The Return

Review: Launch Your Encore: Finding Adventure and Purpose Later in Life Hans Finzel & Rick Hicks Baker Books 2015 Retirement?   What to do with all that extra time now that there’s no job filling the hours and the kids are grown?   Kick back and relax for starters, but pretty soon, as these authors point out, that gets old and major boredom sets in.   This book takes a look at precisely this issue within a culture that thrives on doing rather than being, on youthfulness rather than age.   What will you do?   What will you become?   What will become of you? In the final analysis those questions probably need answers sooner than later.   Finzel and Hicks suggest a way forward through the transition period from leaving your life’s work to entering your encore performance, i.e. the retirement years.   Personality, ability, desires, skills, and other traits point you toward a decision area.   They suggest several assessmen...

Review: A Beautiful Defeat: Find True Freedom and Purpose in Total Surrender to God Kevin Malarkey with Matt Jacobson Nelson Books 2014 I have to say that I requested this book for review because someone else said they didn’t like it, not for any more worthy reason.   So did I like it or not?   I liked it, but didn’t like the implications for my life.    The defeat that is beautiful is of course the total surrender to God.   That requires all of me, mine, and whatever else I have become attached to.   Malarkey puts out the challenges straight and without any fancy foot work trying to sidestep what the biblical text says.   His final word resembles the Nike™ slogan we all know.    His ten steps are discussed clearly and with examples that are even more clear.   The appendices provide a review and a list of the Bible verses pertaining to each step.   While I am not a fan of dividing things into ten steps, or twelv...

Review: Futureville: Discover Your Purpose or Today by Reimagining Tomorrow Skye Jethani Nelson Books 2013 This is another winner from this author.   Jethani writes books that need to be read.   This one touches all of us in one way or another.   What is happening here is a look at the premise that drives actions and thoughts related to an individual’s view of the future---and the present as well.    In a gentle manner and in a very readable way the author examines the outcome of believing in a global sort of evolution, evacuation, or resurrection.   Each direction leads to a different emphasis and practice according to Jethani.   He has connected dots that at the very least were obscured by loads of rhetoric from their respective adherents and opponents. This is an affirming and insightful work which is sorely needed by many and especially those in the Church.   He weaves it together through a metaphor of a World’s Fair hel...