Review: In the Grip of Grace by Max Lucado

I recently completed Max Ludacdo's In the Grip of Grace (Word Publishing, 1996), in which Lucado examines the Biblical concept of grace.

Lucado uses metaphors, examples from real life, and his easy-going narrative style to show his readers their need for grace, the firm reality of God's grace, and the implications of God's grace in a believer's life.

Lucado's book is a great reminder and an approachable read. The concrete explanations, clear analysis, and terse writing style create a work that is comforting, convicting, and memorable.

I found the last section to be the most powerful. After discussion each person's need for grace and the concrete reality of God's offer of grace, Lucado turns to the practical implications of grace upon a Christian's life. He poingnantly demonstrates what it means to live a grace-filled, grace-giving life in perhap the most convicting section of the book.

As an aside, I occasionally found the writing to be a bit repetitive. Sometimes I also found it hard to connect to the style, which often seemed to lapse into Lucado's speaking style. Overall, though, this book is a wonderful reminder of the importance, power, and beauty of God's grace.

Favorite quotes from In the Grip of Grace:

"The problem is not that God hasn't spoken but that we haven't listened."

"All of life is a gift of grace...and the call of grace is to live a gracious life."

"Where the grace of God is missed, bitterness is born. But where the grace of God is embraced, forgiveness flourishes."

"You will never be called upon to give anyone more grace than God has already given you."

Review: Father Fiction by Donald Miller

My brother, knowing that books are a sure path to my heart, gave me Donald Miller's recent work, Father Fiction (Howard Books, 2010), for Christmas. I read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years early in 2010 and felt like that book played an instrumental role in my year. It seemed fitting, then, to begin 2011 with Father Fiction. I wasn't disappointed.

Father Fiction seems to specifically target young men who, like Donald Miller, lacked a strong father figure in their youth. With this qualification in mind, I found much of Miller's wisdom in this book both profound and refreshing, regardless of the status of one's parental relationships. With wit and a clear, readable style, Miller practically and candidly advises young Christians on everyday issues like dating, money, peer groups, and work ethic.

Miller's breakdown of the metaphor of God as a father-figure and Miller's discussions of forgiveness, wisdom, and patience were especially poignant. My only quibble with this book is that, occasionally, Miller's discussions of his issues with his father seem to stray a bit heavily into the "inner-child" territory.

Overall, though, Miller's approach to issues that young men and women face every day are both surprisingly simple and refreshingly realistic. His examples are poignant and his words are inspiring. Ultimately, Father Fiction helps readers navigate the often tricky path of young adulthood with maturity and grace.

Favorite quotes from Father Fiction:


"Relationships, while rewarding, actually make life harder. They will bless your life, but they will bless your life through sacrifice. you are going to get more muscle out of it, and that's the attitude you have to have going into it in the first place."

"Love acts out of faith,which rarely involves feelings. Love is action; it's deciding something is true and living out that belief."

"We work to participate in the God life, to imitate God. That's also why we take a Sabbath. Work is one of the ways we engage in life, one of the ways we participate. . . . Work, the idea of work, is God's invention, and it is part of our spirituality to do it."

"When you forgive, you bear the burden somebody has given you without holding them accountable."


Miller, Donald. Father Fiction: Chapters for a Fatherless Generation. Howard Books, 2010.

Image taken from http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?r=1&isbn=9781439169193&cm_mmc=Google%20Product%20Search-_-Q000000630-_-Father%20Fiction-_-9781439169193

101 Books Challenge

Back in October, I discovered the 101 in 1001 project (full credit for the brilliant 101 in 1001 idea goes to Day Zero) and was completely captivated. Here was a plan both cool and practical. I started tweaking the idea to fit my own needs.

While Rachel from Balance and Blueberries and I started the 101 Recipes Challenge, I also started compiling a list of 101 books.

The list for my 101 Books Challenge includes books that I've always wanted to read and never had time to tackle, books that I started and never finished, books recommended by friends and family, books by authors that just seem important, books on business, books on writing, novels, non-fiction, and poetry.

Essentially, it's a massive random conglomeration of titles that are linked only by their participation in this project. I'll probably drop a few current titles as time goes on and I find other books that I want to add.

My starting line is a bit fuzzy, but I'm setting an arbitrary goal of August 12, 2013 (a convenient date, since that is also the 101 Recipes Challenge deadline). Join the challenge! (If you would like to be added to the 101 Books Challenge blogroll, e-mail your link to emilyadams829 at hotmail dot com and place a link to this page on your home-page..)

Any suggestions for my list? What's on your book list?

The List

1. 1984 - George Orwell
2. 4 – Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
3. 44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith
4. 48 Days to the Work You Love – Don Miller
5. A Chance to Die - The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael - Elisabeth Elliot
6. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
7. A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf
8. A Room with a View - E.M. Forster
9. A Streetcar Named Desire - Thornton Wilder
10. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn -- Betty Smith
11. An American Childhood – Annie Dillard
12. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
13. As I lay dying – William Faulkner
14. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
15. At the Back of the North Wind - George MacDonald
16. Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
18. City of God by Augustine
19. Chicago Poems - Carl Sandburg
20. Confessions by Augustine
21. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
22. Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury
23. Death by Love - Mark Driscoll
24. Desiring God – John Piper
25. Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
26. Essays of E.B. White - E. B. White
27. Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
28. Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography - Hans Christian Anderson
29. Father Fiction - Donald Miller
30. Fire by Sebastian Junger
31. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate -- Alexander McCall Smith
32. Good to Great- Jim Collins
33. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinback 
34. Great Son - Edna Ferber
35. Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in a Digital Age - William Power
36. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
37. Holy the Firm – Annie Dillard
38. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
39. Ice Palace - Edna Ferber
40. In the Grip of Grace - Max Lucado 5/18/11
41. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
42. Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 6/5/11
43. Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman
44. Let Me Be A Woman- Elisabeth Elliot
45. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
46. Linchpin by Seth Godin
47. Living by Fiction – Annie Dillard
48. Love is a Wild Assault -- Elithe Hamilton Kirkland
49. My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok
50. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
51. Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens
52. No Room at the Inn - Edna Ferber
53. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
54. Our Town - Thornton Wilder
55. Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis 
56. Perelandra - C.S. Lewis
57. Peril at End House - Agatha Christie
58. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard 4/17/11
59. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
60. Renovations of the Heart – Dallas Willard
61. Rivers to the Sea - Sara Teasdale
62. Sandition - Jane Austen
63. Sarah’s Key - Tatiana de Rosney
64. Saratoga Trunk - Edna Ferber
65. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
66. Silas Mariner- George Eliot
67. Show Boat - Edna Ferber
68. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
69. The Awakening – Kate Chopin
70. The Beautiful and the Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald
71. The Bridge of San Luis – Thornton Wilder
72. The Brothers Karamakazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
73. The Forsythe Saga – John Galsworthy
74. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
75. The Go-Getter - Peter Kyne
76. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
77. The Joys of Love - Madeleine L’Engle
78. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
79. Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell
80. The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot
81. The Murder of Roger Ackaroyd by Agatha Christie
82. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
83. The Question Behind the Question – John Miller
84. The Right Attitude to Rain -- Alexander McCall Smith
85. The Skin of our Teeth – Thonrnton Wilder
86. The Spirit of the Disciplines –Dallas Willard
87. The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith
88. Integrity - Henry Cloud
89. The Writing Life – Annie Dillard
90. Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris
91. This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Tribes - Seth Godin
93. Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell
94. Walden Pond - Henry Thoreau
95. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
96. Watership Down - Richard Adams
97. When I don’t Desire God - John Piper
98. William and Mary Trilogy, Volume I: I will Maintain - Marjorie Bowen
99. William and Mary Trilogy, Volume II: Defender of the Faith - Marjorie Bowen
100. William and Mary Trilogy, Volume III: For God and the King - Marjorie Bowen
101. Zen in the Art of Writing – Ray Bradbury