More on Giving Up

I'm nearly finished reading John Eldredge's book, The Journey of Desire. In it, he expresses far more eloquently than I can the thoughts and feelings I've experienced lately in my surrendering certain desires over to God. This passage that I read today fits right in with my post from earlier in the week on giving up a particular desire to Him:

"Spiritual surrender is not resignation. It is not choosing to care no longer. Nor is it Eastern mysticism, an attempt to get beyond the suffering of this life by going completely numb. As my dear friend Jan describes, 'It is surrender with desire, or in desire.' Desire is still present, felt, welcomed even. But the will to secure is made subject to the divine will in an act of abandonment...

"True surrender is not an easy out, calling it quits early in the game. This kind of surrender comes only after the night of wrestling. It comes only after we open our hearts to care deeply. Then we choose to surrender, or give over, our deepest desires to God. And with them we give over our hearts, our deepest selves. The freedom and beauty and rest that follow are among the greatest of all surprises." (The Journey of Desire, pgs. 193 & 194)

Christmas Memory Monday

A while back I reconnected with an old classmate of mine, Tara, who has a blog of her own, Murphree's Law. Tara has designated Mondays in December as Christmas Memory Monday, and using that day's post to document some favorite childhood Christmas memories. She invited her fellow bloggers to join the fun, so today I'm sharing one of my own memories.

Our family has always enjoyed traveling, and whether we were vacationing at the beach or in Washington, D.C. or Disney World or somewhere in between, part of our vacation perennially involved a search for a Christmas ornament to commemorate our trip. It's a special (and usually fairly inexpensive) way to "extend" the vacation, and whenever we put up the Christmas tree and took out the ornaments we'd be filled with memories from our vacations.

The practice has been passed on to me, and now whenever I travel I try to find the perfect ornament to help me remember my trip. Those ornaments are probably my favorite souvenirs to get when I travel, and they always bring back a lot of great memories when I unpack them and hang them on the Christmas tree.

Click here to visit Tara's blog and read about some of her favorite Christmas memories, and feel free to post your own either in the comment section or on your own blog.

Giving Up

Giving up is not something I do easily or happily. It's tough to give up the illusion that I am in control (although deep down I know that I'm truly not in control at all). Holding on to the idea of being able to control things is a bit of a security blanket.

But I have to admit that true peace only comes when I throw up my hands and let go of whatever is that I'm desperately trying to control. Most recently, I've had to give up hopes of a reconciliation with a particular friend. I've prayed many times about it, asking God to restore our friendship, but a couple of weeks ago I had a heart to heart talk with myself and acknowleged that I was trying to initiate a reconciliation instead of leaving it fully in God's hands.

What He intends to do with this friendship, I don't know. I miss this friend very much and my heart still longs for restoration. Perhaps God will restore the friendship in the coming months, or in years to come. Then again, perhaps our friendship has ended its run here on Earth. I cling to the hope that, even if we don't speak again in this lifetime, our friendship will be made perfect and whole in Heaven, and that it will finally be all that God intended it to be.

I'm not giving up on the hope that God will bring about reconciliation with this friend. Rather, I'm giving up on my attempts to bring about that reconciliation myself. We are all master manipulators, even with the best of the intentions. I am so good at convincing myself that God needs my help, which, let's face it, is absolute bunk.

Taking a hands-off approach to this and to other situations is necessary to learn true dependence on God. Trying to second-guess Him and make things "happen" only makes things worse, in my experience, so I'm trying to do less and less of that. It's not easy to give up; for me it's a day-by-day struggle rather than an all-at-once act. But I can definitely feel a greater sense of peace as I give these things over to God. Sometimes what we gain is greater than what we give up.

Christmas Gifts for Readers

As I've mentioned, oh, a hundred or so times before, I am an avid reader. My nightstand perenially has a stack of books sitting on it waiting to be read (or, in some cases, in the process of being read; I have a bad habit of reading multiple books at once). And like just about everyone else on the planet these days, I've been looking for ways to get new reading material for very cheap.

If you're in need of inexpensive Christmas presents for the bookworm in your life, here are a couple of suggestions:

-PaperbackSwap.com. As I've said in a previous post, this has replaced my beloved Amazon as my go-to place for books. They have a great variety of gently used books in every genre imaginable, all in good condition, and all you pay for is shipping.

-Amazon is currently running its Black Friday magazine sale, with year-long magazine subscriptions selling at just $5 each. The titles available include Cosmopolitan, Food & Wine, House Beautiful, PEOPLE StyleWatch, Popular Science, Real Simple, Smart Money, Sports Illustrated Kids, Southern Living, and Travel + Leisure. This is a great way to give a gift that keeps on giving year-round. Note, however, that the sale ends on December 1.

Happy reading!

In the Meantime...

I love to read the Bible, especially those books that are chock-filled with encouragement and hope. Some books are easier to swallow than others. To be honest, Numbers is just not one of my favorite books. Revelation is not a breeze to read and understand. Although I realize that every word in Scripture is there on purpose and there's something to glean from every book, I have to admit that there are some books that I lean more towards than others. However, sometimes I do feel prompted to read a book that's not the easiest or most encouraging to read.

For example, lately I've felt compelled to read the book of Jeremiah. And Jeremiah is--well, it's not a fun read. It's the story of Jeremiah urging the people of Judah to repent of their idolatry and wickedness or else face captivity by Babylon as their punishment.

Eventually, the people of Judah were taken into captivity for seventy years by the Babylonians. In chapter 29, Jeremiah sends a letter to the exiles, which includes these instructions:

The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, sends this message to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: "Build houses, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food you produce. Marry, and have children. Then find spouses for them, and have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray to the Lord for that city where you are held captive, for if Babylon has peace, so will you." (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

I find it encouraging (and convicting) that God expected His people to be fruitful no matter where they were. Even though their exile was a result of their own stubborn refusal to turn from their sins, He still intended to bless them through it.

It's easy for me to make excuses for being unproductive because I may be in a place that I don't want to be or things may not be going as I would want them to go. That doesn't excuse me from being productive for God. Regardless of where I am, God continues to give me the resources to bear fruit in His name. Especially in situations that I don't like, I want to stop making excuses and let God work through me. Sometimes seeing that fruit can make difficult situations much more bearable and give hope that better days are ahead.

Book Review: From Peanuts to the Pressbox

(Note: While in college I was fortunate to have several internships, one of them taking place in the book publicity department for Thomas Nelson Publishers. For a book lover like myself who planned to enter the world of public relations and communications, it was a match made in heaven. Fast forward lo these many years later, and I've become a blogger reviewer for Thomas Nelson. From time to time I'll be posting reviews of books that they send me to read. Again, a match made in heaven.)

As an Alabama football fan, Eli Gold is for me synonymous with Tide football. It’s just not a game day without hearing his voice on the radio calling plays. Until I read his latest autobiography, From Peanuts to the Pressbox, however, I was unfamiliar with his radio broadcast adventures aside from college football Saturdays.

The book quickly remedied that with tales of Gold’s journey from a Brooklyn-born kid selling peanuts at Madison Square Garden to a leader in the sports broadcasting world. He serves up anecdotes from his long history in broadcasting, beginning with his first big break providing hockey play-by-play action for the Long Island Ducks. Gold has since gone on to more high profile gigs, including NASCAR, arena football, the NHL, the NFL, CBS and NBC Sports, and, most notably to this Bama fan, serving as the Voice of the Crimson Tide.

The book is filled with behind-the-scenes stories from arenas, racetracks and football fields around the country, many funny, some (such as the deaths of several NASCAR racers) sobering. Although the Bama fan in me would have preferred more stories about Alabama football, overall I enjoyed reading about Gold’s experiences inside and outside of the broadcasting booth.

Uprooted

I wonder if Abraham was ready to leave his homeland when God told him to go in Genesis 12. There's no indication that Abraham hesitated when instructed by God to pack up his family and belongings and to launch out on a journey to an unknown place. Perhaps he did waiver in his faith a bit; perhaps he really wrestled with the thought of leaving the place he was familiar with, comfortable with, the place that, for better or for worse, was his home.

Then again, maybe Abraham was ready to be uprooted, ready for whatever adventure God had planned for him. Maybe he had grown tired of the familiar landscape and was itching for some change in his life.

I am hopeful that one day in Heaven I'll be able to sit down and talk with Abraham and find out how he felt when God told him to go to a place where God would eventually show him. Was he excited? Scared? Ready for a new chapter in his life? Wary? Perhaps all of the above.

For a while now I've felt a desire for some changes in my life. I'm not sure if that's God preparing me to be uprooted and thrown into a new chapter, or if I'm just itching for change. I have a feeling it's more of the former. I think that God tends to do some prep work on us before asking us to follow Him to a new place. So perhaps this desire for change is a precursor to some changes ahead. Time will tell. When God DOES call me to move (whether to a new city, a new job, a new church, or making some other changes in my life), I want to show the same sort of faith that Abraham exhibited in picking up and following where God led him.

WFMW: PaperBackSwap.com

For as long as I can remember I've been a reader. As a child I spent countless hours at our local libraries. As an adult, I still frequent the library from time to time, but the selection is not always the greatest, and there are certain books that I want to keep permanently. For a long time I purchased my books from Amazon, where the price is usually far better than what I can get at a storefront. However, given my infinite love of books mixed with my finite financial resources, buying books on a continual basis is just not feasible considering that there are other things I like to do with my paycheck. Eating, for example.

So when a friend introduced me to Paperbackswap.com a few months ago, it was love at first sight. Here's how it works, in a nutshell:

-After setting up your account (quick and painless), you post a minimum of 10 "gently used" books (i.e., no highlighting or underlining) that you no longer want in order to get your starter book credits.

-When another member requests a book from you, just print out the mailing label and send it to them. You pay for shipping (which Paperbackswap.com calculates for you, normally at the low media mail rate).

-Every time you send a book to a member, you get a credit to use toward ordering another book. The books are free--your only cost is postage for the books you mail out.

-Use the credits to order books that you that other members have posted. (Books are one credit each; audiobooks take two credits each.)


What I like about it:

1. There's a huge selection of books in pretty much every genre you can imagine. And don't let the name fool you--it's not just paperback books; you can also swap hardbacks and audiobooks. (By the way, there are also sister sites for swapping CDs and DVDs.)

2. The cost to send out books is minimal--postage usually runs around $2-$3 per book, depending on the book's size and weight. If, like me, you want to avoid standing in line at the post office, you can pay a slight fee to print the postage yourself and mail books directly from your home.

3. It's a great way to get rid of books that you no longer want, as well as to acquire books that you've been wanting to read.

4. I can enjoy newer books that my local library doesn't carry at a fraction of the cost of getting them from a bookstore or from Amazon.


Getting great used books for way cheap? PaperBackswap.com works for a bookworm like me.

For more money and time-saving tips, visit the Works for Me Wednesday blog carnival at We Are That Family.