Wednesday, April 28, 2010

A Piece of the Puzzle



Have you ever been cruising through life, thinking all was going well when you realize that something was happening?

Events that were seemingly unrelated take on a whole new level of importance, and it starts to become apparent that while it appeared they were unrelated, they were actually co-dependent on eachother?

That is where I am. Event over the past couple of weeks -- seemingly coincidental, random acts have brought me face to face with myself, and God is showing me areas in my life where I need change.

I wish I could say I was excited.

Honestly, it scares me. While I know that God is with me, ultimately orchestrating it all, and that the end result means a closer walk with Him and more rewarding life experience, the process might be painful to bear.

So, now, I have a choice to make.

Friendships for Grownups

I hesitated to read this book, simply because I wondered if a "loner," such as myself would find anything of value or worth in it.

Never could I have dreamed the floodgates this book would open. I suppose that since she wrote the book, and Thomas Nelson published it, there are other women "out there" that can relate to the struggle Lisa has had in finding and maintaining friendships with women. For me, though, for much of the book, I found myself wondering if she was writing about my life and my experiences. There were times when the words seem to come off of the page and slap me in the face -- it was that directly confrontational with events and episodes of my life.

As a result, it is difficult for me to give an objective review of this book. If you are a woman such as myself who tends to build steel enforced brick walls around your heart, then, yes, this book may very well help you to find a way around that and encourage you to be vulnerable with those you want to be close to.

If you are fairly confident in the friendships you have established and are maintaining, it may not be as much a help to you, per se, but it may help you to understand why there are those of us out there that don't warm up to you instantly, and why we seem to withdraw emotionally.

For men? Not sure on that one. The title of the book is "Friendship for Grownups" but I'm not sure a lot of men would relate to much of what she says. A better title might be "Friendships for Women," but I could be mistaken.

At the end are some good discussion questions and "what's next" type of advice. For me, it was a bit soon to do some of her suggestions, but I can see it being useful in a group study.

Overall, I'm very grateful for this book, and will probably be revisiting it in smaller chunks in the future.

(Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)

Friday, April 09, 2010

Bonhoeffer A Biography



This book, in it's simplest incarnation, is a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, yet, in so many ways, it is more than that.

My first impression of this rather large volume is that it would be so typical of other biographies and would simply drag on and be a tedious read. The only aspect of my first impression that was correct is that it *is* a large volume -- it is not an afternoon read; it will take a while to read.

From the first few paragraphs, the story is captivating and I often found myself saying, "One more chapter. .." even though I was already up in the wee hours of the morning reading. While I was peripherally familiar with the name Bonhoeffer, and while I felt that I had a pretty good grasp on the events leading up to and during the Holocaust, this volume deepened that understanding, and made want to learn eve more (a mark of a truly good book, in my opinion) about the German resistance to Hitler and the Nazis.

The only negative criticism would be about the author's style of relating an event, "fast forwarding" if you will to the future, then pulling you back to the point in the story. Ordinarily, this technique is effective at maintaining the interest of the reader and keeping them engaged. However, the story of Bonhoeffer's involvement is captivating enough and the technique seemed to tease me because I was already desperately reading to see what would be next.

More than anything, though, this book helped me to understand the potentially volatile role and relationship of the church with the local/national authority, and how, without a knowledge of the Bible and Godly discernment, the role can be abused. I would not recommend it for the church member who is comfortable equating patriotism with Christianity -- that notion is challenged directly. I do, however, highly recommend it for the person, who like myself, is struggling to understand exactly what role, if any, the church (corporately and individually) should play in the chess game of politics.




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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”