[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLCfz2DWQ-w[/youtube]
**Exciting News: The FREE Six-Part Group Discussion Guide for Broke is now available! This is perfect for book clubs, church groups, or neighborhood studies. Available here.
Though Broke: What Financial Desperation Revealed about God’s Abundance has been available for a little over a week, April 7 has always been Broke’s Official Launch Date. And it’s here! Yay! To celebrate, here is a sample chapter.
Though Broke is a book about money–or, our time of living without much of it at all–of course, it’s not really a book about money. But instead, about the wild and wooly ways I sensed God through some wild and wooly wanderings through spiritual and financial deserts. It’s about being broke–not just in a financial sense–and being rebuilt, being remade. It’s about going broke, giving into doubt, hitting spiritual rock bottom, but crawling back up through the twists and turns and intrigues of faith and ending up dripping in God’s goodness (how many metaphors did I manage to mix?).
Broke isn’t just for those on the verge of financial disaster. Even my distinctly unbroke (*cough* rich) friends have found themselves in these pages, have related to the my “safari.” Because we’re all broke somehow, someway. Or, at least I hope we are or that one day you will be. Because there’s no doubt that God blessed me by breaking me.
Hope you check it out and enjoy it. Here’s what others are saying about Broke:
“Broke is [Rivadeneira’s] story of how God used loss as a way of drawing her into deeper relationship with Him. At times both hilarious and heartbreaking, it is an important book for anyone who ever mistook making a good living for God’s abundant life.”
“In the vein of Ann Voskamp and Sarah Young, Rivadeneira (Known and Loved: 52 Devotions from the Psalms) offers a devotional perspective on financial desperation in the suburbs. Balancing between mystical mirth and spiritualized snark, she reflects on her skepticism about God’s trustworthiness and interweaves life stories of misfortune and small miracles to help readers find God and also ‘find him good.’ A sterling storyteller, Rivadeneira spins a narrative of finding benediction and a benevolent God amidst economic trial.”
“Only Caryn Rivadeneira could weave a tale of financial desperation into a page-turner. I didn’t want to put it down at night. You will discover life and light in these beautifully written pages.”
“If you like your Jesus sugary sweet, don’t read Broke. If you don’t think irreverent humor is next to godliness, don’t read Broke. If you hope that being broken by God involves superficial tinkering not soul-deep wrenching, don’t read Broke. If you don’t want a faith strong enough to wrestle with agonizing questions and hard stories, don’t read Broke. But if you like gritty and funny, honest and faithful, go for Broke.”
“Reading Rivadeneira’s Broke brings the beatitudes to life. With in-your-face honesty riddled with mirthful profundity, she takes her reader around blind corners smack into the glory and goodness of God. Rivadeneira reminds us that the abundant life is quite a ride, and that our ticket has been paid in full. All we have to pay is our attention.”
“Because the spiritual lessons found in Broke, while often simple, are still profound—particularly when they challenge us to shift our perception of what counts as ‘abundance.’ As a devotional or small-group reading, to be chewed over in bits and pieces, Broke can challenge us to re-center our perspective. It’s a reminder that no matter how small our struggles, God’s abundance is great.”
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