Exposure

Yesterday, as usual, I went online as soon as I woke up. I have a daily routine of websites that I check out, and then I set up several tabs in order to post my reviews as I blog. I heard a tractor drive by and watched it chug along with some huge contraption to mow the ditch. After an hour or so, I saw him go by again on the other side of the road. Shortly after I noticed that my internet connection was gone. I called Jesse and tried a couple of things, then I called our DSL provider and tried everything they suggested. I called Jesse back and he had me try a few more things before I surrendered and asked for a repairman to come and check it out. I was a little peeved, because I needed to post a FIRST tour for Be Hopeful. Jesse, however, was wild, because he had a ton of homework that was due by midnight last night.

Eventually we discovered that the internet was down on the whole road, as were the phone lines (which made me suspect the tractor/mower dude), but despite many phone calls, our provider could not be inspired to come out and actually fix anything until today. It was up and running at 9:30, but the repairguy didn't come to the door until 10:30, at which time he confirmed my suspicion: over exuberant ditch cutting was the cause.

I did use the time offline wisely: I defragged my computer, but most of the day, I sat with the router page open staring hopefully at the "not connected" screen waiting for it to magically switch to "connected" so I could once again be connected with the world. Camping in a few weeks is going to be tough! :)

As promised by Doogie (thanks Honey!), here's my review that should have been posted yesterday.

Be Hopeful by Warren W. Wiersbe is part of his renowned and wonderful Be series digging deeply into each book of the Bible. Be Hopeful focuses on the book of 1 Peter. The book offers historical and spiritual insight while going through the book verse by verse and really breaking it down for readers. Each chapter ends with study questions for further reflection. Peter's message in this book was one of hope, despite the coming persecution he foresaw for followers of Christ, and every word of it is still relevant for believers today. It's an excellent study, and I hope to read more of the series.

Exposure by Brandilyn Collins is a haunting look at the power that fear can hold over our lives, but just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't really after you. Kaycee Raye has lived in fear of people watching her. Her mother lived with the same paranoia, always watching out windows and moving from place to place to find some semblance of peace. Kaycee's tried to turn her fear into something good by writing a newspaper column about the effects of fear and how to overcome it. Despite recent baby steps to freedom from fear, she's been making calls to the police about seeing someone lurking around her home, making her look like the woman who cried wolf. When a young girl disappears while on the way to Kaycee's home, it starts to look like someone may really be after her, and everything gets really scary. I am a longtime fan of Collins, because she never fails to surprise even me, a fairly jaded reader. When the two divergent plotlines came crashing together in this book, I was stunned and blown away by just how good her writing really is. I did feel a bit at times as though I had stepped into the second book in a series; there's a lot of backstory. I do love how she portrayed the debilitating effects of fear and how perfect love casts out fear.

A quick interesting note. On Monday I posted about how God is sanding the rough edges of my heart. That night, Jesse and I were reading in our devotional, Quiet Time for Couples, and part of the night's lesson said, "sanding the rough edges of our hearts." I stopped reading and we stared at each other in shock for a few moments. When I continued reading, we both paid extra close attention to the message. Another one of those moments when God chooses to show up that gives me goosebumps!