I enjoy seeing authors come together to support a common cause and message, especially as it relates to the message of living from a new and good heart. I love to see organic growth happen, because when I experience this, I experience the “unforced rhythms of grace” as Eugene Peterson says in The Message. It gives me great delight. This sort of thing happened the other day when Pablo Giacopelli, our second author for Heart & Life, said he wanted to review Michael Thompson’s book Search and Rescue: The Life and Love that Is Looking for You. As you know, Michael was Heart & Life’s first author. Here’s what one author has to say about another author’s material.
This was a completely unsolicited, organic move by Pablo who writes a weekly blog, but doesn’t normally do book reviews. I am very happy to have helped both of these authors launch their first books.
From Pablo:
I don’t normally do book reviews though after reading Michael Thompson Search and Rescue I wanted all of you to hear about it. The book is unlike many I have read over the years in a market which is unfortunately full of so many “how to” manuals that end up frustrating us and taking us further away from God instead of closer which is what they are supposed to do.
“Seek and you shall find” is a very common verse often used by people from all backgrounds and creeds but none more so than believers. Through this scriptural truth we are often reminded that it is for us to look for God and if we look hard enough then we will eventually find him. A little bit like the game we all played as children called hide and seek. Though this is true it is only half the the truth as we forget the other and most important side which is that God also wants and does come looking for us before we ever do.
This has unfortunately worked its way into our prayer life and pretty much into the whole of our walk with God. The motto is that those that find him the best are the ones that look for him the most. Is that simple or is isn’t it? Michael Thompson through his excellent book Search and Rescue shares with us a side of God we seldom hear about or see. While we read we begin to understand that God is a passionate lover who is more desperate to find us often, than we are of finding him. Yes ok we all know we are somehow missing something even if we have never entered a church or said a prayer. However this is not what this book is really about. Here as we read we are invited to see that those of us that have claimed to know him for so many years can actually begin to realize that the desire and exhaustive efforts we made to look for him are in fact the same ones God makes as he looks for us and there was in fact no need for us to try so hard.
What is a real eye opener is that though God is interested in our time, gifts, and lives, the main thing he is after is our hearts. In chapter 8 Thompson shares beautifully a truth we all have heard about but very few of us actually know personally. In fact it is because of our ignorance in this matter that our faith and walk with God is often so dry and as hard as chewing nails. Michael very accurately describes this when he writes, “Little did I know, in the months to come, how major that moment, as well as that word heart, would prove itself to be in the recovery of my own heart and the trajectory of my spiritual life.” I love Thompsons’ vulnerability as he invites us all to share in his discovery of this truth. In fact the whole book is written in a way in which we are all made to feel that we are fellow travelers with him which makes the message and book that much more personable and easy to get into.
Search and Rescue is a book you will need to read slowly. It has many pearls of wisdom and nuggets of gold along the way that will be missed if read quickly. It is a book that can and should be read by everyone desiring to have the deep walk our hearts yearn for and God desires to have with us. This is a message about recovering your heart by understanding what God is after and the lengths He has gone and goes to look for it. If you have been struggling to believe that God desires even more than you to show you how much and how well he loves you, or been thinking all along that the only reason Jesus came was to save you from hell then Search and Rescue must be at the top of your 2012 “to read” list.
I wholeheartedly commend this book to you and your loved ones. Check it out!
Always for you!
Pablo
Copyright 2012- Pablo Giacopelli/www.holdingonloosely.com
Search and Rescue Official Web Site
Amazon link for the book: Amazon.com
