When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head

This is my favorite book because it is romantic. I don't mean it is a cheap fairy tale, I mean it is full of idealism and heroics. And has a happy ending.

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold, by C.S. Lewis

"Lightly men talk of saying what they mean. Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek the Fox would say, "Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that's the whole art and joy of words." A glib saying. When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?" (294)

Called to Care by Judith Shelley and Arlene Miller

Nursing is a ministry of compassionate care for the whole person, in response to God's grace toward a sinful world, which aims to foster optimum health (shalom) and bring comfort in suffering and death to anyone in need.

"Theologian Charles Sherlock suggests three general approaches [for finding our way in a culturally pluralistic world]:
1. We should put away the idea that any one culture embodies Christian faith (this is especially true for those of us who live in cultures that have been most influenced by Christianity.)
2. We should use crosscultural relationships to reflect on our own culture--both to identify our prejudices and to be enriched by others' experiences and ways of thinking.
3. We must recognize the effects of sin on all human cultures: the outworkings of human pride, self-centeredness, and the desire to be in control are present in every culture." (125)

"We actually proclaim the kingdom of God when we care for suffering people (Luke 4:18-21). Through Jesus Christ, God not only announced the ultimate end of suffering, he himself took human form to suffer for our sake--making that hope possible. Right now, we live in a now-and-not-yet kingdom. Jesus' suffering and death on the cross definitely won the victory over sin in our world. our hope for a new world order is certain. But the effects of sin sill ripple through our lives. The reality of the kingdom will not fully appear until the parousia--the second coming of Christ. In the meantime we endure suffering with patience and hope, trusting in God's mercy and compassion, but also reaching out in love to care for others who are suffering. Ultimately we look forward to a time when illness, tears and suffering will have been wiped away--when nurses won't be needed!" (217)

Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliott

This is why I like Elisabeth, and keep coming back to her. She just says it like it is- simple, but not easy. This is the "How to Know what God Wants" chapter.


A young woman came in great perplexity to a Scottish preacher, asking how she could resolve the question of her own desires when they seemed to be in such contradiction to the will of God. He took out a slip of paper, wrote two words on it, handed it to her with the request that she sit down for ten minutes, ponder the words, cross out one of them, and bring the slip back to him. She sat down and read: No Lord. Which to cross out? It did not take her long to see that if she was saying No she could not say Lord, and if she wanted to call him Lord, she could not say No.
No question comes up more often among Christian young people who face what seem to be limitless options than this one of how to discover what God wants them to do. What, exactly, is one's calling?

There are two very simple conditions to discovering the will of God. Paul states them clearly in his letter to the Romans, chapter 12. The first is in verse 1 (Jerusalem Bible): "... offering your living bodies as holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God." The place to start is by putting yourself utterly and unconditionally at God's disposal. You say Yes Lord. You turn over all the rights at the very beginning. Once that's settled you can go on to the second, in verse 2: "Do not mold yourselves on the behavior of the world around you, but let your behavior change, modelled by your new mind." I said that the conditions were simple. I did not say they were easy. Exchanging a No Lord for a Yes Lord has often been painful for me. But I do want a "new mind"--one that takes its cues from the Word of God, not the mass media. I pray for a clear eye to see through the fog of popular opinion, and a will strong enough to withstand the currents--a will surrendered, laid alongside Christ's. He is my model. This means a different set of ambitions, a different definition of happiness, a different standard of judgment altogether. Behavior will change, and very likely it will change enough to make me appear rather odd--but then my Master was thought very odd.

Paul goes on to say that these conditions are "the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do." No wonder we scratch out heads and ask, "What is the secret of knowing the will of God?" We haven't started at the right place--the offering of that all-inclusive sacrifice, our very bodies, ad then the absolute refusal of the world's values.

Make Thy paths known to me, O Lord; teach me Thy ways.
Lead me in Thy truth and teach me;
Thou art God my Savior.
Psalm 25:4,5, NEB

When we cannot see our way
Let us trust and still obey;
He who bids us forward go
Cannot fail the way to show.
Though the sea be deep and wide,
Though a passage seem denied,
Fearless let us still proceed,
Since the Lord vouchsafes to lead.
Anonymous

If there is any man who fears the Lord, he shall be shown the path that he should choose.
Psalm 25:12, NEB