Summer Reading

It's been a while since I have reviewed any books and that's simply because I haven't been reading any.  Well, I've been reading but only my daily Bible reading and books related to my job.  For my summer reading, I am staying away from anything SSA specific and sticking with books I can take to the pool and the beach without hiding the cover.  I'm on vacation and devouring books, so here goes!

I had the pleasure of hearing Bob Goff speak several months ago and he was funny, encouraging, and challenging all at the same time - and that's difficult to pull off.  He has the energy and enthusiasm of a preteen, the humility of a monk, and the wisdom of a sage.  His recent book, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People, has the same combination of encouragement and challenge mixed in with humor and engaging stories. 

The book's focus is on loving others well; loving them like Jesus does.  And not just our friends, families, and neighbors, but also our enemies, difficult people, and people that creep us out.  He challenges us to love the TSA guy, the slow guy at the car rental counter that just made you miss your flight, the poor, the hungry, the orphan, the prisoner, and even the witch doctor.  He explains how we often make loving people more difficult than it is, making excuses or waiting for the perfect time, when we already have the command from Jesus to do it and that's all we really need.  It's a fun, lighthearted book with an important call to love everybody, always.  It also reminded me that I don't love people as well as I should, including my husband... I'm going to work on that.

In her followup book, Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow, Nancy Guthrie turns to the gospels and the words of Jesus to answer the tough questions.  She goes right for all of the complicated, uncomfortable, and difficult to understand truths about pain and sorrow.  She challenges our assumptions about God, faith, and suffering.  Each chapter ends with what reads like a letter from Jesus to you using scriptures.

"Jesus knows just what to say to brokenhearted people.  He knows just what we need to hear because he knows us better than we know ourselves.  And Jesus understands the weight of our pain because he himself has plumbed the depths of suffering and sorrow."

Guthrie reminds us that, "when we grab hold of the confidence that God is using the worst things we can imagine for our ultimate good, we can see the light beyond the darkness."  This book was thought provoking and encouraging.  I highly recommend it for anyone going through any type of sorrow.

Nancy Guthrie is a woman that has known sorrow and suffering.  After losing one child and while pregnant with a second child that she knew would die, she wrote the book Holding on to Hope: A pathway through suffering to the heart of God.  She walks through the book of Job, comparing it to her own journey and also pointing us towards the heart of God.  With each chapter she asks more questions than she provides answers - questions that we must each wrestle with during difficult times.  I have personally never lost a child, but her thoughts on suffering are relatable regardless of the type of suffering.  She encourages us to experience the grief and tears while still worshiping God, knowing the sacrifice of worship costs so much.  She challenges us to be thankful not only for the good things God brings but also for the suffering he allows.  Ultimately suffering is a mystery we may never understand.  The book is short and easy to read but very deep.  It also includes an eight-week Bible study on the book of Job for further study.