Start Where You Are

I just finished the Charles Swindoll devotional Start Where You Are (subtitled "Catch a Fresh Vision for Your Life"). The book description on the back cover is what pulled me in,

"Where are you on the journey of life? Just starting out, with exciting new challenges ahead? Or a little road weary, wondering what direction you should turn now? Let Charles Swindoll show you how to start fresh right where you are."

While I enjoyed my time in this book, its contents felt like a bit of a "bait and switch". I was promised one book but Swindoll gave me something else. In truth, I do not think that the book really approached what was defined as its goal given in the book description. I have the feeling that this book was more a collection of random Sunday sermons from Swindoll as opposed to a focused writing on a particular topic.

The major sections were categorized under:

• Paths toward healing
  
• Christian leadership
  
• Developing compassion
  
• A plan for personal victory
  

Within each subsection were a number of short chapters that were easy 5-minute reads. That made this book fully appropriate for working into morning devotionals or a quick reading session here and there throughout the day. It is too bad that Swindoll did not write the book that was promised here, I would have paid money to read that ... oh wait, I already did.