Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Book

Quite a while ago, someone that I love dearly recommended a book to me.  I heard her say it.  I remembered the title, BUT I never sought out the book or read it.   This was probably about 2 years prior to now.  Recently, my mom and Dad went out of town.  She nonchalantly said, "Hey, I left a book for you and Ken to read on the kitchen table.  Grab it when you come over to water the garden for me."    So I did.  It was THAT book.  

Hmmmmm...what's God up to?  I looked at the title and again thought...do I wanna read this?  I read the first chapter and then I set it aside in the BATHROOM.  Don't think I'm gross.  You know you do the same thing, too.  Well, the hunky guy picked it up and looked at it...he, too, read the first chapter and thought...yeah, here we go again.   He even told me, "I'm probably not gonna read this.  It's fiction."  He left it in the bathroom.  I didn't read anymore, but he, well, uh, he goes to the bathroom a lot.  I guess he was bored.   He read more...and more...and more...and then it wasn't in the bathroom anymore.   He became obsessed with it.   I couldn't read it because he always had it.  I HAD to download a copy onto my ipod just so that I could read it, too.  Yes, I paid for it and we already owned the book.  I know that's not exactly frugal, but I was very curious, now.  He would ask, "Where are you at?"  and "Have you got to the part that ???? happens?"  I couldn't keep up with him.   It was intriguing. 

Little things in the book would be exact replica's of his/our lives.  For example, the main character is in an accountability group.  The only two people named in the accountability group have the same names as two guys that Ken meets(I say that loosely) with in an accountability group.  One of the names is not a common name.  The main character in the book uses the term "smoke and mirrors".   Ken uses that same terminology to describe the same thing on a regular basis.  I haven't heard anyone else do that.  It just seems God needed to put an exclamation point on this book, so we would know he was using it to speak to us.  It has spoken to us.  I can't seem to get it out of my head. 

It's reformed the way we were looking at church...even MORE.  So, if we have talked to you about church prior to 3-4 weeks ago...please, disregard  a lot of what we've said and just give us a call.  We'll talk to you again.   Some of what we said is still RIGHT, but some of it is just downright ARROGANCE with a little PRIDE stirred in.   Yeah, that's probably still not making any sense to you right now, but you need to read the book. 

The book is titled "So You Don't Want to Go To Church Anymore".  It's a fictional title that you can find here.    AND OHMYGOODNESS!!!  When I just did a search for this book, I realized that you can read it FOR FREE online.  They've posted a pdf of the entire book on the author's website!!!  So, I'm a little psyched that he's not trying to just make $$$.  My confidence in him just went up even more.  He really has a message that he wants to get out.  I was seriously just gonna link to the place to buy it and had no idea that you could read it for free.  We have a couple of paperback copies but we've loaned them out currently.  The hunky guy ordered them from Amazon before he even finished the book.  It's that good.  He wanted to share it with our friends.  When they come back to us, I will be more than happy to loan them out to anyone interested.  I just ask that you read it and give it back.  Don't let it sit.  It really is a good BOOK.


PS   I'm messing around with the design of my blog.   Be patient with me...I'm still playing.

4 comments:

Maddie said...

It really is a good book. It has gotten the gears in my head turning for sure. I'm going to pass your copy on to Shana she wants to read it. Plus I'm buying my own copy. I want to read it and do some underlining! :)

Paige said...

I will take a copy of that book...

:)

paige

The Wild World of Richmond said...

Paige, right now they are all loaned out, BUT if you go to that link that I posted...where it says "here", you will find a downloadable pdf of the entire book for free. We didn't realize that until I posted this morning. However, if you want a REAL BOOK to hold in your hands and turn pages, when one of ours comes back, we'll pass it on.

Brad and Shana said...

I'm almost finished....definitely has you thinking