The last review I wrote I referenced the movie “Tommy Boy” with the famous line from Chris Farley, “Oh! That’s going to leave a mark.” Well this book talks about the marks life leaves on us and how they can lead us to our destiny’s. I like the quote he begins the book with from C.S. Lewis, I mean how can you go wrong quoting Lewis? The last words of the quote are, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.” And that is the premise of the book that we are all unique in the way that we are shaped by how we live this life. The joys and the pains of life shape us and make us who we are and even why we are the way we are.
He does a nice job of using the life of David as the back drop of his book and the examples we have with David that show how his life was shaped even as he served his father as a shepherd boy. How he could draw on having in his past killed a lion and a bear defending his sheep and use that to give him the courage to face Goliath…. In his introduction to the book Mark does a real nice job connecting Michelangelo, and his sculpting of the statue of David. Michelangelo looked at the plain block of stone and said the figure of David was in there, he just had to remove the excess stone that was hiding it. Great image to help us see how God sees us as He removes the excess baggage of our lives so that the real you can be seen. His next image was one of the best I have ever run across as he described walking into the Gallery where the masterpiece “David” is enshrined. As you walk around there are many unfinished pieces on exhibit, with an arm sticking out here or a leg over there and you get the real sense of what an artist like Michelangelo meant when he said David was already in the stone, he just had to free him… These unfinished works gave the impression of s person trapped inside the stone and waiting for someone to come along and free them from their captivity. Then Mark asks the question, “Have you ever felt like a captive? You can’t seem to break free from habitual sins that have held you back and held you down? A dream God conceived in your spirit years ago hasn’t taken shape the way you wanted it to? You know where you want to be, what you want to do, and where you want to go, but you can’t seem to get there. I have no idea where you’re stuck or for how long you’ve been stuck. But I do know God wants to finish what He started.” He ends that section with this thought, “At the end of the day, God isn’t going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa?” He won’t even ask,”Why weren’t you more like David?” God is going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like you?”
The book begins…Helping us to see that life shapes us and makes us to be who we were created to be. What may seem like bad luck may instead have saved our lives or what seemed to be so heavy and hard at the time we were going through our struggle has now equipped us to minister to someone else or even to face the giant in front of us. If I could get this book into the hands of anyone it would be in the hands it would be into the hands of pastors and leaders and I would direct them to Scene 7 where Mark tackles the whole Bathsheba debacle. Recently I have witnessed so many gifted leaders falling and falling hard just like David, in an act of adultery, sexual misconduct.. Mark writes,”I am no longer surprised by sin.” And none of us really are but when leaders fall right in front of us and we wonder what were they thinking? He says, ‘I am no longer surprised by sin. What does surprise me is the person with the rare courage to confess.” I think he does a real nice job here reminding us the hiding stuff only makes it stronger but confessing begins the dying process. The sin begins to lose its’ grip if we will confess our weakness and ask for help. Too many have dies horrific spiritual deaths by handling their stuff on their own, without ever confessing that they have a need... Then by the time they do confess it is a shipwreck, which God can re-build but the damage is deep and many destiny’s unfulfilled. Leaders please read this chapter.
Then one more quick comment and it is on a statement he makes that seems not so important but it hit me hard, very hard. He talks about naming his kids and then on pg. 150 he talks about nicknames which seem pretty innocent until he says this: “Different nicknames reveal different dimensions of our relationships with them. (Friends, kids etc.) But most significant, nicknames reveal what we see in them.” As parents and leaders it just struck me how a simple thing like a nick name could either promote a healthy self image or in the other side of the fence create a bad self image…We have to grow through both but I have to think having positive things spoken over you, especially at a young age has to have a great impact. I can remember growing up and the nick names my dad would use and I realized later that they all pointed to me being overweight...that is what he saw…or me not being so smart….trust me they left marks. Think about it…
There is much more in the book and as I finished it I realized I would recommend it to others because it brings hope to many who might not have hope and reminds us we are the clay and God is the potter and He is not done yet.
Bill
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