I think the preface had lots of meaning in it. It caught my attention right away and started with a lot of emotion. It talked about Sharkey and how instead of focusing on the wrong things, Gregory Boyle focused on the good things about him and told him how amazing he was. This threw him off guard and brought his courage and spirits up. A lot of time we focus on the negative things about people but we should laud them on the positive things.
This chapter, was about how we should all marinate in the intamcy of God and knowing that He is greater than our tiny conception of Him. My favorite story from this chapter was about Willy. He asked Father G for money and while he was waiting in the car, he prayed. He shut up for once and let God talk to him. He realized that God thinks he could not be one bit better and it's God's joy to have us marinate in that.
This chapter was about the homies and how each and everyone one of them had a sense of disgrace strapped onto them. There was one particular story in this chapter that was very moving. This story was about Lefty. His dad always got drink and beat his mom and one time he grabbed a gun and held it in front of his dad. He of course did not shoot him but he was sticking up for his mom at nine years old and has had way more violence in his life then we should ever have in ours. He had to grow up way faster than any of a because there was no one there to protect him as he got older. He had to fend for himself.
Chapter three was about compassion. Gregory Boyle asks the homies what the difference is between compassion, empathy, and sympathy, and they tell him what sympathy and empathy are, but they say compassion is something altogether different. Compassion was the center of Jesus' heart. We are asleep to be in the world who God is. My favorite story from this chapter was about Beitio. Betito was only twelve years old and was so energetic and funny. His "girl" was sixteen and he asked Father G to borrow money. One day, Betitio got hit with a bullet and died. He was only twelve years old and has so much left to do in his life. Nobody's life is more important than another.
Credits:
Created with images by diego_torres - "heart rhinestones sand" • Devanath - "ank cross spiritual" • neiljs - "Leaves" • chrisf608 - "atlantic ocean" • maxlkt - "begging hands poor"