Do you believe books find you right when you need them? I do. Here’s the latest example, Kate Merrick’s Here, Now: Unearthing Peace and Presence in an Overconnected World.

I had found myself in a season of discontent, frustrated by a stretch of rocky terrain on the road of life. But reading Kate’s remarkable story, heartfully penned with almost shocking earthiness, let me push the reset button on my expectations — and therefore my contentment.

Kate writes with magnetic force, and almost as soon as I cracked open her book, I began jotting parts of it into my journal so that I might meditate more intently on her words. Such as this bit:

I must intentionally look deep inside with brutal honesty at my expectations and lay them bare before God, willingly trading them for what he has for me and being content with that.” (page 9)

Easier said than done, right? But so freeing when we can manage it. Kate’s many stories — some pulled from God’s Word, others gleaned from her own hard-won experience — provide inspiration for doing just that. 

I lingered especially over Kate’s last chapter and found myself returning to the wisdom and hope it imparted.

• “Bumps in the road aren’t a diversion from real life; they are real life.”
• “God will use these days.”
• “Today is all you have; it’s all anyone has.”

Then I read and reread the last beautiful paragraph, gleaning from it all I could for its import on my own life. But I won’t spoil it for you by quoting it here. You’ll have to read the book to find that out for yourself.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson for providing me this book free of charge. All opinions are mine.

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From the back cover:

What if our truest life is the one right in front of us?

Does life sometimes seem to be passing you by? Are you so busy—with email to check, Instagram to scroll through, and friends to be envious of—that you’ve become disconnected from your actual life? You know, the one you are living right here, right now? 

With hilariously relatable confessions and profoundly beautiful insights, Kate Merrick invites us to stop running away from the lives we’re living today and instead walk in the peace and fullness God offers moment to moment. She shows us how to

• kill your Wi-Fi, put down the tech, and find deeper contentment,
• redirect the FOMO so you don’t miss out on your own life, and
• go on a diet of fewer choices to discover the blessings of the quiet, the slow, and the intentional.

Only when we look honestly at our hearts and have the courage to live truly present do we receive the gifts of God found in all of life’s seasons—the painful ones, the big and beautiful ones, and even the ordinary ones.

Genre: Non-fiction | Christian Life | Spiritual Growth

Publication date: April 2019

About the author:

Kate Merrick is the cofounder of the Reality family of churches along with her husband, Britt. She speaks, writes, and lives with her family, five chickens, two goats, and two miniature donkeys in Carpinteria, California.

Connect with Kate: Website

Buy the book here.

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