Category: Review

At the recommendation of a friend (and Amazon), during summer 2016 I picked up a copy of Meb For Mortals: How To Run, Think, And Eat Like A Champion Marathoner by Meb Kflezighi. From everything I have seen on Twitter and at major running events, Meb is a charismatic and inspiring athlete, and an individual deeply dedicated to his faith and to bringing out the best in others.

The book itself is divided into chapters centered around goal setting, training, racing, stretching, recovering, and cross-training among their subjects. In each chapter, Meb provides details into his routine and regimen, and then offers a series of dos and don’ts around the subject area for the reader to consider. I personally love the fact that Meb starts the book by talking about goals and having the mental preparation in place for wanting to improve. I’ve personally become a strong proponent of the philosophy that unless we have a clear vision of where we want to go and why, we are highly unlikely to persevere or to put in the effort needed to get there.

Are you a runner? Are you looking to get stronger, faster, better, and more fit for your next race? Meb’s book and the series of exercises he recommends may be a good tool to get you there, but only if you are willing to put forth the effort. I recommend Meb’s book because it is clear that he is not recommending anything that he hasn’t done—in fact, he’s recommending things specifically because he’s seen these activities demonstrate benefit in his own life. Give Meb’s book a read, and hopefully I’ll see you out running this year!

Jen Pollock Michel’s book Teach Us To Want: Longing, Ambition, And The Life Of Faith received Christianity Today’s Book Of The Year Award in 2015, and that fact alone led to me deciding to give it a read. I always enjoy a thoughtful book, and at times it is helpful when others have already indicated a text is worth the read.

Teach Us To Want is definitely a thoughtful book. Based on my reading, Jen Pollock Michel has herself read broadly, and she weaves themes from several classic works into her own narrative. The book is anecdotal, personal, vulnerable, and very thoughtful with regard to the internal wrestling that a person of faith encounters with regard to discerning which desires emanate from within and which are God-given directive or calling. Jen, through her own story shares very candidly both the good and the bad sides of desire, and how it can be either destructive or redemptive depending on the source.

In the early chapters of the book, she alludes to one of my personal favorite authors, and one who I believe had a significant influence on the rhythm of the book, Annie Dillard. Dillard’s book Pilgrim At Tinker Creek is a book about faith, environment, place, and time. Pollock Michel’s book extends along a much longer duration than Dillard’s single year, and also extends across a variety of places, but, she builds a framework for exploring desire from both the via positiva and the via negative.

To be honest, when I first started the book, I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy it, but it is incredibly well written, and I found myself looking forward to each new area of content. In particular, I really appreciated her chapter on prayer and its focus on how God’s willingness to provide as well as his encouragement for us to ask.

Looking for a thoughtful, vulnerable narrative to explore? Give Jen Pollock Michel’s book a read, and consider more deeply what it means to call out to the Creator of the universe with all of our wants.

Gary Black, Jr. spent significant time with an individual who has had a profound impact on my life and my own spiritual formation, Dallas Willard. In Preparing For Heaven: What Dallas Willard Taught Me About Living, Dying, And Eternal Life, Black honors Dr. Willard’s request for someone to bring to print his thoughts around death and the life to come. While this may seem a morbid subject to some, it is actually quite a hopeful book.

I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to be Gary Black watching as Dallas passed from this world into eternity, but I have witnessed the passing of two other beautiful souls into eternity, my mother, and the former principal chief of my tribe. Both demonstrated what Willard described a “radiant life and a radiant death.”

The book is divided into two parts. The first is dedicated to the problem or as Black states, “What We Misunderstand About Heaven,” and the second is dedicated to the solution, “Heaven At Hand.” I believe the real power of this book is found in the solution. There are a number of reasons why the problem exists, but Black and Willard argue for a different way of living—not so much in the realm of behavior modification, but in pursuing by indirect means a shaping of our lives so that we can do what we cannot naturally do by direct effort.

Black’s book blends his own faith journey with the lessons he learned from Willard and provides much food for thought with regard to living in the reality of eternity. If you are interested in the subjects of spiritual formation or curious with regard to Dallas Willard’s life and his transition into eternity, I think you will richly enjoy Gary Black’s text.

I’m not sure where I first stumbled on You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power Of Habit by James K. A. Smith, but I am so grateful that I did. The book takes a very different angle than what is commonly considered as the path to becoming a more deeply devoted person of faith, and Smith’s writing style is both witty and profound. Think about the title for a moment. You are what you love…what you are giving your heart and your energy toward is shaping the kind of person you are. The habits you are cultivating, and your daily and weekly practices and rhythms are shaping what is most important to you and what kind of person you are becoming.

At its foundation, the book argues that the rhythms of our entire life are comprised of a variety of habits that shape our hearts, what we desire, and how we find and nurture fulfillment. Smith also presents in his text how information by itself does not do much to shape our hearts, our habits, and our worship. He cites numerous examples including that of the modern faith experience. It is not enough to educate or invest resources, but instead, if we want to display a different kind of life or love (whether love of God or love of others), then we need to develop habits that cultivate that love.

Smith argues that to worship is human—it is part of how and why we were made, but when the object of our worship goes awry, it is damaging to us as well as to the world around us. When we misunderstand the telos or goal for our lives or what constitutes “the good life” we can find ourselves in pursuit of any number of activities or outcomes, and there are a wide variety of industries spending incredible amounts of resources to convince us what the good life is comprised of—anything from the food and beverage we drink, the vehicle we drive, or the medicine we take all promise us the good life, and at the same time, they all fall short on delivering on that promise in the long-term.

If we are what we love, and love is a habit, then it is fundamentally important to learn what it is we truly love, what we were made for, and develop habits that help undo the false promises of ‘the good life’ that tend to lead us at best toward temporary pleasure and at length toward a severely misdirected goal. I believe that in moments of quiet when we turn off our devices, and the constant stream of messages that bombard us, we are able to, at least for a moment, acknowledge the pull these messages have on us, and see an alternate route toward ‘the good life’ and an ultimate goal for the limited window of time we have on this earth.

Although it has been several weeks since I read Smith’s book, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I had the added bonus of having Jamie read through it with me so we could discuss it and identify habits that can lead us away from our first love as well as begin to cultivate habits that will re-shape us to grow in our love for God and others. If you are looking for a book to explore the spiritual dimension of the power of habit and how habits are formed, rooted, and re-shaped, then You Are What You Love is a great book to pick up. It is my hope that Jamie and I will be able to apply the lessons of the book in a way that not only shapes our hearts to love what is good and honorable, but that we will be able to help Sylvia cultivate a healthy love for the same.

One of my favorite quotes is from the Russian author Fyodor Doestoyevsky, “Beauty will save the world.” In Makoto Fujimura’s book Culture Care: Reconnecting With Beauty For Our Common Life, the author builds the case for why rather than culture wars, people need to be engaging in culture care and on a micro-level, soul care. Fujimura is an extremely talented artist, and I had the privilege of connecting with him briefly at a conference in Pittsburgh back in 2010.

The book opens with a story from Fujimura’s personal life. He and his wife were struggling with a limited income, and the author was waiting anxiously for his wife to come home. He was concerned about their ability to be able to pay rent for the month as well as have money for food. His wife came home with a bouquet of flowers. He barked at his wife, “How could you think of buying flowers if we can’t even eat?” Her response was etched into his life (and now subsequentially into mine), “We need to feed our souls too!”

Rather than thinking of culture as a territory to be won or lost, he suggests an alternate metaphor, a resource meant to be stewarded for the good of all. As an artist, he argues that rather than creating art merely for a transactional benefit, we should, as stewards of culture create works for the delight of the soul, the pleasure of the mind, and the refreshment of the spirit.

Similar to the Nihonga style of painting that Fujimura practices, the book itself is a combination of essays that intersect with one another and draw from one another and synthesize into a beautiful whole. The degree to which we are able to connect to beauty, Fujimura argues, is reflective of our spiritual, mental, and physical health and maturity. Or as Dallas Willard has said beauty is “goodness made manifest to the senses.”

If you are interested in stewarding culture well, I believe you will find encouragement in Makoto Fujimura’s book. Give it a read, but then don’t stop there. Become a faithful steward of beauty and culture in a world that is starving for it.

In early January 2017, Jamie and I had the privilege of visiting Saddleback Church for the first time with our new friend and comrade in the fight to end extreme poverty, Frank Kitonga. While we were attending, Dr. Rick Warren was not giving the message, but another pastor and good friend of his was—Ray Johnston, pastor of Bayside Church and founder of the Thrive Leadership Conference. His message was one of hope, encouragement, and the need to fan the flames of these in our lives. After the message, his book The Hope Quotient was being sold outside the church, and I thought it would be a great gift for Frank as well as an encouraging read for me and Jamie so I bought two copies.

Written in a practical and conversational tone, the book echoed much of the content of Johnston’s message at Saddleback. Each of us needs to do whatever we can to keep hopeful about our lives and futures. The book goes through several very tangible steps each one of us can take to keep our batteries charged, stay encouraged, and play to our strengths.

One of the best reminders for me in his book was the reminder for me to invest in my own growth. I really enjoy investing in the lives of others, but in order to be a better investor, and in order to ensure I have something to give, I need to invest in myself. In 2016, among many investments I made was one to pursue training and certification to become an executive coach. A second key investment was to take a legitimate vacation with Jamie and to take time away from work to celebrate and welcome Sylvia into our lives. All of us need to be mindful of the fact that we can get drained and when we are drained, we can easily become discouraged. When we become discouraged (which we all do), it is easy to be devastated by it. Hope is like fuel for overcoming that discouragement or like an antidote to the toxic and contagious nature of discouragement.

If you want to bring hope into your work, your marriage, and your life, I highly recommend reading The Hope Quotient by Ray Johnston and working to employ the ideas in his book so you are more likely to be sustained, supported, and strengthened with hope instead of being devastated by despair. May we each strive to ignite hope in our lives and the lives of those around us—we all need it, and a little hope can go a long way!

During spring 2016, I spent several weeks reading through a three-part biography of Teddy Roosevelt, and it led me want to dive into his writings even more. Among the books read was a series of essays and addresses called The Strenuous Life. The book was published before Roosevelt became President, and includes some biographical sketches of hardships he was able to overcome in his youth, and why hard work and effort are important to the development of individuals.

His opening remarks in the opening speech set the tone for the entire book.

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”

Roosevelt’s speeches during this period, and seemingly throughout the rest of his life, centered on the importance of hard work and effort. He reminds us that our best self is not forged in the success of the endeavor, but in the hard work put in to achieve a goal, whether or not the goal is realized. In word and in deed, he exhorts us as a later generation to develop the virtues that lead to good citizenship, good neighborliness, and good character, and then to live them out. In fact, Roosevelt said, “the chief factor in any man’s success or failure must be his own character.”

As the United States approaches nearly a quarter millennium existence as a republic, I find myself stirred, spurred, and encouraged by Roosevelt’s speeches. His words remind me of my own need to put in effort daily in activities that will make me more fit emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. If you enjoy reading the words of leaders of America’s past, I highly recommend the thoughtful reading of this brief book of TR’s speeches.