I’d recommend this book to anyone having a mid life crisis or anyone who is trying to find themselves. My only complaint is I fear younger or more sensitive readers my get the wrong idea about how to view road blocks in their lives.

Specifically, I’m referring to how often he speaks of knowing your limits. He says sometimes when we “fail” or doors are closed to us (or are slammed in our face) its God way of guiding us to the right path. Especially when you’re completely determined to take a path that is not yours to take. He says this in the book, many times and in many ways.

Only one time does he mention that sometimes its not God just some jerk trying to bring you down. Of course, he put it more eloquently than that. He said:

It is important to distinguish between two kinds of limitations: those that come with self-hood and those that are imposed by people or political forces hell-bent on keeping us “in our place”. I do not ask anyone who gets fired to conclude that it was the work of a gracious God offering clues to ones vocation. Sometimes it is the work of a pathological boss or a corporate culture, getting rid of people whose propensity for truth-telling threatens the status quo. Sometimes it is the result of an economic system that robs the poor of there jobs so that the rich can get richer still. Like everything else in the spiritual life, getting guidance from way closing requires thoughtful discernment.

This paragraph is on page 42. This is a very important point, he’s discussing here. I really wish it appeared much earlier in the book. Preferably as soon as he started talking about excepting one’s limits and way closing. That is the only thing I’d change. Everything else is gold.

And speaking of discernment, a couple of years ago, I heard a great sermon on this very subject. I thought of it when I first read that paragraph. The preacher said,”Sometime God will, not cause, but allow things to happen in your life, in order to Divinely push you in the direction you need to go.” I can say from experience this is true. Sometimes you’re supposed to go. Sometimes you’re supposed to stay and fight. And sometimes you’re supposed to just be still. Myself, am still learning when to do what. I guess its a life long lesson. Go ahead, everyone read it. I’m sure discernment will come.

Flipping through it in the book store a few things jumped out at me:

1) When you give (from the heart) expecting something in return then you are trying to give something you never really possessed.
This was a huge wake up call for me. It also relieved a lot of guilt I feel about saying “no” sometimes.

2) Each person is born who they are. They are born with a personality and there own gifts. We lose touch with our true selves as we grow up; trying to be who we and others think we should be. Then spend the 1/4 to 1/2 of our lives trying to “find ourselves”.

So, I figure if I got that much out of it just flipping through; imagine what could come out of reading the whole thing

Let your life speak was introduced to me by my good friend (and minister), Heather. It has absolutely rocked my world, my work, and my life. I’ve been set on a path of discernment towards vocation, and it’s an incredible and deep journey