There are many Christian books out there that are theologically and denominationally air tight.  Holding On Loosely is not one of them.  If fact, at first read, one could almost question if in fact it is a ‘Christian’ book at all, as the name of Jesus is seldom mentioned, preferring rather a menagerie of more generic terms such as higher power, master, teacher or just plain God. Giacopelli does qualify this as he explains that his understanding of the God of the Bible is that this all powerful and merciful being is much more qualified and vested in revealing who he is than any mortal could ever be. I certainly respect that, even believe it to be true, but for those of us brought up with very fundamentalist training, it is still a hard pill to swallow.

So why did I give this paperback a 5 star rating, you’re wondering?  Because Holding On Loosely is a life changing book. From the very first chapter it is evident that there is something mystical, ever supernatural, about this story.  Pablo Giacopelli, a professional woman’s tennis coach, invites the reader into the story of his life, his struggles with trying to maintain control, and his pain as to the fruit (read that failure) of his efforts. You are given an opportunity to watch a man struggle with the question that so many of us ask:  Why is it that my faith and my religion have had such a minimal effect on my actions? 

His answers are profound.  Giacopelli discovers a God who is much more interested in fathering him and loving him than controlling him; and that discover changes the authors life as well as the lives of those around him.  In doing so, it also profoundly touched something missing in my life: the ability to lesson my own grip as I try to control those around me.  Giacopelli masterfully leads the reader through the unwrapping of this capacity to ‘Hold On Loosely’: not forcing the outcomes while also not giving up.  The ability transforms his tennis student from a very good player to a great player.  It changes how he relates to his own children, and most importantly, it opens up a dialogue with God that produces real, lasting, life changing fruit.

I repeatedly found myself challenged and exposed as I related to his journey, but there was also incredible hope.  Hope that there really is a relationship that Jesus longs to have with me, one of walking beside me, revealing his creation to me, and guiding my life for his glory. 

Like I said in the beginning, this is not a ‘religious’ book, but it is so Godly. Unlike much I have read, Holding On Loosely left me wanting more of God and excited about the journey there.  If you have likewise found yourself walking more in a performance mindset in your faith than in a love affair, Holding On Loosely is exactly what you need to read.

To the King,

David

If you would like to order a copy for yourself, Holding On Loosely is available here.

Have you ever noticed how crises can be both unexpected and overwhelming?  Like the bombing of Pearl Harbor, life has the unsettling ability to suddenly switch from enjoying the sand and the sun to fighting fires and dodging bullets.

I had a couple of those days this week.  My existence seemed to be going pretty smoothly.  God was working some central questions out in my life, new friends had been made, and there was a sense that much of the mission of my life was being clarified.  Then Sunday night, out of what felt like sunny blue skies, the bombs began falling. It felt like an ambush.  Yet with my understanding of the world at war, God offered insight and I thought that I navigated the confusion better than usual.

Of course, Mondays always follow Sundays.  Work was insanely busy.  My emotions frayed, my brain overloaded, and my muscles tense, it seemed a good idea to run to the gym for a hard workout to clear my mind and refresh my heart, which by this time was guarded and under lock and key. 

Within ten minutes of arriving, I found myself surrounded by first two, then three, then four of the officers of the club.  I had earlier voiced some concerns and even written a note to them concerning how the facility was dealing with some issues, and they had come to clear the air. Naturally misinformation had filtered its way in, and the conversation was tense.  Any other time I would have welcomed the opportunity to bring up these differences, but tonight ... after all that had transpired in the 24 hours before … I felt ambushed again, cornered like a cat burglar caught in the attic. With no where to run and no where to hide; I just stood there, taking it in, shooting aimless arrows at the dark skies.

So this morning, God takes me to Luke chapter four.  It’s the account of the Jesus’ wilderness experience and his temptation by Satan. Verse 13 grabbed my attention. ‘When the devil had finished all of his tempting, he left him until an opportune time’ (emphasis mine).  That opportune time comes just a few passages later. 

Jesus begins performing miracles, people start listening, and then Luke reports that Jesus returned to his home town of Nazareth. Walking into the synagogue, our King stands up and reads from the prophet Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.’ (Luke 4:18).  The crowd loves it. That is until he begins explaining in more detail how this whole thing is going to go down, and how they will not be praising for long, but rejecting the Son of God.  Our Lord is trying to be honest with them, letting those in attendance see the dangers that will follow.  They don’t.  Instead, they ‘were furious when they heard this.  They got up, drove him out of town, and took him to the brow of a hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.’ (v.28-29).

Ambushed, at an opportune time.  That’s what our enemy does. Just as we are beginning to walk in our glory, in our part in the story, he takes us again to a cliff. Or he uses others to push us to that cliff.  Should we really be so surprised?   He hates what we do, he hates who we are, and he hates who we serve. If he was able to incite a mob to push the Son of God over an abyss, why not us? Jesus warned us that it would be so.

What I love most about that story though is what Jesus does.  He just turns around and walks away.  On with the mission. On with life. 

That’s the beauty of those opportune times that Satan uses to take me to the cliff, for they are also opportune times for Jesus to walk with me through the crowds and continue the journey.

If like me, you also frequently find yourself in the midst of an ambush, take heart (don’t lose heart).  Your enemy hates where you are and what you are doing.  And though it seems you are alone in the battle, Jesus is there, offering his hand and a way through the crowds and on with your mission.

To the King,

David

The writing of John Eldredge has had a huge impact in my life.  I first read Wild at Heart a number of years ago, during a particularly distressing time in my life. It spoke to me at the level of my heart, which was honestly a mess.  Then I read Waking the Dead, probably the most influential book in my life. Even Captivating, the book he wrote with his wife Staci touched me profoundly.  But honestly, his last few books have just not really had that same effect on me. Maybe it was just the season that I was in, but The Way of the Wild Heart and Love and War left me wondering if maybe Eldredge’s heyday had finally come to an end.  And so it was with some skepticism that I agreed to review a pre-release copy of Beautiful Outlaw.

Like I said, maybe it was just the season that I have been in.  My own writing and ministry have had their own desert experience of late, and with that has been a distancing of myself from both … and more so from Jesus.  Still, I had agreed to read Beautiful Outlaw, and so reluctantly, I sat down, cup of coffee in hand, and opened the book.

I really can’t explain what happened.  A rather slow and meticulous reader by nature, I found myself soaring through this book.  I wasn’t reading a book about who Jesus was, it felt more like sitting down with an old friend and looking through a photo album of his many adventures.  Oh, and the photos.  Beautiful, clear, breathtaking.  It was as if I was there, with Jesus, with my brother the King, experiencing life as he experienced it.  The compassion, the courage, the firmness of his words, the comfort of his touch.  In a matter of a few hours, I was in love with Jesus all over again. 

And it didn’t stop when I laid the book down. As my two year old grandson coaxed me outside to play, I was suddenly experiencing the artwork of a master, of the Master, everywhere: in a moth, through the blades of grass, and in the breeze of a fall afternoon. Beautiful Outlaw is brilliant in that it doesn’t preach; it rather invites the reader to join John on an adventure of discovery, a discovery of this Beautiful Outlaw who longs for our company and our hearts.

This is a simply amazing book, wonderfully outline, weaving together the Gospel accounts of Jesus into a portrait of the man we all ache to know but have somehow missed in the fog of religious activity. I can recommend this book with complete confidence that your understanding and intimacy with Jesus will be forever changed.
 
To the King,

David

I’m a year older today.  Forty-eight to be exact.  Not really old (at least that’s what I keep telling myself as more and more body parts give out), but certainly no spring chicken either.  God has blessed me with honestly great health though.  I definitely don’t feel forty-eight. I am however, acutely aware of the fact that my journey is well over half way finished, which causes a bit of a dilemma.  Fear of death doesn’t really consume much; in fact, I tend to engage in a multitude of activities that could take my life at any moment.  But fear of not living … fear of not experiencing all of life that God has for me … fear of failing; well that does consume me.

At the base of that fear, I believe, is a question of God’s faithfulness.  Not His faithfulness in loving me or saving me or even protecting me, but a question of his faithfulness in using me.  Now before you all start writing, I know that He has used me.  He has used me in the lives of my children, my wife, my medical practice and even my writings and ministry. It’s just that I sense there is more, and as time keeps ticking away, I fear that maybe I’m missing it.

To be sure, I probably have missed some of it.  Wasted years, missed opportunities, apathy and fatigue have side lined me as much as the next guy.  Life has happened and with it, choices.  Not always the best choices but choices none-the-less. I know that those can never be changed and so I don’t spend a lot of time reflecting on them.  It’s the future that I’m interested in, and that frankly scares me to death.

You see, despite poor (or for that matter, good) choices in the past, despite failures and successes in the last forty-eight years, I know in my deepest being that my heart longs to follow my King’s direction for my life.  So the question looms:  when will God open the flood gates … will He ever open the flood gates? 

However, paradoxically, something else has happened in the last forty-eight years: patience.  Not a lot of it mind you, but some.  More than in my thirty’s. I’m learning, albeit slowly, to trust his timing.  I’m learning to enjoy the ride and to worry less about the destination. I’m learning that His use of me is up to Him, for His glory, not mine. 

So here I am: forty-eight and anxious, but strangely also content.  I am learning to trust in new ways and am still growing, and that tells me that despite all the aches and pains, I ain’t dead yet!

To the King,

David 

I have two teenage boys.  Josiah, my youngest, dreams of being a movie producer. He spent most of his summer working to make enough money so he could buy a very nice, high dollar camera.  When he wasn’t doing that, he was on the computer, learning the latest techniques in video editing, lighting, special effects, or the multitude of other nuances that goes into the making of a great on screen story.

Caleb, my older teen, is a rock climber.  He lives and breathes rock climbing.  With a training regimen that would put some professional athletes to shame, his body is becoming a machine.  Last night he accomplished one of his goals for this year, he sent a very hard boulder project, the first person in our local climbing gym to climb this particular problem. 

Passion.  That’s what drives them both.  Caleb and Josiah have found something that they are passionate about, and so whatever it takes:  back-breaking labor, hours of study, sore muscles;  all of it is endured, even embraced in order to pursue the passion.

You have passions too, I know you do.  You were created with them, an endowment from your creator.  Paul said it this way: ‘I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.’ (Philippians 3:12). He understood that like you, he too was created for a purpose, and it was that purpose that consumed him. The problem, however, is that those passions are opposed.  Life comes at us, mortgages grow, responsibilities mount, and disappointments loom at every corner.  And we, well we choose to settle … for something less, something not as dangerous or as maybe just not as hard.  We become tired, disillusioned, even defeated; and we take an easier, smoother path.

The saddest part is that those effortless roads never satisfy, they just passify.  They lull us into a place of less than we really are, a place of complacence and compromise while all of the time leaving a void that we seldom even notice except for those times when someone else makes the great movie or climbs the tallest mountains.

You and I were created for more. Eternity has been set in our hearts.  We can ignore it, allow life to quiet it, and even refuse to accept it, but until we finally embrace it once again we will never taste the fulfillment of living in our God-given passions. Someday you may be watching a blockbuster produced by Josiah Kortje or tuning in to Caleb winning Olympic gold but the bigger question is: where will you be watching if from?

Like a popular commercial states: What are you waiting for, your dream is out there, go find it.

To the King,

David