Living Waters for the World

The Kite Runner

I read The Kite Runner last week and was not surprised at all by all the acclaim it had received. It was an engaging, eye-opening story, one that swept the reader up in its fast paced plot and forced you to ask questions of yourself and your background. The author, Khaled Hosseini, takes you back to the Afghanistan where he was raised. He tells of his childhood, detailing his highs and lows in a way I would be comfortable doing, then discusses his flight from Afghanistan during the political uprising.

The author's brutal honesty with his failures as a child is brave. I am not certain I would have the capability to write such a memoir. He exposes himself in a raw and uncensored way, and through him we learn about a country where children grew up no different than our children today. However, with the Taliban, everything changes. The freedom that they had was crushed under the Taliban, and they are forced to flee to America, where the author goes about rebuilding his dreams, brick by brick.

It is a story of reconciliation, of love, of heartbreak. The author is searching for redemption for an act he committed as a child. His journeys have a universal element to them; while we each have things in our past we cannot change, we also have a future that is left open for us to find motivation from our past to fuel our journey forward. We cannot change our past, but we are free to live for God in the future. It is an emotional journey into the heart of a land I previously knew little about. It is a great ride, and I am better for having read it.

Monday Morning

Lord,
My feet have hit the floor, and I'm standing. Disoriented, still half-asleep, wondering what comes next, but here I am. Waiting for clarity, for purpose. But there is one thing that I know: you love me. I am a treasure to you, clay jar that I am. You hold me within your arms, watch me as I grow and stretch and reach for faithfulness, even those things that are beyond my reach. You love me as you love each of your children, and while I can never grasp just how awesome you are, you have filled my heart with a sense of purpose and I am forever grateful. May my life always be pointed to the eternal, to the reality of God among us. May all I do be one continuous praise song to you, my King eternal. I love you.
Amen.

Saturday

Good Shepherd,
Storms rage outside my window. I watch as the rains pour down, as lightning flashes, the heavens open up and send a deluge upon the ground. I wonder, O Lord, when the sun will shine again. How quickly I forget your grace and love. How rapidly I mourn and weep for myself. Remind me of your grace and love, O Lord. Teach me to find the assurance I need in the pages of Scripture, in the history of my life, for you are there. You have woven yourself throughout the pages of my life, and I give you thanks and praise for all you are and all you have done. Even on the darkest of days, Lord, your love abides. Hold me tightly, Lord, so that I may not doubt, but believe.
Amen.