Run Baby Run - Nicky Cruz’s heart had turned to stone when he was only three. His mother nicknamed him the “Son of Satan,” and he was severely abused, both physically and mentally. After moving from Puerto Rico to New York, Nicky became the leader of a notorious street gang--the Mau Maus. He turned into a violent street criminal before he was eighteen. David Wilkerson, a skinny preacher from Pennsylvania, reached out to him with relentless love. He said, “Nicky, Jesus loves you,” and this simple message opened the door to a new life for Nicky Cruz. Run Baby Run, now a classic, tells his exciting story with gripping openness.
Present over Perfect - Written in Shauna’s warm and vulnerable style, this collection of essays focuses on the most important transformation in her life, and maybe yours too: leaving behind busyness and frantic living and rediscovering the person you were made to be. Present Over Perfect is a hand reaching out, pulling you free from the constant pressure to perform faster, push harder, and produce more, all while maintaining an exhausting image of perfection. Stop. Rest. Play. Create. Connect. Cultivate silence. And in that silence, you’ll discover the voice of love you’ve been aching to hear. Shauna offers an honest account of what led her to begin this journey, and a compelling vision for an entirely new way to live: soaked in grace, rest, silence, simplicity, prayer, and connection with the people that matter most to us.
Hearts Made Whole - After her father’s death, Caroline Taylor has grown confident running the Windmill Point Lighthouse. But in 1865 Michigan, women aren’t supposed to have such roles, so it’s only a matter of time before the lighthouse inspector appoints a new keeper--even though Caroline has nowhere else to go and no other job available to her. Ryan Chambers is a Civil War veteran still haunted by the horrors of battle. He’s secured the position of lighthouse keeper mostly for the isolation--the chance to hide from his past is appealing. He’s not expecting the current keeper to be a feisty and beautiful woman who’s angry with him for taking her job and for his inability to properly run the light. When his failings endanger others, he and Caroline realize he’s in no shape to run the lighthouse, but he’s unwilling to let anyone close enough to help. Caroline feels drawn to this wounded soul, but with both of them relying on that single position, can they look past their loss to a future filled with hope...and possibly love?
What is your story? How did you get from here to there? I was asked to share my testimony for the first time this summer, and I was completely stumped. As I was listening to everyone else share theirs, I thought to myself, “Dang, my testimony is pretty lame. Why wasn’t my life harder?” I look back on that now and realize that I was looking at that all wrong. Our testimonies aren’t just about the hard times in our lives. We tell our testimonies so that we can tell others how God changed our lives. And that is exactly what these three books are about this week. All of these authors and characters seem to be letting go, embracing, and even learning from their past. In Run, Baby, Run Nicky Cruz decides to embrace his terrible past in this unforgettable autobiography. Nicky truly takes us through the remarkable transition from gruesome gang fighter to fearless believer. Next we have Present Over Perfect, which encourages us to slow down long enough to appreciate the past and the present. The last book that I read through was Hearts Made Whole by Jody Hedlund. We hadn’t gotten any new books in a while and so I was pretty curious to see what this one was about. In the subject of dealing with our past, this book contains two characters who have trouble letting go of their past. As Ryan is trying to deal with traumatic events of the war, Caroline has to give in to the fact that her father is gone and she has to do whatever it takes to fill his shoes and raise her younger siblings on her own. Through these books, we are reminded that God never forgets about us. He has a plan for each and every one of us. So come on down to the Cross Reference Library and check out these great books.