A few friends and I are reading this book together. Each week we are reading one chapter. On Fridays, I am posting my comments, then giving them the opportunity to add their thoughts as well. If you would like to join us or simply find out more about the book, you can read about it here.)
Chapter 15: "Pain, Margin, Health, and Relationship"
- Here we are finally- the last chapter!!
- In dealing with what we are to do with pain, he said something that I think is worth quoting: "Anything that redirects us to Him is of benefit." (Page 205) Often it is so easy to look at the negatives that have come from the situation, but if that is all we do, we are in trouble. If nothing else, we can allow something to affect us, so that we recalibrate our focus, so that it is directed towards the Lord.
- He talked about the need to just focus on today for the short term. There are several good ideas in the book that I'd like to work on implementing. It is unreasonable to set out this long plan as to how I can accomplish them. Most of them are simple things that I should seek to do today. Then, when tomorrow becomes today, I'll do it again. We can only control what we are doing in the moment, so let's not get caught looking ahead so much that we fail to affect now.
- While in general I disagree with the thought that we need to make sure to "love ourselves" it did get me thinking: just as I would make effort and sacrifice to love others, can I not make choices and work towards things that would be good for me? Example: can I not choose to go to the gym and exercise my body, instead of staying in bed? Isn't that good for me? Could we call that action then: "loving" me? This was my train on thought on that section.
- As I read his explanation as to why he helped Eileen (lady with fluid on her lungs), I thought of transforming his paragraph for us preachers. I think it fits: "We do not study the word of God because we are professional researchers who enjoy study for study's sake. We do not preach because we love the thrill of speaking to a crowd of people. We do not visit people and seek to minister to them because we are wanting to build a reputation for ourselves. Instead, we care for people because we are allowing God's ache to enter our hearts."
- Along with the above thought, I liked this: "My reaching is what I call love." (Page 212)
- That's all! I plan to have one more post, as you can see below. I am going to look over my notes on the book, and pick out the 5 things that helped me the most. If you have time, I'd love to hear your biggest takeaways from the book, whether it be one or several.
I've had my say, what say you?
Discussion on Chapter 14
Discussion on Conclusion
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