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That Seems Strange: finding a fulfilling life through God's counterintuitive designs
What if you've been living your life all backward from how God designed it?
What if the path to the top is actually by lifting others up? What if the more you gave away, the more you gained? Would you start living differently?
Through a series of painfully-honest stories and unexpected lessons, That Seems Strange reveals the counterintuitive ways in which our world works, why Jesus calls his followers to stand out from the crowd, and how living aligned with God's backward designs is the key to finding the fulfilling lives we’ve been looking for.
Nate's trademark storytelling and examples from scripture show us that while we all long to belong and find our place in the world, we were made to stick out, and live in a way that makes others say, ”They seem strange…"
______________
Excerpted From The First
God writes stories we could never predict. Ever since the beginning of time, he’s been installing counterintuitive systems and unexpected realities into the fabric of our world. His methods cut against all our world’s self-help books, seminars, and the conventional wisdom on how to live a fulfilling life. He even said to us, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts… my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” (Isaiah 55:8)
While his stories always end with greater joy, goodness, and meaning, in the moment, God’s ways of working can seem strange. Bewildering, even. In fact, he often leads us through seasons we’d never choose if it were up to us. Seasons like grief, heartache, failure, depression, and loneliness. Our culture has certain ways of dealing with these experiences. Hustle harder. Buy more stuff. Follow your passion. Do what makes you happy. But if we take God at his word when he says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full,” we’ll discover that his directions for living a full and purposeful life are often empty of our culture’s norms. (John 10:10) Sometimes, we need to stop striving, give more, and elevate others’ needs over our own.
When we accept God’s call to swim upstream and live backward from our culture’s conventional wisdom, we’ll likely wonder if it’s worth it. When the circumstances he uses to shape our lives don’t make sense, we may question if there’s a reason for them. And when we ask God if we’re really on the right track, it’s easy to feel we’re not getting any answers. Why doesn’t he just respond in plain, audible English?
Truth is, we often miss what God’s trying to tell us because we expect his infinite nature to fit within the tiny aperture of our human perspective. But when we release the presumption our creator should work in ways straightforward to his creation, and we embrace his seemingly strange designs, we can begin to see the deeply meaningful plans he’s been weaving together all along.
That’s exactly why I wrote this book.
I want you to see that as God fills your life with events and experiences that seem strange, he’s ultimately working for both his glory and your good. And as you live aligned with his unexpected designs – not because you’re “commanded” to, but because you crave the delight and true fulfillment it brings – my hope is that others who have no relationship with God will wonder, “Why are they so strange?” and ask you for the reason.
What if the path to the top is actually by lifting others up? What if the more you gave away, the more you gained? Would you start living differently?
Through a series of painfully-honest stories and unexpected lessons, That Seems Strange reveals the counterintuitive ways in which our world works, why Jesus calls his followers to stand out from the crowd, and how living aligned with God's backward designs is the key to finding the fulfilling lives we’ve been looking for.
Nate's trademark storytelling and examples from scripture show us that while we all long to belong and find our place in the world, we were made to stick out, and live in a way that makes others say, ”They seem strange…"
______________
Excerpted From The First
God writes stories we could never predict. Ever since the beginning of time, he’s been installing counterintuitive systems and unexpected realities into the fabric of our world. His methods cut against all our world’s self-help books, seminars, and the conventional wisdom on how to live a fulfilling life. He even said to us, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts… my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” (Isaiah 55:8)
While his stories always end with greater joy, goodness, and meaning, in the moment, God’s ways of working can seem strange. Bewildering, even. In fact, he often leads us through seasons we’d never choose if it were up to us. Seasons like grief, heartache, failure, depression, and loneliness. Our culture has certain ways of dealing with these experiences. Hustle harder. Buy more stuff. Follow your passion. Do what makes you happy. But if we take God at his word when he says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full,” we’ll discover that his directions for living a full and purposeful life are often empty of our culture’s norms. (John 10:10) Sometimes, we need to stop striving, give more, and elevate others’ needs over our own.
When we accept God’s call to swim upstream and live backward from our culture’s conventional wisdom, we’ll likely wonder if it’s worth it. When the circumstances he uses to shape our lives don’t make sense, we may question if there’s a reason for them. And when we ask God if we’re really on the right track, it’s easy to feel we’re not getting any answers. Why doesn’t he just respond in plain, audible English?
Truth is, we often miss what God’s trying to tell us because we expect his infinite nature to fit within the tiny aperture of our human perspective. But when we release the presumption our creator should work in ways straightforward to his creation, and we embrace his seemingly strange designs, we can begin to see the deeply meaningful plans he’s been weaving together all along.
That’s exactly why I wrote this book.
I want you to see that as God fills your life with events and experiences that seem strange, he’s ultimately working for both his glory and your good. And as you live aligned with his unexpected designs – not because you’re “commanded” to, but because you crave the delight and true fulfillment it brings – my hope is that others who have no relationship with God will wonder, “Why are they so strange?” and ask you for the reason.
179 pages, Paperback
Published March 22, 2020
2 people want to read
About the author
Nate Nasralla
6 books61 followersNate is an author & entrepreneur who helps us find more meaning in the ordinary, everyday moments of our lives. You can often find him eating peanut-butter toast, climbing the Rocky Mountains, or cracking up at his own jokes.
Nate and his wife, Erin, were raised in Chicago and now hail from Denver. After moving cities and cycling through a rapid series of major life changes, Nate launched his publishing company, Live Forward, to help others find more meaning in their everyday lives.
Building on his experience as the co-founder of a successful, venture-backed startup company, and as a frequent speaker and trainer on storytelling for nonprofit leaders, Nate's recent book, Living Forward, Looking Backward, helps others understand the greater purpose behind their own life stories.
Through Nate's memories, stories, and candor, we learn how the principle of paradox and the story of the Gospel shows up in each of our lives, often in ways we don't expect, and ways that feel even a little backward to us.
Nate and his wife, Erin, were raised in Chicago and now hail from Denver. After moving cities and cycling through a rapid series of major life changes, Nate launched his publishing company, Live Forward, to help others find more meaning in their everyday lives.
Building on his experience as the co-founder of a successful, venture-backed startup company, and as a frequent speaker and trainer on storytelling for nonprofit leaders, Nate's recent book, Living Forward, Looking Backward, helps others understand the greater purpose behind their own life stories.
Through Nate's memories, stories, and candor, we learn how the principle of paradox and the story of the Gospel shows up in each of our lives, often in ways we don't expect, and ways that feel even a little backward to us.
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February 8, 2023
A great look into how ordinary life so often points to the counterintuitive way God designed the world. The authors ability to tell compelling stories makes reading about something as mundane as him locking himself out of his house lead to a thoughtful reflection on how you as a reader deal with your own every day life experiences.
Displaying 1 of 1 review