Caution to the Wind

By Joe Murchison

Don McClanen threw caution to the wind to live a bold life for Jesus. He founded five major ministries that influenced millions of people, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes the largest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1929478925
• ISBN13: 9781929478927
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Cross Training Publishing
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Captivating Read

I read Caution to the Wind with keen interest and enjoyment from start to finish. It is clearly written, well paced, and kept me reading without getting bogged down. What a thorough job of research. I liked the little details that shed light on Don's character: willing to sleep under the air plane seats on a flight to Hong Kong and in a totally bare room on Seaton Place N.W. in Washington, D.C., before attending the National Prayer Breakfast for the rich and powerful the next morning. Sod farming and tractor repair; jet setting and fund raising. He certainly did many different things with tremendous drive. Every turn in his remarkable life is told. No one could read this book without being struck by all Don McClanen dared and did. The author successfully avoids hagiography by showing Don's anger toward his son Michael (one chilling scene), his detachment at a time when his daughter Laurie was going through a difficult adolescence, his periodic disagreements with his wife over life style issues, his harsh treatment of a young man caught shoplifting, and prickly reactions when attempting, often unsuccessfully, to share power. Several references are made to Don's lack of connection with his emotional side and co-workers' belief that he needed some counseling or anger management. So the book doesn't whitewash a thing. Considering all the turns in his career and in his personal life that are described in detail, all the relationships with other Christians, all the decisions he made and why he made them, I am surprised that I still don't feel like I know the man very well. There remains something elusive about him. The book describes the death of his firstborn as an infant and the death of his daughter Judy at ten years of age (and her tender last moments), but the profound effect of these tragedies on Don is not well developed. I get the feeling that those events had a deeper impact on Don than is conveyed. What was it exactly that got under his skin and troubled him for years regarding the ending of his connection with FCA? I am hungry for more insights about the inner Don. He doesn't seem to be quite as open as he is described as being. The last section of each chapter on a different Christian virtue or theme had a lot of densely packed food for thought. Like his life, those sections were loaded with many, many challenges to the reader and suggestions for deepening one's faith. In some ways, I think less might have been--just in terms of being able to digest the rich material. I am going to read the Freedom of Simplicity, which caught my attention, and other books on faith and life that are mentioned in the book. I found it helpful to learn how Don was aided by silent retreats and centering prayer. Don loved to play with small children in impoverished countries and, in one incident in Haiti, he rushed to break up a fight when a stranger's life was in danger. These incidents and others filled me with respect for Don. Readers will admire hi