Book Review: God Moments

God Moments: Stories that Inspire, Moments to Remember
by Michele Elena Bondi
Rochester: Joseph Karl Publishing, 2010

Have you ever experienced a “God Moment?” – a time in your life when God worked behind the scenes to move things in a certain direction. Some people refer to these as coincidences, mere situations of chance. For those who believe, Someone much more powerful is pulling the strings. “God moments are very special and significant events that have great meaning and purpose. They may involve angels, saints, people, animals, or anything in God’s great creation. Always they involve an encounter with the Divine. Perhaps they are meant to challenge or change us, encourage and inspire us, motivate us, sooth us, or prepare us. Sometimes they occur over time for reasons that we do not immediately understand. . . Our challenge is to recognize, believe, take action, trust, or sometimes wait, always loving in greater measure.”

In “God Moments: Stories that Inspire, Moments to Remember,” Michelle Elena Bondi has compiled a collection of personal stories that reveal God acting in our lives. Organized into the categories of Love, Discernment, Faith, Healing, Suffering, Miracles, and Reconciliation, the essays share both intimate and public moments of contact with God.

For example, one mother tells of her eighth-grade son expressing his need for space. She had put her hands on his shoulders in front of his friends, and he removed them and said “Bye, Mom.” She understood the developmental stage, but was still hurt by it. Yet, it was a God moment because it caused her to reflect on her own relationship with God. “How does God feel when he desires to be with us and we respond, sometimes in front of others, ‘Bye, God.’ Perhaps we think to ourselves, ‘Not now’ or ‘Not in front of my friends’ or ‘I do not want to be out of my comfort zone’ or ‘What will people think?’ Does God feel rejected, slighted, or hurt like I did when I was so glad to see my son and he wanted me to go away? Perhaps we reject God without even realizing it.”

Another person tells of how a random phone call to a hotel led to an opportunity to talk about her faith with a man who desperately needed to hear it. She writes, “I was totally moved by this experience. God can use us at any time if we just make ourselves available. I’m sure that man’s wife has been praying for him for years. With God all things are possible. So I’m praying for that man and asked me to contact me at any time.”

“God Moments” is a testament to the many ways God works in our lives. God loves each of us so much. “Share in the delight God has for every person He created. His works are constantly on display and there is a show going on every moment. Admission is always free.” “God Moments” will encourage you to be more open to His plan for your own life and to see Him at work in your daily life. It is a beautiful book that will do much good.

God Moments will be available October 2010 from Joseph Karl Publishing, www.godisatworkinyou.com, and also on Amazon.