Flabbergasted (a book & my life)!

would link to amazon, but the cover is completely different
and this green car is actually a main character

A while ago a friend recommended for me to read Flabbergasted by Ray Blackston (amazon) so I put it on my library reserve list and waited.  Then a few weeks ago I got the email, picked it up, and started reading.  After a little while, I realized that I had previously read this book, but I couldn't remember the ending and I was stuck on a plane, so I kept going.

It was an interesting read.  The main character, Jay Jarvis, moves to Greenville, SC because he was relocated for work.  He begins attending Church for one reason - to find himself a nice gal.  He finds one, well sort of, and makes a lot of friends as well.  The girl he meets is a missionary who's heart is in South America so it seems like he ends up choosing between money and the girl ... but the ending is so dissatisfying that I remembered why I wasn't a huge fan of it in the past.

But as I was gathering the link from amazon for my post - I saw that it's just Book #1 - and there are two more books following Jay Jarvis and his journey toward missionary life.  Delirious Summer and Lost Rooville and books #2 and #3 respectively!

So I was going to write this pretty scathing review of the book, but now feel like that would be unfair since there is in fact two more installments to continue to follow Jay's journey - maybe he'll start going to Church for God and not just in search of good looking girls.  Maybe not ... maybe he will just abandon this missionary life when he sees that Allie has absolutely no interest in him romantically and he could be more successful if he went back to working in the financial world.

I don't know - but I do know that it's odd to become a full blown missionary while chasing after a girl when no one has had a conversation with you about faith and Jesus and WHY you are a missionary!

I kept thinking about why this book was recommended to me, what did Beth see in the story that led her to me?  She's never made a recommendation before.  Or did the Lord prompt this so that I would consider the life of a missionary.  Don't take this next paragraph as a decision I'm making.  It's just something that came up today at our work retreat that I'm writing down, out loud, to the entire internet.

We did this exercise where you had to choose whether you were a St. Bernard, a Wolf, or a Lion.  I am definitely not the St. Bernard, and don't consider myself a wolf, so I choose Lion - and I was the only one.  It's probably good we don't have too many people who think they are king of the jungle - or in this case Queen of the Church Office, but I was so hesitant to take on that role.  I don't want to be known as the bratty girl who wants to always be in charge and do things her way because she's the queen.  I know that many people see this as an enviable quality and also as a valued quality in the workplace, but I see it as a weakness.  I see it as an inability to let go of control coupled with a tendency to put my nose in places where it doesn't belong - where my opinion is just that - a thought that doesn't need to be expressed.

Then when we looked at our results of the SDI assessment (if you know what that is great, if not - well, I can't explain - it's another Myers Briggs type of personality instrument), I see that I don't test like a lion at all.  I'm very middle of the 'hub' as they say and when I'm stressed I'm more in the category of 'wolf'.  The guy leading the discussion made a comment about my compensating because we lack a 'lion' and additionally it's the position that I've been put in because I'm the Office Manager.

The question is "Is my career suited to my natural tendencies?"  Or should I run off and become a missionary in the jungle of Africa?  Maybe my own Jay Jarvis is there.