Sometimes you don’t realize how tired and beat down you are until one thing pushes you over the edge. It has been a long 7 months for me and many other people I know. It’s been filled with much sorrow but also some incredible God given joys. I have learned more about leadership in the past 7 months than in my entire life and yet in the process I don’t know how well I was taking care of myself…and it’s no ones fault but my own.
I was reading through a journal of mine from way back in the day and I came across an entry from February of 2001. In it I talked about accepting an internship in Virginia – now, at the time I was nervous and excited about what God had in store…little did I know that He would use that internship to set the trajectory of my life. My time at that church with those leaders, one in particular, forever altered my life. It was then that God began to develop a deep passion for new church work and a thirst for a particular area to come to know Christ.
With the goal and vision in mind I pressed on in preparation- acting like a sponge trying to soak up everything I could. Now, 7 years later, I see how God continues to shape and prepare me for the future and the vision and passion he has given to Leanne and I. The unfortunate part of it all, is I have allowed my soul to grow weary. Traded scripture for leadership books and have focused more on pains than on the hope of the future and the things that God wants to do through me. I guess thats what happens sometimes in difficult situations…you try and survive rather than thrive.
With that being said, today is a new day – and I think i am going to give my soul some refreshment. That refreashment doesnt come in the form of time off, it comes in the form of reading. I am taking a 3 month fast from leadership books, and instead I am putting myself back on the discipline of reading and studying scripture and reading books that challenge me in different ways…hence the title of this post. Below you will find my reading list for the next several months – Some I have never read before, while others it has been years and I need to be reminded of the truths they speak of.
So here’s to refreashment and the excitment of the future.
Until next time…
My late 08 reading list.
The Jesus I Never Knew – Phillip Yancey
Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ – John Piper
Desiring God – John Piper
Practicing the Presence of God – Brother Lawerence
Signature of Jesus – Brennan Meanning
Shadow of the Almighty – Elizabeth Elliot
The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession – Ann Rice
A Heart for the City – John Fuder
The God Who is There – Francis Schaffer
