A Helpful Book: Get Your Life Back by John Eldredge

From Amazon:

In Get Your Life Back, New York Times bestselling author John Eldredge provides a practical, simple, and refreshing guide to taking your life back.

By practicing a few wonder­fully simple practices—or what John calls “graces”—you can begin to recover your soul, disentangle from the tragedies of this broken world, and discover the restorative power of beauty.

Ask yourself:

• Are you happy most of the time?
• Do you feel deeply loved?
• Are you excited about your future?
• How often do you feel lighthearted?

After reading this book you will…

• Learn how to insert the One Minute Pause into your day
• Begin practicing “benevolent detachment” and truly let it all go
• Offer kindness toward yourself in the choices you make
• Drink in the simple beauty available to you every day
• Take realistic steps to unplug from technology overload

These simple practices and others are ready for the taking. You don’t need to abandon your life to get it back. Begin restoring your life here and now. Your soul will thank you for it.

A Great Low-Carb Pizza: Johnny’s New York Style Pizza 

I stumbled across Johnny’s Pizza a couple of weeks ago and discovered that they have a cauliflour crust option. I’ve now had the pizza a few times and think it’s really good. If you’re looking for a lower-carb option, I’d recommend you give it a try. If you do, let me know what you think!

A Cupcake Place Worth Checking Out: Cupcake People of Atlanta

Those that know me well know that I love a good cupcake — it really is my weakness. (It’s funny that I’m posting this on the same day I posted about low-carb pizza.) Laura and I were running errands on Saturday and I ran across Cupcake People in Duluth. I tried the Salted Caramel Cupcake and the Pancakes & Bacon Cupcake – both were tasty!

A Quote I’m Thinking About

Do not think or do anything without having some aim in sight; the person who journeys aimlessly will have labored in vain.” — Mark the Monk

What would you add? Feel free to comment by clicking here.

A Great Book on The Power of Mercy: God Impulse

This book is part of our Pastor’s Book Club for this month. It describes the kind of person I want to be!

From Amazon: 

For Jesus, truth and mercy went hand in hand. Where he preached he also healed. He didn’t outsource one or the other to biblical scholars or nonprofit ministries. He presented the truth of the gospel through his words and his actions, and he did it all in a hands-on, relational way. And the reaction was the same wherever he went–people were amazed.

Today we seem to have lost this powerful pattern of self-giving love, focusing on truth at the expense of mercy or on mercy at the expense of truth, and often failing to build genuine, lasting relationships with the people around us.

In The God Impulse, Jack Alexander helps us recover Jesus’s model, showing through biblical and modern real-life stories that God’s first impulse toward us is mercy. He then sets forth a pattern for us to follow–to see, go, do, and endure–that not only spreads truth and love to those around us who are suffering but also causes them to gasp in amazement and consider the claims of the gospel for themselves.

A Great Carry-on Bag – The Filson Dryden Bag

I love travel bags. I’ve traveled almost exclusively with Filson gear for nearly 20 years. The bags are extremely well-made and are what I would consider heirloom quality. They look better with age!

This is my first Dryden bag — most of my bags are made of rugged twill with bridle leader straps and handles. The Dryden bag is made of nylon, so it’s lighter and this particular bag fits in smaller comparments. 

Here are some of my favorite Filson bags:

Filson Medium Rugged Duffle
Filson Drydent Two-Wheel Carry-On
Filson 24 Hour Tin Cloth Briefcase

An Airport Travel Hack: Global Entry

If you fly frequently, you’ve probably seen the signs for TSA PreCheck. If you’re not familiar with it, TSA PreCheck allows you to you can speed through security and don’t need to remove your: shoes, laptops, liquids, belts and light jackets.. The lines are typically short and fast. TSA PreCheck definitely removes some of the friction and frustration with air travel.

Now here’s a hack. Instead of signing up for TSA PreCheck, I opted to pay a few more dollars to sign-up for Global Entry. Why? With Global Entry, you receive the TSA PreCheck perks PLUS a quicker re-entry from an international trip. I think it’s a better value. While it does cost $100 and takes a few steps to get initially approved, it is good for 5-years. To me, 5-years of less travel friction is worth it! 

Do you have any travel hacks?

A Quote I’m Thinking About

Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.” – C. S. Lewis

What would you add? Feel free to comment by clicking here.