Sensing God: Experiencing the Divine in Nature, Food, Music, and Beauty

by Joel Clarkson

Did God Give Us Our Senses So that We Could Enjoy Him More?
Sensing God is a discovery of Jesus in all of the sensory points embedded into each of us. It shows how the holiest acts in our daily lives are often the reveling in the beauty of nature; listening to our favorite music; eating a nourishing meal with family. These are potentially heartbeats of a living faith, and when we learn to recognize and respond to God’s goodness in them, it draws us into redemptive participation with Him, the source of all beauty.

Joel Clarkson shares personal stories and paints vivid imagery so that we, too, can taste and see (and hear and touch and smell) that the Lord is good. In our exploration, we meet Jesus, who invites us to enjoy his presence and proclaim his visible, tangible, and touchable gospel. We physically experience the glory of our Creator and at the same time, we make that encounter a testimony to a broken world that is desperate for restoration. We are encouraged to get the good dirt of God’s holy world under our nails.

Together, we will come into contact with the God who reaches out to us with His eternal truth through the goodness of beauty. Will you join the journey? Come and learn how to truly worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Spirituality, Faith, Christian Living, Christianity, Religion

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Sarah Fowler Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to even find words to express how much this book blessed, refreshed, and encouraged me. God is so good to give us good gifts. Joel Clarkson takes us through our senses, music, feasting, and more to help us see how God reveals Himself to us, and how He has given us ways to show His love to others in community.

It's an absolutely beautiful book; I've underlined many things and even shared passages with friends and family who now can't wait to read it. You may just weep, cheer, and everything in between to respond to the beauty in this book.

- "When we align our hearts to God's heart, it's not that we get what we desire; it's that He recreates and redirects our desires toward that which truly satisfies. We let go of the simplistic things we once wanted because we are given something far more magnificent. We are given the opportunity to see the world as it is. The inner eyes of our hearts are opened to the only true reality, so that our hearts may desire the only thing which truly satisfies."

- "Jesus isn't only the source and the sustenance of beauty. He is also the *end* of beauty, the final point toward which all our desires as Christians are aligned. ... [T]hrough Jesus' incarnation, life, and death on the cross, eternity stepped into time, declaring God's creation worth redeeming."

- "We are made to make music, our bodies intricately designed to sing in praise. And yet, rather than merely praising the utility of our constructed selves, perhaps it is in the very limitations of our form that music opens up the beauty of God’s infinite reality: our constant need to breathe in and out again and again, the challenge to stay in tune and on beat, the frailty of our voices, so easily susceptible to injury or illness. It is a gift given precisely through the constraints of our bodies. As 2 Corinthians says of Christ in us, 'we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.' God uses the earthen vessels of our limited selves to express the limitlessness of the goodness awaiting us beyond the veil of our earthly lives. Somehow, paradoxically, the more our limitations come into view, the more God’s power is expressed."

- "Finally, the realization came to me: This is what my heart had anticipated. This is what I was made for: community, and communion, for the joy of the feast. Each bite had reinstated me to the remembrance of those who loved me and to the goodwill of those gathered there, expressed to me in their shared fellowship. Each savoring of a new flavor returned me to that truth and grounded me in the comfort of that knowing. ... This is because the feast is at the heart of the whole of God’s story, and at the very middle of it is the invitation into communion."

I really can't recommend this book enough for every believer. This beautiful and refreshing reminder is just what I needed this year (and every year).

{I was provided an advance copy of this book by NavPress Books in exchange for my honest review.}

[Carrie Brownell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would liken this book to Andrew Peterson's Adorning the Dark or Capon's The Supper of the Lamb except that it's written more like a thesis than a personal expression or interpretation/application of scriptures or other scholarly works. Clarkson pulls from solid sources and carefully crafts his arguments through the use of many quotes and references to others. While I definitely appreciate that he backs his arguments up, I didn't feel like I was walking away with an idea of his own original thoughts played out after reading the greats. This book was most definitely researched. I love the take on how God speaks to us through our senses and how we respond to God through them as well. I did not DISLIKE the book. But the parts I enjoyed most were when Clarkson spoke for himself, in his own voice, using his own examples, and sharing his own personal application stories. Those were scattered throughout and I would have liked to see more of that. (But still! The book was good!)

Definitely not a book to avoid but a clear writing style that I think many might not anticipate.

[Rachel Libke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This left me viewing the world differently and continuing to think about the ideas, wanting to look up various pieces of music and visual art, and itching to reread portions, and that’s the best sort of review I can give a book.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

With personal experience, hagiography, and scriptural exegesis, Joel Clarkson addresses the rich topic of the human senses as one avenue to have a deep experience of the goodness and beauty of God. An excellent summary of the ways that our physical senses are touchpoints that God may use to show us His beauty.

Marching through each of the senses in turn (taste, touch, sight, etc.), he points out the manifold ways that the God who is Love calls us to taste and see that He is good, the ways that the wonderful works of God in Creation declares His glory and beauty to the citizens of this earthly realm, human effort in cultivating nature and the arts as creative variations on a theme, and the fulfillment of all of these things in the meals of Communion and the ultimate meal: the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

The life of the senses, says Clarkson, is not something to be explained, but something to be experienced. It is itself, a "clarion call to participation," a dance of which the Lord Jesus is the Master, and He invites you to come into it with Him to experience all the beauty of it.

[Anna Noden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I've been longing for this book for years now without knowing. While Clarkson would probably say that I was not longing for this BOOK as much as I was longing for sensate worship of God, I believe that this book has emboldened me in the freedom of experiencing God through my senses. I'm a bullet point gal, so here's a list of reasons this book was amazing:

- Clarkson pulls from SO MANY Christian traditions. From Catholic, to Orthodox, to Presbyterian, to Anglican, he has included such a diverse array of Christian thought. Not only does this make his ideas more widely appealing to Christians of all backgrounds, it strengthens his argument that worshipping God with our senses is an orthodox Christian practice and not simply a denominational preference.
- It is BEAUTIFULLY written. Clarkson does not sacrifice content for fluffy adjectives. He writes compelling arguments and narratives while maintaining depth and beauty.
- It is already changing the way I live. I take walks now just to look at the sky and listen to the birds. I don't feel the need to crowd every worship moment with a sermon or podcast on theology. I enjoy incense and candles. I have begun to recognize the holy necessity of fasting.

The ideas in this book feel so rudimental, and yet they have been buried under the Western push for intellectualism over embodied practice.

Read this book. It is moving and eloquent and sincere.

[Bethany Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The comforting and inspiring words in this beautiful book are refreshing to the soul. Many Christians are familiar and experienced in having an intellectual relationship with God, and for many this is their primary engagement with the Divine. However, as Clarkson points out in these pages, we miss so much of who God is, and who we are, by only engaging with God with our minds. Clarkson invites his readers to an awareness of the workings of the Divine already present and active in the world through the tangible and rudimentary avenue of our senses. Clarkson invites us to open our eyes and to become aware of the ways in which music, food, nature, the physical touch from other human beings, fasting, and feasting are drawing us into a closer relationship with Christ. The words in these pages are a profound nourishment to the soul.

[Kaylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The vast majority of this book was beautiful, inviting and engaging. Joel has the ability to paint pictures with his words in a delightful way. I marked so many quotes as I read, especially enjoying his description of communion and feasting.

And then there were parts that felt like an academic analysis of music and writing that was dry and a bit difficult to wade through. I can imagine many will read those parts and thoroughly enjoy them, therefore enjoying Joel's book to the fullest but I wanted to be honest for those readers who may be more like me.

Overall I enjoyed this look at how God uses the senses He has given us to help us more fully enter into relationship with Him.

#netgalley #sensinggod

[Maribeth Barber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an important and beautiful book!!

[Irina Hayaser · Rating 5 out of 5]

We became so disconnected from our senses and from the physical world around us, that we desperately need to reconnect and transform the way we regard matter, and this book comes to our aid.
Given my own desire and search for a more liturgical and sacramental way of worship and living, this book summed up everything I learned and I became aware of, during my journey towards that. I underlined almost every page.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, author Joel Clarkson encourages his readers to join their intellectual knowledge of God with a deeply felt sense of His presence through beautiful and good earthly things. In the first few chapters, Clarkson lays out his rationale for understanding the role that the senses play in the Christian faith, and even though he does not intend for this to be a comprehensive doctrinal work, he makes a strong case for why Christians should pursue encountering God through their senses, which are good and designed by Him. Throughout the remainder of the book, Clarkson addresses different categories of sensory joys, such as experiencing nature, music, beauty, flavor, and human companionship.

Seeking Beauty

He shares real-life examples from his own experiences, and concludes each chapter with reflection questions to help readers think about how they have experienced God's grandeur and love through the sense just addressed, and how they can cultivate this more. This book is great for personal use or group discussion, and because Clarkson draws on writings and traditions from a variety of different denominational backgrounds, Christians of different theological convictions and methods of practice can all find something helpful here. I found this book refreshing, and appreciated the lack of tribalism in it. Clarkson does not try to persuade his readers to come around to his exact way of viewing the world, but provides guidance for how everyone can see beauty where they are.

I especially appreciated the chapters on touch and on fasting, because Clarkson handles both of these sensitive subjects unusually well. He acknowledges how "perilous" touch can be, but provides examples from Scripture and Christian history to show how healing, self-giving, and full of dignity meaningful touch can be. Regarding fasting, instead of promoting it merely as asceticism or a method of exerting control over the body, he conceptualizes it as a way to wash the windows of our hearts, reorienting our senses through temporary denial to see things more clearly. Although Clarkson deliberately does not provide step-by-step programs for applying these ideas, he helps his readers refresh their views of the senses in holistic and meaningful ways.

Conclusion

This is a great book for Christians to read, regardless of their denomination or current level of sensitivity to the world around them. People who are already attuned to God's divine presence in earthly joys can find this book helpful as Clarkson articulates concepts that are difficult to put into words, and readers who tend to discount the significance of the senses, or who regularly feel distracted from them, can benefit from this book's refreshing and simple challenge to become more aware and invested in the beauty around us. This book provides an orthodox and heart-stirring view of how significant the senses are to a relationship with God, encouraging readers to embrace the full implications and richness of their God-given humanity.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for Sensing God. I'm not familiar with Clarkson at all, but this sounded like it would encapsulate a lot of the things I've been wanting.

So maybe it's my fault I feel disappointed with it.

It's hard to articulate exactly why. Sensing God is solid in grammar, content structure, and theology. The text never veers towards worshipping nature or biology for its own sake, and instead points solidly to God at every step. It draws on multiple sources, from Augustine to Tolkien to Sleeping At Last. I devoured the chapters on Famine and Feast. It's certainly given me material to ponder. Even the cover is gorgeous.

But.

We never really get to hear Clarkson's own thoughts. When we do, they're shrouded in what I would call "high church" language, which is inaccessible to a lot of people. They're also scattered between constant references to other sources. With some of those sources, he takes three pages (not even kidding) to set up his point.

He then makes that point in a few complex paragraphs that require re-reading, and re-reading again, to parse. They're academically dense. The depth/clarity ratio is out of balance.

Really, the writing style is just difficult to get into.

- Too many convoluted run-on sentences with too many 'and's and too many commas. I'd get to a full stop and have to go back and re-read the sentence three times to make sense of it.

ex. "In Terence Malick's magnificent film Tree Of Life, two narratives are presented on a grand scale, intertwined with each other: the narrative of nature, as represented by the story of the universe itself, unraveled in grand sequences of nebulas and galaxies swirling into existence and epochs of great emergence and destruction of species; and the narrative of grace, as mediated by moments of transcendent beauty throughout the film."

Yes, that is one sentence. There were similar sentences that used only commas, but of course I can't find them now.

- Too many descriptors. I like adjectives as much as the next writer, but sentence after sentence of it is wearing, and adds needless bulk to the text. Ditto adverbs.

ex. "The last chapter of the book captures this rather well, in which Capon rather hilariously touches on the delicate subject of heartburn, a possible unfortunate occurrence even in the best of feasts."

Consider: "The last chapter of the book captures this well, in which Capon touches on the subject of heartburn, a possible occurrence even in the best of feasts."

I don't regret buying Sensing God. I think it's one I'll re-read in a year or two, and probably get much more out of it then. Again, maybe my hopes were just too high.

It was good, but it could have been better. 3.5 stars.

[Anna Sangrey Roussel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This timely book entered the world yesterday. Simple, slim, yet deeply written, as is typical of anyone from the Clarkson family, it works to connect a Biblical worldview (in thought and mind) to the world of the senses. It accomplishes its task with grace, brevity, and whole-hearted strength.
I love one of the opening chapter's tricky task to tie the physical to the metaphysical: the use of the 5 senses to write Truth from fingertips to neural byways, its carriage the metaphor. I love the entrance of Nature to describe the senses place in a Christian ecosystem.

I love the excursions into the church fathers throughout the chapters. Theologians through the centuries wrestled with the purpose of the body and noticed the value of the senses. Joel Clarkson's knowledge and background in music instills the chapter on "Creation's Song" with a musician's rhetoric.

Even the tongue-in-cheek titled "Common Sense" sections at the end of every chapter not only make my inner love of play on words smile, but these sections also immediately launch the attached chapter into a springboard for meaningful and delicious practices to exhibit a Biblical worldview richly through physical means.

A book humble to suggest that it is but the handbook, and the real quest is its very topic, to lay it aside and humbly seek to know in a frail human capacity the richness, justice, grace, mercy, and glory the Divine through the carriage that God has given us: our physical bodies and world.
My only request? A desire for more. With such a rich life and knowledge bank, I crave a menu of resources written from this author's experiences and encounters to drape around the senses and help readers like myself practically and pragmatically experience the Divine. Perhaps a handbook will follow. 🙂

[Krista Mc]

While it was a challenge for me to connect with the author and his writing (partly due to reading an ebook format instead of a hard copy), there were some chapters I enjoyed very much. Chapter 1 was beautiful and wonderful, and set me up for the rest of the book. Chapters 4 and 7 were stand-outs to me, and I loved the journal/thought prompts found at the end of every chapter. These will give me some opportunities to interact with what I read. I did experience struggle at times to understand where the author was going--perhaps I am not academic enough to grasp it--but what I did grasp, I enjoyed.

[Ammie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Umm. I honestly didn't like this. In addition to that, I am saddened to live in a world where we need a book full of grown-up verbiage to explain the simple truths in Scripture that a closer walk with Christ comes in experiencing His nearness through nature, food, art, music and human connectedness. If you've read the title, are a Believer and a Charlotte Mason inspired educator, you already understand the content and are in no need to spend your time digesting this. Instead, turn on a little music, pour yourself a cup of tea, curl up near some natural light and look over some art with a good friend. 😘

[Katie Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensing God is a delight! This book was a balm for my soul. Joel Clarkson reminds us that we experience God through more than just traditional ways we are accustomed to but also in nature, food, music, and beauty. Since I was a child I have always felt the presence of God when in nature and had my breath taken away by the beauty of his creation.

Clarkson's book put to words what I was never fully able to before. God created all five of our senses it is only natural that we would use those same five senses to experience and worship the Creator.

[Matt Glidden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable reminder of how God wants to connect with us through our senses. I had the opportunity to read it while on vacation at a remote cottage, surrounded by God’s creation.

[Rachel L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook 2022. 3.5 stars for me. He had some good points about seeing God’s presence in the sensory world, but it didn’t quite grab me personally—possibly because the writing is quite flowery, which I don’t tend to prefer (especially on audio).

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the first few chapters, I did not get much out of the book. The book has rave reviews so it is likely that it just did not connect with me. These are the 3 passages that were meaningful

(6) I’ve never forgotten that moment and I’ve kept its lessons close to my heart over the years. When I am tempted to despair or sadness, to question faith or face unanswerable questions about the universe, I stop get up, go to the kitchen and make myself a cup of tea or coffee. After feeling better, I sometimes go out for a walk and let the cool air refresh me. I let myself enter in to contact with the world itself, pressing nearer to it, and by doing this, i draw closer to the presence of God hidden in every corner.

(27)We long for beauty because we long for the one who is the source of beauty and who calls us back to life through the means of beauty in our lives.
Lust emerges from the disorientation of the godly desire to consummate love, born from a self-giving which has been twisted into self-adulation. Pride is the disorientation of the rightful desire to belong, born out of a loss of the inward knowledge that we are God’s children, sealed in His love. Wrath is a disorientation of the desire to be safe, born from a loss of the inward assurance of God’s providence.

(31)
The author talks about Peter getting it wrong at the Transfiguration
“Much of our faith is wrapped up in constructing “tabernacles,” spaces in which we can come to certain conclusions, have a sense of understanding. We have apologetics to help undergird reasonableness of Christian faith, and Bible study tools to make sense of Scripture we read. Often the sermons we listen to are built around giving us a “takeaway,” and when we discuss our growth in faith, we articulate it through what we have learned, the life lessons we have gained. In short, our faith often revolves around the things we can comprehend and integrate into our lives in an orderly way. This is good

And yet knowledge is incomplete. We are not meant to understand God but to adore Him. to draw close to him and participate in his glory through Jesus, as Romans 1: 17 tells us. That sort of passion can’t be contained in understanding alone; it must allow itself to be carried forward in experience of the infinite, eternal God who has made himself close to us in Christ. And God has given us our 5 senses to engage in that experience.

[Marin Artiga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is such a gift! It enlivened my senses with beautiful language and inspiration. Joel walks through each of our senses and what it means to experience God in every aspect of our embodied lives. He casts a vision for living in the reality of the kingdom of God restoring and renewing creation right here and now, in our everyday lives! We get to be a part of proclaiming the goodness of God when we delight in His creation and offer back praise to God who is the source of all glory. He gives expression to the longings we all have but maybe haven’t been able to articulate before. “We long for beauty because we long for the one who is the source of beauty and who calls us back to life through the means of beauty in our lives. When we sin, it is often not that the desire itself is wrong, but rather, that it is not aimed toward the only thing that can satisfy.”
“Nature bears the hallmarks of a creator whose cosmos isn’t only orderly: It is beautiful. It is brought into being—and sustained—by the one who is in the image of the invisible God. In this sense, it bears the imprint of God’s image in its very form and flow. This vitality, this beauty, this structure and intention reveals to us something of God’s nature, something of who He is. And this revelation of Himself through nature is meant to be grasped, to be understood and responded to in praise. The beauty and the order of the universe is made manifest by the beholding of that glorious expression.
The pinnacle of God’s creative act is element within creation which sums up in itself the whole glorious interplay of the multiplicity of the cosmos beyond it: humanity. In each of us is the capacity to not only express the glory of creation, as part of the created order, but to offer it back in praise to God as the source of that glory.”
I underlined so many passages in this rich little book because they give voice to things I’ve intuitively felt, but never had language to express. I’m sure I will pick up this book again and again whenever I need a reminder that the glory of God is woven into our world, and I just need eyes to see it, ears to hear it, and hands to touch it!

[Emily Wiseman · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Every time we cherish a beautiful sunset or relish a cool wind on our face, whenever we bask in the glory of sunlight or delight in the restoring grace of rain--every instance in which we reckon with God's beautiful created world and our heart rises in praise--not only are we beholding Jesus' hidden presence, we are also declaring it to be a faithful promise of what is yet to come.
Though we are still in the broken place, waiting in sorrow behind the veil that sin has woven out of death, when we behold Jesus' beauty, the weave grows just a bit more threadbare. We create what the ancient Celts called "thin places," points where the divide between heaven and earth grows less defined, and we are able to catch a glimpse of our final hope." (Sensing God, Chapter 1)

This book is a call to awaken our senses to the "thin places" we encounter. Rays of God's beauty and glory shine through the veil into our world, and sometimes we just need a nudge to attend and be blessed. I'm so grateful for this author, and the whole Clarkson family of authors, for the nudge. They so consistently and effectively draw my attention and affections upward to the Source of beauty, life, and joy, and my life is better for it.

[Robin Bermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book that opens my senses to seeing and receiving God all around me.

I think that I would be drawn to this book by Joel Clarkson in any season. But given the length of this pandemic, the outdoors seems to be particularly healing. And the way that Joel opens up the holiness of the outdoors (and everywhere), it is especially healing. Prose like this: "To engage with creation is an act of praise, returning the beauty and glory of creation to the one in whom it has its source." And this: "Every time we cherish a beautiful sunset, or relish a cool wind on our face, whenever we bask in the glory of sunlight, or delight in the restoring grace of rain—every instance in which we reckon with God’s beautiful created world and our heart rises in praise, not only are we beholding Jesus’ hidden presence, we are also declaring it to be a faithful promise of what is yet to come." Those words draw me to praise in the one who created all things.

Thank you, Joel, for this holy work. I read it, treasure the direction it points my soul, and will share with others.

[Kidron Tirey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has enchanted me in every spiritual and emotive way Clarkson would have likely intended for His reader. Through his style and use of illustrative literary devices, I’m drawn into a different kind of opportunity to appreciate God. This book quite fittingly could have had a subtitle that included the words “general or natural revelation” — likening to scriptures such as Romans 1:20 and Psalm 19:1-4 because God’s presentation of Himself (His glory) in creation is part of the told story and felt experience of all humans..

I appreciated the fact that Clarkson did not let this book solely be about marveling at God’s display in creation, however (which still would have been marvelous) but he took the narrative full-circle by describing the deity of Christ and how “Through Jesus, not only has God saved us from the consequences of our sin; in Jesus, the dying heart of a broken universe is being reversed” (Loc 455, Kindle). The Gospel message is presented and readers are left with a firm appreciation for sensing the glory of God in their midst, with implications for eternity.

[Iris Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I appreciate the premise of this book, that we can experience God’s presence in the everyday senses, it felt lacking in substance or inspiration for me. Each chapter started with a detailed description of Clarkson’s own experience with a specific piece of music or time in nature, with some great sensory imagery, but it still felt uninteresting and hard to connect with for me (e.g. reading pages about the best symphony you’ve ever attended doesn’t really make me feel any connection with God).

There are definitely moments of great insight on how we can experience God through music, nature, visual arts, and fasting, but I felt that Clarkson spent too much of the book quoting other songs or prayers or describing specific works of art. These descriptions don’t really translate well unless you already know the specific painting or song he’s talking about. I guess I was looking for a more practical book along with some deep insights on how we can be more acute and aware to sensing God in our everyday life—but unfortunately this book certainly wasn’t that.

[Tamar K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensing God is a book for such a time as this. In the shadow of the uncertainty and stress in the world, Clarkson's gentle reminder to heed the presence of God through nature, food, music and beauty is a must read for anyone struggling to sense God in the darkness. The author's sensitivity to experiencing God thus is woven smoothly together with anecdotes and illustrations set on a solid theological base, and he then pulls out questions and recommendations for the reader to take forward.

I found Sensing God to be an affirmation of the practices I learned as a child and a much needed reminder to renew them after a stressful year. Making space and time to sense God renews the soul and settles that divine peace in the heart. After listening to the audiobook version (read by the author), I went back and used the print version as a devotional guide and found it a particularly beneficial focus for the start of a new year.

[ReadingScotland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most Christians understand the deep importance of Special Revelation (God's written Word, the Bible) to our faith. In my experience, many Christians fail to grasp the importance of General Revelation (knowledge about God discovered through natural means like nature, music, beauty, etc.) for the strengthening and deepening of their faith. This book explores the incredible gift that General Revelation is and how we can best enjoy this gift through things like enjoyment of nature, the spiritual aspect of music, the ability of art to communicate, the fellowship that grows through human touch, the heightened sensitivity that comes with a period of denying the senses for a time (fasting), and then the all encompassing joy and delight of feasting, first with others here on earth, but always pointing ahead to that feast day Christians long for at the end of time. As an artist and nature lover I can't recommend this book more highly!

[Rachael Stoldt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this book a 3 1/2 stars. I liked it but there were some things that hindered a 4 star rating. It took a bit to get into it. The beginning started a little too feely, but it got better. I liked the perspective of all of creation bringing glory to God and how scripture points to Christ in our creation, in the existence of humans, in how we create reflects God’s glory. I was kinda turned off by all the big words. I enjoy learning new words and reading books that challenge my vocabulary, but this book leaned on the pretentious side and I think the amount of big words made it come off as not accessible to a larger audience and that using a thesaurus just to get a quota of big words turns me off a bit.

Also, if you have listened to The Green Ember audio, this author narrated the series. This book was narrated by the author, so the whole time I was thinking about the Green Ember series. I probably should have read it instead of listening to it.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

How often we forget that He is everywhere we look, for He created all for our pleasure! Especially in dry seasons this book teaches those seeking the face of God that he can be found in the mundane everyday which draws us closer to Him if choose to awaken our senses and fully take Him in as we’re meant. Having previously read books on teaching children the wonder of our creator through nature and education, it is refreshing to have a book focused on the individual heart. What am I taking in through my senses around me? Where have I missed Him? These have been my main questions throughout reading this exquisite piece of Joel’s heart. As a parent I cannot impart what I do not myself possess. This book will open your eyes to that which has been overlooked in day to day life that speaks His name.

[Pierce Hibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joel Clarkson’s Sensing God was a breath of fresh air for me. It can be easy for Christian readers to lump sensory experience into the category of “flesh” or “things of the world.” This makes our sensory experiences (taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing) immediately suspect when sin is present. But while senses can be avenues for sin, they can also be avenues for worship. God, after all, made our senses. In this book, Clarkson sets out to help us “discover how Jesus is seeking us in the points of sensory contact embedded in every part of our lives” (p. 8). In other words, he wants to help us see how our senses can be roads leading to the glorious beauty of Christ himself. Our sensory experience, in that way, can play a powerful part in helping us to encounter the triune God’s presence and draw nearer to him in worship.

[Hailey Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything the Clarkson family does is wonderful. I preordered this book and I was not disappointed! Joel talks about how we can use our senses to see God incarnate in the stuff of the world — like music, food, and nature. The points he brought up blew my mind and really helped me understand sacraments and the incarnation in a new way. A must read for any creative and/or any Christian.
—
“What if what you are seeking is hidden in plain sight all around you?”
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“Evil, no matter how profound or widespread, is never an equal and opposite balance to good. The days of death are numbered.”
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“We needed more than to simply be told that the light was real; we needed to experience it.”
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“We are destined for redemption. Music assists us in comprehending the joy of what our finite, flawed minds cannot yet understand.”

[Brooke Sander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensing God by Joel Clarkson is a stimulating read that will indulge your intellect, emotions and senses. I found chapter 6 (To Touch the Face of God: Encountering God’s Kindness in Human Connection) to be particularly inspirational and very timely, given the state of the world right now. God’s purpose for us is to be in relationship with him and to love others and he fleshes this out so beautifully. And the examples and stories given are quite touching. All the chapters; however, are filled with bits of wisdom from those who have gone before us, Clarkson’s own personal experiences, and many opportunities for practical application. You’ll enjoy this book if you’re needing a fresh and unique perspective on having a personal relationship with God.