A Different Kind of Happiness: Discovering the Joy That Comes from Sacrificial Love

Rating – Put it on you list

Level – Easy, moderate in length

Summary
First of all, do not be thrown off by the cover/title. This is not a fluffy self-helpy type book. Instead Dr. Crabb challenges the readers to love like Jesus, but not the usual Sunday School love you hear about in church. He lays out true sacrificial love and all that it entails; and maybe the best part, he asks, doing you even want to try?

The book is broken in to two main parts, with a third part, that’s really mostly a conclusion/summary. The first part is the idea of happiness. Crabb says there are two kind, first thing happiness and second thing. Firs thing, better known as joy, though he uses them interchangeably, is happiness IN Christ. Second thing happiness is the happiness of pretty much everything else – family, money, health, etc.

The second part consists of an introduction what he calls Spiritual Theology, followed by the seven questions to ask and answer of this theology. The questions are:

• Who is God?
• What is God up to?
• Who are we?
• What’s gone wrong?
• What has God done about our problem?
• How is the Spirit working to implement the Divine Solution to our human problem?
• How can we cooperate with the Spirit’s work?

He wraps up with some concluding thoughts and presents the question(s) he was hoping this book would ask. Finally, he spends a little time trying to answer that question.

My Thoughts
This book was surprising challenging. I say challenging, I guess I’m basing that on the cover. I had never read anything from Dr. Crabb before. Then all of sudden this summer, he was everywhere to me. First as I have been looking into Christian & Biblical Counseling, his name comes up often. Then I met with the community group pastor of my church who bases some of his small group leader training on ‘Inside Out’, Crabb’s most famous book. About that time, Baker Book’s email to people whom want to receive review copies had this book. So, despite the cover, I gave it a try. Continue reading →