trust and be trustworthy

There is a certain something required to make any relationship work. We all know that; sometimes we know what it is that’s missing, but don’t know how to get there, and sometimes we don’t even know what it is that’s lacking.

Mac Richard, in his book The Trust Protocol: The Key to Building Stronger Families, Teams and Businesses (Baker Books, 2017) suggests that the key ingredient is trust.  Without trust, we stumble through the trials of life, often finding that it’s easier to bail than it is to stay and work on the issues that are causing the problems in the first place.

Mac manages to incorporate any number of personal experiences, ranging from football, to marriage, to parenting, to church, and even a few interviews with some senior military officers. And in doing so he makes a strong case for being willing to do what it takes to earn that trust that all of us are so desperately seeking, and so passionately want others to see in us.

As someone who has struggled with this issue in the past, I think that this book has the potential to awaken an awareness in us: that we have to be trustworthy in all our relationships; and that if we’re not willing to demand that we can trust others than sometimes we might just have to settle for less that we deserve.

I received a copy of this book from BakerBooks in exchange for my review.

4/5

The Man Who Invented Christmas opens in theaters Nov 22

Christmas is just a few weeks away.... (I know some of you are already counting down the days), and for many families, reading or watching A Christmas Carol is a favorite tradition.  This year you can add to the fun by planning on making time to watch "The Man Who Invented Christmas" starring Dan Stevens, Jonathan Pryce and Christopher Plummer. 

The Man Who Invented Christmas tells the magical journey that led to the creation of Ebeneezer Scrooge (Christopher Plummer), Tiny Tim and other classic characters from A Christmas Carol. Directed by Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), the film shows how Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) mixed real life inspirations with his vivid imagination to conjure up unforgettable characters and a timeless tale, forever changing the holiday season into the celebration we know today.

In Theaters on Nov 22^nd-just in time for the holidays

We all know the story of Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge, but other than his knack for taking life as he saw it in London, we know little of how Charles Dickens came up with his classic literature. All right, let's be real, after watching this movie, due in theaters on Nov 22nd, we still won't know for sure; but this is a whimsical idea of how it might have happened. Watch as Dickens 'meets' the characters that he brings to life in the pages of the novel that has brought so much joy to so many people since it was written in 1843.

It's brought joy, and inspired people to become the new and improved Mr. Scrooge.  For the last 8 years, the 6th graders at a local Jr High read A Christmas Carol each year, and then do a Tiny Tim project on the last day of school before Christmas break.  For most of those years they've collected socks and hygiene items which are donated to the local Rescue Mission.   The Ogden Rescue Mission is a non-profit organization that serves the least of the least in our community. Each evening the offer supper and a bed for transient guests, they provide turkeys or hams for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Last week they had a coat giveaway. And they have a residential, Christ based recovery program.  

I’ve been privileged to volunteer with the Ogden Rescue Mission for the past 15 years, chapel services, bible studies, and encouraging 6^th graders to step up and give a gift of dignity. There are always needs, plumbing, roofing, food for guests and participants in the residential treatment program. The rescue mission provides such an incredible service for the community, but receives no government funding.  Maybe this year, you can make a difference by supporting the Ogden Rescue Mission.

Where did Dickens get his inspiration? Why did he write this book? We may never know, but thanks to a writer from 175 years ago, homeless people today are a little better off than they might otherwise have been.  And a special giveaway of some Christmas movies, thanks to my friends at Grace Hill Media.

Watch the trailer here

Mi Casa Uptown: sermon and Story

Everybody loves to hear a story, probably because we all have a story. Or stories. Family, community, jobs, military service, divine encounters. We especially like stories when they are well told, and we haven’t already heard them a myriad of time. Good preaching incorporates good stories; and good stories can certainly be used to incorporate preaching. So I’m hard pressed to decide if Pastor/Storyteller Rich Pérez is preaching or telling a story in his book Mi Casa Uptpwn, (B&H Publishing, 2017).

                This is a story about growing up as an immigrant family from the Dominican Republic settling in New York.  It’s a story about family and community. It’s a sermon about love.

                Pérez loves his family, and his community, and that love comes through on every page of this engaging work. Somehow he manages to paint a picture of community and family and how they are intertwined, especially in immigrant communities. The barrio, the neighborhood where people settle because they have something in common with the other people who live there. And that commonality makes them stronger.

                Rich takes us to a day when we knew and talked to and with our neighbors, when the neighborhood bodega was the place to be (and the sense of loss when Big Box stores took over the Mom and Pop stores.

                And this book is also a reminder of grief, of loss, but more importantly hope.

                I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review.

                5/5

All Things New is laborious reading

For some time I’ve had the conviction that eternity with God does not start when we die, but when we die to self. Along the same lines, I have to wonder why everyone talks about heaven as if it’s some magical, mystical, faraway place in the sky. Sometimes I have to wonder if I’m reading a different Bible than the rest of the world, and then John Eldridge writes a book like All Things New: Heaven, Earth and the Restoration of Everything You Love (Nelson Books, 2017)

He talks about heaven in terms that I understand, heaven in terms of the restoration of the original perfection that God created, not as a new location, something that God had to come up with to replace the disaster that mankind has made of Eden.

Theologically I’m with Eldridge on this one, but for my preference, there is just too much going on. Narnia, Middle Earth, camping, mountain climbing, personal tragedies, Colorado Bureau of tourism, and a lot of scripture. It just seemed to be all over the map.  If he had limited the scope, I think the book would have been more readable.

Hardcore Eldridge fans will probably enjoy this book as much as they do some of his other works, but I guess I don’t fit into that category. I had to force myself to finish the book.

I received an advance readers copy in exchange for the review.

3/5

Mending Your Broken Swallow

We all know what it feels like. Some of us even admit to it once in a while. That feeling of brokenness, of being shattered into pieces. The complete lack of Shalom.  And then there’s wholeness. The trick is recognizing that there is something broken, and then working towards restoration. Putting things back into place, back together. Tough to do on our own. But sometimes we think we can pull it off without anyone being any the wiser. And then you read a book like this one. Whole” Restring What Is Broken in Me, You, and the Entire World. (NAVPRESS, 2017) by Steve Wiens helps us recognize that there is a way to pick up the pieces and put them back together.

I read the book through rather quickly—the first time. And then I had to go back and read it again. There was a lot that spoke to me, during the season of brokenness that I’m going through right now. But out of brokenness comes completeness, hope and Shalom-type-peace.

I wish I could rate this differently than the systems allow for. 4/5 is only 80%, nowhere near high enough. But 5/5 is 100%, and that’s just a little too high. Can someone come up with a way to rank on a score of 20? This would be a 19.  What bothers me is the use of so many Hebrew, Greek, and even a word or two in Latin. Even the glossary while helpful, seemed a bit, to me, pretentious.

It’s often difficult to look at questions that make us think. But Wiens does his readers a favor by including a few of those questions at the end of each chapter. I tried to deal with them as I was reading, but what great conversation starters for a small group. The chapters are some of the big questions of life, and the discussion questions help us to put those big questions into perspective and answer them on a personal basis.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review.

19/20