The View From The Supermarket ... And Beyond

Well, let's see... In my last comment box, Becky asked what the book, It's Bright In My Valley was about since no one at amazon.com had reviewed it (people seldom review my favorite books cuz they're too quirky, old and forgotten. The books, not the people. heh.)

Anyway, this is how I described that book:


"It's rather like Gulley's, Front Porch Tales, except that it was written around 1961.

Philip Jerome Cleveland wrote essays about his days as a young pastor and the memorable characters he met in the New England towns where he pastored in the 1930's and 40's. He was able to lead some of them to Jesus, not all, but each person was interesting and many were quirky and what others would label as People Least Likely To Step Inside a Church.

He learned to deal with people with respect, patience and to find common outside-interest denominators which would help him form friendships with them, first.

These were true stories and I never tire of reading them!"


I'm glad Becky asked about It's Bright In My Valley because it always reminds me how we can tell we're maturing in God: our own community starts looking different to us.

Want your town to instantly change? Ask God to change you, to grow you up in love. Trust me, I know about this one because when we change, the mom in the supermarket will, instead, appear like a tired woman who truly needs an encouraging word or a helping hand.

And all those people with cell phones suddenly look like sad people afraid to be alone for even a few minutes or perhaps young husbands who just want to bring home the right things for their wives at home all day with toddlers.

And those tons of folks in check-stand lines become our fellow brothers and sisters for whom Jesus died (and for whom we can pray) and the coupon users become people struggling financially, just trying to save some money for their families and the slow clerk becomes someone who's grateful for her new job and doing the best she can lest she lose it.

God sent Jesus to this planet because of love, not condemnation, and when we get on that same page we, too, get sent out into our world because of love, not condemnation. And the whole world changes with our going.




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"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."  ... John 3:16,17


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