Bold as Love by Bob Roberts, Jr.

Subtitled "What Can Happen When We See People the Way God Does," Bold as Love takes a candid look at how to truly love your neighbor. Mr. Roberts points out that it’s easy, particularly in our American culture, to love those who believe like we do, who value the things we value, etc. But the world is becoming smaller every day. We have Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Atheists living next door to one another. On page 27, Mr. Roberts says, “Loving others isn’t something we do when we agree with them, or when they’re like us, or even when we like them. Loving others was made for when it’s hard, scary, and near impossible.”

Frequently using Paul as an example, Mr. Roberts wrote, “Serve not to convert; serve because you are converted.” He is not saying that you don’t care if the person(s) you are serving choose Jesus, but that they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. When you show that you’re going to love and serve someone despite your faith difference, when you show respect for their beliefs, they will be open to discussing faith differences. Just be sure “truth is wrapped in boldness, but with humility, not arrogance or hate.” (p. 39)

I found this book encouraging, particularly as I currently have Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim neighbors. It was an easy read and while it was not as organized as I would have liked, it did all come together as a treatise on developing respectful and loving multi-faith relationships. There are other nuggets to be found as well. Witnessing to and praying for your other-faith friends is certainly part of the process.

This is a great book to challenge the way we live in and interact with the world as we enter the new year. Filled with stories of his own encounters with people of other faiths, Bold as Love is a call for Christians to live radically, love boldly, and serve unconditionally, as Christ did.

A complimentary review copy of this book was provided with no expectation of a positive review.

We Have a Winner!

Congrats, Mom. You win the book. Hope you enjoy it!

Guest post by author Andrea Palpant Dilley

CGrant and Company

General pitch blog

Andrea Palpant Dilley

Faith and Other Flat Tires

June 3, 2012

One winter afternoon when I was twelve years old, my father picked up a teenage hitchhiker who was standing on the side of the road wearing blue jeans with big holes in the knees. It was thirty-five degrees out that day. He climbed into the van with us, and then my dad drove on. The ensuing conversation, which I will never forget, went something like this:

“These are my kids, Andrea, Ben, and Nate. My name’s Sam. What’s your name?”

“Donovan.”

My father paused. “Have you ever heard of Amy Carmichael?”

“Um, no …”

“She was a missionary to India who worked to save young girls from sex trade. She worked at a place called Dohnavur, which is kind of close to your name, Donavan. So you have a good name, a name with Christian purpose.”

“Oh.”

In the hitchhiker’s long pause that followed, I remember thinking, “My father is out of his mind, preying on this young hitchhiker who wanted a ride and instead got a church sermon on Christian missionary history.” I felt embarrassed in the same way I did when my dad prayed over our food in a restaurant and the waiter brought the ketchup while he was still praying.

When we reached the cut-off road to our house, my dad pulled onto the shoulder and then turned to my older brother. “Ben,” he said, “Why don’t you give Donovan your jeans. It’s cold out.” In the back seat of the van, Ben took off his pants while my little brother and I looked sideways at each other. Proverbial Christian wisdom says you give away the coat off your back, not the pants off your backside. In exchange for my brother’s, Donavan handed over his own ripped jeans and then climbed out of the van.

When we asked where he was going, Donavan said, “Farther north toward Canada.” That was all. He was out wandering alone in the prairie land of eastern Washington. I watched from the back seat as he diminished into the distance, a tall lean figure standing on the side of a long winter road.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, that experience foreshadowed the day that I would get up and leave behind the faith of my childhood. I would be the one climbing out of the car, striking out on pilgrimage into the unknown. 

             The reasons for my departure were complicated. I spent my early childhood in Kenya as the daughter of “social-justice-and-Jesus” hippy Quaker missionaries and the rest of my growing up years in a healthy, smart church community back in the U.S. And yet, when I came of age and turned 23, I chose to leave the church. I literally stood up from the pew one Sunday morning and walked out right in the middle of a sermon.

A few months before—in the summer after college—I’d worked at an orphanage in the slums of Nairobi and in those months started feeling deep unease about the Christian faith. I wanted to know: Why does God seem distant and inaccessible? What good does prayer do for an AIDS baby or anyone else? And why in the world does God allow kids to suffer parentless in a slumland?

When I came back to the U.S. in the fall, I walked out of the church sanctuary one morning and started into a two-year journey away from Christianity. My faith had a flat tire. I was a lonely college graduate standing on the side of a cold winter road, a lost hitchhiker with no car and no direction, looking out at the wilderness of my heart.

Years later, I returned to church with a changed faith. But I didn’t know that at the time. The day I left, I set out on a search having no idea where I would go in my wandering and or how I would find my way back home. 

Faith and Other Flat Tires: Searching for God on the Rough Road of Doubt by Andrea Palpant Dilley

This memoir was an easy read, despite Dilley’s habit of waxing philosophically.  And it is an interesting story of a woman who grew up a missionary kid, became an adult without truly knowing her own beliefs, and her journey back to God.

Right off the bat, I struggled with this book. I believe that every person’s story is valid and you can’t truly critique someone’s truth. Having said that, Dilley’s assumptions about others disturbed me. On page 22, she writes, “If I follow the standard testimonial conversion narrative for Christians, what I’m supposed to say next is…” She goes on to talk about how people growing up in Christian homes leave the church, dabble in worldliness and sin, realize the futility of such a life, return to church, find faith, and “discover good living.” While I agree that this is the path some take, I certainly don’t find it the norm or the “standard.”

Also, I was a bit disappointed that her rediscovering faith seemed to have little, if anything, to do with Jesus. She talks about her dissatisfaction with her life,  her search for God, and her doubts about God. But even at the end, she refers to certainty in her faith in God, but wavering Christian beliefs. She says “nothing fully satisfied my spiritual need…” (p. 298). And she seems to liken her life spiritual life to a never-ending desert.

I am a firm believer that if you seek, you will find. Dilley’s story definitely includes seeking. I just find it sad for her that she seems to not be experiencing the love, joy, certainty, and freedom that faith in Jesus Christ provides.

Giveaway!

I am giving away a copy of this book. For your chance to win, be sure and post a comment by August 20, as I will choose a random winner at midnight. Winner will be notified here on my blog!

A complimentary review copy and the giveaway copy of this book was provided by Worthy Publishing with no expectation of a positive review.

We Have a Winner!

Okay, ladies. Thank you all for your comments. I put all your names in a hat and drew one. Lorraine, congratulations, you won a copy of My Big Bottom Blessing! Please send your address to me at wordsforHim@gmail.com and I'll send your book right out to you!  I'd love to hear what you think about it after you've read it.

My Big Bottom Blessing by Teasi Cannon

My Big Bottom Blessing was a delight! Written with candor, Teasi Cannon has invited her readers into her head, her life, and her struggles with her weight. I laughed, I cried, I shared pieces of Teasi’s story with others as I read through her book. Well written and easy to read, My Big Bottom Blessing is an easy winner!

Any woman who has ever struggled with self-image should read this book. If you’ve ever struggled with thoughts like I’m fat, My nose is too big, My ears stick out, My eyes are too small, My feet are too wide, My toes are crooked, My hair is too curly/too straight/too thick/too fine, you should read this book. Teasi tackles the lies behind those beliefs, the feelings produced by believing those lies, and the behaviors that follow the feelings. She also shares the truth of what Scripture says about you, how God feels about you, and how you can adjust your feelings and behavior to match His truth.

With questions at the end of each chapter to help you think about your own struggles, the lies you believe about yourself, and God’s truth about your worth, this book is entertaining and inspiring, challenging and honest, helpful and freeing. If you feel trapped inside your flawed self, let Teasi Cannon show you the way to God’s victorious freedom! Because you are fearfully and wonderfully made!

Giveaway Time!

As promised, I am giving away a copy of this book. For your chance to win, be sure and post a comment by Saturday night, as I will choose a random winner at midnight. Winner will be notified here on my blog!

A complimentary review copy and the giveaway copy of this book was provided by Worthy Publishing with no expectation of a positive review.

Thankful for a Big Rear by Teasi Cannon

Today, I have a special treat for you - a guest blog written by the author of the new book, My Big Bottom Blessing. Check it out! I think you'll enjoy it!

Thankful for a Big Rear by Teasi Cannon

One day not long ago I was sweeping my kitchen floor in the near trance-like state of La La Land, when I was jolted to my senses by the precious voice of my 4-year-old nephew saying, “Aunt Teasi, you have a vahwee (very) big butt.”

I set my broom aside, smoothed my shirt, and calmly turned to face him.  Bright-eyed and curly-haired, he stood – completely oblivious to the fact that he had said the words no woman ever wants to hear.  And then I let him have it.  I bent down, coming only inches away from his little round face, and said, “Why…thank you!”  Then I smiled big, stood to grab my broom, and returned unscathed to the task at hand.  

A few years ago those innocently spoken words would have completely obliterated me, and rather than a thank you, might have actually incited an immature come-back such as: “Oh, yeah?  Well, you’re short and you talk funny.”    

But now, to the glory of God, moments like that are reminders to me that the miraculous has happened: I no longer hate my body (especially my back side); in fact, it has become one of the biggest blessings in my life.

Like most women (really every woman I’ve ever met), I lived years literally disgusted with what I saw in the mirror.  The territory between my ears felt like nothing short of a war zone, with battles being fought everywhere: the bathroom, the grocery store, the bedroom, even church.  I could never silence the ambush-ready community of inner critics (those hurtful thoughts we all think) that called my head home.  And I missed out on so much: parties I refused to attend because my pants were too tight, dates with my husband because of a few gained pounds, quality time with my kids.  I know I’m not alone in this.

We women have been lied to for years.  We’ve been told that our value – our very right to be seen and celebrated - is determined by our waist-to-hip ratio or the proportions of our facial features, and that’s just not true.  Our value is determined by the only One who really knows it: our God.  

After hitting my head hard on the floor of my personal pit of despair, I slowly began my journey toward believing that.  One inch at a time of healing, truth, and righteous anger led me to a life-saving realization: All those years I was desperate to change how I looked, God was desperate to change how I see.  And He did. 

Truth is, if God can make a prostitute the great grandmother of the Messiah, turn water into wine, and make blind men see; don’t you think He can turn a big bottom – or a big nose - or bird-thin legs – or whatever it is you hate – into a blessing.  He did it for me, and I’m so ridiculously happy about the journey that I wrote a book about it.  

My Big Bottom Blessing

My first book giveaway is coming soon! For the next few days, I will be blogging about My Big Bottom Blessing by Teasi Cannon, a book about body image and the value God places on us just as we are. And you should check back often, as I have been blessed with the opportunity to include several goodies for you! And you will have the opportunity to win your own copy of this new book!

Bifocals Required

So, I've been having trouble reading for some months now. You might have noticed my lack of reviews. :) It turns out I just needed bifocals. I've had them not for about three weeks and am just now able to start reading. It's not great yet, but it's improving daily! That said, you should start seeing a lot more of me in the near future!