Scott Couey

Spark is a great read!

WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group sent me a complimentary copy of this book for my review.

I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church and we would frequently sing the hymn Pass It On – “It only takes a spark to get a fire going…” Little did I know the concept of “spark” would take on a whole new meaning in my later years. In his new book Spark, author Jason Jaggard defines a spark as “…a choice. A small risk. It’s a flash of light that brightens the everyday routine of your life. It’s a decision to move from inaction to action.” A spark is finding something that would make you, someone else, or the world as a whole a better place and actually doing that thing.

Jaggard’s organization Spark Good encourages people to form Spark Groups (a group of about 8-10 individuals who meet for five weeks encouraging each other to take a small risk each week) with their friends and family. The book talks about why we need to take risks and tells the stories of several individuals (including Jaggard himself) who took risks and how they bettered themselves and others as a result. It is definitely an easy read and I got a wealth of information from it. Here are a few takeaways that impacted me:

• “Sometimes doing one imperfect but beautiful thing can lead you to more beautiful things later on if you are listening for God. Contrast that with doing nothing. Most of the time doing nothing leads to more nothing.”
• “Sometimes God calls us to wait until He speaks. Other times He is waiting for us to act. And other times still, He won’t speak UNTIL we act. It’s in the acting that we hear Him speak. It’s when we move that we begin to see God more clearly.”
• “When God moves and you stand still, God becomes blurry. Oftentimes the only way to see God clearly is to move along with Him.”

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with finding the next step to take in their life (after being unemployed, dealing with tragedy, or if you feel like you are in a rut). My only problem (and this is very minor) is the style of Jaggard’s writing – he writes a sentence or two then puts a space, then he’ll write another sentence then put another space, then write two more sentences and put a space…it’s not your “traditional” writing style and that kind of annoyed me. One of my friends described it as “writing down his thoughts.” This may or may not be a distraction for the reader (it was a distraction for me because I myself am a writer) but other than that it was a great read.

You can read the first chapter of Spark online. Watch the video for the book trailer below.

Photo Credit: By Parable.com