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 | | Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli ISBN-10: 9780310277309 ISBN-10: 0-310-27730-2 ISBN-13: 9780310277309 ISBN-13: 978-0-310-27730-9 Paperback 2007-08-01 Zondervan Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description What!? You're not perfect? That's all right, God loves you anyway. He even loves the author of this book, and he's really a mess. There is a spirituality for people who often don't feel very spiritual and it will bring you closer to God. Find it in this book. | ||
Reviews | ||
Messy Review Am not a book critic but I love God, I love truth and I love this book. This book jumps off the pages and screams "THIS IS THE WAY WE SHOULD BE!!" This book taught me that I will never be a perfect Christian only a human loved by God and trying my best to love and obey Him. I am who I am and God created me that way. | ||
Messy Spirituality I never realized that my being a christian was because I was not perfect but very messed up. How cool to know that my problems and pains are what attracted to Papa(God). | ||
A grace-full book...I loved it! Do you ever think: "I don't pray enough. I don't read my Bible enough. I don't share my faith enough. I don't love God enough. I'm not committed enough. I'm not spiritual enough??? I guess I'm not a very good Christian." Well, do you ever feel like that? I've been ordained for 25 years and I can still resonate with those statements from time to time. That's why I so enjoyed this book. Mike Yaconelli co-founded Youth Specialties Ministries and the Wittenbergy Door, a Christian satire magazine akin to MAD magazine. I used to regularly attend Mike's youth ministry conferences as a youth minister and as a young Episcopal priest. The thing that always struck me about him was his candidness and authenticity. He was known for his nitty gritty honest approach to spirituality. When he described spiritual struggles, you knew he knew what he was talking about, because you knew from your own experience the truth of his words. Sadly, Mike died about 5 years ago. Yet his Christian realism lives on. His book is an attempt to convince us that Christian perfectionism is not about us becoming perfect, but about us being comfortable enough in our imperfection that we're willing to give our messy lives to Jesus. It's only through our acknowledgement of our deep personal need for God's grace that we can truly be in fellowhip with God. Not one Biblical character, outside of Jesus, is anywhere near perfect, and most are terribly flawed...like us. That's why they became saints! Confused? So am I. Read the book! It's truth will free you from the bonds of perfectionism and make you better Christian. | ||
Refreshing As a Christian, I believe that the most important tool to strengthen our relationship with Christ is through the reading of his Word. But there are times in our lives when we need a little extra boost of encouragement and that comes through the people God has placed in our lives and through their words and experiences. Messy Spirituality is an encouraging display of God's grace in people's lives and a reminder that in a world filled with people trying to measure up to the standards set before us not only by society, but by the church, it is okay when our lives sometimes feel like they are a mess. Michael Yaconelli provides a beautiful display of God's imperfect people no longer seeking perfection in their lives through the works that they do, but seeking God in their lives and through that, He works in them to impact the world around them, no matter how big or small that impact may be. I also appreciated his honesty in his feelings of inadequacy throughout his life. I feel that more Christians should speak up about these feelings we have so that we can come alongside each other and work through those times, instead of being fearful of the reaction of those around us. I would highly recommend reading this book and sharing it with others so that we can begin being more open about the messiness in our lives instead of trying to mask it to look like the "spiritual" people we feel we need to be. | ||
Live life Messy! This book spoke directly to me! Messy Spirituality is a keeper! I am a mess. I have always and consistently struggled with discipline, being consistent. I guess you could say the only thing consistent in my life is my inconsistency. I love lists and enjoy marking things off of a list, but I am absolutely terrible at not just sitting around and being lazy. Here are the two things that suck up most of my time: TV watching and Spider solitaire. It's terrible. So, I am a mess. But, this book spoke directly to me. At first I questioned it. Was this book only going to give me an excuse to be messy, an excuse to not strive to be disciplined and consistent. No, it didn't. But, it did give me the understanding that (what I would assume) most Christians struggle to be consistent, especially in today's time and society. Our life is busy and in our busyness, we don't slow down and allow ourselves time to spend with God. This book allowed me time to explore why I try to hide my messiness; why am I not honest with people about what is going on in my life? Why am I afraid to say I struggle with being single? Why am I afraid to let people know I struggle with having a passion for the Word? Because somehow we are afraid to live authentically. Its as if we are afraid that if we live authentically then we won't be good Christians. What Yaconelli does is calls us to live authentic lives. To realize that growth and maturity in faith comes at different paces for all people and at different times. By living his life authentically through this book he shows us that it is ok to be messy, to live messy lives and to call each other to be messy. Bibically speaking, it is only when we live in the light that we can ever begin to address the sin and allow God to work. So, if you find yourself busy and quickly putting God aside, then pick up this book. It helped me reevaluate my priorities and also allowed me to extend grace to myself in my busyness. This book, Messy Spirituality, is a keeper my friends! | ||