Skip to main content

My Review of "I Tried Until I Almost Died"

With those whose lives are so complicated that frustration and anxiety name day-to-day experience, books like Sandra McCollom's I Tried Until I Almost Died:  From Anxiety & Frustration to Rest & Relaxation is a welcome guide.  This book is filled with practical wisdom in moving away from the legalism is perfectionism, and toward a life of grace that overcomes that daily frustration and anxiety.

What you won't find here, though, is another program to follow.  This isn't a book that trades one anxiety for another.  Instead, it's a book filled with spiritual wisdom about how Jesus delivers us from all the "rat races" of our lives.  No, I Tried Until I Almost Died is a book about transformed life in all its facets.

So this is a welcome book to so many.  Even if it's a challenging book precisely because of that transformation.

In the end, this is a book for all those folks who just can't catch their breath or catch a break. 

___________________
I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Review of "Misfit Faith"

Jason Stellman's Misfit Faith:  Confessions of a Drunk Ex-Pastor was not quite the book I had expected it to be.  It was so much better! Jason Stellman was a Presbyterian pastor, but he became a Roman Catholic.  I expected Misfit Faith to be, therefore, a semi-autobiographical work of Catholic apologetics.  I read of Scott Hahn's mentorship of Stellman, and expected Misfit Faith to be a new, milder version of Hahn's scholarship.  But I did not see any defense of Peter being the first pope in Misfit Faith , or any criticism of Sola Scriptura, or an explanation and defense of the Catholic understanding of justification. Instead, I read the story of Stellman's own spiritual journey.  From the opening confession that Stellman had flirted with Christian universalism, I knew this wasn't going to be a Catholic apologetic.  I wouldn't even characterize Misfit Faith as an apologetic at all.  Because if there's one thing Stellman isn't sure on...

My Review of "Radical Spirit"

Joan Chittister's Radical Spirit: 12 Ways to Live a Free and Authentic Life continues her literary tradition of making Benedictine spirituality accessible for new generations.  I read her Distilled from the Daily several years ago and found her spiritual wisdom deep and transformative.  In Radical Spirit Chittister focuses on the tough "spiritual hinge" of Benedict's Rule:  The 12 steps of humility. Through her judicious use of spiritual parables from around the world and events from her own life, Chittister engages readers with narrative and humor, drawing them down a path to self-revelation and spiritual grounding.  These thoughtfully choreographed chapters address the individual and offer an antidote to contemporary trends where "demagoguery is the new political brand, where narcissism is too often misunderstood to be leadership."  Chittister writes that humility is the corrective to dangerous grandiosity, which "in religion ... makes i...

My Review of "Roadfood"

Jane & Michael Stern's Roadfood gives us another (this is the 10th edition!) gastro road trip across the US.  Roadfood is like a road map through backroads and interstates for some of the best food in each state and region in the US. Roadfood celebrates venues most travelers would never venture near, let alone enter.  Most of the state-by-state listed restaurants are, however, for dining on the cheap.  Like Litton's in Knoville, TN -- which really does have amazing burgers. While one could hardly map a road trip by the Sterns' restaurant finds -- some cities, like Chicago, are overrepresented, while the rest of Illinois is all but ignored -- this fun and fanciful volume is pure pleasure. I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.