Follow the Leader

Today’s post goes straight to the point. If we worship Jesus - but don’t follow Him, what kind of worship are we offering? What does “worship” mean if we say we worship Him, but we don’t touch the lepers in our lives, or embrace those who are grieving? If the broken, hungry, and searching of the world don’t see in me that they did in Him - what kind of worship am I offering?

Of course, none of us starts off following more than worshipping. That’s just kind of impossible. And the longer we follow His example - the more we experience that following His example really takes all of us laid upon the altar as a living, daily, offering to Him. At least, speaking for myself, it takes everything I have to get up every day and live by His example. It’s a huge, ongoing effort - and after that realization we say, “I coulda had a V8!” or rather the Christian version, “Jesus was amazing!”

And He still is amazing.

But it’s really hard to follow Him, isn’t it? I mean, worship is so beautiful. We can sing our favorite worship song, recite our favski Psalm or parable, or linger a while in soul-nourishing prayer - but none of those things wears on my soul like swallowing that sharp-tongued thing I was going to say, or being neighborly to some stranger who just took my parking spot or, showing patience to the person who just insulted me to my face.

So why do those things, then? I mean if they’re harder to do, and if worship is enough, then why get worked up. Isn’t perfectionism bad for us?

Perfectionism is bad for us, but “me-ism+worship is badder.” You can quote me on that.

Followership, the more I embrace it, is like a daily, spiritual spa treatment for my soul. Jesus uses His example in my life, and His Spirit speaking (and sometimes shouting) to work the thorny bits out of my soul. Following Jesus’ example in my day-to-day, mundane, boring ol’ life teaches me from the top of my soul to the marrow in my bones, that the sharp-tongued thing I was going to say isn’t even about them but is in fact entirely about me, and that reality tends to hit me hard as I’m trying to fall asleep. The stranger I’m neighborly too, might see my tiny little neighborliness and light up my whole day after it happens. Then again, if they don’t see, Jesus may give me grace to think about all the myriads of unrecognized graces He blesses me with. The person who insults me may offer me an opportunity to bask in the security of Jesus’ love without having my ego affirmed at every turn - which is another way to say it can help me build resilience.

So, what I’m saying is that followership leads to much deeper, more meaningful, more soul-engaging worship. Worship that comes from followership connects my daily efforts to Jesus’ daily life. There is nothing we experience on a daily that Jesus didn’t also have to deal with. And that is really humbling. He went through all I’m going through and His response was to die for all those people giving Him all that grief? Followership has a way of putting Jesus on a throne of praises right in my own heart.

Okay - thank you for reading these Lenten season 2023 posts. I am grateful for you. I’m going to keep posting more of this for a bit. I have been informed though, that sometimes the algorithms are not always notifying subscribers and followers of new posts. I am not sure how to fix that today, but I am looking into it. For now - what I’m told is sharing and liking and all that will help the algorithm work better, so if you’d like to help me with that, I’d appreciate it very much.

Come back next week to read about the Secret Sauce!

What's This Maundy Thursday Stuff Anyway?

The other day I mentioned to someone that tomorrow is Maundy Thursday and they shot me a funny look and then said, “I think you mean Mardi Gras”

It’s easy to ignore this. It can also be more comfortable to ignore it.

But I am madly and wildly in love with it.

What do you like to do before the most difficult day of your life? Go to bed early? Special dinner? Extra time doing something you like? Skip out of some responsibilities? What would be your preferred self-care at such a crucial moment?

I’m sitting here going ape that on the night before the worst day ever Jesus’ life - He had a menaingful but simple dinner with the guys He’d been trying to teach everything to for quite some time - and then He sums the whole three years of stomping all over His dusty homeland and sloshing all around that huge Sea of Galilee - and he gets up, get’s comfortable to do His cultures most lowly job - and starts washing His disciples’ feet.

His self-care, was telling us to care for one another, serve one another, Love one another.

Not gimme gimme gimme. Not, “ya know what? I’m gonna eat all the deviled eggs, okay? They’re MY favorite. Not fight over politics - which would’ve been as big a disaster for them as for us because Jesus’ hand-picked disciples subscribed to at least 5 different political parties.

Nope - He’s scrubbing His disciples’ feet. Not feet shod in 21st-century shoes and having ridden around all the last three years in some cushy air-conditioned SUV. Nope. We all know those feet were in need of more than a pedicure. It was the most disrespected job because everyone’s feet were like that and everyone with feet like that or even us today with our pristine, barely used up baby-smooth feet wrapped in plush socks and squishy shoes - LOVES that kind of TLC. And - it just needed to be done. He wanted them to have this bit of loving from Him because He knew what was coming. And as He’s scrubbing the caked-on grime off their tired dogs and toweling them dry, He’s telling them “This is how you love one another.”

For God so LOVED the world He gave His only Son - and His only Son - on His last night with His friends - loved on them like crazy.

The name MAUNDY comes from the Latin word from which we get our modern English word mandate. The Thursday before Good Friday we celebrate Jesus’ commandment - His mandate to love one another.

And I am as certain as I am short - that He gave us that mandate for our good. They were about to have their worst day ever too. A bad day stinks no matter how you slice it - but it sure does stink a whole lot less if you can go through it with those who love you - and I mean love you enough to grab your stinky, crusty, dusty old foot and tenderly scrub it - and still love you all the same if not even just a bit more because ain’t nobody’s foot, or problems, or heart-aches or burdens any better. We’re all carrying the same old awful stuff. Oh sure - yours may seem to be a bit different from mine, but that’s just cuz our human eyes are sometimes easily confused.

And isn’t this so much of what makes Good Friday so good? He went through that bad Friday for our good and it was His good pleasure to do so. Just like it was His good pleasure to let us in on the secret sauce He was going to use in order to get through it. We talk about being united with Him in baptism which was like His death - but I do not think we talk enough about being united with Him in Love.

Love like the kind He washed those feet with and dabbed them dry again - it’s “checkbox” love. It’s transformational love. It’s the kind that absolutely will not work if we attempt it out of obligation. It’s the kind that flows from seeing ourselves as He does - which always is an adjustment from the glitz and glam of the world. He sees our brokenness and loves us anyway - if not all the more. He sees our imperfections and still washes away. He sees all those things about us that we will never figure out how to bring to Him, and still, he gently dries between every single toe. It’s the kind that knows that we just will never give Him some areas of our lives - out of fear, or anger, or blindness or whathaveyou - and still He tells us that the secret sauce that makes it all work in so far as it can work at all, is Love - and even if we never get it as much as He’s love for us to, He’ll still go to the cross for us - out of love for us. He gave the mandate. He modeled the mandate.

Tomorrow is Mandate Thursday.

So we can have a lifetime of Good Fridays.

I’m broken by His wild, unstoppable, infinite love for us.

May we all love one another and together love what remember He did for us.

Wonder Drug - Why I'm Passionate about Compassion

I recently read a recently released book called “Wonder Drug” by Dr. Stephen Trzeciak MD, MPH, who’s chair of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and Anthony Mazzarelli MD, JD MBE who’s the co-president and CEO of Cooper University Health Care. They both actually have lots of other roles – but the important thing to note is that they’ve written a book that is as beneficial to them in their positions as it is to anyone else. I became interested in the book when I heard them being interviewed about it on one of my favorite podcasts.

The book is absolutely worth the time it takes to read. Are you a numbers person? There are numbers for you. Are you a stories of personal impact, there are personal stories for you. I like both of the numbers and the stories. Here’s a short list of the lessons that have stuck with me after reading these two doctors’ work that have stuck with me and continue to encourage me.

·       Compassion fatigue is what happens when we almost practice something that looks like compassion but is not compassion purely for compassion’s sake. Practicing compassion to be thought of as compassionate doesn’t carry as many benefits and can even lead to burnout. Practicing compassion towards others at one level and towards yourself at another (or visa versa) also does not work as well. Practicing compassion out of obligation also deprives us of the full benefit of practicing compassion for compassion’s sake. I have grown to love compassion – and find that the more I lean into showing it to my loved ones, those in my church community, those in my local community, and the wider world – the easier it is to show it to myself too. And – I am so imperfect I truly need it. The more I show it the more humanized everyone becomes – the more I can minister to angels unawares and treat strangers and sojourners as I want to believe I would treat Christ. Christ denied compassion to no one. Even those he fought with, he also wanted to gather to him like a hen gathers her chicks.

·       The health field has a long standing position of saying to help people better, professionals need to distance themselves. What these two doctors found though, was that it’s that very disconnect that leads to compassion fatigue. In that case, and this is my paraphrase, compassion fatigue is a result of our human want and need to feel and show compassion being disconnected. We are made for compassionate connection, not discompassionate disconnection. But disconnection is often so painful, we can only do it discompassionately – because it just hurts us. We may not admit this easily to ourselves. I confess that once upon a time I valued big personalities, making “tough calls” with bluff and bluster and maybe even gruffness “for the good” of other. What I’ve come to understand from plenty of tough situations of my own is that I’m afraid that’s kind of crap. There is no strength like the strength of respect, dignity shown with kindness and compassion. I can only do this when I am up-to-date on engaging in the ongoing work on my soul with God to surrender the garbage that keeps me from feeling His loving-kindness, compassion and patient grace with me. I am only as compassionate to myself/others as I allow God to be to me. It takes a lot of intentional strength to stay in this process in a mind-set of progress not perfection.

·       It takes a tiny amount of compassionate connecting time to make a HUGE difference in our lives. Compassion isn’t some fluffy thing that we put out into the world. It is SOUL MEDICINE. The science, the data is clear – compassion doesn’t just feel good to our hearts, it actually protects them from actual physical heart disease. I KNOW!! Not only that – it can literally heal our hearts – spiritually from the burdens we carry in them, and even some of the physical damage in them. Is it a silver bullet? Clearly not. Is it magic? Don’t get me started. Not only does compassion make us feel engaged and meaningfully connected to our work, to our families – and I would say for me – to my purpose for being here, but it can even reverse and help us start to reclaim parts of ourselves that we’ve lost – like our hope, our agency – our ability to make our lives better. And how much time per day are we talking about? 15 minutes. We’ve all had a rough couple of years and I don’t know about you – but I often wish people were less mean, less angry, less irritable. Well. Come join me. Let’s be the change we crave. Can we make others change? And let’s be real, it’s silly to talk about that until I’ve changed me. I have worked hard on these issues in my life long before this book came out last year – but I am reinvigorated in my passion for compassion by this book and all that’s in it. I can’t speak for the rest of the world – but I sure am willing to stand with you as you stand with me – and together we will surely make a difference to one another – and that’s pretty awesome.

Zip It - Review

Back on July 18th - I said I'd picked up a digital version of Karen Ehman's Zip It - a 40 day devotional book on speech and was going to go through it.

Well - I finished it a bit early - mostly because the book has just 5 readings per week - but I frequently did 6. Anyway - here's what I have to say about Zip It after having read it through - and giving the parts that resonated with me most a second read (and there were quite a few) here's my final word (hehe - couldn't resist) on this book on speech: do it.

If you haven't done a study on speech before - or ever - then this is a great place to start - especially if you don't have a lot of time to devote to the topic. You might, for instance, wonder, how anyone could come up with 40 days worth of stuff to say about speech. You could surely find twice as many topics on speech on your own - but not without a substantial investment of time. Studies such as this are beneficial in the sense that not only do they do collect many of the verses on their given topic - but they also effectively school you on how to do such studies on your own - on topics of your own choosing - which may or may not always be available in a prepared manner - or which you may want to study much deeper - looking into the original language, or traditional church views, or ancient ones, or ... more!

Some of the subtopics/days I particularly enjoyed were

Day 1    "A Matter of Life and Death"

Day 9 "Building Your Word-Robe"

Day 12  "That Time I Spied Ugly in the Mirror"

Week 4   which was focused on taming your temper

Day 21   "The Snowball of Senseless Speech"

Week 7  which was focused on making our words sweet and salty

This study took me less than 20 minutes per day - to read through the day's reading, to look up verses, journal a bit - and pray through the exercise - some days I spent a little more time other a little less. 

That said - I have spent an enormous amount of time nearly every day since beginning the Salty Speech project - 1-2 hours usually - studying speech on many levels - this study was just one aspect. I've also done studies on listening, silence, solitude, quiet, waiting, patience, graciousness in speech, not to mention engaging in anew familiar as well as learning new spiritual discipline practices - which I'll touch on in Friday's post - which will be the last (at least for now) on Salty Speech. 

However we go about it - each of us who has given our lives to Christ, and has been offered His grace, carries the privilege and responsibility of standing in for Him in the minds of those we encounter - as representative of not only Christ, but His Church's people in general. I've never heard of a Christ-follower being ill-received for being too wise in how they speak. There are many words in my past which I'd happily erase. My goal for this study was anything but regret though - rather my goal was to make the most of the future.

"Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."  Matthew 12:34

The Jesuit's Guide to Almost Everything

This book came to my attention as many books do - by being referred to in other books I've read. When multiple books from various disciplines refer to the same book - I usually end up adding that title to my "to-read" list.

Having grown up in a protestant family - I had no idea what a Jesuit even was until I watched that movie that came out forever ago - "The Mission" (any of you all remember that film? Robert De Niro - Jeremy Irons - holywooded-up history?) Even after having lived with an Austrian Catholic family for my entire junior year of high school - I still hadn't figured out who Jesuits were and/or what they were about.

Enter this handy book. What interested me most in this book thought was it's "how-to" discussions on some very old and very very old practices of prayer, self-examination and such. I have a nice little collection of discipleship books across many faith traditions - some from Inter Varsity - of course a couple from Navigators - one from Vineyard, one from a Lutheran church - so it's fair to say that I'm always interested in adding to my understanding of discipleship, disciple-making and Christian practices that have been handed down for centuries. There is so much more to deepening our faith than just reading our Bibles and highlighting or taking notes. So many of these practices were designed hundreds of years ago or even thousands to help Christians of all walks to deepen their walk - and if you go far enough back - there weren't denominational differences - there were just people (mostly illiterate) trying to model their lives after Christ. 

The practice mentioned in this book among dozens of practices - that I enjoyed reading about most was the "Examen" - which he summarized on Page 97 in 5 steps:  

1. Gratitude: Recall anything from the day for which you are especially grateful and give thanks.
2. Review: Recall the events of the day, from start to finish, noticing where you felt God's presence, and where you accepted or turned away form any invitations to grow in love.
3. Sorrow: Recall any actions for which you are sorry.
4. Forgiveness: Ask for God's forgiveness. Decide whether you want to reconcile with anyone you have hurt.
5. Grace: Ask God for the grace you need for the next day and an ability to see God's presence more clearly.

If you've followed along with this blog for very long - then you know that this is similar to the Grace Habit - a habit or practice which was the many topic of many of the first few months of posts on this blog. Before reading this book - I'd asked around in a number of various Christian Catholic and Orthodox traditions if anyone knew of anything like the Grace Habit - and turned up empty handed every time. Had I not turned up empty handed - I probably would've posted about the established (traditional) practice instead of launching into describing a new one. As much as the Examen is similar to the Grace Habit - it's not identical - and while the differences are perhaps slight on first glance - they cumulatively have a different feel ... I'd say it's harder to fall into guilt with the Grace Habit - yet it does offer true reflection.

The book returns to the Examen in nearly every chapter in some way or another - and highlights many other useful practices and so I recommend it - especially if you enjoy reading about other ways to further your walk with God.

I was able to borrow a copy of this book from my local library which is by far my favorite way to put my hands on a book - at least the first couple of times. 

Diary of a Country Priest

Over 80 years ago Georges Bernanos wrote this novel about a fictional priest beginning his work at a fictional parish in northern France. Whether you grew up Catholic or Pentecostal - if you're committed to your faith - you will find a kindred spirit in Bernanos' main character - the newly minted young priest - who's ascetic, earnest, and awkward. He'd fit right in to 2017! Soon - everyone is having fun at the young priest's expense - the villagers find him curious - if not a little frightening. The girls in the catechism conspire to make a mockery of him. Some declare him "the best sort" others make him out to be a drunken instigator. He even receives an anonymous note from a "well wisher" - who has just one suggestion for him: "Leave"

Despite all this - the young priest digs in - and soon finds that his only real friend - is his diary. He tells it all - though not permanently - sometimes filled with fits of regret for what he's written he goes back and scratches out words, lines - and even tears out whole pages. At one point he sets a date for himself to toss it into the fire - and still continues to write and chronicle life in the little community. He also processes within the diary's pages his own humble beginnings - the unfortunate and untimely death of his mother while he was still a boy - his noble father who disowns him - and his time spent being raised in a seedy, run-down bar.

The earnestness of the young priest and how he's such an easy mark for harassment and entertainment isn't what makes the novel so good - all that is what makes it endearing. But what really makes it a compelling read - is the way he not only devotes himself fully to the hard task of winning over the rural community - including turning a woman who'd lost her faith back to the fold - consoling another priest who's closest friend commits suicide - and the way he himself deals with his own terminal diagnosis of stomach cancer. The priest himself waivers between losing and deepening his faith. Bernanos has his character recording all these events and more within the pages of the priest's diary - which reads in general - like conversations that we could have with one another now over topics of great weight and their intersection with faith. The book ends with the priest's last words - with which he more firmly rooted in his faith than ever whispers, "Grace is everywhere."

It's not hard to understand how the book was awarded the Grand Prix for Literature - and was declared by USA Today to be the Best Spiritual Book of the 20th Century. This one wasn't available through my library - but I know where you could borrow a copy.

Chasing Daylight

I believe ages ago - while away at a conference - I heard Erwin McManus speak and picked up this copy of Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment. This all took place so long ago that I had no idea this gem was hiding anywhere in the house. This past week as an international student was packing up her things and preparing to move out - my eyes landed on on this book - and I thought - "why not?" Don't know about you - but that is for me - not the usual way I start reading through a book - usually I'm very clear about why I want to read it - and why I want to read it now. But - this one - I opened with a shrug and a "well, okay"

What a treat then to find encouragement upon encouragement as I turned page after page. I couldn't put it down! McManus is a creative type - and leads a church in L.A. called "Mosaic" that has a creative twist to it. I've done a little checking on-line and am pretty tempted to plan a road-trip - wanna come? Let's go this winter - when the weather here is well - quintessential Wisconsin - and after we get to meet the new students who - right now - all over the midwest are packing bags and looking at syllabi and getting ready to leave their homes to move here and start their college careers - or continue them at another school. 

There's more to recommend in this book than I can cover in just one post - but I'll cover two specific aspects of McManus's book that really resonated. 

No. 1 - He makes a distinction between "first dimension faith" and "second dimension faith" - I'll quote directly from the book which starts on page 73 and continues through to page 83.

As I have lived this journey of faith and served within the community of faith, I have noticed that faith has two practical dimensions, I describe them as first-dimension faith and second dimension faith. First-dimension faith is involved when we step out into any area of trust in God outside our experience, but the challenge set before us is clearly in the realm of possibilities. God is asking us to do something that He has done in the lives of others; we just haven't experienced it. Sometimes it's as practical as God calling us outside our personal experience and comfort zone. ... Most of life's challenges are a test of first-dimension faith. ... The texture of this dimension of faith has everything to do with character. It's about trust in God's character and God's testing your character. That's why you cannot speak about faith without talking about obedience.

On page 74 McManus continues this thought:

The critical issue here is that when we become paralyzed in this first-dimension of faith, we are often told we just didn't believe hard enough. Yet Jesus was saying the opposite. In most cases, first-dimension faith is about obeying what God has already spoken. It is about building our lives and moving forward with confidence fueled by commitment to God's truth.

McManus dedicates all of Chapter 3 - appropriately called "Uncertainty" to really parse out this important "next level" of faith - so he devotes pages and pages to conveying what first dimension faith is all about. On page 81 - he starts to move into discussing second-dimension faith.

When we make the choices necessary to live a life that maximizes first-dimension faith, then the fun really starts. If first-dimension faith takes us outside our experience, second-dimension faith takes us outside the explainable. While first dimension faith sees realities in the realm of possibilities, second-dimension faith sees realities in the realm of impossibilities. In first-dimension faith, the context for miracles is internal. God is working in us and through us. In second-dimension faith, the context is often external. God's hand is clearly all around us.

Okay - so this distinction - however convenient - isn't spelled out in scripture ... you can't flip open your Bibles - all church-camp Bible-drill style to First Bereans and read in chapter 2, verse 22 all about the first and second dimensions of faith. I suppose there isn't a verse in the Bible anywhere that parses out faith in this way - because in God's eyes - these are both just "faith" - or "trusting Him". From a human perspective - sitting here in 2017 at my desk - in a time when faith all too often means "making God say what you want Him to" - the link between faith and obedience - whatever you may want to call it - is key. Without obedience - faith is useless. Think I'm making that up? Check out the second half of James 2. We need to be reminded - that first-dimension faith, or obedience, or follow-through on belief - is the pattern of behavior in our life that will make us Kingdom people God can use in Kingdom ways. 

The No. 2 discussion that was fantastic; Jonathan vs. Gideon. Woven in and out of the points of each chapter throughout the book - McManus examines the response of Jonathan, son of King Saul, to the crucial moment 1 Samuel 14 - where Israel is at war - it's not going well for them - and Saul is kind of ... well ... stuck. Saul is stuck - but Jonathan - is not. Jonathan is clear about what needs to happen - and while everyone else is either already stuck with King Saul - or on their way to being stuck with him - while everyone else was literally and figuratively sleeping - Jonathan went out in faith to survey the enemy. From that position - he saw and opportunity - and in faith - he took it - and changed the fate of his country and his people. He compares this response on Jonathan's part to Gideon - who's faith was nowhere near as strong - to the point that Gideon doesn't just test God once - but twice. And even then he goes out with such force - that God sends over 90% of his forces home. 

Between these two ideas and discussions - I found my faith continually encouraged page after page. 

If you're looking for a book to start reading - you could do far worse than by picking this book up.

Mindset

Thanks to SuperBetter's author Dr. Jane McGonigal's references to Dr. Carol Dweck's work - I was motivated to pick up a copy from my wonderful local library and gobble up her life-time's worth of research into the power of Mindset.

Dr. Dweck - one of the foremost researchers on personality, social psychology, and development psychology - has spent her career focusing on the powerful influence exerted over virtually every aspect of our lives by our mindset. Mindset seems to also be another one of these traits where whether due to nature or nurture you land in the world with a propensity towards one or the other - but unlike handed-ness - you can at any moment in your life - such as this one for instance - choose to adopt a mindset that offers you the most benefit. Dweck essentially splits the world into two: those who have a fixed mindset (they value natural talent, innate ability, believe that test-scores and accomplishments are the bees knees and that we are defined by these things ... some have it - and some don't) vs. the growth mindset (which in contrast - effectively views natural talent and innate ability as myth and instead focuses on embracing challenge, developing skill, and sees any score, test or accomplishment as a snapshot at most). Dweck has spent decades researching the impact of these two contrasting world views on pre-schoolers, kindergarten children, elementary students, athletes, professionals, parents and organizations. I've only read through this book once and I just finished Sunday night - but I did not read of a single instance in which Dweck referred to the fixed mindset as beneficial in a meaningful way when it comes to expertise, learning, or happiness.

Dweck believes people change - that they not only change but that they can even intentionally change in the direction of their choosing. She believes - based on her decades of experience in the plasticity of the brain - as well as the force of human will - and has narrowed in on mindset - either fixed or growth - as being at the root of whether we face our challenges and grow better or bitter. She has participated in and led so many studies in her pursuit of parsing out why some rise above what seem to so many to be insurmountable limitations - whether height, IQ, gender - or whatever other factor anyone ever narrowed in on as a limiting factor - and why some - with what seemed like vast oceans of enviable early talent seem to fizzle out and drift away from the lime-light. According to Dweck - whatever fuels your soul - if you can approach it with a growth mindset - you have the capacity to accomplish great things. In fact - Dweck suggests in her TED talk (check it out here)  - that the 98% of humanity that lives between the genetically disabled and the genetically genius - can all learn to ... be "matheletes", "natural musicians, talented athletes, ... basically ... awesome humans.

"let me know. We can get twice as much funding if we have a girl and we'd like to get jackets"

The number one thing that stops nearly 100% of us - including some of those who are actual factual genetic geniuses - from achieving that illusive "greatness" are all the ideas that say maybe we just haven't got and collectively weigh us down to the point of giving up on applying any effort. To Dweck - it's not about talent - it's all about effort - and most importantly - learning to love the effort. She quotes 4-year olds who when faced with tasks "too hard for them" would excitedly exclaim "Yes!! I was hoping it'd be hard!" with truly pure joy. She wants to act as something of a brain-GPS guiding us back to the initial, insatiable, voracious learners and unstoppable challenge-embracers we all were when we were born - and began happily and enthusiastically set off on conquering the stunningly daunting challenges of talking, walking, and learning everything - and LOVING it. Once upon a time - you ADORED being challenged - and were full of explosive energy at the thought of sharing your conquered challenges with those most important to you. They went on your fridge. You told everyone about it. You wanted more of that please and thank you very much.

You may have noticed a theme in some of my reading lately ... it's not really a lately though. When I read books like Mindset or Grit or SuperBetter - the thing about these sorts of books that most peaks my interest is directly tied to the Salty Speech project - as well as my long-standing passion to understand everything I can about how we can transform as fully as possible into the person Jesus saved us to be. I also want to be as fully equipped as I can be in engaging with college and university students - who are in one of the last and greatest transformative periods of their lives - and as skillfully as possible support God's transformative work in their lives. 

I can remember sitting on Naugahyde church pews and hearing preachers saying things like "if you want to reach altitude you need the right attitude" ... I remember hearing sermons on optimism, faith, hope and I took all of that heart. My journals are full of dialog between God and I on what was working and what wasn't and why - or at least attempting to understand why. And - I'm still thinking daily about that little country hospital that was failing until the whole staff started embracing some key changes - and according to the staff themselves - foremost among those key changes was the way they intentionally chose to speak about disease - and how they intentionally self-censured all speech related to violence, because "healers don't use the language of violence".

I've listened closer to what's been said in the last few years and especially in the last few months than ever before. I'm a notorious info-dumper - do not willy-nilly ask me for a "bit" of info on one of my pet topics ... you'll end up getting an avalanche - which to me is a bit! Yikes!! I'm working on this. But far worse than info-dumping on some poor unsuspecting person are the growth-stifling things I might unwittingly say ... the cynical attitude I might caustically rain on someone's parade, or the God's-Grace denying dark and dreary outlook I might let fall on someone's budding enthusiasm just because I'm inattentively having a bad day. These tendencies started to crack with the Grace Habit - but I've come to the conclusion - that Grace lovers don't speak judgement, doom, gloom or despair. I'm still the same person with the same tendencies - but the less I thoughtlessly speak them - the more overwhelmed by joy I am. 

Whether we want to talk about Dr. Duckworth's grittiness, or McGonigal's gamefulness, or Dweck's growth mindset - as a Christ follower - I firmly believe in the limitless power of God - so vast that He can even transform me. I am passionately curious about the transformative work experienced by some fringe-of-society types that a homeless Rabbi called to follow Him - who then left the security of their homes, businesses, friends, family and farms to wander all over the middle-east on foot with zero security. They grittily hosted picnics for thousands with zip to eat - just a sack-lunch. They gamefully went on pleasure-boat-cruises in life-threatening weather ... and all of that "fun" seemed to be for the express purpose of toughening them up for the incredible times ahead when nearly all of them would be so growth-focused in their mindset regarding their calling that they'd give up their lives. I've met students who wanted to give up on God because "he didn't answer my prayer". There have been times when I was that student. Can God's people be too gritty? Gameful? Growth-minded? 

Some might lay all the blame on the culture, the music, the games, TV, social media ... but I don't believe any of these pressures are actually harder than the pressures that faced the first Christians - they're just different. I believe Jesus still speaks just as powerfully - to crowds, teens, fringey-types, storms and rulers as He ever did. I just want to speak as He spoke to the bruised reeds and smouldering wicks of the world - for their sakes and mine.

Thank you for stopping by. Thanks for reading. 

SuperBetter

Last week I wrote about Dr. Angela Duckworth's book "Grit" - and completely forgot to pose the question to you that I've posed to a few friends, namely: "What would it mean for Christians to be "gritty" about their faith. I'm still pondering that question. 

SuperBetter by Dr. Jane McGonigal - a video game designer and senior researcher at the Institute for the Future has made a career of harnessing the power of "gamefulness" and the way gamers love spending in the game world - and using their collective efforts to find solutions to some of the worlds largest problems. She points out that gamers in believe that a solution exists - that whatever the problem is that's presented to them - it is within their capability to solve it. Therefore - they are always on the verge of an epic win - which according to McGonigal's research - is a pretty amazing feeling - one that once people have experienced it - they want to go back to it and experience it again, and again.

This was all rosey until McGonigal suffered a concussion - one severe enough to leave her doubting her ability to ever return to research, gaming or even any meaningful contribution to life. So - she chose to make a game out of recovery. Not in that she glibly diminished the importance of her recovery and made light of it. Quite the opposite. She saw the whole mind-set of playing a game as exactly the ideal way to focus on recovery without getting bogged down in the morass of the numerous and real fears that went along with a profound need to heal ... what if she couldn't recover? what if recovery came - but only too slowly to be any real good now? - what if she lost who she was along the way? She decided to fight her fears and the limits of her injury by becoming "Jane the Concussion Slayer" - and designed a recovery game for herself.

Turning recovery into a game allowed her to apply the mindsets of curiosity, challenge and purposeful play and all the flow-states that go along with those mindsets essentially 100% towards healing. When she was sickest she played predictive games about when which neighbors would walk which pets outside her window. Then she made a game of how many people she could make smile. She baked cookies for her favorite baristas. Slowly - the "wins" to the various challenges that she and her team of allies (husband, sister, etc.) picked for her began to work a "magic" of their own - and McGonigal learned something important: That laughter isn't the only best medicine - but play, encouragement, and fun are potently and powerfully healing medicines themselves. Why not harness the healing boost of these too?

What happened next was that McGonigal and her team of allies - as well as her team of medical professionals overseeing her recovery started to take note of her now rapid improvement. McGonigal took note too - and opened up the game, which she now re-named SuperBetter to other people battling their own challenges. Soon there were new moms fighting post-partem depression, patients suffering from ALS, as well as individuals fighting chronic illness, cancer, anxiety, and more. McGonigal realized that even people not suffering from an immediate illness - but rather wanting to become more skillful at their chosen goal could benefit. So now investers joined in, as did those hoping to find their future spouse, and people who wanted to become more proficient public speakers, or more effective graphic designers ... it seemed that everyone benefit from playing SuperBetter.

One of the earlier SuperBetter players who really impressed me was Philip Jeffery who was a photographer who was playing SuperBetter to get better at battling cancer. When Jeffery started the game - he'd largely withdrawn - especially after his cancer drugs had damaged his eye-sight and he'd given up on being able to do serious photography again. After starting the game he made one of his quests working out - because working out could have a profound impact on his quality of life - and to reconnect to his love of photography - he began posting selfies of himself as he worked through SuperBetter. He still had cancer - but he'd reconnected to his passion, his community of supportive friends, and was using these two to keep himself focused on the best possible self-care. He credited SuperBetter with helping him defy the odds of his diagnosis and eventually go into remission through a rigorous experimental treatment. You can watch Philip Jeffery's SuperBetter video here. 

Eventually SuperBetter became an app available on numerous platforms - allowing players to identify the thing they want to get SuperBetter at - and picking a secret identity, identifying their bad-guys that they have to battle - powering up through out the day, going on quests and more. You can even play SuperBetter on your phone with your allies and really harness all the best of social media to accomplish hard goals. The game is highly customizeable and easily tailored to no end of goals. There are on-line (off-game) forums which seem to have quite an amazing community still - even years after it first launched. 

Some people at this point might register their concerns about the power of games over addictive types to leave them preferring to live in the game world (ie: call to mind your favorite World of Warcraft meme) - but McGonigal is clear - withdrawing into the game world to escape the real world is not what this book is about - rather - this book is about using all the benefits and advantage of games and the game world to conquer problems that might other wise never get tackled head-on with the degree of consistency and diligence necessary to rise above those challenges and problems once and for all - or at least - until the necessary habits are formed - freeing the player up to look forward to a more skillful and enjoyable level of competence in the face of their challenges. McGonigal's book is packed with info and ideas - and I spent more time reading it than I might usually - to make sure that I really do get the concepts. I've also downloaded the game and am playing it on my phone with my own goal that I want to become SuperBetter at. I am convinced this point that if you put the time and thought into what you want to achieve and what gets in the way - and use the game as a playful way to nudge yourself towards your goal - the game is a very effective strategy and platform from which you can recruit your own team of real-world allies to help you as you power up and quest your way towards mastery. 

If you'd like to watch McGonigal's TED talk on SuperBetter - you can do so below. You can also watch McGonigal's previous TED talk here.

So - if you or someone you know seems stuck at how to address a particular problem or challenge and might enjoy approaching that challenge with a mindset other than the tired and worn out "should" and "must" and obligatory "really ought to" - I whole-heartedly recommend you give SuperBetter a look for yourself. 

Well - after reading SuperBetter I'm wondering: What could being "gameful" in our faith bring to the Kingdom? What if instead of bemoaning that God was "leading us through a desert" or commiserating about how hard it is to read through certain old-testament books (or the whole Bible), or wise-cracking about what a burden it is to bear this or that cross ... what if instead of all that kind of talk - which I have thoroughly and happily engaged in - despite the fact that it never feels quite as good to speak about these things in this way as advertised ... what if instead of all that - instead we talked about "questing" - or leveling up, or building expertise - or whatever.  

Someone might be tempted to cry "Semantics!" To that I would say that it is by semantics that defendants go free - or not. And - we are far far better at hearing with our subconscious the nuances of our words than our conscious selves wants to admit to. 

I mean - who doesn't love adventure - we like to road-trip and spontaneously check out a new place - or borrow some music from a friend and gain all the benefits of trying out some new music. Humans are incredible novelty seekers. We love play - according to Google - about 8,000 sports and about twice as many board-games. We love to learn new skills and we love to play at learning them. What if we brought more of that sense of adventure, longing for mastery and accomplishment and novelty-seeking curiosity to our faith - and to the skills that grow our faith. Is it sacrilegious to approach spiritual disciplines with the attitude of a game-player? How do we know that this isn't precisely what Jesus had in mind on those occasions when He invited the disciples to go for a boat ride on their nearby lake - just because. I can tell you - I love the idea of taking more shoulds out of how we think about our walks with God - and adding in this idea of quests - they're supposed to be challenging - and growing with God is challenging too. Maybe we'd grow more and feel discouraged less - if we had fellow-questers to remind us that sometimes a dragon is only slain after many battles.

Happy questing.

Secrets of the Cube: A dusty sort of Myers Briggs?

Well - no. Definitely not any sort of Myers Briggs. To be clear - today's post is much lighter-hearted than most of the previous ones. Seriously. This book came from the humor section of the Borders bookstore located near my hometown once upon a time. You can read about it on Amazon.com here. And - I promise - if you actually do the little puzzle in it with some friends - you'll get a laugh or two at least.

What I like about this book - or any other sort of personality or temperament test or sorter - whether it's hilarious or scholarly - is the simple way they reveal how differently we each think and see the world. That this particular book came from the humor section of a bookstore makes it, maybe a little less intimidating - there are no lengthy or expensive tests to take on-line with endless clicking and clicking ... and more clicking - only in the end to find that the test-creators refuse to give you your results until you've duly handed over your e-mail, phone number, address, first born etc. Pfft.

The origins of this are possibly ancient Sufi, or Greek, or late 90's New York City yuppies. This book is surely a mix of all of that with a dash of Freud tossed in. You can make your own mind up. I picked the book up from Borders one morning when I'd dropped my car off for repairs at a garage nearby and wandered into the store as a more engaging and suitable space for me to pass the time and wait than the garage's lobby. 

"The Cube" is supposed to reveal your perspective on life and more through merely six questions about how you see or visualize. Obviously - since there are only 7 questions - this is a see-into-your-mind game that is long on questions and offers zero answers. I'm not actually sure it really belonged in the humor section of Borders - but I understand why they didn't place it in the psychology section. (no - it wasn't mis-shelved).  To cube someone - and I bet you will cube someone - is to ask them these six questions and compare what they see to what you see.

Since the cube is heavily visual - you'll want to start by clearing your mind. Here are the six questions. It may be helpful to take notes on your answers. You'll only get to "cube" yourself for the first time once - so don't scroll to the bottom and then do it - do it as you go. It'll only take a couple of minutes. 

1.  Picture a desert.

With this question and all the subsequent ones - you'll want to actually pause and imagine this desert. You'll want to take note of all that desert's features as well as time of day, etc. There is no "right" kind of desert to imagine - so whatever you picture - is what you picture. 

Next ...

2.  There is a cube in the desert.

As above - you want to give yourself time to note all the details you can about the cube you see; size, position, material, ... 

Now ...

3.  There's a ladder in the desert.

Again - note size, condition, type, material, color etc. about what you see.

Once you've got that ... 

4.  A horse is in the desert. 

So now you have a desert with a cube, a horse and a ladder. We're over half way done. Got your picture clear in your mind? 

Great!

Now ...

5.  Somewhere in the desert is a storm.

Once again - note what kind, where, size, severity etc.

And now - after all that - Lastly ... 

6.  Flowers appear in the desert.

You know what to do by now - what kind of flowers, where, how many, color, and so on.

Okay. That's it. That's the whole cube.

Here's the key.

The way you see the desert - is the way you see life. The way you see the cube - is the way you see yourself. The way you see the ladder - is the way you see your friendships. The way you see the horse is the way you see your significant other. The way you see the storm is the way you see life's difficulties. And the way you see the flowers is the way you see things of your creation - either children, projects or ideas. 

That's the whole thing. The book notes - and in my experience this is true - there's little error in how people picture what. For instance - I've never "cubed" someone who said "I'm the desert" or "the cube is my husband." Which - is interesting. The cube uses basic association to interpret the way you see things - so someone who sees their cube on the ground - is "down to earth" or "grounded" whereas someone who sees their cube as floating in the air is "out there" maybe - whereas someone who sees their cube as precariously balanced on one edge is - you guessed it - on edge. 

So - for instance - I've always pictured my desert as very hot, devoid of plants and animals, with huge mountain-like dunes - and my cube, a house-sized acid-washed metal thing in the shade of one of those dunes. 

So - there you go. Have fun. Enjoy. Don't take it too seriously.  :D

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Up until now all the books I've reviewed have been books by faithful people about faith. This book is a little different in that it's written by a psychologist who's had a lot of press lately as a result of her research into what it really takes to make a difference - in whatever way someone might work to make a difference. The psychologist is Angela Duckworth and the book is called "Grit". The message of this book goes beyond Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, which launched the 10,000 hours of practice rule - or put differently that 10,000 hours of practice - particularly the right kind of practice can outstrip talent in almost any field. Duckworth's book is focused on that rare quality present in some - that would not only drive them to practice 10,000 hours at some task - but to practice in such a way as to attempt to plumb the depths of their chosen pursuits. Actually - Duckworth's book - and even more so the research that it reveals - looks at what is that hard-to-describe quality that drives one person with no talent, or some might even say, no hope of success in some field to become so entranced, enamoured, and enthralled with some pursuit that they practice longer, more deliberately, more masterfully - than many who were thought to have had a substantial "natural" head-start. Per Duckworth's research - regardless of talent - it's only grit that gets the job done - and the further you might want to go - the more grit you'll need.

My own fascination with Duckworth's research is in the way she teases apart the brain's plasticity - not just in the way - say a figure skater's cerebellum might differ from a non-skater's - but how the brain seems to exhibit extraordinary plasticity even in areas in which many of us were taught the brain isn't plastic at all: such as mathematical aptitude, athletic prowess, and even IQ. Duckworth talks about pro-athletes who were barely allowed to play on their highschool's junior varsity teams, high-school students with little hope in basic math classes - going on to not only studying the most advanced math classes offered in their high schools - but to become professional mathematicians, holding advanced degrees in mathematics and going on to accomplish ground-breaking work. The virtual magic worked by grit doesn't just apply to kids whose brains aren't fully developed yet either - it absolutely also applies to adults - even older adults. The research looked at what makes cadets stick it out at West Point, teachers stay in their jobs, athletes swim in cold pools at 4am, and more. Bottom line - if you want more grit - you can get it. 

According to Dr. Duckworth - the more gritty you are - the more mid and low-level goals you'll have that support your top level goal - and it's those layers that make you gritty - well - that's part of it.

As a person of faith and someone who's devoted decades of my life to helping others find, and deepen their own faith - the question that keeps coming up in my head over and over as I turn the pages in this book is "How do we as Christians - instill more grit - or a grittier faith in our kids?" For at least the last four decades high school students who self-report as having a meaningful faith - in huge proportions - after just one semester of college - give up their faith. A third or slightly more might eventually find their way back to the fold as they marry and start their raising their own families - but the trend is no less upsetting or disturbing to churches and families all over the US. 

Duckworth's research of course doesn't look at Grit and faith - but it does look at some things that might relate: such as interest, practice, purpose and hope, gritty parenting, and cultures of grit. Duckworth makes no bones about not having any answers as to how to raise grittier kids in any context - because the identification of grit as a thing - never mind the study of it - in terms of psychology - is such a new concept. She speaks about what her intuition says and what she as a parent does - but she admits that there is no hard science on this - yet. So I can't even start to speculate what might make church kids, and college students - become grittier in their faiths. As someone who's watched college kids struggle with growing their faiths for close to 30 years - I can't shake the sense that faith in America currently lacks an equivalent to whatever it is that makes teenagers spend long, hard hours fulfilling coach's demands on the basketball court, on the track, on the grid-iron. It's a real challenge in the realm of faith - because - of course - unlike sports - there's no objective measure of speed, distance, and ultimately wins to evaluate the effectiveness of practice. The idea of measuring kids' faith is horrifying on many levels. Yet - what if there were another way to inspire kids to recognize not just the transformational power of their own faith - but the positive and positively community-building-life-changing power of the kingdom of God on earth when a group of Christians commits to walking their talk, defending the defenseless and loving the not-nearly-loved enough. I believe that it's the contact with this dynamic that - for instance - leads to such life-changing experiences for kids on short-term missions trips for instance. Do you want more grit in your faith? What would that even mean to you? I personally not only want more grit in my faith but I want more gritty friends who are growing their faith good and gritty.

I do not know what the answers are - but I'm excited about this book - and I'm praying for a generation or two of Gritty Christians committed to doing good.

If you'd like to learn your own Grit-score - you can take Dr. Duckworth's grit-test here. 

If you'd like to watch Dr. Duckworth's TED talk on Grit - please go here - to do so. Squarespace doesn't support embedded links to TED talks at this time. But you can watch it on TED.com

If you'd like to listen to the Freakonomics podcast interview Dr. Duckworth - then go here. 

The Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen wrote the first edition to this book 45 years ago in 1972.  Nouwen was born in 1932 - so by the time he wrote this book he'd been a ministering Catholic priest for well over a decade.

The book presents four "doors" through which we can minister to one another - regardless of vocation or calling - and he clearly suggests that we are all called to do just that - especially regardless of our specific vocations.

What's perhaps most interesting about this book is that though it was written 45 years ago and though the edition I own was updated in 2010 with posthumous revisions to make the book's message a "universal call for compassion within relationships, on our journey to becoming more fully human." - the book as a whole reads entirely modern. The only solid clue that it's as old as it is is the absence of any reference to social media.

The four doors that Nouwen refers to are presented one in each of the book's chapters. Door one is the condition of the suffering world, the second the condition of the suffering generation. Door three and chapter three address the condition of the suffering human. The final door and chapter peer into the suffering minister. Nouwen ends his introduction to this book - one of his more famous works - with this words:

"For all ministers are called to recognize the sufferings of their time in their own hearts, and make to that recognition the starting point of their service. Whether we try to enter into a dislocated world, relate to a convulsive generation or speak to a dying person, our service will not be perceived as authentic unless it comes from a heart wounded by the suffering about which we speak.

Thus nothing can be written about ministry without a deeper understanding of the ways in which ministers can make their own wounds available as a source of healing. Therefore this book is called The Wounded Healer."

Nouwen launches into the discussion about "door one" - the condition of the suffering world by relaying a conversation he had with a young seminary drop out he called Peter. Peter liked seminary, retained his seminary friends, thought fondly on his time there - but had dropped out - moved to a secular university, moved in with his girl-friend, started partying and drinking as much as any other student. His former seminary teachers were perplexed - as were his parents, many of his old friends - even Peter himself was confused about his predicament. About Peter Nouwen says "He himself did not know what he was looking for, but he had a general all-pervading feeling of confusion. "Nothing was urgent. Nothing was important ... He didn't suffer from despair - but neither did he have anything to hope for."

Nouwen says that he noted students like Peter finding two ways out of their quiet malaise - the one he calls the "mystical way" meaning the pursuit of inner meaning - contemplation. Those who pursue this path "come to the shocking, but at the same time self-evident, insight that prayer is not a pious decoration of life but the breath of human existence." The other path is "the revolutionary way" - and for these the choice is no longer our present world or a better world - but a new world or no world. Nouwen says "Their goal is not a better human being, but a new human being, one who relates to the self and the world in ways which are still unexplored but which belong to our hidden potentials."

To both of these Nouwen offers a third way - the Christian way. He says that the inner way and the revolutionary way are two aspects of the same attempt to bring about radical change." He identifies that the "mystics" cannot avoid becoming social critics - and revolutionaries cannot avoid facing their human condition - and both will find that they are also fighting their own reactionary fears and false ambitions. Nouwen clarifies: "For a Christian, Jesus is the one in whom it has indeed become manifest that revolution and conversion cannot be separated in the human search for experiential transcendence. His appearance in our midst has made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing the human society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as the two beams of the cross."

Nouwen opens the chapter on door number two - with a wisdom story - about a young fugitive running for his life - and finding refuge in a village where the people were kind and happy to offer assistance - until that is the soldiers arrived armed to the teeth and threatening the village with death if they didn't turn over the fugitive. The minister - torn between the death of the one man or his whole village - searches and searches through Scripture and eventually decides that it's better that one man die so many can live. He does so and the fugitive is taken away - and the village erupts into celebration. Only now an angel reveals to the minister that the young man was none other than the Messiah Himself. Then angel says "What have you done?" The minister says "How could I have known?" The angel replies - if you had visited the man just once - you would've known." The point being that we struggle to immerse ourselves in another's struggle - and are poorer for it. This door needs - as Nouwen sees it - 1. Ministers who can articulate inner events, 2. Compassion - and 3. Ministers who can function as a contemplative critic in the sense that people need leaders who have dared to go where they now are afraid to go themselves. At the end of this chapter Nouwen sums up his thinking this way:

"Having said all this, I realize that I have done nothing more than rephrase the fact that Christian leaders must be in the future what they have always had to be in the past: people of prayer - people who have to pray, and who have to pray always.

In the third chapter - on the third door - Nouwen presents a conversation between a farm laborer in his late 40's with a life-threatening situation and needs surgery to save his life - although surgery of course also represents a certain risk to his life. A young seminary student is assigned to be his chaplain - and it's hard for the student to see how to connect with and minister to the older man - a man who's lived his life full of physical labor. Such a life seems so foreign to the student - who's life is comprised almost entirely of books, thoughts and abstract concepts. To the student the farmer seems both afraid of surgery and afraid to live after surgery - depending on how successful it is. To the farmer - the student seems afraid to work - and afraid to speak. Neither can see that what they have in common is precisely what unsettles them both - their fears. Nouwen lays out three principles of Christian Leadership - 1. personal concern for others with the courage to express affection, listen generously, offer a forgiving embrace ... 2. Faith in the value and meaning of life - and the realization that every experience holds new promise ... 3. Hope - which makes it possible to look beyond the fulfillment of wishes and offers a vision beyond human suffering - even beyond death.

The final chapter looks at the fourth door; at the wounded minister. This chapter looks at the wounded condition of ministers - the loneliness that is often a condition of the profession - as well as how that very loneliness can become the bridge that grounds ministers in their calling and gives them the necessary insight to speak words of hope to those they minister to. Nouwen cautions that "When ministers live with these false expectations and illusions they prevent themselves from claiming their own loneliness as a source of human understanding, and are thus unable to offer any real service to the many who don't understand their own suffering." But - a "deep understanding of our own pain makes it possible for us to convert our weakness into strength and to offer out own experience as a source of healing to those who are often lost in the darkness of their own misunderstood sufferings. He follows this line of thought up by saying "Making ones own wounds a source of healing, therefore, does not call for a sharing of superficial personal pains, but for a constant willingness to see one's own pain and suffering as rising from the depth of the human condition that we all share." and "Christian community is therefore a healing community not because wounds are cured and pains are alleviated, but because wounds and pains become openings or occasions for new vision."

Henri Nouwen wrote dozens of other books such as Life of the Beloved and Return of the Prodigal among others. He led a fascinating life and ministered with compassionate purpose. This book, The Wounded Healer was written as something of a small, simple yet imminently useful handbook of ministry. He was also integral to the founding of L'Arche communities - which deserve a post all their own. If you aren't familiar - L'Arche offers homes for intellectually disenfranchised persons - that seek to allow them to live meaningful lives of contribution and joy integrated into society through communal living. 

Good Reads: The Pursuit of Holiness

Jerry Bridges  1929-2016

This little book - my version is barely 160 pages - written by one of the vice presidents of Navigators, Jerry Bridges, holds in its few pages some pretty big ideas regarding what it is to walk with Jesus.  Jerry Bridges passed away last year - and while I'm sure his greatest gift to those who knew him well was not this book - but rather the conscious life-choices that became the soil out of which this book grew.  With millions of copies in print - this is one of the better known books that crosses faith-lines easily and seems to be growing - not slowing in influence. 

I remember feeling a bit of a gut-punch when I read this book's title - but the first chapter opened so relatably - that I Bridges had already hooked me and I wanted to know everything this man knew about living more free from sin's tricks to trip us up. Bridges wrote about having his time with God interrupted by a phone call from an antagonising personality who was in rare form that morning ... 

"As my emotions subsided, my anger turned to utter discouragement.  It was onlyl 8:30 in the morning and my day was ruined. Not only was I discouraged - I was confused. Only two hours before I had read Paul's emphatic declaration, "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." But despite this nice sounding promise of victory over sin, there I was locked in the vise-like grip of anger and resentment."

Reading these words - I was positive that Bridges had been peeking in on my house - where I rented a shared room from a campus ministry, sharing the single bathroom with 4-5 other women all scrambling at the last minute to get out the door to class every morning. I had nearly the same experience as often as not - of composing myself in my prayer and Bible study - only to fly out the back door with that composure lost.

Okay - can we just stop for a moment and acknowledge that the whole topic of sin is still dicey. We want to do it less - but not live riddled to uselessness with guilt, we want to strengthen our ability to live free of it - but not become so inflated with legalism and self-righteousness that we poison the communities that we love. Sin is one of those conversations Christians can have - which when spoken of in earnest - compels us to stretch ourselves to the heights of theology, discipleship and philosophy. Sin is that many-disguised thing that knows all of our buttons and plays whack-a-mole on them. Sin is also that awful thing in us that toys with and rationalizes getting away with this or that "just this one time."  For me - this book was a wonderful first-tool to go into my tool-box as a young Christian university student - and Bridges' love of godliness and gracious pursuit of it greatly encouraged me.  If my review of this book falls short of imparting that sense in you (and it very probably will) - don't hold that against the book.

Now -back to the book.

Bridges divided this hefty topic regarding which millions of pages have been written - into 17 chapters - each centered around a different Scripture promise, principle or precept regarding sin. Considering his conciseness - and the fact that that total page count includes an author bio, forward, preface and afterward - he devotes a mere average of 8 pages to each of these chapters. What I'm saying in all this - is this little book will not waste a single second of your precious time. Bridges published this book when he was 49 - but you can sense the years of experience behind his own Pursuit of Holiness and the maturity behind his own walk shines through as he deftly divides the common pitfalls that can occur so easily in these conversations.  

“The Holy Spirit makes us aware of our lack of holiness to stimulate us to deeper yearning and striving for holiness. But Satan will attempt to use the Holy Spirit’s work to discourage us.” 
― Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness

Bridges lays out three primary problems that we must face when we think about growing to maturity - which of course means tackling our sinful nature.

First:  our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered.

Second: we have misunderstood "living by faith" (Galatians 2:20) to mean that no effort at holiness is required on our part.

Third:  we do not take some sin seriously.

The changing fashions in language and Christian writing might or might not fog the truth of these words - but for me they certainly still ring true.

From this discussion Bridges launches into chapters defining and clarifying God's Holiness for us, how our holiness - even if we could attain it - would still as one Christian from by-gone centuries said - "even our tears of repentance must be washed in the blood of Christ!" and the Holiness of Christ.  The ideas in these chapters brighten and illuminate just what is meant by holiness.  

Bridges then moves on to break down in a theologically tight but encouragingly vulnerable discussion on what it looks like for sinful man sanctified by the sacrificial act of the Lamb of God to redeem us to our Heavenly Father - to transfer citizenship from the kingdom of the earth to the kingdom of heaven. Again - he begins this chapter with an utterly relatable statement of the facts.

"Having experienced failure and frustration with our sin problem, we are delighted to be told that God has already done it all that we only need to rest in Christ's finished work. After struggling with our sins to the point of despair, this  new idea is like a life preserver to a drowning man, almost like hearing the gospel for the first time"

Bridges talks honestly about how easily we become "confused by Satan on the issue of what God has done for us and what we must do for ourselves."

The rest of the book lays out the battle that ensues upon our conversion - and all the parts of that fight - the help that God offers, God's preference to speak of our obedience instead of the notion of "victory", how we must put sin to death, the role of personal discipline, and outlines three areas in which we must pursue God's holiness - namely in our bodies, our spirits and our wills.

Once upon a time I re-read this book yearly - and after re-reading it for the first time in a while - I'm thinking that may not be a bad habit to return to for a season at least. 

This book has remained near and dear to me for a long time - as this was the very first book I read in the context of discipleship. I started reading it over my junior year at Michigan State with a campus ministry worship leader named Lauren. In typical fashion (for Lauren - not me) we read through this book a chapter at a time over the course of more than one 10-week term; and we read every last word of it. Some of you who know me know that I never really outgrew that ability we have when we're younger to tire people questions - and no one has ever endured that quite like Lauren. We ended up discussing the material in these chapters over the course of two to three hours some evening - sitting in her basement opposite ends of her couch - with her dogs and cat not far away. I'm not sure what led her to choose this book - but by the time we read through it together it had already been in print for over a decade and still showed no signs of losing traction. In fact it's still in print - with renditions and updates. This is one of those books that I have bought and gifted so often - that I lose count. There are books that "belong to their time" - and there's nothing wrong with that - but I'm especially interested in those books on chasing after God which ring true decade after decade and are not written because of their market-ability - but because of their inherent spiritual value.

While other books by Jerry Bridges are available through our local library - this one is not - though you can obtain it (with a little more patience) through inter-library loan outside of the Winding Rivers system. That said - it's an inexpensive book - I'm happy to loan mine out again too.  

Good Reads: Graham Cooke's interactive journal "Hiddenness & Manifestation"

There is a good chance that this little gem of a book is appearing on your screen right now (unless of course you're reading this on your phone) - much bigger than it is in real life.  It's smaller than your tablet and lighter than your phone.  This is book one of Graham Cooke's Being With God Interactive Journal Series.  There are 8 books in the Being with God series - you can get them individually or as a set here - there are a few other journals as well.  I was introduced to this series 5 years ago by a friend who's been following Graham Cooke's work and ministry for nearly 20 years.  

The Hiddenness & Manifestation journal is the first one in the series I read - and the one that impressed me the most at time - as I was going through a season of hiddenness myself.  The journal starts with Cooke recounting a coffee-shop conversation between himself and another believer that revolved around the question:  "What do you do when God is far away and you can't feel His presence?"  Graham is English - and doesn't record in his journal the name of the man he met with that day - and calls him "whatshisname" - but what follows is a very different take on the "God is silent" conversation - which I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you have also at some point or another been or known someone who's been ready for a different way to think about and live through such seasons. Graham says "once you understand [these seasons] you will enjoy a sense of freedom".

If you've been a Christ follower for very long at all - you understand the experience of coming home from a retreat, a camp, a trip with encouraging friends, a music festival - and you're on cloud nine.  It's you and Jesus - and together you can do anything.  Move any mountain - walk on water ... the whole thing.  These are sweet feelings. You feel God's presence - you feel the Spirit stirring in your soul - these times are what Cooke calls "Manifestation".  Everyone's on board with these times.  We love 'em.  We love them so much we can fall into a trap of trying to recreate them ... we'll play just the right music, cozy up with this Bible and that book by that godly teacher - and ... shazam!  Well ... except when "it doesn't work"

Then there are those other times ... when life is hard, friends are few - and not very encouraging, and God seems far away.  These times are hard on us - but I do believe that they're harder on us than they have to be - because the expectation, frustration, guilt, and comparison etc. aren't inherantly part of these times - they're what it's too easy for us to bring to them.

Cooke refers to these seasons as "blessing" and "building."  We can also think of them as seasons of sowing and reaping.  Like new buildings and freshly planted seeds - there's some hard work to be done when it comes to breaking through the soil, toiling in the dark - on all those critical parts of our walks that aren't glittering up in the sun - but rather pushing down through soils of all types to tap into all God's providing for our growth.  Hiddennes is an entirely different prospect when its embraced as that which leads to growth - deeper, stronger foundations - which are essential for reaching up higher - and ministering more. Hiddenness, says Cooke - connects us to God's wisdom - and that the most gems of God's wisdom are the ones most hidden.  Hiddenness is the season in which we process God's truth - and find space to meditate on that truth in such a way that we don't just grow older, hear a few more sermons, and spew a few more platitudes; hiddenness is where the rubber meets the road so to speak - the season where transformation takes place.  We feel ourselves being shaken by the hand of God.  

Hiddenness is NOT the same as consequence from sin.  Surely we can through a monkey-wrench in the works of our walk with God by treating others to the "left-boot of fellowship" as it was called where I grew up, or by engaging in poor work-habits, or ignoring growing our walk with God.  But if you in the best light of God's truth speaking to you cannot identify a "why" - or put differently - a sense of conviction regarding what led to this season, and your most trusted encouragers can't illuminate anything - then you might be entering a season of hiddenness.  That's awesome!  It's a blessing many don't every accept but begrudgingly.  It's crucial to not resist these seasons, or sugar-coat them in inauthentic terms about how them ... it's in these seasons - when we cry out to God - that God can mold us - and in His molding - encourage the body to dig in deeper too - to not just submit to these seasons - but to surrender to them - in this way - we tell God - right from our heads and straight down to our hearts that we're eager to grow - hungry for growth - and understand that growth doesn't come in an avalanche of unicorns and rainbows.  God's growth comes with humility, repentence, and waiting upon Him.  In fact - in my seasons of hiddenness I frequently feel the way I do when I'm navigating someplace I've never been before - and the directions seem vague - the GPS is clueless ... I turn the radio volume down, stop chit-chatting on the phone ... I focus on following every clue that will point to the destination.

it's too easy to see one another's growth this way

Manifestation on the other hand is the season in which we enjoy the blessing of the fruits of the seasons of hiddenness.  Manifestation isn't a reward for being perfect as much as it's the pause between gulps of cool refreshing water on a hot day - or the sound night of sleep in the middle of a season of physically demanding work.

It's all too easy for us to praise the seasons of Manifestation - they look like great advertising after all - right?  When in those seasons - it's so easy to feel "I've arrived" - sadly way too easy. And it's too easy to feel "I blew it!" in the seasons of hiddenness.  But it's these hiddenness seasons that connect us so deeply and meaningfully to God - training our ears and hearts to hear His Spirit so much more - and teaching our souls to cling to Him like never before.  

I have a sneaking suspicion our growth looks like this to God ... we're all dependent upon His good work

Cooke's little book on Hiddenness and Manifestation - packs a punch that belies it's small size and 60 pages.  Cooke wastes no time at revealing his struggles, real encouragement - plenty of scripture references

I am grateful for every single one of you who has willingly submitted to the work of Hiddenness - your faithfulness to plunge into the unknown in pursuit of Him Who Knows All Things - speaks more powerfully of real courage and real hope to my spirit than all the promises of an easy path.  It's the faithfulness in seasons of hiddenness that inspires us to seek growth, depth, and transformation.  As Cooke says, "When we become comfortable with the ways of God in hiddenness we will find ourselves going further in the realm of the Spirit than ever before."  Let us all seek to surrender more to God's seasons of hiddenness so His craftsmanship in us can come more and more to light - and enjoy an unprecedented closeness with Him.  

Good Read: The Greatest Salesman in the World

This very short book - which is available as a pdf here - is really more of a story which you could read in an hour or two.  Purely speculative and hypothetical in nature - he uses the time of the Bible - a few events that are recorded in its pages - to create a format through which to communicate life-lessons.  The story starts less than a century before the birth of Christ and continues until middle of the first century AD.  The tale starts with an older man, Hafid, who's at the pinnacle of success by all accounts - dismantling his business empire to the astonishment of his trusted servant.   Hafid narrates the course of his life - going back to the decision that first put him on the path to his ultimate fortune ... and leaves him now - waiting for the right person to assume responsibility for the "secrets" that made him so successful.  I won't give you all the ups and downs, ins and outs of the story of Hafid's life that's interwoven with events we all recognize from the pages of the New Testament.  Hafid goes back and recalls each of the scrolls given him - one "secret" per scroll to becoming the greatest salesman in the world - and after all the scrolls - the story leaps back to the end of Hafid's long life - where at least he meets his long awaited successor - who is surely someone nearly everyone would have to agree did indeed change the world and could in some regards be considered the actual and literal greatest salesman in the world. It is a good story to be sure.  I confess - it is one of those stories whose ending makes my throat catch when I go to tell it.

this is what my first copy of this book looked like

Mandino wanted a career in writing - but the early death of his mother and the advent of WW2 sidelined his dream - so instead of pursuing a degree in journalism - he worked for a paper company, then joined the army - eventually becoming a bombardier and even flew one mission with Jimmy Stewart.  After the war Mandino returned home with a little bit of money and quite a few military honors and decided to sit down and write the great American novel with a manual typewriter in a little cold-water flat in Times Square.  By the time his money was out - he had more rejection slips than medals!  He gave up on his dream - moved back home - found a job selling insurance married his sweetheart - bought a house - had a daughter - but dealt with his lost dreams by drowning them in wine.  Within fifteen years he'd lost everything and found himself standing outside a pawnshop, depressed and contemplating suicide. 

He worked menial jobs here and there across the country - and chose to spend his off-hours combing through the library shelves for answers.  Libraries were free, clean and warm - and peaceful to boot.  He began trying to answer the question "Why had I failed?" He was in his late thirties and afraid it was too late. He read the Bible, he read the works of other salesmen. He finally was hired by another insurance company to sell again - and re-married - and soon after took time off to write a sales manual based on all he'd learned during the lean years of wandering from library to library. He didn't even own his own typewriter anymore - but took a week off with a rented one and went to work. That manuscript became this story, The Greatest Salesman in the World - which eventually led him to new job opportunities - including becoming the executive editor of W. Clement Stone's magazine, "Success Unlimited".  The book had absolutely no impact at first - but he mailed a copy to Stone - who he credited with inspiring him to write the story - Stone liked it so much that Stone purchased 10,000 copies to distribute to all of his employees, salespeople and shareholders.  

Mandino went on to write about 8 more books - and started collecting awards for his talents at speaking including being inducted to the National Speakers Association's Speaker's Hall of Fame.  Most of the books do combine his Christian faith with his belief about what makes for a successful salesperson or person in general.  His writings were considered by many to be self-help writings and he was one of the early self-help authors to write about "creating your best life now".

Below are a few video clips of Og Mandino speaking about The Greatest Salesman in the World - which was a story he wrote into a book - that formed the basis of his own philosophy on how to interact with people and life-challenges.

If you'd like to listen to Og Mandino reading the 10 chapters where he discusses each scroll in the story - you can do so by going to this video on YouTube. (please note - this the the scrolls only - not the rest of the story)

Good Reads: Man's Search For Meaning

Man's Search for Meaning - written by Dr. Viktor E. Frankl shortly after World War 2 - is another one of those books that's never gone out of print.  In fact - my copy says that there's 12 million copies printed world wide.  It's printed in numerous languages and was written in German first - sadly - I have not yet read it in its original language.

This small book - barely 180 pages and many editions small enough to slip into a coat pocket - can be read in an afternoon - especially if you just want to read the 133 pages of the book itself - not the forward, or the post-script.  But - I think after realizing how Dr. Frankl came to his life-changing thesis - you'll end up enjoyably reading all of it.

Dr. Viktor Frankl was born in Vienna, Austria in 1905 into a family of civil servants.  Despite this bureaucratic atmosphere at the age of 3 Frankl decided that he wanted to become a doctor. when he grew up.  By the time he was 12 he knew he wanted to become a psychologist and shortly thereafter launched into a pen-pal friendship with Dr. Sigmund Freud and even published research with Dr. Freud even before finishing high school.  By this point he was determined to study medicine and become a psychiatrist with a particular interest in counseling.  Between his early association with noteworthy professionals in the budding field of psychology which included not only Dr. Freud but Dr. Adler and others who were active in the hotbed of psychology that Vienna seemed to be in those days.

Dr. Frankl around 1936

He had a strong drive to help people find a purpose to live meaningfully and while still a medical student started one of the first suicide prevention groups in 1928 which was within a short time credited with saving tens of thousands of lives. 1937 Frankl had completed his residency and was beginning his research in earnest when in 1938, due to his Jewish heritage, was banned from treating "Aryans" - but despite this his early work combined with his research goals gained him potentially life-saving attention - so much so that he and his wife were offered a passport out of Austria.  Uncomfortable with the position this would leave his parents in - he went to their home to discuss the opportunity with them and found them sitting with an engraved stone-tablet from their synagogue.  Upon inquiry he found that the synagogue had been vandalized beyond recognition and congregants - including his father - had gone to survey the damage and reclaim what they could.  His father brought home this particular tablet engraved with Hebrew characters.  Frankl asked his father what it said and learned that it was the 6th commandment: "Honor thy father and mother."  That settled it for Frankl - he did not take the visa out of Austria but stayed on to look after his parents.  

In 1942 the family was relocated to a ghetto - where Frankl - in typical fashion - immediately put himself to work establishing a counseling office to help the members of the community there deal with the trauma they'd already encountered and adjust to life in the ghetto.  His work again attracted attention and he was allowed to practice in an official capacity there. This only lasted for a little over a year and by 1944 he,  his wife and his parents were all shipped off to various concentration camps.  Frankl rode the trains with his research documents under his coats and they were the last possessions to be taken from him.

Once in the camps he began attempting to recreate his work on bits and scraps of paper he found here and there.  Though well - known at this time - as a person of great skill - he refused to work an "easier" job in the concentration camp clinics where he would be forced to undertake barbaric actions against his fellow inmates and instead let himself be put to hard-labor - working to dig ditches, tunnels and other back-breaking work on a starvation diet. 

It took him no time at all to put these horrific experiences to the only use he could find for them - namely refining his theories even more - and began using his skills to help himself and those who could or would listen to him survive.  

By the last months of the war he had finally taken a somewhat easier position as physician at a smaller camp affiliated with Dachau.  It was either accept this move or die of typhus or exposure.  The camp was liberated in 1945 - but by then his parents and wife had succumbed to their treatment by the Nazis.  

Frankl's life is as fascinating as his most famous book, Man's Search for Meaning - which disagrees fundamentally with his early mentors Freud, Adler and others ... man was not living to find sexual fulfillment, or to resolve his inferiority complex - but rather man's life was best lived when he lived it in pursuit of meaning.  Remarkably - though Frankl had experienced personally the devastation of his family during one of the darkest periods of human history - and returned to his home and neighborhood in Vienna to a cold and indifferent shoulder from long-time family friends over the loss of the vast majority of his family members as well as their family home and goods - yet due to his commitment to refining his theory through absolute horror - came out with a clear understanding of the vitality of optimism - not in denial of anything - but "despite everything".  His first version of "Man's Search for Meaning" which was originally published as "Trotzdem Ja Zum Leben Sagen" (translation:  "Nevertheless, Saying Yes to Life" - which Frankl wrote in days once his health was restored enough to allow him to - and he was back at work - counseling patients, re-writing his research - but now with the hard-won insights from his experiences - and reuniting with his sister - the sole member of the family to survive the war years with him.

Dr. Viktor Frankl lived in Vienna until the end of his life and wrote 39 books in all - which were translated into 50 languages - Man's Search for Meaning being translated into the most languages - 44 in all.  Some of his most quoted words are

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 

But by far my favorite quote of his - which is rendered even more stunning in light of what he personally experienced - is this:

“Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.”   ― Viktor E. Frankl, 

Good Read: Speaking of Jesus - by Carl Medearis

Carl Medearis is a minister, missionary, ministry founder, and international speaker/consultant on Christian-Muslim relations.  He lived in Lebanon for over a decade and has spent years going back and forth between the US and the Middle East.  He has multiple books, podcasts, a youtube channel and on-going conferences - you can look into all of these for yourself via his website.  

He begins his engaging, sub 200 page read, Speaking of Jesus - the art of not-evangelism with an analogy of all the world-religions in something of a world-cup kind of match - and of course - the goal is "to win".  All of a sudden in the middle of the Muslim-Christian match - right at the top of the 2nd half with the score tied - this guy saunters out onto the field and makes direct eye-contact with you - the goalie and says "follow me" - and your're like "but it's THE game!" ... this strikes me as an apt analogy.

On page 22 poses this question:

"What if our concept of salvation is based on a gospel that is the sum of its explainable parts?  What if we consider ourselves "saved" because we have a dynamite explanation of salvation? We can correctly label and identify all the components.  Sinners fallen away from God.  God's mercy.  Sacrifice for man's sins.  The atonement.  Justification by faith. Eternal life.

Let's try a litmus test:  Try to describe your salvation using only the four Gospels, without using any of the above terms.  You have one minute: Go."

Not that long ago Medearis did this actual experiment in a classroom full of seminary students in Texas and fills a chalkboard with their answers - and confirms that this is everything that describes salvation according to the above criteria - and then poses this second question:

"How come non of us mentioned Jesus?"

It'd be easy to mock the students - but let's not mock.  Let's own the part of that whole conversation that's utterly relatable.  Medearis goes on to talk about how when he started out in ministry - this was the paradigm he found himself in daily - and it led to him giving himself an interesting nick-name:  "Carl the ministry killer" as he repeatedly took small groups of 4-8 and reduced them to zero.  

He talks about the heavy burden we often take on as Christians of attempting to own all that that word Christian means - even though it means ten different things to ten different people. And frees us from that burden by reminding us that defending the reputation of all of Christendom is not the "game" that Jesus has called us to play.  He's called us to lift Him up - not our agendas, our egos, our favorite church or worship song - just Him.  If you want to really go for broke - you can talk about what it meant for you to encounter Jesus.   Medearis doesn't report such an exercise in his book - but I do wonder how a the chalkboard experiment above would compare to a chalkboard full of responses to the question:  "Describe what it was like for you to experience Jesus' salvation?"

Medearis seems to have developed a knack for sticking to talking about Jesus and Jesus impact on his life - rather than falling into the trap of what I like to call "binary conversations" ... you know - all those things that even if  you can't define "Christianity the same way as nine other people define it - everyone just "knows" Christianity is.  If you're a Christian you vote like this, care about these issues but not those, believe in this kind of science but not that kind ... and so on.  Medearis pleasantly and refreshingly reframes conversation after conversation away from divisive hot-buttons to points of meaningful connection.  Take for example this conversation he had with a Muslim friend after another of his friends - a Christian - was arguing with him.

I won't plot spoil how the rest of this conversation went - or the countless others he had with members of many faiths as well as those of no particular faith.  Medearis has even met with members of Hezbollah and even Yasser Arafat.  

This approach is a breath of fresh air regardless of who you share your space with.  If you're looking for an engaging read, or a different perspective on how to talk about faith - I recommend Speaking of Jesus.  I've reserved a copy of Tea of Hezbollah which is one of his newest books and which I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing as soon as it's available. 

Doing Good is Simple by Chris Marlow

"When our van ground to a halt and the dust settled, the headlights illuminated the gas station's interior. Dozens of children - orphans - were lying on the cold concrete floor, huddled together for warmth, protection, and some shred of belonging.  I struggled to catch my breath."

And so begins the life-changing moment that eventually altered the course of countless lives.  

"Doing Good Is Simple" author Chris Marlow didn't grow up with more Awana badges than Jesus.  He didn't grow up in suburbia either.  He came up through some pretty tough circumstances - but was married and headed towards a nice quiet suburban life when all of a sudden a hungry orphan stopped him in his tracks ... especially since he'd also been an orphan. Next thing you know he's quitting his job and putting everything at stake in order to follow a call to do more good more of the time.   It's a short, engaging, refreshing read of one man's quest to live out a calling of thoughtful service at home and abroad through a little organization he founded called Help One Now.  Want to read more about Chris Marlow's life - then go here ... http://doinggoodissimplebook.com/.  If you'd like to watch Chris's TEDx talk - you can see it here.  

If you're looking for a book to discuss with friends and spark community-changing conversation in your corner of the planet - I recommend this book for it's density of ideas and emphasis on practical matters - such as especially including relationally and professionally those you propose to help.  No more short-term-missions-trip buildings of many colors.