Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Archives for September 2012

The book of Acts for the modern-day church: Review of A Big Life by Peter Hone

Before I started reading A Big Life by Peter Hone, I encountered the book of Luke in a new way. Reading the first four verses reminded me that Luke was like an investigative reporter writing on the life of Jesus, and Acts, his sequel, was like field reporting on the growing church and the life and ministry of the apostle Paul. Hone’s book reminds me of Luke’s biblical books.

In A Big Life, he tells the story of a ministry that touches thousands of lives in India, and it began with one man on a mission. John Heerema is an ordinary man who suffered extraordinarily as youth. Born with club feet, he endured the pain of surgeries and braces and bullying. He let his relationship with the Lord grow cold in his college and post-college days. Later, his life (and his wife’s) would be changed and together they began seeking the heart of God. They began to be exposed to missions work and John eventually was part of a group that led baseball clinics in Iran. The door to Iran closed after 9/11 but another door opened to India.

The Big Life story is a big story filled with numerous accounts of Indians giving their lives to Christ, of opportunities for the Gospel to spread in Iran, India and Nepal. The stories are dramatic and moving. John and his wife Kathy’s obedience to the Lord is humbling and challenging. They left lucrative jobs to devote more time to missions. They sold their house and downsized. They lived in faith, trusting God to financially provide for the ministry even when that seemed impossible.

The first chunk of the book is an overview of John’s life and how the ministry began and introduces us to the partners in the ministry, such as Benjamin, a gifted Indian preacher who became the first employee of Big Life. It’s compelling and well-told. I was surprised at how quickly I read the book. The second part of the book is the author’s first-person tale of a trip to India to meet some of the people involved in the ministry. Overall, it reads like a fly-on-the-wall account, even though it’s clear that the author conducted interviews and weaved the story together. At times I felt some of the observations and details were unnecessary, but with the amount of information to pick from, I think he did a good job of not letting the story get bogged down.

I don’t know if the Big Life story will become a Christian household name, but it’s an inspiring journey and gives hope that the Gospel is, indeed, changing lives in remote parts of the world.

And it’s encouraging and challenging to read what can happen when one ordinary person lets God have control.

A Big Life is available from Big Life Ministries, Tate Publishing and Amazon.com

——————-

In exchange for this review, I received a free copy of the book from the publisher.

Swimming in the deep end

Today’s post is part of the second leadership synchroblog by Evangelical Seminary. This week’s topic: How do we define “depth” in leadership? (You can also read my contribution on the topic of “What makes a good leader?”)

I’m not a big fan of swimming. Oh, I can watch Michael Phelps or Missy Franklin or any other Olympic swimmer do their thing in primetime, but to suit up myself and do some laps? No, thanks.

Truth be told, the water sort of scares me. I’m good in the shallow end, where I can touch the bottom, but lead me into deeper waters and I start to envision drowning and dramatic rescues. My lungs start to burn thinking about holding my breath and I get leg cramps and … well, you get the idea. It’s not pretty in my head.

I sometimes feel the same way about depth. Deep people scare me a little. They’re so in tune with who they are and what they’re about. They’re comfortable with their weaknesses and failures and they don’t seem to care what other people think.

Me? I’m over in the kiddie pool of conversation, deflecting questions to other people like a beach ball in a game of keep away. I’m unnaturally curious about other people (it’s the journalist in me) but asking me to go deep is like asking me to jump off the high dive in front of an audience. It’s not going to happen. At least not without help.

And that’s where deep leaders come in.

© Lisa James | Dreamstime.com

If we stick with the swimming analogy, they’re in the deep end already. They’ve faced their fears and forged ahead in spite of them. They’ve been in over their heads, learned how to keep their heads above water without losing focus. They’ve gained strength and stamina from being in a place where few people tread. They’ve made the decision to step away from the easy, shallow waters and make waves in the deeper water.And deep leaders don’t exclude others from the deep end. They not only say, “Come on in, the water’s fine,” they swim back to those in the shallow end and guide the willing into deeper waters, sharing their experiences of going deep. They acknowledge that, yes, the deep end can be scary, but it won’t overwhelm us. Like these words from Scripture:

When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.

Some of my deepest moments have come because of others who were willing to share the deep parts of themselves with me first. And they’ve been deep waters I’ve needed to pass through. Without a hand to guide me, I would have been overwhelmed.

Deep leaders have passed through the deep waters of life and are still swimming.

How would you define depth in leadership?