Matt Manes.com

It’s Not About Me.
Max Lucado.
Thomas Neslon.
BookSneeze
Buy on Amazon.

From Thomas Nelson Description:
Pop culture and psychobabble tell us to make ourselves the center of the universe in order to be happy. Churches have communicated the false idea that God exists to give us all that we selfishly want. In this book, Max Lucado reminds us that it’s not about us, it’s all about God. It is through this shift in thinking that we can truly live an unburdened, happy life.

I could have not thought of a better name for this book than, It’s Not About Me. When you finish this book, if you think of yourself higher than God, then you must have not read the same book that I did.

Too often, we try to take our lives and think that they are all about us. We do things and try to become people that will help to promote us, but Max does a great job at helping us to realize that it’s not about us at all, but it’s all about Him.

“God does no exist to make a big deal out of us. We exist to make a big deal out of him. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s all about him.” – Max Lucado

At the same time, I feel that sometimes we think that God has changed. Instead of realizing that it may be us who are changing, we think that God had to change. But the reality is that God will always be the same. He’s the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever.

“He will always hate sin and love sinners, despise the proud and exalt the humble. He will always convict the evildoer and comfort the heavy-hearted. He never changes direction midstream, recalibrates the course midway home, or amends the heavenly Constitution. God will always be the same.” – Max Lucado

Max ends his book the same way I would like to end this post. With a prayer:

“May God rescue us from self-centered thinking. May we have no higher goal than to see someone think more highly of our Father, our King. After all, it’s not about….well, you can finish the sentence.” – Max Lucado

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Disclosure of Material Connection: BookSneeze sent me a free copy of this book as part of their bloggers book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me: A Memoir. . . of Sorts.
Ian Cron.
Thomas Nelson.
BookSneeze.
Buy on Amazon.

From Thomas Nelson Description:
“When he was sixteen years old, Ian Morgan Cron was told about his father’s clandestine work with the CIA. This astonishing revelation, coupled with his father’s dark struggles with chronic alcoholism and depression, upended the world of a boy struggling to become a man. Decades later, as he faces his own personal demons, Ian realizes the only way to find peace is to voyage back through a painful childhood marked by extremes—privilege and poverty, violence and tenderness, truth and deceit—that he’s spent years trying to escape.
In this surprisingly funny and forgiving memoir, Ian reminds us that no matter how different the pieces may be, in the end we are all cut from the same cloth, stitched by faith into an exquisite quilt of grace.”

The thing that really intrigued me about this book was the word CIA in the title. Before I began reading, I thought it was going to be a story about Ian and how he worked for the CIA, and how he was able to maintain being a Christian, while working for the CIA. And his struggle with killing someone, and questioning if it’s right in God’s eyes.

And I was completely wrong.

The book was focused more on Ian’s childhood and living with his alcoholic father (who was in the CIA). Throughout the entire book, I continually saw the need that Ian had for his father to accept and love him, and how his father never gave it to him.

“My heart was pounding. There was something I’d waited my entire life to hear him say, words that I was convinced could change everything, past, present, and future.” – Ian Cron

“So I’ve come up with alternative strategies to fill the empty space in my heart where my father’s love is supposed to be found.” – Ian Cron

“I wanted to tell him that I would do anything if he would just stop drinking. I wanted to tell him that I was sorry for not being a good enough son, for being such a disappointment to him.” – Ian Cron

Although every part of me wanted to know that his father one day would show him the love he deserved and wanted, it just never happened.

The only concept of being a father, is our own personal fathers. Some were raised with great dad’s who were there for them for sports, and music concerts, and some, like Ian, were raised on father’s who were alcoholics and never showed any interest at all when it came to their children’s lives. “If there was a God, he was just like my father, a drunk who forgot to keep his promises to his children. It was up to me to make life work.” – Ian Cron

One night at a revival, Ian heard a voice say to him, “Forgive me, Ian,” which really confused him. He asked a couple people how it was possible that God could ask him for forgiveness. He couldn’t get a straight answer, until he talked to Miss Annie. She told him about how God humbled Himself to become a man, and humbled Himself by dying on the cross for us. She then asked, “So why wouldn’t Jesus humble himself and tell a boy he was sorry for letting him down if he knew it would heal his heart?” – Miss Annie

The book ended with a story of Ian and his three kids. You could tell that Ian was extremely interested in all of his kids lives, especially his 8 year old son, Aidan, and how he wasn’t going to let his earthly dad dictate how he would treat his children, but instead would treat them the way his Heavenly Father would.

This book wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, but it did make me appreciate the relationship I have with my father.

Ian is a great author and this book was an easy read. It’s a great Sunday reader.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: BookSneeze sent me a free copy of this book as part of their bloggers book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”