Allen R. Hunt's Blog, page 28

Angry Generosity

Evidently, God makes you mad. Newsweek's most recent poll shows that most Americans are angry about the economy and about life. And 2 out of 3 of us say that we are angry at God. Ummm....wow.

God's cure for anger and economic stress may surprise you. His solution sounds counter-intuitive. When times are tough, and money is tight, God invites us to be more generous than we've ever been before. 

Why does generosity reduce anger? Why does giving relieve economic headaches? I don't know. Perhaps it is because giving teaches us to trust God and not rely on ourselves for everything. Or maybe it's because generous acts help us focus on the needs of other people rather than on ourselves. Or maybe, just maybe, it's because God is a giver, and when we give, we become a little more like Him and the best version of ourselves. After all, as one saint said, we don't have to be small-hearted in the   >>>>>   Read Entire Post

I am Becoming Andy

Just a note to celebrate that I just successfully uploaded last night's show on to the site so you can listen if you missed it live on News Talk WSB. It's right there on the home page where it belongs. Should be there by Monday morning at the latest every week from now on.

For years, Andy the Wonder Boy has handled all our tech stuff - from web site, to sound clips, to uploading shows. You name it. Now that we have transitioned back to being just a live, local Sunday show, and Andy has moved on to a very well-paying, much-deserved job, he has proven his mettle even more. He built a system that even I can use. Amazing!

Thanks to Andy's excellence, I can now pull my own audio clips for the show, capture video for the site, upload entire shows to our site, etc... May not sound like much to you. But to build a system so excellent and so simple that even I can use it with success is a testimony to a fine mind. Well done   >>>>>   Read Entire Post

Good Stuff for the Soul

Final review of my summer reading results. 

Category: Spiritual Soul Food

 

My Life with the Saints by James Martin, SJ

Recently came across this book and boy was it excellent. Martin is an excellent and creative writer, substantive and light at the same time. Meaningful but with good self-deprecating humor. Gifted guy.

In this book, Martin engages the lives of about 15 saints andhow his own life has intersected with them. A style almost reminiscent of Peggy Noonan in her excellent book John Paul the Great. 

Martin achieves something rarely done - engaging and fun reading about the saints and how they relate to our lives today. Very life-giving reading. Highly recommended.

AHS Grade: A

 

The Hope Prayer by Liam Lawton

The gifted   >>>>>   Read Entire Post

Great Stories Well-Told

Anyone who knows me knows that I love me some fiction. Nothing delights my heart more than a good novel. WIth excellent biographies coming in a close second. I love good stories.

More of you recommended Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption than any other book. This excellent book shares the true story of Louie Zamperini, an American Olympian in the 1930's who soon thereafter finds himself in World War II. 

A brief review cannot do Louie's story justice. His athletic success, his crew crash-landing in the Pacific, his surviving with another crew member in a raft for the longest time ever recorded, his excruciating suffering and endurance in Japanese torture camps, concentration camps, and POW camps. And finally his emergence at the end of the war and return to America. Marriage, religious conversion at a Billy Graham crusade, and life of service to   >>>>>   Read Entire Post

Coveted Book of the Summer Award

It came highly recommended but I read it with great reluctance. Believe it or not, the best book I read on vacation was Onward by Howard Schultz.

Never expected this one to come out on top for all kinds of reasons. First, it's about Starbucks, and I am not a coffee junkie or Starbucks fanatic. Second, it is about the revival of the company, and usually those stories are self-aggrandizing like Lee Iacocca's book about Chrysler.

However, this turns out to be an engaging, nearly spell-binding, tale of leadership and persistence. When Schultz watched the slow decline of Starbucks' sales and stores, he ultimately decided to return as ceo, seven years after having left that position. And the story is really well-told.

Schultz helped found Starbucks and carries a deep passion for its mission and its brand. This books tells the process he used in reinvigorating a company that had become stale and   >>>>>   Read Entire Post

I'm Baaaaack! With Summer Reading Too!

Vacation rocks. Your brain defrags. You forget about some stuff and remember forgotten things. If you're lucky, you discover new wonders. 

Our vacation was low-key. Family. Friends. Florida. Nothing exotic. No climbing the Matterhorn or floating the Amazon. 

And I took your advice. I read a lot. In fact, I chose 6 books that you recommended. Well done! Your choices were superb.

What surprised me most was that the best recommendation turned out to be a business and leadership book. Very surprising to me since I love novels so much.

Listed below are the 6 books I chose from your recommendations. All of these met the two requirements: Suggested by more than one person and intriguing to me.

As the week unfolds, I will give you my opinions and brief reviews of each book. Including which one turned out to be the best book and winner of the coveted Allen Hunt Summer Choice Award!   >>>>>   Read Entire Post

On Hiatus for a Few Weeks

No more posts until June. See you   >>>>>   Read Entire Post

Sonnet 116

Mother's Day, our wedding anniversary, and my wife's birthday all fall within a few weeks of each other. SO I have been brushing up on my sonnets. 

Shakespeare always provides good refreshment. Here is one of my/our favorites. Enjoy! May it enrich your own relationship. Just call me Delilah!

 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments, love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come,
Love alters not with his brief   >>>>>   Read Entire Post

Tonight's Discussion on the Pill

Posting this during the show as follow up. Interesting research on the biological and hormonal effects of the Pill on women and their mating/dating decisions. Very fascinating   >>>>>   Read Entire Post

Summer Reading

About to enjoy a little vacation at the end of May. Gonna relax with family and friends before ramping up a new venture with Matthew Kelly.

Last year, I asked you for book recommendations on my vacation. You responded with wonderful suggestions. I narrowed it down and wrote a few short reviews upon my return. With the final review awarding the surprise grand champion summer book to a powerful true story about our Navy SEALS. This award was very surprising because I rarely read military-oriented books.

I am looking for your recommendations in 3 areas:

1) Fiction - love good novels. Bring your best new recommendation on.

2) Business/Leadership - Malcolm Gladwell won last year with Outliers. What recent book has been really   >>>>>   Read Entire Post