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Small Things With Great Love: Adventures In Loving Your Neighbor (2011)

by Margot Starbuck(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0830838171 (ISBN13: 9780830838172)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

IVP Books

review 1: When my son was young, he used to read "choose your own adventure" stories where you could select one of several different paths through a book that led to different endings. Starbuck's book is organized in this way except that all the paths lead to one end--joining God's adventure of loving the world around you.Her title is inspired by Mother Teresa who said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Starbuck's "choose your own adventure" format allows the reader to begin to identify very practical 'baby step' ways we can love the world whether you are young, middle aged or old, single, married, care-giving, live in the city, the suburbs or rurally, are male or female, and so on.I found her ideas both practical and creative. Fo... morer example, for middle-agers, she observes that most people in this demographic have extensive social networks, and therefore, social capital. She poses the question, have you ever thought of using that to help a needy person--say someone who needs a job? Her prose sparkles and gives the sense that this is both doable and joyful. Nor does she come across as a holier-than-thou. She admits to going to the discount department store for good deals on clothes for herself and her kids only to later realize that she hadn't thought about the sourcing of the clothes. That leads into thoughtful conversation about both spending less so that we might give more, but also spending more to support local vendors and just manufacturing practices.She concludes with resources to put this all into practice, emphasizing choosing one thing--not a myriad, with which to start. Sounds like she has been talking to us and our friends!
review 2: With a foreward by Tony Campolo and a back cover recommendation by Shane Claiborne, you know that Margot Starbuck has good credentials and you're pretty sure you're going to be convicted while reading it. She's funny and her wit comes through in the book. The book is written in a choose your own adventure type style, so that at the end of each chapter you can skip to the next chapter that best suits your needs. I chose this option in the middle of the book, but for the most part, read the whole thing. Starbuck focuses on opening your eyes to those around you, specifically the poor, and how to begin interacting with them and making a difference. I was all with her at the beginning, but she gets more challenging at the end, so I'm going to need some time to process through her suggestions. Here's an excerpt. I didn't realize that anyone else in the world thought crazy thoughts like this but me!"Is God scowling in judgment because we're changing the batteries in our smoke detectors instead of going door to door collecting eyeglasses to send to Haiti? Is God looking down from heaven feeling sort of resentful that we're using the 'look inside' function on Amazon.com instead of visiting prisoners? Isn't God angry that American keep getting fatter while so many on the globe are starving? You'd think so, right? A world in which a God who loves the poor would be a little bent out of shape that the rest of us are so darn self-involved is pretty imaginable.And though it's certainly easy to conjure up that kind of a heavenly dichotomy, I simply don't think it's the case. Here's why..." less

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