People talk about being haunted by ghosts, but I've found it's far more common for people to be haunted by toxic people who are very much alive. When a toxic person's name comes up on their phone, they can literally feel their blood pressure rising. When they're trying to be available to their family, they find their thoughts drifting back toward a chaotic encounter or bracing for another attack. When they wake up in the middle of the night, they have a difficult time going back to sleep.
That haunting may be keeping you from your life-calling to seek first the Kingdom of God. When to Walk Away: Finding Freedom from Toxic People offers guidelines to help discern if you're dealing with a difficult person or a toxic person. It then lays out the biblical case and strategy to preserve your life and ministry by learning when to walk away—as Jesus so often did.
We just found out this week that, thanks to so many of you, When to Walk Away has now sold over 100,000 copies. That's a huge milestone in the publishing business. And in celebration of that, my publisher has given us permission to offer you the first two chapters of this book (via this post and next week's). If you've already read the chapters, please help us get the comments section going.
My hope is that many more of God's servants will be able to play a little defense by remembering that Matthew 7:6 is said in virtually the same breath as Matthew 6:33. Sometimes, we must play a little defense to bear all the fruit with which God is glorified (John 15:8).
A Most Clever Attack