Book Review: Through the Eyes of a Lion

What a gift this book is!  Through the Eyes of a Lion by Pastor Levi Lusko is an incredible treasure trove of grace and authentic faith.  I cannot imagine walking the path of losing a child.  Honestly…I don’t even know how people who have lost a child can breath in and out…but for the grace of God.  I am grateful for Lusko’s willingness to tell the story of their precious Lenya in a way that points so clearly to the Jesus than their little girl loved deeply.  This book is a great resource to those who have experienced great loss or will experience great loss…which means everyone.  I’m thankful for the way that the Lusko family is using this story to share the gospel and to serve other people.

I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below…

  • How many times had I sat next to people who were suffering but been completely unaware of the agony they were going through? Location: 256
  • Will we trust what we can see is there, or believe what God says is there? It’s a decision we are continually confronted with. The apostle Paul put it this way: “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT). Location: 267
  • when you don’t recognize the value of what you have in your hands, you will always get from it far less than it is worth. Location: 348
  • How do you live out an extraordinary calling while doing ordinary things and living in a world that is all screwed up? Location: 463
  • Life in real time is messy. The fingerprints of God are often invisible until you look at them in the rearview mirror. Location: 700
  • There are very few things more defining than the people you choose to do life with. Location: 883
  • For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. (vv. 1–8) Location: 1,294
  • Living with your heart set on heaven but your feet still on earth is not easy. Location: 1,478
  • The transcendent moments in worship where all of God’s people are rallied together, praising the Lord, are like those fleeting moments above the depths: a dark, hard week is coming, and you need all the sustenance you can get. Never take for granted the opportunity to breathe deeply when you are surrounded by an atmosphere of expectant faith supercharged by the presence of God. It is also crucial that you don’t wait for a crisis before you get these sorts of rhythms in place. You must train for the trial you’re not yet in. The worst time to try to get ready for a marathon is when you are running one. Location: 1,700
  • Proverbs 10:25 says, “When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more, but the righteous has an everlasting foundation.” Trials reveal foundations, whether sand or rock, but in the middle of a trial is not the ideal time to build one. Location: 1,718
  • Right now you are in training for a trial you’re not yet in. Public victory comes from private discipline. Location: 1,728
  • God used our suffering to bring a blessing to someone else. This is how God rolls. He puts to use what he puts us through. Location: 1,751
  • Pain is a microphone. And the more it hurts, the louder you get. Suffering isn’t an obstacle to being used by God. It is an opportunity to be used like never before. Location: 1,760
  • The things God deposits in your spirit in the midst of suffering are the same things that someday other people will desperately need. Location: 1,810
  • C. S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Location: 1,830
  • HARD TIMES ARE A PASSPORT THAT GIVES YOU PERMISSION TO GO PLACES YOU WOULDN’T GET TO ANY OTHER WAY. Location: 1,843
  • God’s up to something! He’s turning your mess into a message. He’s turning your pain into a platform. He’s turning your trial into your testimony and the trash that has come into your life into triumph! Location: 1,909
  • David said, “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls” (Psalm 42:7). Location: 2,141
  • DESTRUCTION BY DISTRACTION IS DIFFICULT TO DETECT WHEN IT’S HAPPENING, BECAUSE IT DOESN’T INVOLVE BAD THINGS BUT GOOD THINGS THAT TAKE THE PLACE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS. Location: 2,230
  • These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. (Hebrews 11:13–14) Location: 2,319
  • God calls us to go to places that frighten us so that we will fully trust him. The only way for you to see God do the kinds of things he desires to do in and through you is to run toward the roar again and again and again. Location: 2,427
  • To quote the immortal William Wallace from the movie Braveheart, Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live . . . at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM! Location: 2,449
  • The missionary Amy Carmichael said, “We will have all of eternity to celebrate the victories, and only a few hours before sunset in which to win them.” Location: 2,661

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