Party ‘Til the Cows Come Home

By Linda L. Scisson

A Book Review of Heart Wide Open

by Shellie Rushing Tomlinson

Dorothy Hill and I did not exactly party ‘til the cows come home at The Purple Cow on Wednesday, March 26. But we had good food and fellowship, before making the 100-yard dash across the street to Barnes & Noble for Shellie Rushing Tomlinson’s 7 PM talk and book-signing of her latest book, Heart Wide Open: Trading Mundane Faith for an Exuberant Life with Jesus (WaterBrook Press, 2014).

“Exuberant” is an appropriate adjective not only for the book’s sub-title, but also for the author. Shellie Tomlinson is an enthusiastic speaker and enthusiastic participant of life. In Heart Wide Open, Shellie writes that we can find exuberant life here on earth, as we continue to live “in anticipation of seeing Him in the next” (page 21).

 And that stretches our margins of gratitude for the Great Exchange: Jesus traded His death on the cross for our eternal life.

To trade mundane faith for an exuberant life with Jesus: The first step is to admit one’s faith is mundane. This takes humility, which attribute is seen in the first few pages of Heart Wide Open.

Shellie admits to a season of feeling as if her faith were “compartmentalized.” She felt a “disconnect” between her Sunday morning faith and her everyday experience, although she retained “a healthy respect for the teachings of the church” (page 4). But she was looking for something more than “biblical head knowledge” (page 6). She was looking for something more than “the church-lady gig” (page 5). Why? — Because she had an “aching faking heart” (page 7).

So Shellie embarks on “some serious soul searching” (page 7), as she ponders the words of Jesus in Mark 12:30: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (NIV). 

To our advantage, Shellie hoists us on the highway of a holy enterprise — to trade the mundane for the exuberant — in the first of the book’s eight chapters, titled “When All You Can Bring Him Is A Broken Want-To.” 

How does she do that? She discovers a way to conquer the mountain of the mundane. She embraces “the blessed challenge” (page 11). She asks herself:  “What am I collecting?” And she finds a “clear directive” in Matthew 6:20: “. . . collect for yourselves treasures in heaven” (page 11).

 

One simple prayer to regain a “heart wide open” to God is: “Help me to value and love You more.” And one practical step that we can take toward this goal is to remember, which means “to recollect.” We remember by collecting again (p. 15).

 

In other words, as we treasure God’s love for us, we will experience “the biggest adventure of all time” (page 9) — such as the “freeing [of] me from me” (page 125), as well as “the sweetest of addiction” to God’s friendship (page 21) — because “joy and contentment are found in Him” (page 19). 

 

Yet, to actually know God will probably not result in a 24-7 party ‘til the cows come home this side of heaven; but there will be indication of something favorable, something significant, something exuberant, as the Holy Spirit supernaturally ignites the lukewarm heart, as He woos us back to the Father.