Walk Like You Have Somewhere To Go by Lucille O'Neal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Even though this book contained less information on Shaquille than I had hoped for, I did enjoy this book. Lucille has done her best to open up her past and her culture to us as honestly as I think she can. She tells us about ups and downs and attempts to be transparent. I believe that she is honest in her introspection. She writes simply and she does a great job of maintaining a positive outlook throughout the process. She quotes scripture throughout the book and gives credit to the Lord for her blessings in life.

With that said, I did find several areas that bring me concern. I believe these are areas that are common to the western motivational speaker culture. We simply can't pinpoint problems without attempting to spin them in a way that removes blame and where we can rise above by hard work and determination. We live in a society that tells us we can be anything we put our mind to. And we reject anyone who attempts to think realistically about how temporary life is or how unachievable some dreams really are. Lucille presents her story as a case that reveals how this can happen. Reality is that her case shows that without certain events having gone especially right (having a genetic disposition to height, husband who loved her and connected her family to basketball, and a son who pursued an NBA career - as example) Lucille would have probably never become the person she is.

She says that she is not the kind of person to shift blame but throughout the book she makes statements like,

"I'm no doctor, but I've always felt that his anger over his handicap contributed to the demise of our parent's marriage. The rage he must have experienced being unable to do the simplest things must have had a profound impact on his personality and his interactions with all the people around him. How could you have a successful marriage when the most important aspect of it (communication) was nearly impossible?"

"Believe it when I say I'm not someone who usually blames my problems on others, but Joe's plunge into drugs was more than his own doing. The ugly face of racism, coupled with the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the recent deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, made it easy for a young African-American man to become hopeless and turn to drugs. This, in turn, made it even easier for him to just walk away from his child and me."

Lucille understands first hand that life often gives us a raw deal. In one minute she will emphasize that someone couldn't help the decision they made, then, in the next minute, she will take credit for determination in making choices to overcome her past. And throughout all of this she will refer to God's watch over her.

As Lucille refers to God, she never gives any clarity on how she came to enjoy a personal relationship with God but instead seems to refer to him as someone she simply expects to do good for her. She gets a divorce from a man who was committed to her simply because she is no longer committed to him. This is presented as a good decision and as amoral as far as God is concerned.

All of these are concerns to me but all of these are a good study in modern culture. Lucille is not a person who is seeking to do wrong, reject God and or pick fights. She is the type of person that all of us would probably enjoy being friends with. Lucille is a "good" person in the light of the world. She is motivational and helps to give humanistic reasons for being positive, determined and go after good things you want. But in the end we all need something a step above all of this: A Divine Relationship. God created us for fellowship with him and not just to be the "best" we can be or to achieve all our dreams.

This is an enjoyable book but don't let it move you to settle for less than a Divine Relationship with God Himself!

I do recommend this book to help us understand the mainstream narcissism of our current culture.

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Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Overwhelmed by a relentless God” is an interesting sub title. In the first couple of chapters of Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love” I truly was overwhelmed again by the majesty and transcendence of God. We didn’t dream Him into existence but He produced a life and reality that goes beyond anything we could have dreamed or imagined. Francis does a great job of pointing us simply to this concept. Francis does not focus heavy on the “relentless” aspect of God but he certainly presents a God I am overwhelmed by!  God is amazing and deserving of everything we might desire to offer Him.

Francis then begins to move towards this concept of what our desires are toward God. I believe his ultimate goal is to be motivational. He is attempting to move us to live a life that is consistent with a “Crazy Love” towards God. This reminds me of many messages I have heard from youth pastors and others encouraging us to be “fully sold out” or to realize that “if God is not Lord of All than He is not Lord at all.” I believe these concepts and truly value them deep in my soul. Every message like this resonates with me and stirs my passion. Around Chapter 5 Francis begins to consider the average Christian life that is content to serve God our leftovers. There is a strong movement today to say that IF we are truly saved, then we will not live this way. Chan goes on to say,

“And our question quickly becomes even more unthinkable: Can I go to heaven without truly and faithfully loving Jesus? … Call me crazy, but I think those verse mean that the person who claims to know God but doesn’t obey His commands is a liar and that the truth really isn’t in him.”

Where do you draw the line on “Truly” or “Faithfully”?

“To call someone a Christian simply because he does some Christian-y things is giving false comfort to the unsaved. But to declare anyone who sins “unsaved” is to deny the reality and truth of God’s grace…In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us.”

We can tell clearly that right actions do not prove one’s salvation. And that wrong actions do not prove one is unsaved. And yet there is a call to look at our actions and attempt to determine if we ourselves are saved.

 I personally heard these types of messages and would think, “Jesus is great! I am so bad. I wish I really loved Him and recognized how great He is. I wish I served Him with everything! Maybe I’m not saved.” I never considered that very fact that in my core being I wanted to serve God. When I thought about Christ and I didn’t doubt him – I doubted myself! I didn’t doubt the Bible message but I doubted my ability to act properly and thus doubted my love. I would then set about to increase my love. I didn’t think about the fact that my faith in Christ and intense passion to love Him more IS LOVE IN AND OF ITSELF! I was walking by Sight instead of by Faith (2 Cor 5:7). I did love God but I did not always act consistently.

I have determined to help people recognize that if they believe that Christ died for their sins and they are not depending on their own actions to save them then they are saved. If they are not happy with their inconsistency but wish they lived in a manner that better showed love towards Christ then in their hearts they do have the Love of Christ. I have found that at any given moment I have two passions warring in me. One to serve myself and one to serve Christ. I want to sin! And I want to please Christ! I want both. All I need to do is look at one for a little while and I realize how greatly I want it. This is why it is so important to help people see their love rather than focus on their inconsistency.

Romans 8:5, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Sprit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”

Francis Chan does not doubt his salvation when he states, “For years I gave God leftovers and felt no shame. I simply took my eyes off Scripture and instead compared myself to others. The bones I threw at God had more meat on them than the bones others threw, so I figured I was doing fine.” He lived inconsistently and as long as he looked at himself (or others) he lived less than he should. However, when we consider again the first few chapters of this book we are focusing our minds on the things of God. We quickly realize that he deserves more and we begin to live accordingly. I don’t need to doubt my salvation. I need to claim it by faith and then I need to set my eyes on Christ. The more I do – the more my love towards him (a love I already have) is stirred up and revealed in my actions. In short, I think the few chapters in this section of the book do us more harm than good. I think that Dr. Chan is unwittingly leading us to look at our flesh, become discouraged and then attempt to make our flesh look better. Instead, I think he should have continued to cause us to realize how stirred we are by God’s awesomeness and recognize that the very passion we feel is a reflection of God’s nature in us. We should learn to be thankful for that, nurture our awareness of it and live accordingly. We should not be satisfied with leftovers – as a matter of fact, as soon as Francis realized that this is what He was doing he realized he was not satisfied with it. Thank the Lord that we aren’t satisfied and we are free in Christ to live above it – fully sold out!

Well, Francis doesn’t leave us in this section. He begins to show what consistent Love looks like. I found that this is a life I want to live because I do love Christ. He continues to remain relevant with our culture today. Francis does a great job of bringing in the need for greater humanitarian care. Tender appreciation for the world around us – unsaved and saved alike. He shows us stories of folks who are missional, sold out, taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth and blessing individuals with practical steps of love along the way. He is consistent with the good parts of the “Emergent” church movement. I really appreciate how Francis is able to stay relevant with the Emergent movement while holding to evangelism and doctrine. These last chapters were very good.

All in all – I like the book. I personally believe the middle section might become a hangup and turn into legalism or a effort to work for our salvation for many. I think this could cause them to miss the joy of the Lord for a season. Instead of appropriating His finished work today they will try to produce His work to somehow earn a “real” love for Him. I think that is sad and hope that season is short for any who fall into it.

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Free Book: I am a fanatic about freedom. And I'm fanatical about coming at you hard in this book. I'm tired of seeing people beaten down by the world's ... lives while their God-given passion dies by Brian Tome

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, has said,

Not every project you start is worth finishing. Sometimes we get into it and realize, “This is a waste of time.” Fine, then give yourself permission to quit. I do this all the time with reading. It’s why I am able to read so many articles and books. Here’s publishing’s dirty little secret: most books are not worth finishing. Most books could be cut in half and you wouldn’t miss a thing. The key is to read as long as you are interested and then stop. There are too many great books to read without getting bogged down in the merely good ones. [Hyatt, Michael. “How to Shave Ten Hours Off Your Work Week.” Productivity Magazine 2(2009): 13 Print]

If I had not been intent on writing this review I would have taken his advice with this book! I quickly decided that Brian’s latest book was a waste of time. I found very little redeeming qualities for this book.

I felt it was poorly written, purposely arrogant, confusing and contradictory. I do not recommend this book.

If Brian was clearly presenting a view I disagreed with I might feel differently but in reality, I’m not even sure what his view is! He contradicted himself on multiple occasions. He claims that the book is about finding freedom but it is never clear what this means.

Regarding the Gospel – he does not like reducing it to basic components that clearly present the salvation message,

“But I never liked those four laws. If the primary thing about figuring out God is learning those laws, then I’d rather not figure out God. Laws restrict. They come with punishment. They are cold and impersonal. These are not the lead characteristics of God.”

“God has given us freedom to make decisions in our lives—but He hasn’t given us freedom about whether to submit to authorities. We are bound by this command when we choose to follow Jesus. And the crazy thing is that even when we are bound by commands, they are the kind of shackles that lead to freedom.”

So it seems that Brian picks and chooses which “laws” to feel we are under. Some restrict and some lead to freedom. He never gives us a game plan for categorizing them. I found it impossible to walk away from his teaching with any practical concept that I could apply to real life.

He was brash and uncaring towards the body of Christ. For example, it seems that Brian was always looking for some opportunity to be cool and talk about drinking beer. I counted at least 6 unnecessary references to drinking. In most cases it seemed he was specifically poking at segments of Christianity who might be offended by it. Apparently he feels freedom to drink but he also feels a need to push it into the face of others. If this was just part of his normal culture and he is totally unaware that it might bother others than I would expect it to possibly come up in some story he might present. But no other aspect of his typical life came up nearly as much or with a seeming “jab” attached.

I did not find this book encouraging to Christian community, unity or personal growth. I found it confusing, offensive and divisive.

So may I repeat myself: I do not recommend it.

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When Bad Christians Happen to Good People: Where We Have Failed Each Other and How to Reverse the Damage by Dave Burchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dave Burchett, an Emmy award winning sports director, reflects his sports background in his writing style. I found the one-liners quickly became burdensome. But the content comes out strong, struggles around the half way mark but then pulls forward and finishes decently. Dave has broken the book into 3 sections: the indefensible things we do to one another (the case), thoughts on how we lost our audience (the cause), and being real in an artificial world (the cure).

I believe that Dave did a great job presenting the case. He is funny (at first), personal and has good insights. His analogy of the church as a basketball team is actually a good explanation for why we so desperately need patience and understanding in regards to all the struggles that occur in your local church. He has personally been hurt and does a good job of helping us to relate to the struggles that many have felt at the hands of their own church family.

As Dave begins to explain the cause, I think he also begins to lose me. His short "colorful" one-liners really begin to become distracting. For example:

"It is my observation that even just one little grumpy piranha can stir up a whole school of frenzied attackers. In the wild, piranhas try to isolate their prey before attacking it. Generally the tail region is the first area to be attacked. Since that is just too easy, you can draw your own parallels to the Christian analogy. I am convinced that if you could just spear the lead piranha, most church schisms would be dead in the water (sorry)."

He is basically advocating a "realness” for Christians. If we would sell totally out to Christ with integrity and humility, then we would provide a better body life experience for the church and a more appealing testimony to the world at large. In the cause he shows how we have failed in this. In the cure section, he argues for it.

Overall, I agree with what he presents however it is easy to become over simplistic in this. He started the book off realistic regarding the struggles we all face since we are all at different levels and our spiritual growth is a process. But if we are simplistic with the cure, then we simply say we need to change. The greater issue is helping everyone to understand a real view and learn to operate in love with patience. The greatest evangelistic command given us by Christ is "love one another even as I have loved you”, “they [the world:] will know you by your love". If we would exercise this, knowing that everyone is growing at different stages then we would have a unity that would abide. It is not simple but it is honest, humble and patient. Now we need to progressively grow in our love!

I do recommend the book. I think it is a good book to think through the reality of the struggles of being a dynamic living body of Christ. But I do believe the answers are a bit too simplistic.

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Deepest Differences: A Christian-Atheist Dialogue by James W. Sire

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Deepest Differences is accurately titled. The book is made up of actual emails between two very different people. It is great to see how both James Sire and Carl Peraino talk to each other as friends and yet with passion to their points of view.

James make is clear that his position is one of a biblical theist. I’m pretty certain that he is a theistic evolutionist so I don’t personally believe that he is consistent with the “biblical” part. However, to be fair James never says this and instead argues that logically you do not have to believe in creationism to believe in theism. James makes many good arguments but clearly respects the man at the other end of the email.

Carl is clearly a naturalist who believes that evolution and social constructs explain the origin of life and the morals that rule our society. He has very little open mindedness to anything supernatural. I would believe that his pre-suppositions would cause him to reject even the most objective proof for a miracle or supernatural event. Again, Carl is quick to apologize when he feels his passion might offend his friend.

I was able to learn quite a bit about the two viewpoints these men espoused but I would not recommend an email format for this purpose. It is way more efficient to read summary statements about these world views. The real value I see in this book is the opportunity to hear the passion and heart of a real person’s worldview and the example of respectful dialogue. You might think that this book is a debate but I would disagree. Every debate I am familiar with takes on the format of the following: One person states a position; the next person takes an opposite position and seeks to prove the validity of his view. There is little regard for the other person’s feelings, background or peripheral concerns that would be effected (possibly even devastated) by finding that his view might be wrong. Reality is that they do not focus on helping someone change their view as much as winning an argument. The two gentlemen in this book do argue passionately for their respective views but they clearly value the other person. I believe they could have done a better job of caring for the other person by becoming more concerned holistically with the other person rather than with just the viewpoint.

By only discussing viewpoints they finally came to the position that there were DEEPEST DIFFERENCES that were irreconcilable and thus agreed to stop discussing those differences any further. I do recommend this book but not if you are specifically looking to learn how to argue either of these views. View all my reviews >>

The Shack by William P. Young

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Shack is a "thinking" book. What I mean is that you probably won't agree with a lot of what you think the author might be saying. There are several things that make this tough.

First - The author writes in a humble way that makes you "like" the characters.

Second - The story is clearly a fictional analogy (and possibly at multiple levels). This means that at times the author does not clearly say what he is trying to imply and so you are left guessing what he means.

Third - When the author has a character say something he will say it in regards to the character's life and it may be a bit hard to tell if he is making a doctrinal point or an application point.

 Fourth - Some of the subject matter is regarding areas of reality that Scripture is silent on. For example, it's just impossible to fully grasp the relationship between the members of the trinity and all the implications that come from it.

However - there are several times that the author will say, "God is..." and at that point we can nail down what he believes about that point. There were several of these that I would not agree with and that certainly affect my view of the book. Outside of all that - I did enjoy the book and I especially enjoyed the opportunity to think about issues from another perspective. He brings out several points that helped me to think less "boxed in, cold factual doctrine" and instead of the personal character and heart of God. I'm not sure I would recommend the book. But if you are secure in your doctrine and enjoy thinking outside of the box you will enjoy this book. View all my reviews >>

ADDITONAL INFORMATION (6/5/2010):

Very good review dealing more clearly with the doctrinal issues: Al Mohler's Review of "The Shack"

To Own a Dragon: Reflections On Growing Up Without A Father by Donald Miller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is going to go down as one of the most life changing books I will have read in 2009. I really enjoy Donald Miller's writing style. I really want to read more of his work. I don't believe that he has the greatest grasp on theology but God has taught him many things in regards to being "Fathered" by God and Donald does a great job of presenting it in this book. He uses fantastic analogies, great profound thoughts and very clear explanations. Donald has written the book from the standpoint of his own personal life. Most of the book is a personal testimony. It starts with a focus on the importance of having a father and what is lost in not having a healthy father relationship. From there he wrestles with overcoming this and gains some very good/mature insights like:

Men who try to mentor us make mistakes. As such, they do not reflect God as a failure but reflect fallen humanity. In as much as they try to reach us they reflect God.

Secondly, they do not owe it to us. They are not responsible to love us unconditionally - our fathers were. Anything they give us is a GIFT.

Family life IS interdependent

It is healthy to understand the absolute necessity of every individual.

Submission to Authority

Be a man. There are no secrets - You are a man so be a man!

Irresponsibility is not cute!

We need to have a strategy.

We need to be patient and persistent when life puts setbacks in front of our strategy.

Integrity - What is your soul worth?

Work is worship!

Find your delight in life, learn and live.

Our trust in God grows.

Derailed: Lessons Learned from Leaders Who Failed by Tim Irwin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership by Tim Irwin

I found this book to be overly simplistic and generalized. Tim took the downfall of 6 different corporate leaders and identified five key character deficiencies he believes contributed. He breaks character in to four key areas: authenticity, self-management, humility, and courage. I do believe the deficiencies were clearly there but I also believe that the derailments may have been more complex than Tim describes. Tim is attempting to present this material in the same form as “From Good to Great”. However, he simply doesn’t have the same amount of research and connections between the CEO train wrecks. His dogmatic assertions are not based on scientific study but rather on an intuitive surface level.

That being said, there is no doubt that these CEO’s would have been better leaders if they had developed these character qualities. Tim does a good job of explaining each quality and showing how they could have a positive impact on business leaders today. I particularly appreciated the way he presented the quality of courage and how it has an impact on the leadership provided. Tim asserts that derailment is a process and I believe we would all agree. However, I’m not sure that it will always happen in the same order.

After profiling the 6 leaders, identifying character deficiencies and showing the downward process they follow, Tim gives two chapters to explain how we can avoid a similar downfall. He does a fine job but I believe that much more could have been said.

I probably would not recommend this book. I found the book simplistic and boring. I believe that you could find better books on leadership qualities and leadership deficiencies than “Derailed”.

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