Mom McCartney's book

While recently staying in the home of Ruth McCartney, Pam's mom, and Marcy Warrick, Pam's sister, I came across a book on mom McCartney's bookshelf. An avid reader for all of her life as a wife, mother and missionary in Brazil, Ruth McCartney has a habit of marking with pen, pencil or colored pen everything in a book that catches her attention. She turns a book into a color coded testimony of the impression the book made on her.

The book I found is by Os Guinness entitled Long Journey Home A Guide to Your Search for the Meaning of Life. When I picked the book from the shelf, I honestly thought I had already read the book since I am an Os Guinness fan. When I leafed through the book and saw all of mom's markings, I smiled at such a wonderful thirst for truth each mark represented.

Mom offered the book to me and I took it as a precious gift. I wanted it because I wanted to have it as a memory of mom's search for truth.

Once I started to read the book, I realized it was new to me and it is now a double treasure. The book is fantastic and mom's markings don't distract, they bless.

In the book Os Guinness does a wonderful job of laying out before us the options we truly have if we are seeking the truth.
He makes no apology for saying that search will eventually lead to Jesus.

In one of the later chapters in the book Os talks passionately about the power that Jesus exercises over those who draw close to Him. He calls this the "Heart-cracking goodness" of Jesus. Just about the time a seeker sees nothing but madness and tragedy in the world, he hears the story of Jesus or hears what Jesus said or did. In that moment the tears come and the "Heart-cracking goodness" of Jesus is at work again.

Os says "The evidence for Jesus is something to be sure of; recognizing what Jesus shows us of the heart-cracking goodness of God is something to be passionate about."

The heart-cracking goodness of Jesus is our true hope. When I read this book with mom McCartney's many markings, I can see the "heart-cracking goodness" of Jesus in every stroke. Even now the tears come through the cracks as I think of Jesus' and mom's heart-cracking goodness.

P.S. Should you want to order a copy of the book to mark up for yourself, it is published by Waterbrook Press/Doubleday and is simply titled Long Journey Home by Os Guinness. You will not be disappointed.