A helpful and funny book about the many benefits, spiritual and otherwise, that can come from escaping workplace stress.
A successful government employee leaves his job to find renewed interest in both life and faith.
Winters had just taken a new job at an intimidating but unnamed, three-letter government agency when embarrassing pains landed him in the hospital and ended with a diabetes diagnosis. The stress of his new position, a feeling of malaise within his aging church, and a medical mandate to get healthier gave him the idea to take a break from his current life well beyond the usual vacation. Soon a spiritual encounter at a prayer circle confirmed that what he needed was a true sabbatical. Winters’ debut book becomes a Christian-focused how-to for readers wanting their own versions of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love–style break from everyday tensions. Winters never left the country nor found the love of his life on a beach, but he did meticulously chronicle the difficulties and necessary strategies for maintaining income, improving friendships, and getting his health under control while on a six-month break from the workforce. With specific spiritual questions like “What barriers had kept me from being who I should be?” and “How could I live a resurrected life?” Winters dedicated his days to praying, reflecting, and reading numerous books, including the works of preacher Jentezen Franklin. He slowly overcame the crippling anxiety that began with his new job and started the long road to a healthier lifestyle, documenting his return to work with a new appreciation, having “discovered again that people were generally God’s coolest creation.” In his account, Winters tempers the heavier and more distressing stories of his medical issues and past tragedies with self-deprecating but warm humor that keeps a largely introspective story intriguing. Those wanting to escape their own daily grinds for an extended period of time should find useful, practical advice in his pages (for example, in an appendix he counsels: “Prepare to journal about how you feel and react to significant insights during the sabbatical. It is important to learn some lasting lessons”). But it is Christian readers who will likely connect most with his rekindled spirituality and lighthearted biblical jokes—“[his] favorite Scripture about finances was ‘Jesus wept’ ”—and take away the most from his refreshed vigor.
A helpful and funny book about the many benefits, spiritual and otherwise, that can come from escaping workplace stress.Pub Date: July 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9977747-0-2
Page Count: 212
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
