Carlos Whittaker - Kill the Spider: Getting Rid of What’s Really Holding You Back

One of the hardest things to do is look at yourself honestly. And to do so without self-criticismbut with the passionate desire to improve your life for the sake of othersis even harder. Carlos Whittaker is a fitting guide for the journey. He will take you to the hard place and turn the light on. Nonsense living in the dark when a little light can create a more healthy, enjoyable life.

DONALD MILLER

In a world obsessed with outward appearances and dealing with the symptom, not the cause, its wildly refreshing to see Los dip far below the surface to address the real spiders that cause the real pain in our very real lives.

JON ACUFF , New York Times bestselling author of Finish

Carlos Whittaker has created a vehicle for all of us to better understand the aspects of our lives that prevent us from being free to grow and love without limitation. Kill the Spider is a masterpiece! I could not put it down. You wont be able to either.

SCOTT HAMILTON

I really wish Carlos had not written this book. I wish he had written a book called Eat the Gumdrop or Ride the Unicorn , but he had the audacity to write Kill the Spider . This is not just a book, its a declaration of independence. Now that hes faced his demons, the rest of us have no excuse not to face ours. You need this; it wont feel good, but you need it.

LEVI LUSKO , bestselling author of Swipe Right: The Life-and-Death Power of Sex and Romance

In Kill the Spider , Carlos not only takes us on his journey to defeat the lies that were holding him down but gives us practical advice as to how to kill the spiders in our own life. I really loved this book and will be handing out a ton of copies to my friends.

MIKE FOSTER

Also by Carlos Whittaker

Moment Maker: You Can Live
Your Life or It Will Live You

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ZONDERVAN

Kill the Spider
Copyright 2017 by Carlos Enrique Whittaker

Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Epub Edition August 2017 ISBN 9780310338017

ISBN 978-0-310-33800-0 (softcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-50004-9 (audio)

ISBN 978-0-310-33801-7 (ebook)

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Art direction: Curt Diepenhorst
Interior design: Denise Froehlich

First printing August 2017 / Printed in the United States of America

Heather
These words are wrapped in your
wisdom and warfare .
My spiders never stood a chance .

CONTENTS

M y family recently moved to a new home on the south side of Nashville. New is probably a little misleading, but what can I say? Its new to us. Actually, its a 1955 ranch-style home on a corner lot in a great neighborhood. I like the corner lot because that means more people can see how incredibly manicured I keep my lawnway better than if I were living at the end of a cul-de-sac. (Yeah. Im that guy.) Four bedrooms, three baths. A finished basement and a garage with a shop. Move over Cleavers. The Beavers hood had nothing on Loss new hood.

Wed been in the house just a few months before we took off for a summer road trip, leaving the house to pet sitters and a few guests who needed a place to lay their heads as they passed through Nashville.

We were on a stretch of deserted highway in the middle of nowhere Wyoming when a friend staying at our house called Heather, clearly rattled. The panic in our friends voice came through loud and clear even though I couldnt hear what was being said. I braced myself for the upcoming conversation where wed have to tell our kids that their dog Pope had tragically died in some unfortunate set of circumstances.

Really? Are you sure? Heather asked our guest. Ive never seen one the entire time weve lived there. Okay. Thats fine. Okay. Just tell me how much, Heather said in a calm cadence over the phone. What in the world were they talking about? Heather hung up the phone.

Natalie said she saw a spider on her bed. She thinks its a brown recluse, Heather explained. Shes kinda unnerved about it.

Theres no way it was a brown recluse. It was probably just a garden spider. Tell her to stay upstairs and out of the basement. Its no big deal. We will deal with it when we get back, I replied.

Fast forward four weeks. Road trip done. We pulled back into our driveway on the corner lot. Manicured lawn looks good. Life is good.

Immediate chaos commenced. Five Whittakers and 41,233 pieces of luggage. When we walked into the house it felt different than when wed left. Not bad. Just different. When a home is lived in by five people on a daily basis, the smells from the kitchen, the dirt from the nine-year-old shoes, the chaos of the tweens lives spills over everything. The house lacked the right smells, touches, and life. It was clean, but lonely looking. Ah, well. Itd be back to usual soon, I reasoned.

In the back of my mind was Natalies run-in with that brown recluse spider. I still wasnt convinced thats what it was, but something about that cobweb had me peeking under every pillow.

Change the sheets on your beds, kids, I yelled out. Funny how that spider sighting a few weeks earlier was suddenly bothering me more than it was when I was in Wyoming. As we settled into our evening rhythms, everything felt right. It smelled right. We had an incredible evening together, snuggling our 115-pound Bernese mountain dog and apologizing profusely for leaving him for so long. At the end of the night, Heather crawled in bed and was reading one of her Amish love-story novels. I was watching