Laurie Beth Jones - Jesus in Blue Jeans: A Practical Guide to Everyday Spirituality

Jesus in Blue Jeans completes the trilogy which was begun with Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership in 1995, and continued with the second book, The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life, in 1996. The title of this third book reflects my personal journey as well, going from a full-time, workaholic businesswoman intent on profits and high productivity, to someone forced to take a time-out and evaluate her Path, to a person who is perhaps happiest in her blue jeans on her ranch in Texas.

In some ways this book also reflects the evolution of a generation. Those who were taught in the 1980s to acquire as much as possible with OPM (Other Peoples Money) were suddenly forced in the early 1990s to take a time-out, as the houses of cards we created with OPM collapsed into DYAM (Debts: Yours and Mine). As the new millennium hurtles toward us, many of us have either been forced through downsizing (or have given ourselves permission through rightsizing) to spend more time in our blue jeans and less time in the office. One of the great gifts of technology has been the flexibility to choose where we want to be while we conduct our businesses, interact with our families and communities, and utilize our gifts. We just need to know more about who we want to be while we are doing this, and that is a question technology can never answer. For this endeavor, I turn once again to Jesus, a person who knew how to combine the heavenly with the earthly, and maintain his balance.

In Jesus, CEO, I reminded leaders that if they treated their staff, followers, and associates the way that Jesus treated his, productivity and morale would soar. In The Path I presented a series of simple yet in-depth exercises that would help lead readers to their divinely inspired mission statement. Both books became national bestsellers, and spurred individual and corporate study groups worldwide.

Since traveling the country teaching principles from both books, people have come forward and asked, Could you write a book that would just help me with my everyday life? What more could you write about Jesus that will help me just get through the day?

As I pondered strengths in Jesus that helped him live so triumphantly, I found that there were four qualities that we, too, can emulate: Poise, Perspective, Passion, and Power.

In each titled section I present chapters detailing how he lived out these qualities. At the end of each chapter I have a prayer called Power Connections, because to me that is what prayer really isa powerful connection with the Source of our being.

Trying to divide Christs teachings into sections is like trying to put your arms around the sunlight. To the heart that needs no lines or boundaries, these section headings will merge into one. (To Rick, my editor, however, this arrangement looks like a highly organized package.) The most important thing for readers to recognize is that Jesus had an everyday life, just like you and I, and we, too, can learn the principles that guided his steps.

When I remember my first encounter with Jesus, it seemed that his eyes were like diamonds held up to the suncasting light in a thousand directions. I pray that the words in this book will somehow do the same.