After months of prompting, from my counselor and several other people in my life, I picked up a copy of Madeleine L’Engle’s book, Walking on Water. It only took her 50 pages to inspire me, challenge me, enlighten me. She is the author of one of my favorite children’s books: A Wrinkle in Time. And now I am discovering that she is every bit as powerful as a non-fiction writer. I can already feel the writer’s block vacating my body. Truly freeing.  In the early stages of the book, she hits squarely on something that has caused me great pain. I struggle for clarity, for certainty, for THE ANSWER. But L’Engle cautions, “The minute we begin to think we know all the answers, we forget the questions and become smug like the Pharisee…”

She goes on to quote another author, Unamuno who said, “Those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, w ithout anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pursued the idea of God and not God himself, I’m ashamed to admit.