Eyes Wide Open: See and Live the Real You by Jud Wilhite with Bill Taaffe

I won this book in a drawing on Anne Jackson’s blog (she has new book give-aways often). I have crazy good luck in blog book drawings. Seriously.

What stands out to me about this book are two things almost in contradiction with one another: Eyes Wide Open is simultaneously simple and comprehensive. I loved, loved, loved the transitions at the beginning of each chapter. The authors basically review the concepts discussed in previous chapters while introducing the connection to each new concept. The book is divided in three sections that move the reader step-by-step into a detailed explanation of why God uses us, how he uses us, and what he’d like to see us do.

As a teacher, l loved the systematic approach. But this is not a textbook or a boring self-help plan. Wilhite uses anecdotes, analogies, and real life stories to illustrate each point. His position as pastor of a growing church in Las Vegas (wouldn’t John Bunyan love that Wilhite pastors in Sin City!) provides many of these colorful examples, but Wilhite also pulls from other sources. Best of all, he uses himself as an example. His humility and common-sense approach permeate the advice he offers to fellow Christian pilgrims.

The beginning of Chapter 18: Unhindered to Make a Difference is a perfect example of one of those transitions I loved and a sneak peek at what the book has to offer:

Seeing and living with eyes wide open means we not only embrace God’s view of us, along with our new identity, and begin the journey of personal change, but we are also freed to make our own unique mark for good on our culture.

Eyes Wide Open is a fast read and has a lot to offer new and mature Christians alike. I think it would make a great small group study or church-wide reading project, but I loved it as a personal refresher course, too.

Enjoy this Israel Houghton video today! I heard the song a couple of months ago and this video captures the spirit perfectly. There is also a contest to enter if you are interested. If not, just skip to the start of the video at 1:52.

Some updates.

This week is Macy’s second birthday! (On Thursday.) Look at how she’s grown:

She and Dan share a birthday . . . you can imagine this is one my favorite days of the year! To celebrate, Macy gets a weekend with Grandma Kathy, the big kids get a weekend with Grandma Cheri, and Dan gets to play with his band, findingBethel, at the Crossover Festival at Lake of the Ozarks. I’ll be with him. AND, we’re planning to pick up a new puppy. I didn’t think I’d want another dog so soon after losing Chuck, but our house feels a little empty without a furry blur under our feet.

I’m also planning to leave my computer at home over the weekend. My new BFF Anne Jackson talks about this on her blog, the importance of unplugging now and then to give yourself a break from the attitudes and tensions that come with constant connectivity to infinite miles of information. I’ll still have my phone that gets emails, so I won’t be totally disconnected. I’m just hoping to remember what it is like to read a real book and interact with humans (and a puppy) without googling for the answers!

To close, here is a video of Dan and Macy – the birthday duo – at Christmas time. It showcases Dan’s playing a little and it is a perfect picture of Macy’s determined spirit as well. (And, don’t worry, she isn’t going to fall off that piano bench. Relax.) Enjoy! Happy random summer weekend!

Dan and Macy at the Piano from Felicity White on Vimeo.

Um, guys, Anne Jackson commented on my blog! The subtitle of her own blog (FlowerDust.net) is “GREEK FOR ‘ANNE JACKSON LIKES YOU’”. That could be the best blog title ever; I smile every time I visit, and I think she really means it! Anne is a funny and insightful writer and her perspective is always interesting to me. She a fun Tweeter, also.

Speaking of Twitter, Donald Miller sent out this link to a free chapter of his upcoming book A MILLION MILES IN A THOUSAND YEARS. It is based on Miller’s story message I’ve been raving about for months. I simply can’t wait to get my hands on the whole book. (Also, Miller has a cool Father’s Day campaign going on for his mentorship program. Check it out here.)

Finally, last week I listened to a sample chapter from Glen Packiam’s new book SECONDHAND JESUS: TRADING RUMORS OF GOD FOR A FIRSTHAND FAITH. I loved it so much. Packiam’s first chapter is a description of how the moral failure of his pastor Ted Haggard (you remember the story, I’m sure) affected Packiam as a staff member at the church and, most of all, as an individual. Packiam’s voice is poetic, wise, and merciful. This is another pre-order at the top of my wish list!

I think you’ll be busy with those links! I told my husband Dan that reading like this is my favorite kind. Intellectual stimulation of the spiritual genre is soul food for me. If you are looking for some, enjoy!

I read a quote this week from a young adult trying to overcome self-injury (or, cutting, as it is often termed). The woman claimed that the blog she kept as a record of her attempted recoveries – one that, I should mention, also linked to many other blogs dedicated to overcoming self-harm – was her therapy.

At first I thought, oh, that’s nice. Blogs really are so useful for sorting out thoughts.

And then I thought, wait, will that work?

I’ve never been to therapy, although I’m pretty certain there were times in my life that I would have benefited from such a thing. (Read a sample chapter from Anne Jackson’s book Mad Church Disease here – she is a believer in therapy for Christians for the sake of a more objective outside perspective on certain situations, especially ministry issues.) But I couldn’t help thinking that even though blogging can be helpful for certain things, I’m not sure it should qualify as therapy.

The idea of therapy is that you entrust your problems and concerns to another person hopefully qualified to give you tools for overcoming said problems and concerns. Blogging, to me, is more about expressing your own ideas and opinions. Sure, we can help one another in a blog conversation, but it just isn’t the same. Is it? I mean, I have the power to delete your comments, you know that, right?

Maybe therapy should be your therapy. What do you think?

This is the reception table at the wedding Dan and I helped with on Saturday. The bride was Claire’s beloved kindergarten teacher and she wanted something special for all her students at the recption: huge lollipops! Big hit at our table. The centerpieces were two old-fashioned pitchers of lemonade, one pink and one regular, surrounded by colorful  Gerbera daisies. Isn’t it lovely? And so summery.

It was also very practical because by the time we walked from the OUTDOOR wedding to the OUTDOOR recpetion, we were ready for an icy cup of lemonade in any color! It was a perfect touch.

The next day we recived the best thank you gift EVER! On our front porch was one of the clear glass pitchers from the reception with three things tucked inside: a thank-you note, a package of instant lemonade, and a whole lemon. We’ve done worship music at weddings for years, but this thank-you was a very sweet way to be compensated!

Dan and I are dreamers. We dream about music projects and writing projects. We dream about what our kids will grow to be and how lovely it will be to grow old together even when they leave us. Sometimes our dreams are original – ideas for songs or  books. Other times we see another person’s project and recognize a dream we didn’t even know existed in our own hearts.

That is what happened when we heard about CompassionArt. Dan has long admired Martin Smith of Delirious? and the CompassionArt project was instigated by Smith as a way of uniting art and social justice. Every writer, some of the biggest names in worship music, gave up all royalty rights to the songs on this recording and turned them over to a number of charitable organizations. This is the kind of thing we would LOVE to do with our lives.

We’ve been listening to the CD for about a week. We’d like to add a couple of the songs into our regular service rotation and the idea that the CCLI royalty money will benefit the poor is inspiring. This is one of the promo videos.

Just thought I’d tell you about another thing I’ve been enjoying lately.