snuggled up

It's that time of year when snuggling up under blankets, with kitties, is a pretty attractive alternative to...just about everything. I'm not quite in full-on hibernation mode, but I do want to put squash soup in the crockpot, break out a book, and sit on the couch all day.

like this, basically.

Luckily, the craziness of September (when I had one day off all month) has given way to the routine of October, and things are less hectic. Which means that I can in fact snuggle the kitties and read a book for a whole day if I want to.

Yesterday evening I finished Make the Impossible Possible, which is a book I already can't wait to read again. While I enjoyed the first half (mostly Bill Strickland's personal story, a memoir of sorts), it's the second half that had me constantly wishing I was reading my own hard copy, rather than the library's. Lots of things I wished I could underline and flag and copy to share with others. And by the time I realized how often I was thinking that, it was too late to open up a Word document and start typing in the quotes. So I'll have to settle for reading it again, or for buying a copy to put on my shelf and loan out liberally. Yes, it's about individuals pursuing their dreams. But it's easy to read through the lens of an institution or organization as well. And no, it's not a faith-based book, but it's easy to read it through a Spirit-lens. There is so much good stuff in there that could really help churches clarify their purpose and vision and then pursue it. And it's uplifting too. I love Strickland's insistence that if we treat people in a world-class way, we'll get world-class results. And then I think about how often the church categorizes the people we serve. I already spend a lot of time thinking about how we can serve in ways that won't perpetuate the injustice or poverty, and how we can reach out without undermining other good systems...and I spend a fair amount of time reminding people that there is no "us" and "them"--only children of God. But how we actually live that out still often creates this dichotomy, and that's what Strickland has been trying to address. I love how he does it. I want to see another TED talk from him sometime soon--the last one was 10 years ago.
And I would love to see churches reading this book and thinking about what we can learn from someone who has constantly acted on a passion for making the world a better place.

Now I'm moving on to a novel. :-)