Aaron McKevitt's Reviews > Thirsting: Quenching Our Soul’s Deepest Desire

Thirsting treats aches and longing with too much care and esteem to be read lightly.

In a manner recalling the work of Ronald Rolheiser (an author Strahan cites) Thirsting brought emotions of lament and regret rushing to the surface at the recollection of experiences not entered into and situations where I wasn’t wholehearted. I wasn't left there. Later chapters lead the reader in how to begin to commune with God in our areas of powerlessness, pain, and shame. Not just so that unpleasant feelings might be whisked away, but instead by sitting with them and allowing God to enter into them with us, to redeem them.

While rich with language and a posture often associated with liturgical streams of the Church, Thirsting is rich with expectation for a present and potent experience of God. As narrator-guide, Strahan shares his experience of the movements of contemplative prayer and in doing so sketches a helpful framework of expectation to take up in personal application.

In broadening the horizon of prayer beyond simply the words we can say, Thirsting offers an exchange: in place of linear cause and effect we are offered a map to begin and continue to experience the depths of God and the deep parts of ourselves in a way that truly renews and satisfies.

Ultimately Thirsting is about God’s love for us. Though the Western culture and the Western Church hasn’t given us many handles for it, Thirsting joins in chorus with the writer of Songs of Songs, “I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is for me”.