Dining With Joy

In Dining With Joy, we meet Joy Ballard, the host of a regional cooking show, who has a secret-she can't cook. She took over her father's cooking show when he died, but she cannot cook herself.  Her behind-the-scenes staff have helped her keep her secret, until she is challenged to a "throwdown" of sorts, with another cooking show host.  There, though her colleague and cohost Luke does his best to help, she is exposed.  Then she and Luke have to go about rebuilding both his reputation as a chef and their lives.  Once all their lives are in shambles, both Luke and Joy come to realize that maybe what happened, including Joy being exposed as a fraud, was a part of God's plan for their lives.  They find that God really does bring beauty from ashes.
   I really enjoyed this book.  It offers a vivid painting of what life and the people that inhabit South Carolina's Lowcountry really are all about.  It also discusses their cuisine in detail, even including a few recipes at the end of the book!  What this book really teaches is that we may plan for our life to be one way, but through our families or other uncontrollable things we end up in a totally different place.  Even though that may happen, this story gives the reader hope that God can truly not only bring us to a place where we are truly satisfied with our work, but also bring us the perfect person or people to share your life with.  This story is also a vivid reminder that though things seem to be at their worst, everything can turn around in just a short time and be at their best.

Read-a-thon update 2

Since my last post I read Maggie's Miracle, Sarah's Song, and Hannah's Hope, by Karen Kingsbury. The entire collection, the four books I have read, are 620 pages.

Read-a-thon update

Since my first post I read 5 psalms, 1 chapter of Proverbs, 4 chapters of the Gospel of Luke, and the books of Haggai and Zechariah. I also read Gideon's Gift by Karen Kingsbury.

Everyday Greatness

Everyday Greatness, with commentary by Stephen R. Covey and compiled by David K. Hatch, is a wonderful and inspiring book. This is a collection of inspiring stories and quotations, some humorous, some serious. It contains stories by many of the great authors, celebrities, athletes, and leaders of our times, as well as everyday people who did extraordinary things in the face of adversity, drawn from Reader's Digest.
The book is broken into seven sections, with an introduction by Covey in which he defines the three choices that lead to everyday greatness: the choice to act, the choice of purpose, and the choice for principles. The sections of the book are Searching for meaning, Taking charge, Starting Within, Creating the Dream, Teaming with Others, Overcoming Adversity, and Blending the Pieces. These are further subdivided into three chapters named for characteristics, such as integrity, simplicity, and perseverance. Each chapter ends with some inspiring quotations about that subject by people such as Will Rogers, Abraham Lincoln, and others.
One good example of a story from this book is found in the section Searching for Meaning, in the chapter Attention.
"How Love Came Back by Tom Anderson
I made a vow to myself on the drive down to the vacation beach cottage. For two weeks I would try to be a loving husband and father. Totally loving. No ifs, ands, or buts.
The idea had come to me as I listened to a commentator on my car's tape player. He was quoting a Biblical passage about husbands being thoughtful of their wives. Then he went on to say, "Love is an act of will. A person can choose to love." To myself, I had to admit that I had been a selfish husband--that our love had been dulled by my own insensitivity. In petty ways, really: chiding Evelyn for her tardiness; insisting on the TV channel I wanted to watch; throwing out day-old newspapers that I knew Evelyn still wanted to read. Well, for two weeks that would all change.
And it did. Right from the moment I kissed Evelyn at the door and said, "That new yellow sweater looks great on you."
"Oh, Tom, you noticed," she said, surprised and pleased. Maybe a little perplexed.
After a long drive, I wanted to sit and read. Evelyn suggested a walk on the beach. I started to refuse, but then I thought, Evelyn's been alone here with the kids all week and now she wants to be alone with me. We walked on the beach while the children flew their kites.
So it went. Two weeks of not calling the Wall Street investment firm where I am a director; a visit to the shell museum, though I usually hate museums (and I enjoyed it); holding my tongue while Evelyn's getting ready made us late for a dinner date. Relaxed and happy, that's how the whole vacation passed. I made a new vow to keep on remembering to choose love.
There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment, however. Evelyn and I still laugh about it today. On the last night at our cottage, preparing for bed, Evelyn stared at me with the saddest expression.
"What's the matter?" I asked her.
"Tom," she said, in a voice filled with distress, "do you know something I don't?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well...that checkup I had several weeks ago...our doctor...did he tell you something about me? Tom, you've been so good to me...am I dying?"
It took a moment for it all to sink in. Then I burst out laughing.
"No, honey," I said, wrapping her in my arms, "you're not dying; I'm just starting to live!"
To this, Covey adds, Tom "chose to love" by setting aside his Wall Street worries and personal interests to focus undivided attention on his family, chiefly Evelyn. What resulted provides further evidence that in focusing on individuals--particularly those we love the most--we often make the most meaningful and lasting impact. In Evelyn's case, she was so surprised by the attention that she was receiving that she thought something must be wrong--even had thoughts that she might be dying. She turned out to be just fine, but there are many people in the world who are dying for a little attention. See if you can find them and cure them of what ails them."
Everyday Greatness is a wonderful and inspiring book. It would be a great gift for anyone, but especially anyone going through a trial such as illness or a recent loss. It would also be a great gift for someone graduating or starting a new venture in life.

Real Church

I found Real Church by Larry Crabb to be interesting, challenging and thought provoking. At the beginning of the book he confesses that he has gotten to the point where he really feels no need to attend church. He goes on to describe at length the kind of church he would enjoy attending.
The church Crabb envisions would fully proclaim the entire Gospel of Christ as described in the New Testament, but would also fully embrace the sinfulness and struggles every believer faces, whether they willingly admit them or not. The main struggle we face is the warring of the two natures in those of us who are reborn: our old, sinful man, and the newly created man that comes with believing in Christ.
The church Crabb describes would be based on spiritual theology, spiritual formation, spiritual community, and spiritual mission. Spiritual theology is our understanding on God and His actions, especially as revealed in the person of Christ. Spiritual formation is the process we as believers are undergoing in becoming more and more like Him. Spiritual community would be a group of like-minded believers being totally transparent with one another, especially about their struggles. Spiritual mission would be taking our knowledge about God and His workings to those outside our community. Crabb discusses each idea in depth and also how the church is failing at or fulfilling these. He willingly acknowledges that this perfect vision will probably never be fulfilled until heaven, but prods us on to trying to fulfill them. He reminds us that though we can experience God on earth, most times we will not. He reminds us of our position in Christ and God, and the hope we have in our future of becoming like Him. He closes with reminding us that Jesus prayed for our unity (see John 17) and said that our relationships as the church would be what drew unbelievers into our body, and few of us are fulfilling that.
This book was a challenging read, though I enjoyed it as well. It truly has gotten me evaluating where I am in my relationship with the Lord, and also how far my church is to the place Crabb sees us all getting to. I think this book would be good for those who are evaluating their walks, and especially for pastors and those in ministry who would like to move their ministries closer to the ideal that Jesus has for all of us who make up His body.

A great book

I have to say that I love David Gregory's book The Next Level. (His previous works, Dinner With A Perfect Stranger & A Day With A Perfect Stranger are great, too.) It is a story, really a parable, about a young man, Logan, who goes to work at a company called Universal Systems, Inc. His job there is to go from level to level (there are five) and determine what each level's greatest problem is. As he does so he discovers how differently people can interpret things, and how far off the truth people can be led because of little rumors. He first meets the director of the company, and reports directly to him as he diagnoses each level.
Each level seems to represent a belief system somewhere in the world.
On the first level, noone is really working for the company; they spend their time at work doing their own thing, working on things that have nothing to do with their job. I think this level represents those people in the world who don't subscribe to any particular belief set.
On level two, the employees have a very strict level of conduct, regulating even the kind of furniture polish used and the number of candies employees are allowed to have at their desks. Their adherence to these rules consumes much of their time and they do not do much work either. I think this represents those people who subscribe to a belief set but get so caught up in the don'ts in their religion that they forget to do the dos. An example is the Pharisees in the New Testament. Also there is an international division of this level that helps a great many people overseas.
On the third level, there are five major departments and eight minor ones. Logan meets with the managers of the five major departments and gets very varied answers from them about the whole purpose of the company and their work. I think this level represents the religions of the world other than Biblical Christianity and possibly Judaism, although the argument could be made that Level Two applies to the Jewish faith. Each department seems to symbolize Islam, New Age teaching, Buddhism, etc. Because they disagree on the overall purpose of the company, they are unable to work together toward a common goal, and also are working to please themselves, not the company.
On level four, the environment is nicer--they have coffee bars, nicer workstations, etc. They are aware of the owners of company and are trying to please them. Yet they are still working mostly to please themselves; i.e, they want to do what THEY want, not what their bosses want. I believe this represents a good portion of Christianity, who try to fit God's plans and desires into theirs, not the other way around.
As a bonus assignment Logan assesses Level Five, where people work exclusively with the Director, his father the Shareholder, and the Advocate. Those who work here basically go down to the other levels and help other people by doing menial tasks such as filing, cleaning etc. Here on this level Logan sees displayed the companies true product: self-giving love. It was first displayed by the Shareholder and Director, then they were joined by others in the company. Also mentioned is a sacrifice made by the Director: he was framed by a former employee for a crime he did not commit, yet he allowed himself to be found guilty to keep the company afloat.
I believe the characters of the Shareholder, Director and Advocate throughout the book represent the members of the Trinity. The one Logan interacts with most is the Director, who represents the person of Christ. The Advocate is the company's chief counsel, and fills a troubleshooting role, representing the Spirit. The Shareholder is the Director's father, and represents the Father. The real secret of level five is that the people who work there have learned to have the Shareholder and Director's outlook on things, and they work for their goals. This makes them the happiest and most profitable group in the company.
In the end Logan is offered a job on any level he wishes, including the fifth.
I think this is a wonderful parable and it really makes you think about how people in the world believe.