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Shattered Dreams<\/em><\/p>\n God’s Unexpected Pathway to Joy<\/em><\/p>\n by Larry Crabb<\/p>\n Waterbrook Press, 2001.\u00a0 218 pages.<\/p>\n Using the Biblical story of Naomi, in Shattered Dreams, <\/em>Larry Crabb talks about how sometimes God’s best for us comes through the destruction of all our hopes.\u00a0 Sometimes our deepest, truest dream can only happen when our superficial dreams are shattered.<\/p>\n He explains it this way:<\/p>\n “The highest dream we could ever dream, the wish that if granted would make us happier than any other blessing, is to know God, to actually experience Him.\u00a0 The problem is that we don\u2019t believe this idea is true.\u00a0 We assent to it in our heads.\u00a0 But we don\u2019t feel it in our hearts.<\/p>\n “We can\u2019t stop wanting to be happy.\u00a0 And that urge should prompt no apology.\u00a0 We were created for happiness.\u00a0 Our souls therefore long for whatever we think will provide the greatest possible pleasure.\u00a0 We just aren\u2019t yet aware that an intimate relationship with God is that greatest pleasure.”<\/p>\n Sometimes, when our dreams shatter, and we feel pain, and God doesn’t make the pain go away:<\/p>\n “It\u2019s there that we discover our desire for God.\u00a0 We begin to feel a desire to know Him that not only survives all our pain, but actually thrives in it until that desire becomes more intense than our desire for all the good things we still want.\u00a0 Through the pain of shattered lower dreams, we wake up to the realization that we want an encounter with God more than we want the blessings of life.\u00a0 And that begins a revolution in our lives.”<\/p>\n I thought of this book as an excellent reminder.\u00a0 I didn’t feel like the author was saying anything brand new, but it was good to hear someone giving voice to the truth that God can work through our pain.\u00a0 Through difficult times, we can learn to desire God — and find Him — as at no other time in our lives.<\/p>\n Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n Find this review on the main site at:<\/p>\n