The best way to learn the redemptive gifts is through seeing them in action. This book profiles 21 people who lived out their redemptive gift dramatically. As you read their stories, you will recognize many of your friends through the way these people responded to the circumstances around them. By the time we get to be adults, we are a complex blend of many influences. We have our redemptive gift, the influence of our family line, the impact of the academic and social cultures we were in, and our personal collection of bumps and bruises. In the course of a day, each of these things from our past can influence our choices and affect our world view. How do we determine what is original software and what is a learned response?
The seven redemptive gifts provide the template for the way we see God, ourselves and other people. When we understand what that looks like for us, we can treat everything else as an add-on.
For the beginners, this book is designed to show you the gifts in action. We have taken individuals who lived their gift in an exaggerated fashion so you can feel what each gift acts like. Sandy Landry has done a simply astounding job of capturing the inner workings of each gifts thought processes, as well as showing what it looks like for them to live life on Monday morning. As you read her stories, the sound and tone and feel of each person s experiences with life will leave you easily recognizing yourself and others around you.
This is the single most effective way we have found for learning how to understand and recognize the gifts by feel, not by a list.
For those who are already adept at recognizing the gifts in people, this book provides the added resource of highlighting the critical choices which can release the power of the gift and the choices that can reduce a life to shallow existence. For each gift, Sandy profiled a Biblical person, then someone historical who walked out their gift well, and someone who absolutely perverted their gift. While the book is presented in a narrative fashion and is not a textbook or workbook, those who are insightful will come away with great treasures of understanding regarding what makes each redemptive gift thrive or become toxic to the individual.
And even if you had no interest at all in the science of design or the art of living big, Sandy is a wonderful wordsmith and the book is a joy to read. Her skill at crafting characters is immense and the flow of events is spiced with one-liners that crackle with life and intensity.
