Newest Pursuit

Last year I was asked to share my story ("testimony" in church-speak) at a Valentines's Day event at my church. When I agreed, the organizers were hoping for a turn out of about 30 - 40. In actuality it turned out to be about 200!

After weeks of writing, editing, stressing, etc. I found myself sitting at at table with a bunch of women - some that I knew and some that I didn't. They were all eating and laughing, and having a great time. I was doing my best to not throw up!

And of course - I was slated to be the first to go. So when my time came, I stood up (shaking) and climbed the stairs onto the stage. As soon as my foot hit the top step I was completely calm. It suddenly became fun and I was totally at ease. I told my story, improvising and ad-libbing like I had done it a million times. The audience laughed, they seemed to enjoy what I shared. It was an amazing experience.

Not long afterward, I was approached by one of the members of the leadership team of the weekly bible study I attend. They were wondering if I was interested in becoming part of the lecturing team. I brought the idea home, thinking I would have to decline. (I have a tendency to over commit to lots of stuff - but I'm getting much better at picking and choosing!) But my husband was completely on board with me joining the team!

During the summer when the team met we looked at what the weekly topics were for the year and chose the topics that looked interesting to each of us. I chose a lesson called "Joy in Serving Others." It was based on a small section of Philippians (2:19-30), in which Paul speaks about Timothy and Epaphroditus.

I was supposed to write enough to fill between 20 - 30 minutes. My first draft was almost one hour long! After some serious editing, I was able to get it to about 25 minutes. It was definitely a LOT of work and studying, but it was so worth it. I have a whole new appreciation for that section of Scripture, that's for sure!

Delivering the talk was a little more intimidating than just sharing a story, but I did it and, again, I totally loved it! I only signed up for one lecture this year. Next year I hope to sign up for 2 - maybe even 3.

If you're interested in hearing how it came out, check it out. Click on LAUNCH MEDIA PLAYER. It will bring up a list. Look for the podcast from 2/24/2015, called Lesson 7: Why We Do What We Do.

Book Review - Simply Open: A Guide to Experiencing God in the Everyday by Greg Paul

The list of books published each year telling us how to live-an-amazing-life-now in just ten easy steps grows each year. Some of these are well worth the read, but after a while you start to yearn for something…deeper.

Simply Open: A Guide to Experiencing God in the Everyday by Greg Paul is that something deeper.

Paul, author of such books as The Twenty-Piece Shuffle: Why the Poor and Rich Need Each Other and Close Enough to Hear God Breathe: The Great Story of Divine Intimacy, has taken a different path for his latest by plumbing the depth of the often overlooked Christian practice of contemplative prayer.  This simple practice of prayer and awareness can turn the ordinary into something extraordinary, a deeper spiritual journey in the midst of everyday life.

Paul uses something readily available to each of us as the gateway to spiritual awakening basing each of his first five chapters off a different sense.

Open My Eyes

Open My Ears

Open My Nostrils

Open My Mouth

Open My Hands

He then broadens his scope with the final two chapters, Open My Heart and Open My Mind, showing how to take the everyday awareness and make it something more.

If you have never experienced contemplative prayer this book is a great place to start.

Book Review: Vanishing Grace by Philip Yancey

I have never read anything by Philip Yancey before, but I am so glad I picked up his newest, Vanishing Grace: Whatever Happened to the Good News? This book was thought-provoking, well-researched and very well written. In it, Yancey basically poses the question from one Christian to another, "Why doesn't the world see us as dispensers of God's grace?"  He then goes on through the book to tackle that question as well as propose solutions to how we can better serve a thirsty world with the life-giving water of Christ.

Yancey gives examples of how humility, self-sacrifice, and confidence in God are essential to being the type of people we are called to be. He shows, through various examples of people from different walks of life, how we can be "dispensers of grace." 

This book is encouraging in that it inspires the reader to want to be better at sharing the love of God that we are so willing to enjoy ourselves... that never ending grace that we are partakers of that, if we are honest, we should be tripping over each other in order to share it with those in need.

Book Review: "The Sacred Year" by Michael Yankoski

My latest read, The Sacred Year by Michael Yankoski, is definitely getting added to my favorites list. Yankoski's engaging book was both thought-provoking and inspiring in a way that I was not expecting, but thoroughly enjoyed.

After an experience left him questioning his role and life as a Christian motivational speaker, Yankoski decides to embark on a yearlong quest to reengage his faith by practicing spiritual disciplines such as the Examen, Sabbath, Simplicity, Solitude, Gratitude, and more.

This was a personal story about the challenges, the benefits and the beauty of life intentionally spent living in pursuit of closeness with God.As a person who has been casually interested in pursuing spiritual disciplines for the past several years, this book gives such a wonderful picture of what those can look like in the life of a regular person.  I fully understand that his experiences will not be what mine will be, but that's what made this book so intriguing for me.

This was a little bit on the long side, but it is absolutely worth spending the time to finish and perhaps even use as a starting point to try a spiritual discipline or two.

Book Review: "Tables in the Wilderness" by Preston Yancey

Note: This review is based on an Advanced Reading Copy from Zondervan Books.

Tables in the Wilderness: A Memoir of God Found, Lost and Found Again by Preston Yancey was one of the coolest books I've read in a while. I was in the mood for fiction, but didn't find anything that looked appealing at the time. So I chose the non-fiction story of Preston Yancey's journey of coming to grips with his own faith and how that may or may not fit with the faith in which he was raised.

The book is a reflection of his journey that mostly took place during his college years at Baylor University in Texas.

At first I found myself wondering how deep a book this could be because of his young age, but I was wrong. The issues he struggles with – doubt, the ability to hear God, the sacraments, religious arrogance, etc. - are issues that are not age-specific, but more a function of a person who is very serious and thoughtful about his faith. It was an engaging read that I enjoyed far more than I thought I would.

There are several highlights of this book, one of which is Yancey's writing style. Tables in the Wilderness reads very much like you are being invited to hear the confession of a friend. It is written in a way that makes you feel for the author and want to know how everything turns out for him.

Another highlight is the “Suggested Reading” list he includes in the back of the book. I've already spent some time looking through to see what looks interesting to me and making a list of some I'd like to read. There is also a list of questions at the back of the book that would make this useful for a reading group.

One of the drawbacks, which may just be particular to me, was the little bit of difficulty I had in keeping track of all the other people in the book. For the most part he calls them only by their first names, and aside from the “main players,” I had a hard time remembering who was who. Truthfully, it was not that much of a hinderance, but I figured it would be worth mentioning.

While I started my book search looking for fiction, what I found was a non-fiction story with every bit the narrative satisfaction I was searching for.  

Book Review: "Wasted Prayer" by Greg Darley

I just finished Wasted Prayer: Know When God Wants You to Stop Praying and Start Doing by Greg Darley. It's a fairly quick read, coming in just under 200 pages.

The basic premise of this book is that there are times when, as Christians, we are called not to prayer, but to action. While we are certainly not called to stop praying, Darley puts forth that we are not supposed to use prayer as a way to stall from doing things we know we should do, or even things we feel God to be calling us to.

Using biblical examples from David to Paul, the author shows how there are most definitely times when we already know what to do and that not doing it, or even stopping to "pray about it" can actually be disobedient to God.

Since James 2:18 is pretty much how I live my life, "Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works," the title of this book is what initially what drew me in. I was hoping to glean some insight into how to encourage others to give that way of life a try.

While I did enjoy this book, it did have the feeling of it being a little "over fluffed" (if that's a term!) to fill up space in the pages. I am not a biblical scholar, but I'm fairly familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba, and the amount of real estate dedicated to the re-telling of the story, as well as some of the other stories, felt a little unnecessary.

Overall, not a bad book, but perhaps it wasn't quite what I was looking for. Maybe because I don't tend to pray as a way to prevent action I had a hard time connecting. However, if that is a stumbling block for a person, then I highly recommend it as an easy-to-understand lesson on "show[ing] you my faith by my works."

Book Review: "NIV Teen Study Bible" published by Zondervan

This is a great Bible for young people. My preference is for study Bibles, and this is a very user-friendly one. It is not set up like a typical study Bible, with a lot of notes and information along the bottom of the pages. This is definitely written to teenagers and is set up in a way that will appeal to them. (My almost teenaged daughter LOVES this Bible.)

What makes this NIV Teen Study Bible different from other Bibles I've seen and used (and own!) is the variety of features aimed at the next generation.

Some of the best features, according to my daughter, are "To the Point," "Instant Access," and "What do I Read Today?" In particular, the first two features make Scripture applicable to kids' lives today. They help them think through problems or situations they may be facing using God's word as a tool for making decisions.

The "What do I Read Today?" feature is a section at the back of the book that lists every chapter of the Bible with a little check box by its name, so that readers can check off each chapter as they read it.

As an adult, the feature I appreciate the most is probably "We Believe." On one of the first pages of this Bible is printed The Apostles' Creed. The next page lists the Creed line by line with the corresponding Scripture reference that supports it. Then throughout the rest of the Bible are pages that go into greater detail to explain what each line means. At the bottom of each of these pages is the location of the next "We Believe" page, allowing the reader to go from beginning to end of the Creed without having to go back to the beginning of the book each time.

This is a great resource, but I would say that this book is geared more toward younger teens than older ones. However, since my daughter is still on the younger side of things, I'm sure she will get a great deal of use out of this Bible.