Mary Batchelor's Everyday Book [Paperback]

If you enjoy - or find inspiration from - reading about the accomplishments of others, then this is a "must have" compilation. Each page focuses on an event, a person or an institution, drawing out a thought for the day.

So why did God create man? According to one Jewish thinker, because he loves stories. If you enjoy - or find inspiration from - reading about the accomplishments of others, then this is a must-have compilation. Each page focuses on an event, a person or an institution, drawing out a quote for the day. With its two indexes, the book is a valuable resource for people called to lead shared medititations.

Johnny Cash, American country and Western singer was born on 26 February 1932. One night, Johnny Cash woke up in jail in Georgia and couldn't remember how he got there. It gave him a severe jolt. The pressures of touring, recording, working for radio and television had become too much for him. He had taken to stimulants and tranquillisers as the only way to survive. But the habit brought its own train of disaster and Johnny ended up that night in jail.

Life itself seemed something like a prison to Johnny. Time Magazine had summed up the message of his songs in a similar way; they seemed to be saying, 'Life both in and out of prison is a kind of sentence to be served.'

Johnny had great sympathy for those who were literally inside. His compassion for convicts was expressed in many of his songs. He had sung in many of the big prisons in the USA, including San Quentin. He was strongly critical of the whole prison system. 'You put them in like animals,' he said, 'and tear the souls and guts out of them, then let them out worse than when they went in.'

But after his own experience in prison Johnny found true freedom - not only from the Georgia jail, but from his own personal prison of drugs and despair. He found the freedom that Jesus promised to give to those who trusted and followed him.