cover image MAKING PEACE WITH REALITY: Ordering Your Life in a Chaotic World

MAKING PEACE WITH REALITY: Ordering Your Life in a Chaotic World

Jerry White, . . NavPress, $12 (208pp) ISBN 978-1-57683-217-2

For a book that the author says has been 40 years in the making, one might expect a more orderly approach to helping readers disarm the all-powerful foe of chaotic living. As president and CEO of the evangelical Christian group the Navigators, White (Dangers Men Face) understands how a high-profile position contains many temptations to give into the "chaotic" rather than make prudent career and lifestyle decisions, thereby ensuring personal peace. As no one can escape the world's chaos, he argues that it is essential to learn to cope with reality. He offers plausible solutions for developing personal perseverance, defined as qualities of endurance, persistence, tenacity, steadfastness and resolve. White asserts that one's personality, health, age and previous life experiences all come into play when one is called to make courageous decisions to disengage from life's mounting pressures. White's educational background in electrical engineering/astronautics and his former position as mission controller at Cape Canaveral may explain his penchant for list-making; this reads more like an extended outline than a sustained book. Countless power-punches of biblical wisdom get lost amid the frequent subheadings and in-chapter divisions, diminishing White's message and impact. Learning to make adjustments along life's road is an important lesson; it is regrettable that this essential tool is rendered almost powerless by its own lack of focus. (Feb.)