Title: From Devastation to Restoration Author: Jerry Savelle Genre: Faith / Christian Living
〰First Line〰
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
When I was growing up, I was always the smallest boy in the class at my school. Most of the girls were bigger than me. From the first grade all the way through high school I was known as "Little Jerry."
Evangelist Jerry Savelle discusses the path of turning life's devastating situations into restorations. (Sorry, but the synopsis on Goodreads wasn't any better.)
〰First Thoughts〰
I've listened to sermons by Dr. Savelle for several years, but up until recently had not had the opportunity to read many of his written works. Through his messages, I'd heard snippets of his life story. Though this book is a brief snapshot of his life, I believe his story will still be compelling. I'm interested in reading from someone who's been where I've been and has gone where I wish to go. I only know a small taste of the restoring power of God and wish to know and experience much more.
So, what's the first line of the book you're currently reading?
Hey, it's October...what's one fun thing on your October calendar?
I'm beginning a book study group in my home. Our first meeting is this Saturday. We're studying The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith.
Thursday is National Poetry Day (first Thursday in October)...do you
like to read poetry? If so, what's a favorite poem, or whose poetry do
you especially enjoy?
I enjoy it, but I struggle with understanding how to read it. I understand that it doesn't always rhyme and the meter of the phrases isn't always uniform, but understanding the message and purpose of the poem is my downfall. I have a friend who taught middle school English and Literature and has offered to show me how to read poetry. I need to take her up on it. I know her instruction would help me enjoy it more.
One of my favorite modern poems is "O Clavis" by Malcolm Guite from his book of Advent poems Waiting for the Word:
Even in the darkness
where I sit
And huddle in the midst of misery
I can remember freedom,
but forget
That every lock must answer to a key,
That each dark clasp,
sharp and intricate,
Must find a counter-clasp to meet its guard,
Particular, exact and intimate,
The clutch and catch that meshes with
its ward.
I cry out for the key I threw away
That turned and over
turned with certain touch
And with the lovely lifting of a latch
Opened my darkness to the light of day.
O come again, come quickly,
set me free
Cut to the quick to fit, the master key.
Tell us about something you've seen recently that could be described as 'poetry in motion.'
Although this performance is several years old, I recently watched this after I heard of Michaela DePrince's death.
What's one song on your autumn playlist? Do you have an autumn
playlist? If not, pretend you do. If yes, then feel free to share more
than one.
The only seasonal playlist I have is for Christmas and I have a strict rule that I do NOT listen to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving (the only exception being Christmas Booty by Rhett and Link--it's on my spinning playlist for motivation). The playlist I listen to and edit the most is my Happy 911 list on Spotify. These songs bring me joy for various reasons: the song itself, the instrumentation, the memories connected with it, etc.
Share a quote that inspires you this time of year especially.
"Remember, motions are the precursors of emotions." - Dr. George W. Crane, quoted by David Schwartz, PhD in his book The Magic of Thinking Big
Insert your own random thought here.
In case you missed it:
* My previous Hodgepodge post: "One Word: Finish" is here. * My latest First Line Friday post: "#22 - Miracles by C. S. Lewis" is here. * My latest book review of Master of Change is here. * My "24 in 2024" post is here. * My 2024 reading challenge: "Full Shelf Challenge V.2" is here. * My final Simple Woman's Daybook "Day 40: The End is Just the Beginning?" is here. * My latest series on my Auntie's Workshop blog "30 Day Art Challenge 2024" starts here.
Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars):✮✮✮✮ Where Acquired: Library check out.
Category (ies) - Recommended reads: My pastor recommended this book to us. Synopsis: As much as humans are creatures of habit, change is inevitable. Using scientific and anecdotal research and examples, Stulberg pulls the reader from constantly seeking homeostasis (reestablishing the old order) to walking through the steps of allostasis (establishing a new order).
Select Favorite Quotes:
Pursuits
that align with your core values and shrink a big, unwieldy, and overwhelming
world is to make it feel smaller and more manageable and useful for integrating
significant changes into your life and walking confidently into the unknown. –
p. 32
That
life is full of things that are difficult to face was true in the Buddha’s era
2,500 years ago and remains true today.Examples
include personal injury or illness, climate change, threats to democracy, a
global pandemic, and age-related decline, to name just a few. In the face of
all this dukkha, two attitudes tend to prevail. Some people choose to
bury their heads in the sand, delude themselves, or express a toxic positivity.
Others choose to be excessively pessimistic or despairing. Both of these attitudes
are easy to adopt because they absolve you of doing anything. The former denies
that anything is wrong; And if nothing is wrong, there is nothing to worry
about, nothing to change. The latter takes such a grim stance that it basically
says any action would be pointless, so why bother--it is a fast track to
helplessness and nihilism. Neither of these attitudes are particularly helpful.
But somewhere in between exists at third way, an approach that is a natural
extension of tragic optimism: committing to wise hope and wise action. - p. 60.
For
all the things in life that you cannot control, there is at least one that you
can:your core values, which represent
your fundamental beliefs and guiding principles.They are the attributes and qualities that
matter to you most. – p. 103.
Anxiety wants you to avoid
change and uncertainty, and thus it almost always has a limiting effect on
someone’s life.But if you can know and
trust in your own values, essentially knowing and trusting in the deepest parts
of yourself, then you can courageously walk forward into the unknown. – pp.
105-106.
When
we are making plans, problem solving, or deliberating working toward a
challenge, it is nearly impossible to be raging and filled with anger at the
same time.The brain is incapable of
responding and reacting in parallel and by enjoying the future that makes up
the former, we prevent ourselves from operating in the later. - p. 135.
The Positive:
The juxtaposition of allostasis vs. homeostasis was what drew me to the volume. This concept of handling change as order, disorder, reorder rather than the normal manner of order, disorder, order (trying to get back to the original order) was briefly mentioned by my pastor and I wanted to know more.
The author does not hide behind his credentials, nor are his experiences and suggestions formulaic. I've seen other authors do this to gloss over or avoid sharing any of their real stories. However, Stulberg is refreshingly honest about his struggles. For example, he admits to having briefly dealt with OCD. Upon meeting his therapist, he immediately goes "beast mode" with trying to find meaning for his pain and a quick exit out of it. The words of his therapist floored me. She said, "Not everything has to be meaningful and you don't have to grow from it. Why does what you are experiencing right now need to have some greater purpose? Why can't it just suck?" (p. 155) Oh, that all counselors could be that honest! I get that she was not coming from any type of religious context in her statements, but admittedly while both religious and non-religious based counseling and therapy does go quickly to steering clients towards meaning and thankfulness, "Christian" counselors are the worst about doing that. It's as if they are trying to avoid bad feelings to "fix" the client as quickly as possible so they can move to the next appointment. Don't get me wrong, gratitude and trying to find meaning are good things in their proper context and at the appropriate time. However, it would be nice to sometimes allow things to simply suck. Personally, I've never learned to simply sit with feelings and let them be. I've been trained to think of that as wallowing or having a "negative confession." So, no, I must have some ready strategy--good or bad--for dealing with, going through, and moving past feelings as quickly and non-obtrusive as possible..
The Negative:
I think the author misses the
mark when he says that the reader should let his environment dictate his
identity--what he called "having a fluid sense of self" in chapter three.Many environments need change and in turn, they need agents of
change. Agents of change are not people who do not know who they are or have to change who they are to fit the environment. That kind of chameleon living is inauthentic and tiring.How does one have true
relationships when living that way?
This book is not a faith-based book (that's not the negative part), though the author does pull elements from different religions and philosophies (that's not the negative part either). However, Stulberg's description of tragic optimism--a combination of wise hope and wise action--did not set well with me. I even took the his suggestion of reading Victor Frankl's "The Case for Tragic Optimism," a postscript to his book Man's Search for Meaning, for further explanation of the concept. It didn't help. I still have several questions. How does this wise hope and
wise action fit into the life of any religious person--Christian or not?How does someone who has hope in a power much greater than themselves
operate like this?Is the author’s
admonition to drop resistance a call to passivity, or does he mean a type of
denial?He doesn't seem to clarify this at all.
This wasn't a deal breaker, but the book occasionally went too political for my taste. Although I agreed with many of Sulberg's statements, it just felt unnecessary. Sorry, but politics was the last thing on my mind when I picked up this book.
Conclusion/Takeaway:
I mentioned in my First Line Friday post on this book that I was suffering from "change fatigue." I have employed some of the strategies in this book to lighten my mental load. For me, the takeaway is that no matter how I wish it were true, change cannot be successfully navigated alone. Although I took copious notes, I'm seriously considering purchasing a copy of the book for immediate reference.
