Review: Saint Francis (Christian Encounters Series)

Book: Saint Francis: Christian Encounter Series

Author: Robert West

You may or may not remember that one of my goals for 2011 was to read more consistently. I've always loved reading, but in recent years, my reading has been practically nonexistent. That needed to change. It took me a while to get back in the swing of things, but during the last half of 2011, I started reading again.

One of the first books I read was Robert West's biography on Saint Francis. I've always been fascinated by the saint who stripped down to his birthday suit and renounced his former life of wealth, and West's biography gave me greater insight into the life and theology of a man who would do such a thing.

I read Saint Francis immediately following my reading of David Platt's Radical, and while it may seem like the books have nothing in common, together, they challenged me to do life differently. After reading these books and discussing them with Dennis, we decided to adjust our finances in order to give more freely. It may not seem like much, but it's a start.

At only 221 pages, Saint Francis is a quick read, but the story was bogged down at times by West's writing style. He meticulously describes the historical and cultural world that Francis lived in, but he could have done a better job of weaving those details into Francis' actual story. As it stands, the historical passages seem a bit disjointed from the overall thrust of the book.

All of that said, I would still recommend this book to anyone who is curious about Francis of Assisi, a man whose great concern for the poor and personal vow of poverty literally changed the world.

This book was provided to me free of charge by Thomas Nelson publishers in exchange for my honest review. If you're interested in becoming a reviewer for Thomas Nelson, check out BookSneeze.

Until next time, grace and peace.

Expecting

(print available from Red Letter Words)

Surprise, surprise. It's me again. Look out world, I've posted two days in a row :)

I've been thinking a lot about yesterday's post, and I realize that it could have come across as a bit, well, depressing.

Rest assured that Peanut (our temporary name for bambino numero dos) is not unwanted. To the contrary, we have talked about Peanut since before Micah was born. Peanut is most definitely wanted and loved. That said, Peanut's emergence into our lives is unexpected and unplanned at the moment.

And in case you were wondering, unplanned pregnancy is hard. Period. Yes, this child is a blessing, and I am thankful that we have the means to care for and nurture Peanut. I am overwhelmed by the idea that God has entrusted yet another human being to our care, and yet, now that I've had a few months to get used to the idea, our lives would somehow be incomplete without this baby. This unplanned, unexpected baby is most certainly loved and wanted.

And so, life goes on. I am adjusting to the idea that Micah will be a big sister soon - even if I have absolutely no idea where Peanut is going to sleep. We've got some time to figure all that out.

I'm also learning that there's some wisdom in adding "God willing," to all your future plans. God willing, Peanut will arrive into this world a happy and healthy child. God willing, Micah will be the best big sister there ever was. And God willing, Dennis and I will be the kind of parents that God created us to be.

Until next time (God willing), grace and peace.

In All Honesty

Seeing as how my last post was on October 26 and lots of life has happened between now and then, I thought it was only fitting to re-enter the blogging world with a little recap of the last couple of months of 2011. I know, we're almost halfway through January, and I'm late to the looking back game, but that's just how life is at the moment. You may (or may not) remember that I started off 2011 with some lofty goals of cultivating both discipline and intentionality in my life. I established some good habits and by and large did very well for the first 10 months of the year.

Then I got pregnant.

Yes, you read that right.

I am with child.

See? The picture says so.

Baby number two is set to arrive in early July, and the news came as a great shock to me. The planner in me reeled from the fact that God's plans differed so drastically from my own, and I'm still not completely used to the idea that there will be another little kiddo in our house come July. It's a big change that I've not yet adjusted to.

Thankfully, God provides nine months to get over the shock. I'm still working on it :)

I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't really get sick when I'm pregnant, but what I lack in nausea, I make up for in exhaustion. The end of 2011 found me pretty lackluster, which meant that many of my lofty goals got shoved to the side.

Not making excuses - just being honest.

For the most part, I've kept the news offline because I just wasn't ready for it to be real, but in an attempt to actually deal with reality, I'm putting it out there for all of you to see.

The place I'm in at the moment is difficult. I want to be thankful and excited about this baby, but right now it's hard. And that makes me feel guilty, because I know that children are a gift from God. I also have entirely too many friends who have struggled with infertility to be flippant about this. We've always wanted more than one child...

This just isn't when I thought it would happen.

And that's really the heart of the issue. Because I'm a control freak, it drives me crazy to be reminded that I am not, in fact, in control. God is. He always has been. He always will be.

It's not always easy to conform your own will to the will of God. This is a truth that I'm learning all over again.

I put all this out there for the sake of honesty. When it comes to babies and parenting and life in general, I'm afraid that we glaze over the difficult parts and put on a plastic smile far too often. But when we do that, we rob ourselves, and each other, of the authenticity that we desperately need.

So here's to being authentic. And the arrival of the second trimester, which, so far, has brought more energy. Hopefully, that means I'll be around more often.

Until next time, grace and peace.