Surrender All–Your Answer to Living with Peace, Power & Purpose is a timely message for troubled times. Written by television personality Joni Lamb, this uplifting book is an easy read that offers a simple, yet profound, message–it is only in living a surrendered life that we’ll find peace and purpose. It’s a message that we don’t hear often enough in today’s evangelical church.
Surrender All encourages readers to meet the struggles and hardships of life with one powerful act of faith. Surrender. Lamb illustrates this biblical precept through her own testimony and the lives of others–lives of ordinary men and women who when faced with hardship and adversity chose the path of surrender:
A romance novelist who surrendered her successful career as a writer of steamy romances to write about the love of God and found an even greater writing career.
A couple whose marriage was healed and restored two years after their divorce.
The young man who lived without oxygen for the first eighteen minutes of life and was left with cerebral palsy. Despite his physical challenges, he has been preaching the word of God for more than thirty years, speaking in more than six thousand churches.
One word of warning. If you’re looking for an intellectual as well as a spiritual challenge, you may be disappointed. Still, it is worth the read.
All in all, Surrender All is an inspiring book that reminds us of the importance of surrendering all–our marriages, children, career, health, friendships, and even our loss and failures. “Life will not be perfect, nor will it be painless,” writes Lamb, “but the path of surrender is a place of peace within a place of rest.”
Surrender All reminds us of the joy found in surrender and the deep abiding satisfaction that comes only through living a life surrendered to a purpose greater than ourselves–the very purposes of God.
Are you using the slump in the publishing industry wisely? Downtime is a good time to update your promotional materials, take a class, refresh your writer’s website, and more. And, if you’re a writer who has published extensively in print but who has minimal experience writing for an online audience, now is the time to learn. As more and more publishers move to electronic and digital media, be proactive. Equip yourself for success.
With added exposure in your writing and speaking ministry comes added demands. In other words, when you have talent, people want more of you. You can make people happy by saying “yes” often, or you can make an eternal impact by saying “no” to most of the opportunities that come your way and focusing on those that are in line with your calling.
Saying “no” to people’s demands allows you to say “yes” to the things that really matter.
It’s the title that got me. Not that I need anything to add to my already too full schedule. But with a title like that, I couldn’t resist. It’s a message we all need to hear again and again.
Watch for my upcoming review of Surrender All by Joni Lamb.
An article in yesterday’s medical news revealed that religion does not impact abortion decisions of young, unwed women. Heartbreaking.
Sociologist Finds That Religious Devotion Does Not Impact Abortion Decisions Of Young Unwed Women
Unwed pregnant teens and twenty-somethings who attend or have graduated from private religious schools are more likely to obtain abortions than their peers from public schools, according to sociological research published in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
Here’s the first few paragraphs to whet your appetite:
Nearly 1 in 2 Americans (133 million) live with chronic conditions and illnesses such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis (MS), diabetes or lupus. Yet, most show no outward sign of their disability—or the sense of loss, loneliness, and discouragement they live with daily. Pain, fatigue, limited mobility, and other symptoms interfere with everyday activities, responsibilities, and relationships.
Well-meaning friends and family, not understanding the unique challenges of the chronically ill, don’t know what to say or do to help. Here’s how you can help those living with chronic illness.. Read more…
I realized that I’ve written a number of articles for Suite 101, which I’ve neglected to add to my blog. Here are a few paragraphs from an article I wrote a few months ago, “Five Reasons Why New Magazines Fail.”
Few new magazines make it through their first year. According to Cheryl Woodward, author of Starting & Running a Successful Newsletter or Magazine, as many as 9 out of 10 fail.
With odds like these, why bother?
Only you can decide whether to invest the time and money needed to launch a new publication. Before launching your dream magazine, consider these five common reasons new magazines fail:
Read more.
Here’s the first few paragraphs to whet your appetite:
Advertising executives and media buyers are always on the lookout for new media outlets to reach their target audience. If that media outlet is yours, show them in your media kit.
Your magazine’s media kit introduces advertisers to your magazine’s concept, readers, and revenue generating potential. In short, It tells advertisers how you can meet their needs and the needs of their clients, how you’re different from the competition, and most important, how your magazine nails their target audience.
“Muddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyer of life, or hope: death on the highway caused by a badly worded road sign, heartbreak among lovers caused by a misplaced phrase in a well-intentioned letter, anguish of a traveler expecting to be met at a railroad station and not being met because of a slipshod telegram.”
~William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style
“Writing and speaking go together like a hand in glove.” If you’ve ever attended the CLASSeminar, you’re familiar with this saying. (And if you’ve not yet attended a CLASSeminar, why wait?)
As a writer who sometimes speaks, versus a speaker who sometimes writes, I’m always on the lookout for helpful tips on communicating my message more effectively.
Linda Gilden’s recent post, Heart to Heart, struck a chord with me. Perhaps it will speak to you as well.
Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite:
“Have you ever spoken to a group and felt that they just weren’t getting it? Maybe your enthusiastic message is met by an expressionless sea of faces wondering what in the world you are talking about. The connection has just not been established.”
Visit the CLASS blog to read this entry in its entirety.
I was a guest blogger at True Campaign a few weeks ago. True Campaign is a wonderful organization that exists to end the crisis of distorted self image by challenging cultural ideals about identity and beauty, so we can be free to impact our world as God intended.
Here’s an excerpt:
I’ve made the shift. Have you?
My story of living with an eating disorder is probably a lot like other stories you have heard. A poor sense of identity, low self-esteem, and growing up in a world that idolizes thinness and external beauty, left me feeling like a failure. I’d compare myself to the latest “it girl” in fashion magazines and vow to diet until I looked like her.
Of course, nobody told me that fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women.
