An imperfect gift for those who have it all together

My book, Embracing the Gray: A Wing a Prayer, and A Doubter’s Resolve, has been given over a hundred 5 Star Reviews at Amazon.com (97% of all responses). It might be an interesting gift idea for a friend or relative who is going through hard questions about life, faith, and purpose.  Here are some excerpts from readers that have been posted…

When I first set out to read Mark's book, it was with a view to enjoy a fellow road warrior's memoirs and reminisce on my time on the road while I read through stories of his times. Mission accomplished ... but wait, this book is far more than a simple set of stories and memories of being on the road!

Mark's influence in "the biz" is astounding. His depth of experience goes well beyond what I knew of him, taking on perspective and experiences from so many of the past 40 years of music and artists. He can speak with authority on many a friend or acquaintance from the music industry, yet this book is not about Mark, nor is it about the biz; yes, it speaks of him, but it's not about him. Instead, I was surprised to find a depth of insight and a clarity of direction that has been gleaned from a long search for meaning in life.

I found myself laughing, crying, moved beyond emotion to introspection, but ultimately, a powerful, well-written synopsis of a life richly lived. I never saw the end coming in this book. It crept up on me silently and without need of a summary, Mark beautifully wove words to the meaning of embracing the gray. Life is not about either/or, it's about both/and. The insights are so appreciated in this world of extremes where "embracing the pendulum" much more the norm. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Well done, Mark! 
S.L.

Mark Hollingsworth's Embracing The Gray is an amazing journey through one ordinary yet extraordinary man's life and faith. The book is refreshingly truthful. It portrays true humanity and glimpses of the divine. I'd highly recommend this autobiographical novel!  
K.S.

A captivating read. Mark's story draws you in as if you are reading an account that is both familiar and yet at times devastating. I laughed out loud and was brought to tears. His honesty about his doubts and faith called out and validated my own questions as something to embrace rather than try and run from or never face. Even apart from the story of faith that is woven throughout, the experiences of his life are simply fascinating to read.

I am not a quick reader and have left too many books unfinished because they did not hold my attention. I finished this book within a 24 hour period. I have already bought a copy for a Christmas present and may get a few more. I'd recommend this to nearly anyone out there. 
M.D.W.

Tears and laughter.  What a ride! As someone who has traveled a great deal, I could relate to some of the adventures Mark Hollingsworth experienced in his journeys, but that's where the comparison ends. The depth and insight Mark has into the people he met along the way, his keen sense of observation and compassion moved me to tears as I read the book on a flight home. His deep desire to help his fellow man (or woman) both abroad and in his hometown is inspiring, and has caused me to open my eyes for a sharper look for those who need a shoulder, a laugh or words of comfort. Good on you Mark for being a friend to those in need and the caring son and brother that enriched his family. 
S.V.

Loved this book for so MANY reasons! Embracing the Gray had me mesmerized from the very opening. The family dynamics, the questioning mind, the musical influences, the peer group, the range of viewpoints and the writing style that ties it all together really kept my interest from start to finish. Having grown up in a Christian household I had a foundation that I grew up on but I so related to the tragedies and the life events that brought Mark to his place of questioning. I was a wanderer for years and I am a music buff so I was hooked right from the beginning. I admired Mark's courage to step out and question verbally and to challenge his peers in college.

I SO enjoyed reading about his journey with Kerry Livgren (with the band Kansas) and I was happy yet saddened by the unfolding of his relationship with his brother. An unexpected surprise I received was the fact that I was given a new perspective on the music that I grew up on. I went back and listened to the songs Mark talked about in Embracing the Gray, and I love them more today than I did back then. It’s a book that I am so glad to have added to my collection  A+++++ MUST READ!!!

D.H.

I very much enjoyed this book. Mark's sheer honesty regarding his faith and experiences left me in contemplation and wonder. We are reminded that the world is full of darkness and beauty simultaneously. There is heartbreak and there is hope. The structure of this book is such that it is hard to put down. I found myself always curious about what would come next. This is a unique thing, I believe, for a writing of nonfiction. Mark has had an amazing life, and we are very privileged to be given the opportunity to witness his journey.
A.K.

Excellent.  I appreciate Mark's refreshing honesty about his faith, his struggles, and the joy and torment that life in general brings. I was moved to the brink of tears often. The compassion exhibited throughout is inspiring.

B.B.

I continue to be humbled by the response the book is generating. You can also check out other reader reviews, as well as order the book in hard copy at this link.  In fact, Embracing the Gray is also available for a limited time as a 99 cent Kindle download at this same link.

http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Gray-Doubters-Resolve-ebook/dp/B004L62CN2/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

If you would be interested in purchasing a signed copy, please contact me, and I can work with you directly on any of those requests, or answer any other questions you might have.  I answer all my mail.  : )

"Goodness has never been a guarantee of safety," and more Madelein L'Engle quotes (Part 2)

Madelein L’Engle (1918-2007) authored over 40 books, including A Wrinkle In Time and all of its sequels.  I still recall my 3^rd grade teacher reading those to us, and being mesmerized by the way they stimulated my imagination.  Her writing reflected her deep Christian faith, a love of science, and a curiosity to ask many questions. I was privileged to hear her give the Commencement Address to my graduating class at Wheaton College in 1977.  Here is Part 2 of my favorite quotes from her writings.  Let me know which ones resonate with you.

Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature.

The growth of love is not a straight line, but a series of hills and valleys.

Anger is not bitterness. Bitterness can go on eating at a man's heart and mind forever. Anger spends itself in its own time.

The world of science lives fairly comfortably with paradox. We know that light is a wave, and also that light is a particle. The discoveries made in the infinitely small world of particle physics indicate randomness and chance, and I do not find it any more difficult to live with the paradox of a universe of randomness and chance and a universe of pattern and purpose than I do with light as a wave and light as a particle. Living with contradiction is nothing new to the human being.

Like it or not, we either add to the darkness of indifference and out-and-out evil which surrounds us or we light a candle to see by.

And there's no getting around the fact that all life lives at the expense of another life.

You and I have good enough minds to know how very limited and finite they really are. The naked intellect is an extraordinarily inaccurate instrument.

There is in God, some say, a deep but dazzling darkness.

It was the same way with silence. This was more than silence. A deaf person can feel vibrations. Here there was nothing to feel.

We have much to be judged on when he comes, slums and battlefields and insane asylums, but these are the symptoms of our illness and the result of our failures in love.

Goodness has never been a guarantee of safety.

One of the most pusillanimous things we of the female sex have done throughout the centuries is to have allowed the male sex to assume that mankind is masculine. It is not. It takes both male and female to make the image of God. The proper understanding of mankind is that it is only a poor, broken thing if either male or female is excluded.

The joys of love...last only a moment. The sorrows of love last all the life long.

My dear, I'm seldom sure of anything. Life at best is a precarious business, and we aren't told that difficult or painful things won't happen, just that it matters. It matters not just to us but to the entire universe.

God promised to make you free. He never promised to make you independent.

Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith. Faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.

If you're too happy about anything, fate usually gives you a good sock in the jaw and knocks you down.

I am not some kind of computer. Only machines have glib answers for everything.

The peculiar idea that bigger is better has been around for at least as long as I have, and it's always bothered me. There is within it the implication that it is more difficult for God to care about a gnat than about a galaxy. Creation is just as visible in a grain of sand as in a skyful of stars. The church is not immune from the bigger-is-better heresy. One woman told of going to a meeting where only a handful of people turned out, and these faithful few were scolded by the visiting preacher for the sparseness of the congregation. And she said indignantly, 'Our Lord said *feed* my sheep, not count them!' I often feel that I'm being counted, rather than fed, and so I am hungry.

  

No! Alike and equal are not the same thing at all!”

If we don't pray according to the needs of the heart, we repress our deepest longings. Our prayers may not be rational, and we may be quite aware of that, but if we repress our needs, then those unsaid prayers will fester.

You're going to get hurt yourself, and badly, if you take everything so hard.

She began to feel the sense of wonderful elation that always came to her when beauty took hold of her and made her forget her fears.

Love isn't how you feel. It's what you do.

Two people whose opinion I respect told me that the word "Christian" would turn people off. This certainly says something about the state of Christianity today. I wouldn't mind if to be a Christian were accepted as being the dangerous thing which it is; I wouldn't mind if, when a group of Christians meet for bread and wine, we might well be interrupted and jailed for subversive activities; I wouldn't mind if, once again, we were being thrown to the lions. I do mind, desperately, that the word "Christian" means for so many people smugness, and piosity, and holier-than-thouness. Who today can recognize a Christian because of "how those Christians love one another"?”

It does not matter that we cannot fathom this mystery. The only real problem comes when we think that we have.

If we accept that we have at least an iota of free will, we cannot throw it back the moment things go wrong. Like a human parent, God will help us when we ask for help, but in a way that will make us more mature, more real, not in a way that will diminish us.

You cannot see the past that did not happen any more than you can foresee the future.

But grief still has to be worked through. It is like walking through water. Sometimes there are little waves lapping about my feet. Sometimes there is an enormous breaker that knocks me down. Sometimes there is a sudden and fierce squall. But I know that many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.

Compassion is nothing one feels with the intellect alone. Compassion is particular; it is never general.

Life is not easy and comfortable, with nothing ever going wrong as long as you buy the right product. It's not true that if you have the right insurance everything is going to be fine. That's not what it's really like. Terrible things happen. And those are the things we learn from.

We human beings grow through our failures, not our virtues.

No wonder our youth is confused and in pain; they long for God, for the transcendent, and they are offered, far too often, either piosity or sociology, neither of which meets their needs, and they are introduced to churches which have become buildings that are a safe place to go to escape the awful demands of God.

Alas. What have we done to our good, bawdy, Anglo-Saxon four-letter words? ...We have blunted them so with overuse that they no longer have any real meaning for us. ...When will we be able to redeem our shock words? They have been turned to marshmallows. ...We no longer have anything to cry in time of crisis. 'Help!' we bleat. And no one hears us. 'Help' is another of those four-letter words that don't mean anything any more.

How do I make more than a fumbling attempt to explain that faith is not legislated, that it is not a small box which works twenty-four hours a day? If I 'believe' for two minutes once every month or so, I'm doing well.

Thoughts?