This little book has been sat on my ‘to read’ pile for a few months, and having read it, I’m annoyed that I didn’t do so earlier. With the subtitle ‘The Breakfast Conversation that could change your life’, this is an in-depth unpacking of John 21:1-25, in around a hundred pages.
Sunny Side Up is a helpful and winsome little book on discipleship. It is perfect for those of us who live life fast, and who are perhaps in danger of forgetting what really matters. I confess that on seeing this book for the first time (I was sent it in exchange for a review) I was not excited. Having spent some time with it, I am now an advocate for it. As Dan DeWitt writes;
“It’s not always a massive sin issue that deters our growth. Sometimes it’s just being distracted with our lives, careers, families, hobbies, and responsibilities. Our love for God can easily get squeezed out of the position of priority it deserves. Productivity can become an enemy of what matters most“
Amen.
I ended up using this book in my morning quiet times for a week – and found it to be a helpful and provocative re-focusing way to start my day. DeWitt writes that “Following Jesus means relocating the center of our identity, from who we are and what we want to do to who Jesus is and what he wants to do through us“. This is the call and challenge of discipelship, and Sunny Side Up is a great way to remind ourselves of it. At the heart of this life of following Jesus, though, is something else:
“Jesus said that loving God with all of our greatest command. That should make us stop and think. Since Jesus calls it the greatest command, it must matter a lot. Maybe we need to reclaim that little word ‘love’, because it can sound a bit tame, soft, or even soppy. Love is what motivates people to die to save their families or protect their countries. And love is why Jesus died to save us. There’s nothing weak about that kind of love.“
Amen!
You can probably tell that I thoroughly enjoyed this little book. I’d recommend it as something to be read with a new Christian – or, like me, to be read slowly as someone who has known Jesus for a while but constantly needs to be returned to the well of living water.
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