Each week (give or take one or two here and there) I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.
1. Upside
This one is simple. I like free money in exchange for buying things I am required to purchase any way. In this instance, gasoline. Upside is a free reward/cash back program that partners mostly with gas stations, but also some restaurants. It is as simple as linking your credit/debit card through the app and claiming the purchase at the gas station. (They offer very clear, easy instructions in the app.) Then a couple days later they put the cash back in your upside account. Once you’ve accumulated some, you can cash it out to a bank account or as a gift carrot various retailers. If you share the app with others, like I am doing now, you get rewards on their purchases as well. Basically, if you drive a lot and spend a lot on gas this is worth checking out.
2. Bub by Drew Bratcher
If you like beautiful memoir, southern storytelling, country music, family lore, or simply fantastic writing I cannot recommend this wonderful book by Drew Bratcher highly enough. I am admittedly biased toward this book because A) Drew is around my age so the stories he tells resonate generationally and B) he is writing about the very Nashville Suburbs where I have lived for eleven years and C) I love the eras of country music he writes about most. More than that, though, Bratcher captures the ethos of a southern family, and, while I hail from Minnesota, my roots are in Georgia and South Carolina. Like most good memoirs, this book is wonderful less because of what it is about, per se, than because of what it represents and with whom it resonates.
3. “Psalm 34” by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir
Every Sunday, as a pastor, I drive to church earlier than my family. Rarely is my heart in a particularly worshipful state. Worries, annoyances, past sins and regrets swirl around my mind and weigh down my heart. So I use the 25 minute drive as a gospel reset. Sometimes this is quiet and soothing and prayerful but other times it feels like a brawl. On those days especially, this song is the one I call on for back up. It shouts down and beats down the lies that keep my eyes off Jesus. It is joyous and powerful and true and I am pretty certain that music in heaven will sound a lot like this.
