Choosing Real: An Invitation to Celebrate When Life Doesn't Go as Planned 

Paperback, ebook

December 1, 2016

by Bekah Jane Pogue (Author)

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Shiloh Run Press 
• ISBN-13: 978-1634099646

Are you ready to release your control of needing to be everything for everyone?

In Choosing REAL, author Bekah Pogue walks with us into life’s unplanned circumstances--specifically frantic schedules, pain, transition, feelings of unworthiness, loneliness, and tension--and reminds us it is in these.very.moments where God invites us to notice, respond, and even celebrate an authentic relationship with Him through every.little.detail despite our own efforts or work. The result? A connection between real life and faith so that they are one and the same.

When we enjoy God's company first--the heavenly Creator will transform our minds to view our schedules, work, relationships, parenting, and responsibilities as opportunities to dance in life's storms and honor how beautiful simple can be. Better than our ideal party, it is He who is inviting us, setting the table, breathing peace and freedom into details we aren’t in control of. When we recognize how He surprises us by using our greatest pains and detours to draw us to a beautiful dependence on Him--freedom and peace replace control and worry.  

Put aside what-could-be and instead embrace what is? The invitation is yours. . .choose Real today.

My thoughts:  CHOOSING REAL is a book that's been in my to-read pile for awhile and I finally decided to knock it out of the way - almost a year after publication. But people are still buying books, so maybe this will be helpful to someone as they plan out their Christmas shopping list. 

Bekah Jane Pague is obviously an energetic person. Just reading the book makes me tired. And she is by nature an over-achiever, planning detailed themed parties for a one-year-old and inviting everyone in California (okay, not really, just almost) for a later party. 

The concept is good. We don't have to go above and beyond in entertaining and reaching out to people. We can let people see the messy dog dishes left in the kitchen. I do have issues with some of the theology, I guess, due to where I am in life. Yes, when it comes to God all we have to do is RSVP Yes that we accept God. Yes, we trust God. Yes, we ... but that technically isn't all there is to it. I won't go into why though. That would be a book in itself.  

Now I get what she is going for in the main theme of the book, and this is geared toward the over-achievers, the detailed oriented people who would die of embarrassment overlooking a dog dish when having a party. Its for the ones navigating a messy marriage, a flooded house, a death in the family and trying to hide it, trying to handle it, and discovering they can't do it alone. It's an invitation to let go and let God handle your mess in His way, in His time, and you just rest in the pain and be real. Let others know, let them see your mess.  Just be real. 

I do agree with that. Sometimes it is in the realness that you are able to meet people where they are, to minister to them in their pain.  If you had a miscarriage, you know how to reach others suffering through that. Suffering from cancer? You can minister to others in the same boat. An adult son on drugs? Yes, you can truly be a help to other parents suffering through that. 

The book was a bit rambling and I found myself skimming, but if you have a problem with being real and hiding behind perfection then CHOOSING REAL is a book to consider.          

I was given a copy free. All opinions are my own.