Reviews for Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What

The average rating for Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-01-10 00:00:00 Louis Lapointe I picked up this book during a season of feeling defeated and aimless. I believe this book helped me get back on track after my husband and I resigned from a ministry position. It just so happened that I read it before I learned of a miscarriage and this book helped me to see that difficult time as a season to gain wisdom from, etc. I am a runner, so I really connected to the author because of his memoir entangled in the story of being a competitive runner in his college years. I particularly liked the questions that we ask in each decade of our life. I found this most helpful in examining and analyzing my life where it is at currently and being encouraged to grow as a person.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-01 00:00:00 Jin Kurtz Parts of me want to dismiss a book like this. The parts of me that are inclined to legalism rather than grace see a potential point of confusion here, as the author tells us the practices, the qualities, the relationships, the heart-attitudes that build a life-time of Christian resilience. It would be easy to mistake this, then as a list of what I must do in my own strength. Best avoided, then. Out of sight, out of mind. Safer for all of us. The parts of me that exude a snobbish disregard for sepia-tinged sentimentality want to dismiss the flashbacks and analogies to the author's youthful exploits in running. Yes, it's artfully, beautifully even, written. But it's all a bit 'Dead Poets Society', a bit Mum and apple pie. This is cultural, not eternal. So that's OK. I need not worry about this too much. The parts of me that say 'you, author, do not know what I've been through; let me tell you about resilience'. Those parts want to claim wisdom and superiority, achievement and medals in my own image. They want to say - what you say is valid, but I've learnt my own lessons, thank you. There's elements of truth in all those concerns. Like all the best lies. Because, you see, like all of MacDonald's writing, this book is hammered out on the anvil of bitter personal experience. Here's a man who's learned that of which he writes, and is still learning. There's life in the words, the stories, the lessons in this book. Whatever the temptations otherwise, these are words, stories, lessons you miss at your peril.