GLEANINGS

Gleaning. A picking up. A gathering. 

In Scripture we see it as the Lord's provision when Ruth came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. (Ruth 2:2-4)

I often glean spiritual truth from non-fiction books. Some gleanings are noteworthy.

For me, when short on time, I often approach a book with a glance at the Table of Contents. 

Much info can be gleaned from there to aid my "quick read" even if I read from the back...forward. 

The true gleanings, though, are the leftovers. Those phrases or thoughts which feed my mind after I have put the book down. Some books offer more than others.

With morning tea in hand, teach us to want : longing, ambition and the life of faith by Jen Pollock Michel offered a few gleanings:

Clarity and certainty are not the soil in which faith grows. (p. 112)

Prayer is where we meet God with all our humanity hanging out. (p. 113) 

The prayers of our struggle prepare the way for surrender, even praise. (p. 122)

Disappointing news might not have one in a conspicuous spiritual tantrum....but flinging silence at the sky is NOT at all a Mary type answer. 'I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.' (Luke 1:38) (p.110)

Seeing agnostic Mary's life fall apart, her friends tell her to pray anyway.
"Yield up what scares you. Yield up what makes you want to scream and cry. Enter into the quiet. It's a cathedral. "
(But) how does getting on your knees do anything for you?" Mary asks.
"It makes you the right size." (p. 65)

That last one's a keeper---a true "prayer posture" gleaning for me.