God Running is a place for anyone who wants to love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.
How Much Grace Have You Been Given?
Is a solitary rose better than a daisy in the middle of a field of daisies? Is a falcon better than a house sparrow?
Today I started reading St. Therese of Lisieux’s book, The Little Way, and she begins with that comparison. And the way she begins reminded me of something I used to struggle with. For most of my life, I would look at someone like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, or Maximilian Kolbe, or Augustine of Hippo, and I felt like a single grain of sand next to mountains with peaks in the clouds (Therese of Lisieux).
Very late in life, I discovered the way God blesses each of His children with different amounts of grace, and different gifts. Mother Teresa was given more grace and different gifts than I was given. That’s true for most of us. So I don’t have to concern myself with how God’s grace manifests in the life of Mother Teresa. I only have to concern myself with the grace, in whatever measure that may be, God’s given to me. The amount of grace God gave me and the gifts God gave me are all I need to be who God wants me to be.
Mother Teresa, Maximilian Kolbe, and St. Augustine might be roses. But if I’m a simple daisy, I only need to be the best daisy I can be. In fact, if I’m a daisy, I’ll make things worse if I try to be a rose. Or if I’m a house sparrow, I’ll make things worse if I try to hunt like a falcon.
This revelation was an enormous relief for me. Because sometimes I feel so… weary.
Speaking to God, St. Augustine pointed out:
“If anyone were to give you an account of his real merits, what else would that be but a list of your gifts.”
Therese of Lisieux, The Little Way: Reflections on the Joy of Smallness in God’s Infinite Love, Whitaker House, April 4, 2023
The Love Like Jesus Book
Available on Google Play Books and on Amazon!
Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
- Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
- How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
- The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
- How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
- How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
- How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
- How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
- How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
- How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon and Google Play Books.)
We also recently released the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Jonathan St. John. It’s available on the following platforms:
It’s also available on Amazon, Hoopla, Audiobooksnow, Chirp, Libro, Overdrive, and virtually everywhere audiobooks are offered.
