Some of my holiday reading

While I was in Brisbane at my Mum’s place my older sister, brother-in-law and two nieces from Melbourne were there as well, and then my younger sister, brother-in-law and two little nieces and nephews came and stayed a few days also. This was loads of fun, and it was great to spend time with each of these people, but as you can imagine the house was groaning at the seams from the sheer physical presence all these people. My younger brother-in-law actually had to leave on Boxing Day for six months in Afghanistan, which was rather sad. We hope and pray God protects him while he’s there, and his family while he’s gone.

Despite all of that, I did actually manage to do little bits of reading. I finished The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, with the help of airport waits and the plane ride to Brisbane. This was definitely enlightening. I am sure I will need to go back to it in the future, as it’s not something to be read for hours non-stop (we circled around for an extra hour waiting to land in Brisbane, so I kept stuffing my head with it, till it was hurting, then I reviewed some parts of it on the plane ride back), but I particularly enjoyed the fourth, fifth and sixth habits, which deal more with relating to people. However, I have tried to learn from the first three foundational habits and have even written a personal mission statement of sorts in the last two days back home. Lookout for a more effective me. I’ve also cracked open an unused Moleskine, with the aim of going back to journaling more this year. I haven’t been so regular at that for years, but I think it helps me live a more conscious and evaluated life.

For Christmas I was given Naomi Reeds latest book Heading Home: My Search for Purpose in a Temporary World. Once again I have been spared the work of reviewing it properly by Dave MacDonald having already done so (I gained much from her first two books My Seventh Monsoon and No Ordinary View, but clearly not having read those didn’t stop this one from being of benefit to Dave). I managed to sneak into my room in small interludes to read chapters of it and finish it in the few days after Christmas, as the chapters are short and easy to read and it’s not a long book. This was so encouraging, particularly as I head into a new year. I want to read it more slowly again also as I really just whizzed through, but every chapter had something pertinent to say to me. Chapter Eight is called Sitting Still, and had within it echoes of what I was trying to say in that last post last year about the nature of God's love. I highly recommend this one.

I was also give Tim Keller’s new book Every Good Endeavour, so that is next on my reading list. I have to return to work tomorrow, boo hoo, but will hopefully manage to carry some of this planned and missioned (I know, I just made that verb/word up – add it to missional, which is also made-up) me along through the year. I hope you have all had a good beginning to the new year.