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Primal

While I was reading Mark Batterson's new book, Primal,  I came a across a challenging quote...

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of the deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; ...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly"  -- Teddy Roosevelt

I want my life to me lived in the "arena" risking much, dreaming big, and working hard to see God get the glory that is His. If you are looking for a great read, pick up Batterson's new book up by clicking here.

Great Book

I recently read the book, Relational Intelligence, by Steve Saccone and I loved it! It is a must read. Here is a clever little promo video for it...

New Books...

I picked up a few new books today, and I am pretty excited to jump in and get reading.

I picked up:

The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family by Patrick Lencioni. I love the way Lencioni writes, this one is going to be great read for sure.

The Sacred Echo,  by Margaret Feinberg. I have never read anything  from her, but this book is on hearing God's voice and it looks really interesting.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians, by Rob Bell. I have read his two other books and enjoyed them a ton, and I expect this one to be equally engaging.

The Encore Effect, by Mark Sanborn. Sanborn wrote the Fred Factor, and You Don't Need a Title To Be A Leader, and I really dug both of those, so this should be an informative as well.

Those are some of the books I am reading, but what about you? Do you have any suggestions for some good reads for me to add to the list?

A Few Thoughts on The Shack

I was given a copy of the Shack to read by one of my friends at Harvest, and truthfully these types of books are not my first choice to read. I don't have a problem with fiction or allegories, but I am more of a get to the point type of guy. I said I would read, and so I did.

The first couple of chapters were slow going for me, but it picked up, and like any good book does, it grabbed me and I didn't want to put the book down!

Below are just a few observations:

• I loved the vividness of the journey! The writer did a great job of painting the picture that life and healing are most often a journey, a series of small steps.
• I appreciate the imagery on how the Trinity interacted -- and all of the emphasis on pure relationships.
• I enjoyed the unique depiction of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit -- it was fun and really got me thinking about their roles in my life.
• I like the fact that it stretched my thinking on the power of a personal encounter with God that would transcend all of my misconceptions of who I think he is, and show me a more complete picture of who he really is.

I would recommend this book, with one warning: remember it is fiction, it is a novel -- relax and allow the writer to paint some pictures, and if you want to go deeper dig out some of the thoughts in the Word. Enjoy it for what it is. 

Yeah, I know it has been really hyped up from a lot of people, but it goes to show us that there are a lot of people who still love the hope filled stories that warm the soul, and challenge the heart.