Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe, by Max Lucado

I’m not sure whether to list this book as a Christian Novel about Spiritual Warfare, or a novel about Prayer or maybe even a Romance novel. It can fit in any of those categories.

The novel will deal with the reality of how our culture / world views the topic of prayer and the reality of God. Most don’t believe that God exists and even more don’t believe that God hears and answers prayer.

So, what would happen if God chose to answer our prayers using a communication medium that we are comfortable with today, a Blog? Yup, what if God started a Blog with the sole purpose of giving people the opportunity to ask just one question and He will answer it.

Chelsea Chambers, the main character in the novel, has inherited her mother’s coffee café in San Antonio, Texas. But with this inheritance comes a problem, the business owes a bunch of money to the IRS and they don’t care that it was an inheritance they still want the back taxes.

To make matters worse Chelsea is trying to recover from the worst marriage possible. She married Sawyer because they had gotten pregnant. Life seemed like it would be good because he was a star football player and signed with the NFL for big money.

Unfortunately the marriage didn’t go well and the money didn’t last. As many NFL stars find out they are poor money managers and the big bucks disappear.

But what Chelsea doesn’t see coming is that her first employee is actually her guardian Angel who has been sent from heaven to help draw Chelsea closer to God. With him comes two more Angels that offer Chelsea a computer router/internet connection for a free 90 day trial. Chelsea accepts and they set the router up.

The first problem is, the router only connects to one site, “The God Blog.” Really, has is this going to help. Well, it does help, people come out by the dozens/hundreds because they want to ask God a question and the answers they get are amazing.

But the reality of the story is this, “What will Chelsea discover about herself and her relationship with God?” It turns out that Chelsea needs to learn about forgiveness. Not just for her husband Sawyer, but also for her father, Charles. She also needs to learn not to be skeptical of God.

The plot of the story is this, “Will Chelsea learn the lessons that God has in store for her, or will she refuse to pray and ask for help?”

The book is going to come with a reader’s discussion guide. I think it will be a great help for groups who want to read and discuss the topics that are addressed.

Max Lucado is a master storyteller and this novel holds that to be true. It is a story told with little bits of truth so tucked in at each turn that you want to read, experience, contemplate, and then discover how things will turn out for Chelsea and her family.

But bottom line, Lucado will have you stopping throughout the story and asking yourself, “What do I need to learn?” Or even better yet, asking yourself, “So, have I been doubting God and thus not bringing my cares to Him in prayer?”

Please, read, think, contemplate and enjoy!