Waking the Dead by John Eldredge

"There is a glory to life that most people-including believers-never see. In this insightful new book, John Eldredge presents the heart as central to life. Not only is the heart essential; the heart God has ransomed is also good. Building on these foundational truths, Eldredge shows readers why real Christianity is a process of restoration, where the broken parts of our hearts are mended and the captive parts are set free.

"Waking the Dead" leads listeners to understand how to live from the heart, care for their heart like the treasures of the kingdom, and give from fullness instead of emptiness. This message also shows how living from the heart can energize people to love God and others in a way they've never experienced, revealing to them life's purpose: fighting for the hearts of others." 256 pages Published July 22nd 2003 by Thomas Nelson (first published February 29th 2000)- Goodreads

John Eldredge is a personal hero of mine. The way he looks at life and Christian living is incredible, the things that him and his wife have been through and where they are now is incredible, the way he makes movie references in his books is, well, pretty awesome.

Seriously, who else would think of comparing Neo's journey in the Matrix to our journey as Christians? 

John Eldredge would.

John and his wife Stacey live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, so he talks about being outside and being all adventurous and what not.

Now, what you need to understand is Colorado Springs in one of my FAVORITE places on earth. And I love being OUTSIDE in Colorado Springs. It's a adventurer's paradise.  So I LOVE the fact that he can talk about being outdoors, enjoying and appreciating nature, and loving God all in the same book.

Waking the Dead  focuses on waking your heart to the love of God and realizes that your heart, is in fact, not evil.

That is such a liberating fact.

It helps readers learn how to mend their hearts and be set free from things that we have been told all our lives and how to get on the right path to moving forward in our lives, to set our mind AND heart on kingdom things.

Waking the Dead was so enjoyable and I cannot wait to dig into another book by John Eldredge.

Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregson

The epic made simple. The miracle in the mundane.

One day, while browsing an antique store in Helena, Montana, photographer Tyler Knott Gregson stumbled upon a vintage Remington typewriter for sale. Standing up and using a page from a broken book he was buying for $2, he typed a poem without thinking, without planning, and without the ability to revise anything.

He fell in love.

Three years and almost one thousand poems later, Tyler is now known as the creator of the Typewriter Series: a striking collection of poems typed onto found scraps of paper or created via blackout method. Chasers of the Light features some of his most insightful and beautifully worded pieces of work—poems that illuminate grand gestures and small glimpses, poems that celebrate the beauty of a life spent chasing the light. (144 pages Published September 2nd 2014 by Perigee Trade) - Goodreads

I was so pleased that Chasers of the Light ended up being my first book of 2015.

Though some of the poems seemed to be taken right from mass tweets, most of them were really beautiful and original.

Tyler really has a knack for taking simple observations and making them profound. He makes falling in love just sound and feel beautiful. 

He takes moments that not a lot of people feel are significant and really makes you rethink those moments of your life that you just let pass by without a second thought. But those always seem to be the moments that we look back on that have so much meaning anyway, and Tyler just highlights that in the pages of this book.

I've seen Tyler's poems float onto my Tumblr often but I didn't know that he was in the process of putting them into a book. So when I found out about this I was sure to request a buy at the library and sure enough, within a week I got an email saying that they approved my request and the copies were on their way.

Now I am severely regretting getting it at the library.

I should have just bought a copy because now I want it and I want it bad. 

It has a beautiful hardcover and would fantastic on my shelf. I cannot wait to own Chasers of the Light and reread it many times and I cannot wait for another book from Tyler!