Love Big, Be Well
I am a reader and podcast listener. My reading habit began in 2002 during my Radical Mentoring season when I read a book a month for 12 months. My podcast habit started in my prior career when I was on the road 3-4 days a week. I am also a hoarder of these resources . . . with dozens of samples waiting on my Kindle and a stack of finished books waiting for me to net out. To help with my accountability process, I have decided to involve you, our RM blog readers. Throughout the summer, every couple of weeks, I will share some thoughts with you from a book I’ve recently read. No Danielle Steele novels or heavy theological tomes . . . I’m talking practical, applicable books, maybe even ones you can use in your mentoring groups.
First up is author and pastor Winn Collier’s Love Big, Be Well. I heard an interview with Winn on a podcast and immediately thought this would be a book I’d love. It’s a series of letters from a new pastor to his congregation . . . letters full of practical advice for life and honest conversations on faith.
On Friendship . . .
A true friend finds the good in us when all we see is the mess we’ve made or the shame heaped upon us.
We do not build friendship. We seek We desire and pray for friendship. We become a friend, and then we hope the other will become a friend to us as well. We cannot demand this or maneuver to secure it. We can only walk toward friendship and be grateful for whatever kindness God grants us.
On Prayer . . .
Prayer offers us a gift: to hear and encounter God amid the tangle and groan and delight of our common experience. It’s not some ecstatic spiritual state so much as simply putting one foot in front of the other.
Prayer means talking to God, but even more, prayer means listening to God, listening for God. Prayer is action. Prayer is sitting still. Prayer happens through our hopes and through our tears.
Prayer is not something we accomplish; it’s something we enter. It’s pretty darn hard to do prayer wrong.
On Authenticity . . .
Authenticity is a fine thing, but I’m wary of the ways we blurt out our deepest treasures, creating a kind of relational shock and awe. Our cathartic gushing may be a necessary step in our healing, but it is also a sign we have not yet made peace with ourselves.
On Faith . . .
Christian faith is not primarily an ethereal religion but a grit-and-grind, in-this-world undertaking. And in this world, few things hold us in their oppressive grip more than our checkbook and our calendar.
Lastly, here is one of the pastoral blessing Collier speaks over his congregation . . .
“May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.”
– Sister Ruth Fox, Benedictine Nun from North Dakota
This book contains much more wisdom than could be contained in a blog post. It was an encouraging and challenging read for me, and I hope it may be for you as well.
Happy Summer.
Find Love Big, Be Well on Amazon here.
