Why God Matters: How to Recognize Him in Daily Life, offers us insight to our Catholic faith through personal stories, life lessons, and Scripture. This unassuming slender volume is both comfortable and comforting. Deacon Steven Lumbert and his daughter, Karina Lumbert Fabian team up to provide reflective short stories, offering their witness in recognizing God and His influence within their everyday lives. Though the accounts vary from serious to playful, all will have you nodding in recognition, agreement, or understanding. Each story follows with a short, thoughtful, Life Lesson segment inviting the reader to consider how we also might see God at work in our own daily lives.

The personal stories and life lessons fit so cleanly with a quotation from Scripture and the Catechism that you can’t help wondering which came first in writing and arranging the book – the story or the quotes.

Powerful in its simplicity, with many layers, each reading offers something new to consider. One can appreciate the main point of each story, without fully exploring the interconnection of the story with the Scripture and the Catechism until another reading. The arrangement and length of each chapter allows you to read in small available segments of time or one restful afternoon.

In the Epilogue, Karina and Deacon Steve invite you to share your own story with them and others. They offer a resource list of websites, books, and favorite prayers for those feeling particularly inspired to continue learning about our faith.

Why God Matters: How to Recognize Him in Daily Life is a welcome addition to any family reading list.