating tasty food, drinking wine I thoroughly enjoyed, and the whole thing in a beautiful venue - the hotel where Hugh Grant takes Renée Zellweger for a mini-break in Bridget Jones' Diary.

I need to open my eyes to what God is giving me, not to what He isn't.