The Inside Out

I finished a book this past weekend that really made me think…no not one I was given to review, but it was the Barnes and Noble free book of the week awhile back so lets pretend I could actually be a book editor or reviewer for Barnes and Noble…it could happen!!! Anyway the awesome book was called Rooms by James L. Rubart. This book sort of stalked me until I bought it. I had already noticed it at Lifeway and was planning to see if it had been released as an eBook (it’s like I have completely stopped reading anything not an ebook yet…). Then like 2 days later it was the free Friday book for the Nook. OK, OK…I’ll read it. One of the descriptions of the book was “Ted Dekker meets The Shack.” Love both of those so I dove in. Without giving away the plot too much there is an awesome story of a man finding out who he really is, and who he really wants to be…and it’s not an easy journey, just like it is for the rest of us. There’s a portion of the book where the guy is talking to himself…except “himself” talks back in an audible way – strange, I know, but it made me think about something: What am I saying to myself, inside my head, that I’m actually listening to…and how much of it isn’t true and isn’t from God?

Take that in…is there stuff in my head, that I firmly believe, that isn’t true?

Yeah…there is! And how much of it am I listening to?

I’ve been trying to be more regular about journaling and really trying to think through that and to be honest, it’s hard. It’s hard to rethink what I’m thinking when there’s no one else hearing it, critiquing it, and talking me through it. And that’s probably the place I need the most work. Depending on others to talk me through stuff. This is the kind of work you have to do yourself cause no one else even knows it’s in there! For me it means more time with God cause He does know what’s in there. The good part is that equals more running! And I’ve come to realize that means getting up early before the rest of my perfect little people get up! And for me, that’s hard too! I love my sleep…but I love time with God more so I’m going to start next week really trying to do better about that! So, any advice here on getting up early would be beautiful (not before 6am…nothing good happens after midnight or before 6am…it’s true.).

How do you listen to God? How do you know what you hear from yourself is right? And how do you mesh all that together?

This past weekend I read an awesome book by an author I hadn’t read before (even though she has several books I will be picking up VERY soon) : Indivisible by Kristen Heitzmann. It was a small town story with a great mystery (I figured it out early which made me feel very clever!!) and a love story that made it really hard to put down. The best part of this story was the way Kristen describes the characters…each and every one of them became people you really felt like you knew, and really cared about, and that you wanted a very big “happily-ever-after” for the end. Watching them battle with their past and with faith, made a real connection for me with them. I felt like part of the story in the little mountain town that she describes to perfection. It’s a hard plot to describe without giving away the ending, but it’s well worth picking up! It was an excellent read and I tore through it… and then immediately went looking for more of her books like it! It is available as an eBook which is delightful for me and my precious Nook!! You can download the first two chapters here: http://j.mp/cmf2YR and check it out if you’d like! This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

As if I wasn’t already excited enough about the final season of LOST starting this week, I just finished reading Chris Seay’s book, The Gospel According to LOST. I always saw some relationship between the story lines of the television show and faith, but this book made me think about them in so much more depth! Chris is an awesome story teller and weaves our favorite characters from the show into our beloved stories from the Bible and I love that. Our culture needs things like LOST to engage them. And when we apply them to the Gospel, it just encourages understanding of stories in the Bible. I think churches need to use pop-culture more and be more applicable to this world…and our culture is into things like tv, movies, and music. People can understand God more if we use things that they already understand and it ends in a win-win when church and culture collide! (see Pop Goes the Church by Tim Stevens) Thank goodness there are people like Chris Seay who aren’t afraid to use things like a seriously cool television show to get people into the Word of God. I think that’s awesome.

Quick PS: It only took me 3 days to read this book so if you get on it, you can finish it before the last season starts on Tuesday! GET ON IT!

 

 

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