Review: Colors of Goodbye: A Memoir of Holding On, Letting Go, and Reclaiming Joy in the Wake of Loss

Colors of Goodbye: A Memoir of Holding On, Letting Go, and Reclaiming Joy in the Wake of Loss by September Vaudrey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Grief is like a ball of hopelessly tangled yarn. Unraveling it takes time. Colors of Goodbye helped me untangle some of the knots in my leftover ball of grief.

Knowing the subject matter I put off reading for a while and then inwardly braced myself when I cracked open the book. Shauna Niequist's forward was such a perfect opening. I walked through the doorway into the cavernous well of grief explored by the author after the tragic loss of her daughter. Each chapter's offering felt carefully measured out so that I could navigate my way through the emotions that surfaced for me without feeling overwhelmed. September Vaudrey vulnerably retraces her footsteps through the minefield of grief. Even her missteps are pointed out for the benefit of those coming after her.

The use of color, art, and beauty to paint a picture of grief reminded me of the word "brutiful" coined by Glennon Doyle Melton. She uses it when "life's brutal and beautiful are woven together so tightly that they can't be separated."

I received this book as a gift from Tyndale Momentum. This honest review is my way of saying, "Thank you".


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Review: A Mile Wide: Trading a Shallow Religion for a Deeper Faith

A Mile Wide: Trading a Shallow Religion for a Deeper Faith by Brandon Hatmaker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the book A Mile Wide Brandon Hatmaker states (about Jesus' parable of the soils), "...the quality and depth of the soil represents our heart's receptivity to his truth. Our receptivity determines the fruit, not the other way around. Instead of focusing on more fruit, we're challenged to focus on the condition of the soil."

With that, he proceeds to aid the reader in turning over the fallow ground and the topsoil of the heart. Seed that falls on hardened soil cannot take root and grow and is left to the birds.
Seed that falls on good soil eventually becomes fruit-bearing trees.

Brandon states, "...we're better at being and making converts than we are at being and making disciples." We are invited to consider discipleship through a new set of lenses, all of which are critical in our formation. He spells out, in everyday language how to go about deepening our relationship with God and with our neighbors. He offers a fresh perspective on loving others, calling them: The Outcast, The Outsider, and The Insider.

This book left me hungering for greater depths in my faith and with an action plan to make it happen.

I received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty

If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty by Eric Metaxas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Eric Metaxas, "If You Can Keep It" is a bold, patriotic reminder about what our country once was, the state it currently is in, and what it can be once again, if we each do our part to love our country. He explains the Golden Triangle of Freedom, which is: freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faith, and faith requires freedom.

He reminds the reader about how the stories of the heroes of our nation inspire others to greatness and warns us about abandoning the "vital tradition of venerating heroes".

He makes a case for loving America, an idea that is increasingly backward, and even offensive to some because of certain historical realities, which he enumerates. Heroism and ignominy are both a part of the historical record. We must rejoice and be inspired by the former, and repent of of the latter.

"For a nation is a partnership between the people who have died, the people who are alive now, and the people who have not yet been born."
- Edmund Burke

"We are a great country and our song has not yet been sung."
- Daniel Hannan, speaking of Great Britain, but that can also be said about America.

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