The End of Me

The End of Me by Kyle Idleman                Audiobook:  6 hours, 10 min       Paperback Book: 224 pages             

Good book.    Kyle Idleman is a pastor in Kentucky.    He discusses what he has learned in his own life and through his outreach help to others how they too have found that a close relationship with Jesus often comes when life has dealt its roughest blows.   When everything gets stripped away – a family torn apart by the death of the breadwinner and no insurance to cover the loss of income,  when divorce or betrayal destroys a relationship especially when only one of the spouses wants it or has been oblivious to signs there was a problem and is floored when their spouse seems to come out of the blue with – I want a divorce.    When a child or sibling or good friend develops an addiction that you feel unable to help them out of.  When you return from the military wounded mentally or physically and can’t find the help you need or the help the V.A. offers isn’t doing it for you.    When incarceration is involved and the hell and fear of prison life threatens or affects you or someone you love.   When a child is bullied and/or abused  and starts cutting themselves or loses self-esteem,  and so many other scenarios that take a soul to the utter depths of despair, when you come to the point you are losing yourself and stand at the precipice of suicide or mental collapse or just no longer able to cope with the circumstances or impossible places we can find ourselves or our loved ones or as Kyle Idleman terms it “When I came to the end of me – rock bottom – so low you feel there is no way out – that is often where we find Jesus waiting with open arms ready to carry us out of the pit and into His unconditional love.   No strings, no requirement just total love wanting only to help us, to care for our mortgal woes and our spiritual desires.   Kyle admits to his own imperfections,  he sites examples of people from the Bible and he shows how hard we try to make things and feel so low that we are not worthy to ask anything of God when we have screwed our lives up so bad – that – Kyle Idleman says is where Jesus is ready to forgive and help us know his all encompassing love – so strong – He gave up heaven to come down to earth and be the sacrifice for our sins that we can find forgiveness and enter in to the presence of God as imperfect as we are – the end of me leads us to the place where we can hear the voice of God, creator of the universe, of all that is, that was and that shall be.   The end of “me” is the entry into all that God has to offer us free of charge.   Once we are broke down to where there are no further distractions to fill our heads and lives and make us think we don’t need, nor have the time for God, once we have hit bottom then we find the upside down way to Jesus.    Good book.   I highly recommend it.   It is not all goody goody it is delivered with honesty and genuineness in all the grittiness that life can bring and the simple way to find a hand up and a vast heaven and agape love that is beyond our understanding because it is so simple and we always try to over think things and make them complicated.  Jesus said we can bring all the harshness of life to Him and He will give us rest.    I would recommend this to all ages.

 - Shirley J.