A couple of weeks ago I signed up for the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger program and downloaded the file for Andy Andrews’ new book called The Noticer. I had intended to read and review it in the coming weeks. As my eye surgery neared I realised that I’d have plenty of time to kill, so I bought the audio book anyway, even though I had a free copy sitting there waiting for me to read . I’m glad I did.

I listened through the book in a single sitting this week while I was waiting for my eyes to heal. I can imagine that if I had been reading the paper copy, I would not have been able to put it down.

The Noticer is a funny mix of what appeared to be a fiction and non-fiction story all rolled into one that follows the activities of an old guy by the name of Jones (just Jones…no mister). Jones seemed to show up at just the right time to help people who were in sticky life situations, and after he dispensed his pithy, down to earth wisdom, disappeared as mysteriously as he appeared.

I spent most of the book trying to figure out if Jones was actually a real person or a supernatural being of some sort…it annoyed me a little because it was distracting, but I guess that’s part of what kept me engaged. The episodes contained within the book, while engaging on their own, felt a little disjointed and almost as though they were mini-sermons tacked together, and I often wondered how Andy switched from narrating the story from his perspective to writing about situations where he was not present. In spite of these distractions I’d wholeheartedly recommend the book. It contains a swag of easily applied common wisdom for living that is refreshing in its directness and simplicity. Jones doesn’t mince words, but dispenses truth with grace and love (something I aspire to!).

Jones’ gift for being able to notice little things that are in plain view, but often overlooked by others, allowed him to help his new friends see their circumstances from a different perspective. Jones often said : “In desperate times, much more than anything else, folks need perspective.” And it was this theme that eventually tied the disparate parts together for me. I finished up the book thinking that it would be nice to have a noticer around to bring perspective to my life in those moments where I can’t see the forest for the trees

It is an inspiriting and challenging read. Well worth the investment.

The Noticer is available in Australia through Koorong and Word bookstores.

Well….today is D-day. In a couple of hours I’m having corrective eye surgery so that I no longer have to wear glasses. The procedure I’m having is called ASLA, you can read about it HERE. The doctor will scrape back the surface of my eye and reshape the cornea with a laser (I nearly typed laser beam and had thoughts of Dr Evil LOL) , so I wont be seeing a whole lot until the cells regenerate. My dear sons think I’m going to look like I have a huge forehead when I’m not wearing glasses. The guys at work think I’ll look much less intimidating without them (this could be an issue when I’m trying to get doco out of them!). Either way, I can’t wait to be rid of my specs, and not have to worry about fogging up when I open the dishwasher or oven, or when I go for a bike ride in Winter. I’m looking forward to being able to wear ski goggles and regular sunglasses. I’m looking forward to going swimming and being able to see if a shark is coming .

It looks like I’ll be off the air (so to speak) for about a week, and I had intended to schedule a couple of posts for that time, but I ran out of steam. Instead, why don’t you check out my past post series. You can find them HERE.  (My series about introversion is my most popular to date.)

When I am back on deck, here’s a little bit of what you can look forward to:

• a follow up post from the measuring spiritual health post
• the next post in the introversion series called Introverts and Digital Missions
• I married Doubting Thomas

This week I would value your prayers! I’m a little nervous since they don’t put you out for this stuff, and I anticipate that my brain will be its usual over-thinking self . (thanks to those of you who prayed that I wouldn’t get sick before the procedure, I am well!)

See you soon! LOL sorry couldn’t help myself

I came across this quote the other day when I was looking at artist Mike Rohde’s blog  and it has been whizzing around in my head ever since.

He’s quoting Rob Bell from the Nooma video series at his recent Falls Like Stars conference in Chicago.

I spent way too long being dishonest with myself, with others and with God about life. It took a fair bit of discomfort to get me to the point where I was willing to admit this. In fact…I preached about it…came right out and said it out loud.

There is a tendency in church circles to cover up the less than glamorous parts of our lives so that we look like we’ve got it all together.  I know…I’ve been there. A pastor’s kid, a worship leader, a youth leader, a dyed in the wool church person. And I know I’m not the only one.

Being honest with ourselves, God and others is where true community begins. No more pretending, no more hiding. No more masks. No more holding up an impossible and incorrect view of what a follower of God looks like.

Just doing life together, growing together, walking with God together.

Accepting one another as a fellow travellers leaning on God’s grace.

Because that’s the way it’s meant to be.

When are you going to get honest?

Gray’s Anatomy is the text book of choice for medical students all over the world.  (Grey’s Anatomy on the other hand is a great TV show…) This is the standard by which the human body is measured to gauge normalcy and health of the underpinning structures.

For followers of Jesus, our “Gray’s Anatomy” is the Bible. It is undoubtably more difficult to understand as a whole than Gray’s, and open to interpretation, but it nonetheless gives us a gold standard to measure ourselves by.

So here’s the million dollar question for life as we we know it:

What does a spiritually healthy follower of Jesus look like in today’s world?

I’d like you to answer this question from your perspective in the comments section. Have you ever thought about whether or not you are a healthy follower? Or do you merely exist? Perhaps you are a spiritual body builder who is conscious about being a faithful representative of our God.

Your perspective may be one of being healthy, and therefore having the ability to tell us how it is.

Your perspective may be one of being spiritually unwell, how are you working to get healthy?

Your perspective may be one of being spiritually apathetic…you’ve got your passport ot heaven and you’re waiting for that moment to come.

Your perspective may be one of having decided that you don’t want to be measured against that standard because a follower of God has hurt you. Tell me what you think an unhealthy follower of God looks like. I’m a firm believer in learning from mistakes (whether they be mine or someone else’s).

Your answers will form a series of follow up posts. Feel free to answer anonymously if that helps you to be more candid. You can write as much or as little as you feel your response needs.

So…lay it on me…what DOES a spiritually healthy follower of Jesus look like in concrete terms...

When I started in on my spiritual adventure a couple of months ago I decided to listen through the entire New Testament on audio book. I wanted to surround myself in the truth and realign my spiritual spine. And I’m rather embarrassed to admit that I’ve never read the whole thing before!

This morning I finished!

I approached it by listening to the four gospels first. Here’s what I learned:

1. Jesus was not a wimp or a girly man. He was rough and he was strong and he called a spade a spade. He was unpredictable. This is the guy that called his best friend Satan! Gone are any thoughts of a soft-focus nice-guy metrosexual Jesus! Jesus was a man’s man.
2. Jesus was a rebel and a revolutionary. He wasn’t afraid to follow God’s leading in his life even if the religious people of the day didn’t agree with him.
3. Jesus lead by example..he lived his life in such a way that he expected people to follow him and emulate him. His life is the ultimate model to base mine on.
4. I loved Luke’s account of the way it all went down. So precise and methodical.

For the remainder of the books in the New Testament, I tracked down a chronological order for the books (the guys that put the letters of Paul in the Bible ordered them by how long the letters were, not chronologically) and listened through the books in that order. Here’s what I learned that stands out:

1. Paul had laser focus on his purpose. He did not waver!
2. Paul was an extremely considerate kind of guy. He was always concerned that he wasn’t being a burden to any of the people he stayed with on his travels.
3. Paul led by example. He modelled the stuff he was talking about.
4. Revelation is a brain-load of stuff that would probably benefit more from reading the paper and ink book (or pixel and screen ), rather than listening to it. That was tough going!
5. Having someone read the letters to you is like being there! It made it more real somehow.

Overall I came away with some very useful insights:

1. In the past I have had a tendency to engage in cut-and-paste theology…just taking the verses I wanted to when it suited me. Listening to the letters in their original holistic context is extremely helpful for understanding what’s being said in a broader context. It’s also really confronting to hear verses that I really would prefer not to hear.
2. Listening to the whole story of the New Testament also gives an amazing “whole picture” view of the early church and the life of Jesus.
3. I found it much easier to concentrate on the message when I was listening and visualising what was going on in the narrative. I tend to get distracted when I’m reading and my mind disappears off down rabbit holes of thought. It’s also easier to fit in to my life at this stage.
4. It helped me start to identify themes throughout the whole of the new Testament.
5. It was like being enveloped by the Word of God. I didn’t understand some parts, and that’s absolutely fine..I don’t have to understand it all at once (or ever really, I don’t think that’s possible) but the act of being quiet and listening to God allowed him the space to speak to me with the words he knew I needed to hear at just the right time.
6. It helped me identify passages that i really want to spend more time studying. Colossians comes to mind.

What next? I have some abridged dramatisations of the Old Testament that I want to listen to…it has been some time since I took a stroll back into history.

Have you used an audio Bible? What do you think of it? Have you read the whole NT? What did you learn?