The Reflective Life

APPLICATION WRITTEN BY

Staff Writer

We’ve become modern-day Marthas, as, busy, distracted, and empty, instead of like her sister Mary, calm, focused, and fulfilled. How do we, like Mary, create “pauses” in our days and weeks to hear what the Savior has to say to us? How do we make time for the things that ultimately matter? How can we become more spiritually sensitive to the everyday moments of life?

Acclaimed writer Ken Gire unlocks the door to change by introducing us not to a trendy new method, but to a centuries-old tradition-reflective living.

Gire is the author of more than a dozen books, including Intimate Moments with the Savior, Windows of the Soul, and Between Heaven and Earth. He has won two Gold Medallion awards and two CS. Lewis Honor Book awards. He is a full-time writer involved in the ministries of Young Life and Insight for Living.

Key Topics or Truths

Meditative Life
Prayer
Closeness with God
Slowing Down

This Book is Good For...

This book might just be good for everyone who lives in the city, whose kids are doing twelve activities, who have two-income families, whose churches plan too much for them to do, and for anyone who wants to remember the simplicity of Christian life. As well, this book is good for people who got saved as kids and never realized what it was like to just sit with God.

How I Use this Book to make disciples

I use this book to slow people down and think, “Why am I even doing discipleship?” The only great answer of course is to know God better. It is easy to get too busy.

I also use this book heavily for folks who got saved as kids. Here’s why: when you get saved as an adult it is such a contrast to who you were. It is clear — that was then, this is now. It is the most amazing experience and you just want to gobble up everything you can of God. You pray. You worship. However, when you get saved as a kid, no one really expects that focus and few teach it. You just become a cool Christian kid. Few work to build a quiet time discipline, few model it, and few make time for it. And, often, when older folks teach this to teens, it becomes a burden, a have to, instead of a joy. So I use this book to pitch the beauty of just sitting with God.

There are times that disciples push back and say, “It isn’t just about me.” I agree. However, it all started at a cross when it was just about you. Mary got it. Martha missed it. Much of our church life today is Martha.

I divide the book up according to the group’s reading level and then we review it each week.

I love this book because it pushes me to push aside all the busyness of church and spend time with the One who is supposed to be at the center of it all.

Real Life Story

My mother-in-law picked this up for me for Christmas. I only read Christian books and she wasn’t a very devout follower so I just assumed it was another quick gift and plopped in on the shelves. A year or so later, I just picked it up and found it to be a solid read pointing me back toward where I began — just me and God without a bunch of church stuff and Christian people.

Know Issues or Controversies

No known issues

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Ken Gire

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Book Details

Phase: Discipleship 2
Book Type: Non Fiction
Flair: Relatable or Storytelling
Tags: Christian Living, easy read, Prayer

Reading Time

One to Two Weeks