The Circle Maker

By Ruth

One of my friends (and a former pastor of our church) does a lot of reading, and often puts quotes from his latest reads as status updates on his Facebook page.  One of his his books was really peaking my interest.  So in the Spring of 2012, I picked up a copy of “The Circle Maker” and read it from cover to cover.  Having had some struggles with prayer over the years, this book just really spoke to me – some new thoughts on prayer, some things I was missing out on, and got me really excited about how God wants to show His glory through our prayers .  I also recommended it to several friends, and guess who one of those friends was? – uh huh - Sue, who then had Dirk read it.

I had really wanted Doug to read it, but that’s asking a lot from him.  He already has extensive reading lists for the Masters Degree courses he is taking right now.  And he reads and writes papers, and reads and writes papers, and reads and writes papers.   He would attest to the fact, though, that I was constantly sharing with him things I had learned from the book, and I was excited about it.

As often happens with a book, I read it and think it was great stuff, but now I need to reread it and apply it.  Which never seems to happen.  But I was not going to let this one go.

And then I heard the story of the orphan boy.

On our 25^th anniversary – on that night – when Doug & I talked about my email to him, and if adopting this boy was even a remote possibility– one thing was clear.

I would not be reading the book again and figuring out how to apply it.

I could almost hear an audible whisper from God – “This, this, is why you read that book.  This, this is what I am asking you to pray circles around”.