Simply Open

November 10, 2014
Pastor and award-winning author Paul (Close Enough to Hear God Breathe) invites readers to open themselves up to God in the course of each day by using their five senses as well as hearts and minds. Paul lays out a contemplative path to develop greater awareness through the senses and become more conscious of God in a four-step process of releasing old perceptions, receiving new ones, becoming more authentic, and doing things differently. He works through each sense in successive chapters, though he notes that there is no one right way to travel the path, suggesting that readers may vary the sense they work with as they desire. He draws on stories from scripture and his own congregation, as well as church history and writings from Catholic contemplatives such as Thomas Merton, Thomas à Kempis, and Henri Nouwen. While not all evangelical Christian readers will be comfortable with Paul’s contemplative approach, which leans heavily on liturgical Christian traditions, he marries it well with a looser, less formal style of meditation and writing. Agent: Greg Daniel, Daniel Literary Agency.