This one totally snuck up on me. Then again, it's been a few weeks since I've killed some time at the book store. I wasn't crazy about the journal offered for YBLN since, like this one, it's hardback and I write lefthanded. That makes it a bit of a hurdle to just scribble random notes in one of these.

For whatever my suggestion is worth, I'd much prefer to see something like this offered. Now to make a note to run through the bookstore this week and see if there's anything else I'm missing out on.

Marcia Nelson reviews Joel's "Become A Better You" for the Washington Post. It's not entirely clear whether she approves or disapproves of the book ... but she certainly does seem peeved that you can buy the darn thing so easily. Does that really qualify as a book review? ... or the musings of a fellow author that wishes they had a fraction of the platform?

The critiques - such as they are - are subtle and somewhat forgiving. But there's a note at the conclusion that seems to underscore much of what I find at fault with the way Joel is perceived by some:

But with a basic grounding in scripture and a lot of TV know-how (acquired over 17 years of producing the televised sermons of his father, John Osteen), a preacher's kid who inherited a congregation now holds the keys to America's self-help impulse.

To clarify for some, Joel Osteen did not happen to inherit a church with 45,000 walking in the door. He inherited one with something closer to 6-8,000 ... many, I'm sure, skeptical that the kid could have held even that sized church together upon Pastor John's passing. It should certainly be recognized by at least a few more folks that the church grew under Joel's leadership. Even at the old location, new services had to be added.

The problem isn't so much a mere historical accuracy ... it's the perception that Joel has somehow lucked into whatever good fortune he might have found. Including the veiled perception that he somehow inherited a church with 45,000 in attendance. Nevermind that such a church simply didn't exist on these shores prior to the turn of the century.

Number One in Week One. Congrats to all involved.

Oh, an added note here ... Just put the book to rest, finishing the last two chapters over a long lunch. My two-cent review is that I think it's a far superior book to Y.B.L.N. (which, btw, is clocking in at #4 on the paperback bestseller list) Certainly enough in there to give Joel's critics a renewed interest in their hobby of subtracting from God's kingdom. But also a lot of material - including an entire SECTION - that I don't think you'll see them quoting from at all since it detracts from their critical narrative of Joel. I'll be picking up the chapter-by-chapter segments here as best as I can for the next week, but certainly picking up the pace again after then.

My November pick is set for now as Tony Dungy's Quiet Strength. That book's not doing too badly on the bestseller list, either. But since I've got a week where I'm book-free, I may alter that plan ... as is typical with my book-buying ways. I've certainly got a little time to sneak a peek at a few books on the market to see if there's anything that changes my mind.

And if that's not enough, I'm already itching to do my annual Christmas-time re-read of Brennan Manning's "Ragamuffin Gospel." I'm not sure if I'm just not noticing this or not, but it seems as if there's a lack of books aimed at picking up the Christmas shopping season market. I'm guessing Joel's book is among those that will see a lot of gift-wrapping. As is the latest Max Lucado book. But after that? Maybe I just haven't yet set my radar to notice such things.

I do see a few good new books out there at the turn of the year, several of which seem timed for a little heightened interest in the Presidential campaign season. I keep telling myself that I've got one and only one post to make on this blog regarding that topic. And I'm trying my darndest to hold to that. Decent bet that that'll happen after picking up a reprint version of a Joel Hunter book in January; maybe after Amy Sullivan's book in February, or it could wait until Greg Boyd comes out with his book on the "Revolting Beauty" series they're currently still preaching on up at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul. My fear is that if I let loose with an entry prior to any of that, then the dam wall has burst and I'll have to devote a full month or so to fully explore a few topics and turn the blog into something that I'm not really looking to turn it into. One post ... that is the goal. So far, so good.

There's a lot that I love about this chapter, but I have a hunch that it'll be the shortest excerpt since I think this quote is more in need of an echo:

My father often quoted a simply yet profound statement by Edwin Markham (1852-1940) that sums up the attitude we need: "Ah, great it is to believe the dream as we stand in youth by the starry stream; but a greater thing is to fight life through and say at the end, the dream is true!"

(pg. 31)

The challenge in this chapter is to discipline your thoughts and be mindful of the environment we nurture those dreams in. But it begins with a basic realization:

But understand this: God did not create any person without putting something extremely valuable on the inside.

Far from being considered "Christianity-lite," that may be among the most difficult principles to abide by. Not just ourselves ... everyone around us. Reading through this chapter, I'm actually reminded not so much of the hurdles I may face to keep my own dreams aloft ... but rather, that I'm also a part of someone else's environment. But don't let me skip ahead a few chapters here.

Fighting though life is where I think we generally find ourselves. And sometimes, we rationalize the death of our dreams. Sometimes we just settle. I've found myself on at least a few occasions where I've accomplished something that required years and years of discipline, patience, faith ... and sometimes making some severe adjustments to my environment. Some, I've written about. Some, I'll save for the movie. My hunch is that we've all had a few moments like that. But do we all take the same lesson from those instances? Do we discern the differences between a dream that God puts in our hearts versus one that we conveniently slip in on our own? Do we sometimes even recognize the outcome in its proper context in order to even know that a dream has come to fruition? Again, that last one might be the toughest to deal with.

One final "New York minute" on Joel's swing through town ... CBS's Hannah Storm - who conducted the interview of Joel on the Early Show - blogs a few additional thoughts.

Since the fine folks over at Jesus Creed are doing their best to instill a sense of envy on my part (they're up to Part 25 of their look at the book, "Colossians Remixed"), I thought I might try and take a methodical journey through Joel's new book .... one chapter at a time.

Before I get to that, though, it's worth marveling over the difference I've had in reading this book as opposed to "Your Best Life Now." In this case, the sermons delivered have essentially been ones that I've sat through once, listened to or watched repeatedly afterwards ... and now have the pleasure of reading. It makes for a brisk read - as pressed for time as I am this time of year, I'm halfway through the book in less than a week. I'm sure that pace is an October record for me.

With that ...

Part One of the book is a series of sermons encompassing the need to "Keep Pressing Forward" - the first of seven keys that Osteen identifies in order to improve our everyday lives, and ultimately, to become a better you. Yeah, you probably never saw that line coming, did ya? Chapter One is boldly titled "Stretching to the Next Level."

There are several ways in which we can become inhibited from this. We can live for long periods of time with negative words spoken over us that breed doubt in our minds. We can face circumstances that invite doubt on our own part. Or we can simply just fail to realize our potential. Joel offers narratives that illustrate each of these methods.

The Biblical illustration is offered in the tale of Jesus meeting a woman in Samaria ...

In John 4, Jesus met a woman at the well in Samaria, and He asked her for a drink of water. She was surprised, because back then, the Jews didn't have anything to do with the Samaritans. She said, "How can you ask me for a drink?"

Jesus said, "If you knew who I was, you would ask em for a drink, and I would give you living water."

The woman thought that Jesus was talking about literal water. She said, "Sir, you don't even have anything with which to draw water. You don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. How can you give me water?"

I wonder how many times God tells us that He wants to do something great in our lives, that we are going to be healthy, and well; we are going to get out of debt. We feel it strongly, but like the woman at the well, we start thinking about what we don't have, and all the obstacles in our path, and before long, we've talked ourselves out of God's best.

The Samaritan woman's doubt didn't change one thing about Jesus' potential. Obviously, He understood his potential, calling and identity. Our task, as followers of Christ, is to understand our potential, calling, and identity. And with that, it should be to never let go of it. The Bible is replete with examples of people who endured years and years of waiting before a miracle happened in their lives. The woman in Luke 8:40-48 that spent 12 years with internal bleeding before touching Jesus' robe is one telling example. How many examples in our own lives have required twelve years of patience in the face of a daunting obstacle?

In hearing Joel's sermons live, there's a pace and rhythm that goes along with it and you can literally tell when you're at the end as the message reaches some sort of crescendo. In reading this chapter, you almost get the same feeling as Joel wraps the chapter up thusly:

You may not have experienced God's favor in the past, but this is a new day. You have not seen, heard or imagined the wonderful things God has in store for you. Don't be weighed down by the distractions and disappointments in life; instead, keep stretching to the next level, reaching for your highest potential. If you do that, I can tell you with confidence your best days are in front of you. God is going to show you more of His blessings and favor, and you will become a better you, better than you ever dreamed possible.

I don't intend to belabor the point of some of the criticisms that Joel gets for his style, but there's a critical point to make here that rebuts much of what I've come across. Namely, a point that no less than Dr. Michael Horton himself makes when he suggests that we simply "be realistic" in the face of daunting challenges. Believe me, I'm all for realism. But detached from some sense of optmism, it strikes me as impossible to mesh such "realism" with faith in God. If I'm "being realistic," I'm automatically dismissing the supernatural. I'm automatically putting God in a nice binding, draped heavily in theological theories, without allowing for the practice of God's work in my everyday life. If faith is the sum of things unseen, being realistic then means that I dismiss anything I can't see before me.

Horton's point - as well as that of other critics - is that there are several people in the world who can put into practice every message someone like Joel believes and still not come out any better. And again, I don't deny that there's an unhealthy level of optimism that's unwarranted. But I also don't deny that God still works miracles. There's nothing in the Bible that warrants a hope that God will miraculously cure each and every person in need of such a miracle. But the call in that Bible is to have faith. That's all our task is. And if asked to side with a pastor who calls on us to have faith versus one who asks us to just "be realistic" ... I'll go with faith.

ADD-ON: And not to belabor the point again, but there's one more critical point made about Joel's book that gets instantly dismissed in this first chapter. Christian talk sow host, Mark Daniels, makes a blatant misstatement of the 60 Minutes interview, stating that Byron Pitts claimed there was no mention of God or Jesus in the entire book - instead, Pitts was reading the seven section headings. Daniels goes so far as to suggest that the reporter was a "voice of reason" and that Joel's ministry gives rise to a critique of "amateurism" to Christian teaching. Well, turns out Daniels made an amateurish mistake of his own. Joel's book gives ample mentions of Jesus and God. Turns out, I didn't have to go very far to find the first one, either.