Pleasure of God: Finding Grace In the Ordinary by J. Ellsworth Kalas

J. ELLSWORTH KALAS How can anything be ordinary if we find the glory of God there? Whatever might be said of life's most thrilling or transformative moments, most of our time is spent in ordinary things. We spend a third of our lives sleeping. In our adult lives, perhaps a quarter to a third of each week is spent at work. And then there's more of the common stuff: eating, waiting in line, bathing, getting dressed, and watching TV. So it is that our seventy, eighty, or ninety years go by in common ways, and we have no idea where they've gone. Is there glory in any of this? Where is the abundant life of which Jesus spoke? In this inspiring new work, J. Ellsworth Kalas says that the glory is found not just in the ecstasy of love or victory but in all of life, whether ecstatic or ordinary. Kalas believes it is possible to live with such joy and gladness of hearts that we find our ordinary lives graced by the pleasure of God. He offers a guide to spiritual contentment in the midst of busy lives, showing us the meaning in those seemingly small aspects of every day. Paperback 124 pp J. Ellsworth Kalas was the former president and a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He served as pastor for many years in the Wisconsin and Ohio Conferences of the United Methodist Church and has published more than thirty-five books, includingGrace in a Tree Stump: Old Testament Stories of God's Love, published by Westminster John Knox Press.