Resources

My two books:

The Battle for my God-given Dream and Pinpoint Your Passion
Both of these books were written during a season of my life full of crises, transitions, and asking God, "Who am I now?" The Battle for my God-given Dream recounts my career transition from a focus on recruiting to becoming a writer. And the craziness that entailed! Pinpoint Your Passion grew out of my graduate school project where I developed a workshop for people (including me) to write a life purpose statement.

Click on the titles in the paragraph above this one to see their Amazon.com descriptions / back cover copy. As always, I'd love your feedback--on Amazon.com and/or via the "Contact Me" page.

CALLING

1.BOOK: Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J.Palmer

This small classic is a wise and tender collection of thoughts and stories from Palmer's quest to find his true self and live it. His struggle was costly. The book's raw honesty challenges us to find our true nature and let it "speak."

2.PODCAST: "Quote Yourself" by Rob Bell on his famous ROBCAST

3. ARTICLE: "Renew Your Purpose as You Age" by Gloria Rose (click on title to read this article)

CREATIVITY

1.PAPER: "Creativity as a Path to Our Calling" by Gloria Rose (click on title to read). I returned to graduate school to prepare myself for the new thing I felt called to. Along the way, I took a course in creativity and saw the connections between calling and creativity. This paper explores the connections.

2.BOOK: The Genius Zone: The Breakthrough Process to End Negative Thinking and Live in True Creativity by Gay Hendricks

Full of valuable tools to help me live how I want to live! I read this book again and again and learn more every time.

3.BOOK: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield

Resistance is our enemy, sneaky, and often unrecognizable teaches Pressfield. He delivers brilliant punches to this foe and shows us how to overcome it. Poignant. To the point. Do you have a desire or dream you keep putting off? Read this book!

4.GUIDE: The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron

The #1 Guide to get you engaged with "wiping the fog off your mirror" and bring fresh energy and creativity to your days. This Guide has helped and healed people around the globe.

SPIRITUAL STRENGTH

1.BOOK: In the Name of Jesus by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Henri Nouwen--professor, priest, psychologist. Although he wrote the following words over 30 years ago, they ring with truth and relevance for us today--do they not?!

"One of the greatest ironies of the history of Christianity is that its leaders constantly gave in to the temptation of power--political power, military power, economic power, or moral and spiritual power--even though they continued to speak in the name of Jesus, who did not cling to his divine power but emptied himself and became as we are. The temptation to consider power an apt instrument for the proclamation of the Gospel is the greatest of all.

Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people...

The temptation of power is greatest when intimacy is a threat...Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love." pp.76-79

2.BOOK: The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God by Brent Curtis & John Eldredge

This book changed me. It lay on a friend's coffee table. I opened it, began reading, and five hours later when I finished reading, my brain turned over a new leaf. Prior to Sacred Romance, I thought life was some kind of Test/Contest. The goal was to see how good I could be, as in, useful to God, my husband, other people, etc., etc. and nice to them while I was being useful, SO THAT I wouldn't get thrown into Hell...or something like that. Nada. In actuality, I'm living in a Love Story. Pursued by God. And so are YOU.

3.BOOK: A Theology of the Ordinary by Julie Canlis

When author-professor Canlis and her family returned to America after living seventeen years abroad, their eight-year-old-daughter asked, "Mom, why do all the signs in America say, 'the best,' or 'the biggest,' or 'the greatest in the world?'"

We in the US are under constant pressure to be larger than life. Canlis' small book returns me to a healthy balance and grounds me in the living out of my Christ-followship:

"...there is no dualism--no division between secular and sacred. Human life and human flourishing are a form of worship, as they happen in God's temple (the earth). All of life is spiritual. Work. Bearing children. Hobbies. Friendship. Repairing gutters. Commuting. This is our worship--the offering of our everyday stuff to God. As Romans 12:1 says, "Take your everyday, ordinary life...and place it before God as an offering." "