Kristi's Reading Room

Bonhoeffer Part II and Meeting Eric Metaxas in Seattle

2012-01-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

(No one can borrow this book now.) (The obligatory bad iPhone picture – Dick Staub & Eric Metaxas)

As I may have gushed before, the book “Bonhoeffer” impressed me on many levels. When I saw on the Facebook of Eric Metaxas (I did that so I wouldn't have to make his name possessive) that he was coming to Seattle I thought maybe I should go hear him. I say “maybe” because I’m three and a half hours away from there. But hey, he was coming from New York. And he’s alive. I have two friends in particular who understand these things. We can talk for hours and hours about dead authors, so this decision took about two seconds. It was too great a chance to miss – an author of this caliber, alive and breathing. We had to go.

There were only a couple of complications. The main one for me being that December 5th was the Monday of finals week. And not just any finals week, but my second term of graduate school – an experience like a writing boot camp or an intellectual gang initiation. I was drowning in theories and real responsibilities and facing an eight page final paper in Spanish, plus a German final. Crazy? Absolutely, but it was so worth it!

As we arrived, about a block away from the church a woman crossed the street in front of my car. It was getting dark, but I could see she was carrying a copy of Bonhoeffer. When she got to the sidewalk she broke into a run towards the church. She must have been a kindred spirit!

Hearing Eric Metaxas speak was worth every mile we drove. I love souvenirs, but it wasn’t about the autograph. When you read his bio, Eric Metaxas sounds larger than life. I don’t know if that’s what affected my thinking, but it a bit of a shock to see that he was not ten feet tall. Although he is hilariously adept at sarcasm, he was friendly and so kind when we introduced ourselves. The audio of the night is archived at the Kindlings Muse site. I had assumed that popping out books like Bonhoeffer and Amazing Grace was an easy thing for him, but listening to his story changed my perspective. He spent a lot of time drifting and floundering. Sometimes he felt mediocre, which sounds weird, but he was serious. He had dark times. Once he wrote a commercial for Ex-lax. Whether the variety in his career is due to a lack of focus or to excessively versatile talents, I can’t help but envy him a little. Furthermore, instead of just admiring his work, I am inspired to imitate him and to write beyond just homework. I wrote my favorite quote of the night in my mini moleskine, "God doesn't see you as mediocre."

I'm back to school now, and probably won't be reading anything but homework and the Bible for a couple of months, so I probably won't be blogging either. Except that Peretti has a new book coming... I may lose sleep over that. I survived last term, and my grades weren't bad!

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy, by Eric Metaxas

2011-11-11T16:30:00.000-08:00

This book is now known to some people as the book Kristi couldn't shut up about. This was the best book I’ve read in years, and I read a lot. Eric Metaxas is a brilliant writer and researcher, and owing to his own faith and heritage, he presents a mountain of information without losing sight of an important story that needed to be told. This book blends World War II History, Bonhoeffer family history, and various writings (including many personal letters) by and about Dietrich Bonhoeffer into a seamless narrative. It’s better than fiction in terms of romance, intrigue and suspense. I knew the ending was coming, but I became so involved in the story that I kept hoping Bonhoeffer would think of himself and change course.

Bonhoeffer was a complex and fascinating person. From my notes: He was multilingual (Spanish, German, English and more), a hiker, athlete, theologian, smoker, PhD, twin, world traveller, pianist, singer, flutist, teacher, preacher, believer, children’s minister, outlaw, expatriate, genius, writer, romantic, conscientious objector, undercover agent, fiancé. He had a temper at times, owned a St. Bernard once, and liked to argue. “You could not be a friend of Dietrich’s if you did not argue with him.”

I saw Metaxas joke in an interview that he wrote the title for rhythm. Pastor, prophet, martyr, spy. How could one man be all these things? Bonhoeffer was a pastor from a young age, and a spiritual leader even on his dying day. As “prophet” he recognized advancing evil and took a strong stand against it. He died a martyr because his Christian conscience led him into illegal activity. He was a spy in the sense that he carried on a deceptive identity in order to plot against the Nazis. (He once saluted Hitler in public as part of his false identity.) In reading how these random facts are linked in one person you get a feel for who he really was.

I loved reading from the German point of view. Most of what I knew about WWII was from a non-German perspective. It seems there is no end to the damage done by unfathomable evil, the tragic stories, or the sadness in the broken lives of survivors. (This hit home last year when I had the opportunity to hear a Polish holocaust survivor speak in person.) For me, Bonhoeffer’s story hammered a great wedge between the horrible holocaust stories and the greatness of Germany as a country and a people. As Hitler rose to power, some opposed him from the beginning, others were truly blinded. Some who had mistakenly supported him in the beginning had a slow revelation and a change of heart. Bonhoeffer played only a small part among countless German heroes, but his aristocracy and previous fame propelled his story into greater public interest.

The most challenging aspects of this book are the moral questions. Is it ever right to lie, disobey the law or kill? When you delve into the reality of being a Christian in a country where evil has taken over, the truth of right and wrong doesn’t change, but what has to be done for the sake of right and wrong can change. Sometimes you have to break the law. This area gets confusing to me, and even after some long conversations with friends, I am not so worried about what Bonhoeffer did, because no matter how we want to judge him in retrospect, he believed it to be right. I can easily leave that between him and God. But so many hypothetical situations come to mind... Would I have courage? Would I know what is right? Those were the battles Bonhoeffer faced in his mind. He made decisions that he believed were right, and they cost him his life. He had the courage to consider his eternal soul before his physical life. Some of us will never have to make the decision in terms of life versus death, but we do have to decide between an ordinary life and a dedicated life. In a slow way, we have to make the same decision. This book is praised by a broad audience, but I imagine the Christians who read it will be challenged in a much deeper way to live their faith with actions, and to evaluate their own convictions. Metaxas promotes this quote elsewhere, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

The ending. As I said before, I knew it was coming. Bonhoeffer is known as a martyr, and that status can tend to sound saintly and elevated. It can’t be overlooked that he was an extraordinary person who lived in extraordinary times. Yet Metaxas resisted glorifying Bonhoeffer’s death with pompous words. Yes it was heroic, but what comfort is that? It was one tragic loss among millions, an idea-churning mind halted, a writer stopped mid-book, a fiancé prevented from marrying, and a family's loved one gone without a grave to visit. Even though he died unjustly (as did so many others) the focus of the book is on his life, on his legacy, and on the empty space his death left in his world. I'm glad I read the ending alone, because I really don't like to be seen crying.

2011-02-03T17:27:00.001-08:00

Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

P. J. O'Rourke

And now, a Demotivational Moment

2011-01-15T23:40:00.000-08:00

From the good people at www.Despair.com :-)

Life Without Limits, Nick Vujicic

2011-01-07T23:16:00.000-08:00

If you are busy, skip my blog and go read Nick’s book. It will inspire you.

If you aren’t busy, watch this video, then sure, read my blog.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CBNonline?ob=0#p/search/4/i-OkIuQTBdo

Nick Vujicic is a man of many contrasts. He has no limbs, but he travels the world extensively. (I envy.) He struggles physically, but he is always smiling like he has won something. His future may look bleak to some, but he is ridiculously excited about his life – all because he chose hope instead of despair. His emotional suffering and physical limitations have pushed him to discover some truths in life that most people never experience.

Nick speaks to all kinds of audiences, Christian and non-, and this book is marketed to a broad audience. It isn’t preachy or overly religious, but it’s obvious that his trust in God is the strength of his life. He uses the word happiness a lot, but he possesses a deeper joy, and a hilarious sense of humor. This book is very future-oriented and discusses many angles of trusting, hoping, planning, with many examples from Nick’s life and many others.

Maybe I gravitate to Nick’s story because I know about disability. My dad is severely disabled with MS, and he also has a great attitude. People who just met him five minutes ago will comment on his amazing attitude. He doesn’t complain. His sense of humor is intact. He isn’t angry. He loves God, and he loves sharing the Gospel. I hear people carelessly say that if they were in a similar situation they would rather be shot. I’ve come to realize that my dad’s story, like Nick’s, is not at all as hopeless as you might think. What defines “hopeless?” Nick says, “If you say you are without hope, that means you think there is a zero chance of anything good happening in your life ever again. Zero? That’s pretty extreme, don’t you think?” Nick can say it like no one else - God can be all the missing pieces we need.

Some thoughts I want to remember (in no particular order):

Give!

Don’t be limited by fear.

Listen to good counsel, and be willing to take risks.

It doesn’t have to make sense now, just trust.

Whatever it is, it’s not the end of the world.

Choose a positive outlook.

Your pain can become someone else’s miracle.

Your pain can glorify God.

Attitude is altitude!

Master your strengths.

Hugs help.

The only thing I missed in this book was Nick’s Aussie accent. The rest was wonderful – a great way to kick off the year!

Quote #12

2010-11-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. -Gilbert Highet, writer (1906-1978)

RFL - Reading in a Foreign Language

2010-11-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

The other day I came accross an old, snotty college paper I'd written about fluency and reading in foreign languages. For all my research, and for all my interest in German I've sorely neglected a tiny, lovely German New Testament that has been gathering dust on my headboard. So last night I actually opened it.

And this led to a small triumph: I made sense of a German phrase on my own. I learned about 5 words (or less) on my trip to Germany in '99. I hadn't yet discovered that my love for reading would lead me to love foreign language.

I started by reading Matthew 1, and had zero comprehension. (The gothic script is eye-crossing.) Then all of a sudden, I saw "Gott mit uns." I read that, and remembered Gott is God. Mit, I learned in a German Burger King, to order a hamburger mit or not mit cheese. Since I know the English translation, uns must be us. God with us. Dios con nosotros. Gott mit uns. I had 100% comprehension the instant I read it, and it was an amazing feeling. Not just any words, but those words in particular. I've heard them at every Christmas of my life, and sometimes in between.

They were too familiar to catch my attention. Now they are new again.

I haven't had a moment like that since the beginning of my Spanish studies, and I realized how much I miss the first stages of a new language. At first it feels like you're drowning in meaningless, garbled nonsense. Then a connection snaps together, and you understand. Maybe not everything, but something. And you hang all your hope on that one enlightened moment, and dive deeply into more garbled nonsense. And after thousands more moments like that, you realize that the unfamiliarity isn't gone, but it is slipping away.

After a weekend with my Grandparents, who still tease each other in German...after reading a bit myself...after a moment of comprehension...well, they do say the 3rd language comes easier...

Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen

2010-09-10T18:47:00.001-07:00

I was sad when I finished this book because it's that good! I loved Emma, and I loved Sense & Sensibility. I loved Persuasion and Mansfield Park. I always thought Pride & Prejudice couldn't be that much better than her other books--until I read it. I can see why this book is her most famous, and I can't believe she wrote it at nineteen. This book is known for inspiring romance fiction, but honestly, I don't know why other people bother writing spin-off stories. This story is too perfect to be improved upon.

The greatest works of art have both universal and simple basic elements, and this story is both incredibly simple (boy meets girl), but also contains a variety of dynamics so that almost anyone to relate to it. A wise aunt told me years ago that you can have 4 kinds of guy problems. 1. No guys.

2. A guy likes you, but you don't like him. 3. You like a guy, but he doesn't like you. 4. You and a guy like each other. (More later on why that's a problem.)

In this story, Elizebeth Bennet experiences all four scenarios in that order, with the addition of Wickham, who Lizzie liked, but shouldn't have. The book opens with the five Bennet girls waiting around for husbands to rescue them from poverty. And all the while, "Mrs. Bennet was quite in the fidgets." (Read that out loud with a British accent.)

First, Lizzie rejects two proposals, once from Mr. Collins who is ridiculous, and once from Mr. Darcy, who she dislikes altogether. So the transition from "no guys" to two proposals is all bad news in Lizzie's book.

As the plot unfolds and Lizzie finds herself mentally attached to Mr. Darcy she is disappointed in herself for rejecting him. She begins to like him and he must not like her. By then we know they are both in love with each other, but Lizzie thinks she is wasting her emotion to care about him. This is why liking each other is a problem - the problem is coming to the revelation. For Lizzie, part of the problem is explaining why she's going to marry this man she used to hate, and now it looks like she's just marrying for money. She tries to convince her parents of her real emotions, but in the end, only Darcy really understands how she feels. In fact, her problems are not over until Darcy's second proposal. She is still embarrassed, and feeling "more than common awkwardness and anxiety."

There is no dialogue in the book at Lizzie's acceptance of Darcy's second proposal, only that her reply was with "gratitude and pleasure." And Jane Austen's genius shows in the way she handles these important moments. She zooms out, and leaves the couple standing there, almost as if even the reader doesn't dare intrude, and tells us, "The happiness which this reply produced was such as he had probably never felt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do." She leaves you amused, and wondering what's so sensible about a man "violently in love."

I think the beauty of Darcy and Lizzie is that in the end, they were both humbled by their love. Darcy married far below his social status and disappointed his family's expectations. He humbles himself to pursue a peasant. For Lizzie's part, she has to admit that she loves Darcy when she had rejected him to his face and to others. She is humbled to receive his love, and the gift of his saving her entire family from ruin. Only Jane Austen could make you think that a poor disgraced girl marrying a millionaire was actually a humbling experience for the girl. But we know, ironically, since many characters in the book don't realize, that they really married for love. This book ends non-famously by saying that the couple stayed friends with the Gardiners, "who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them."

Comment away...

2010-09-10T18:40:00.001-07:00

I fixed it.

You know that one book...

2010-07-27T22:23:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I had a funny experience with a bestseller. It was one of Those books. A top NYT bestseller. Read by millions. Smashing! Life-changing! Everyone should read it! All that according to the celebrity endorsements plastered all over it.

So I read it, sort of. I was intrigued at first, and was kind of gliding along, trusting that it would hold up to be a great book. It started out to be pretty interesting. Then the plot just fell off a cliff, and I did something I almost never do--I gave up. I suddenly became so annoyed with the whole thing that I skipped to the end to see if it would pull out of the mess. It appeared to have kept going downhill and ended in a mangled heap of a cliche. It was so awful that I threw it in the garbage because I couldn't in good conscience pass it on to anyone.

I'm being purposely vague because if I said the name of the book, you would know it. How in the name of literary goodness does this happen? I simply can't wrap my mind around the fact that this book was so popular.

I call my story "funny" because for me, it was. I love unique, stale, old books that turn out to be contain gems of wisdom and pearls of greatness. I love classic works of genius that are staggering, yet manageable and retain a permanent greatness. I like modern bestsellers that half my friends have read, and we can all agree. When it comes down to it, I don't really care who else likes it, as long as I liked it. I learned a tough lesson anew. No offense to the masses, but a bestseller isn't necessarily a good book, and a great book isn't necessarily a bestseller.

*Epilogue: I just checked, and I am comforted that around 750 people on Amazon gave a one-star review, as I would have. I may be a minority, but I am not alone.

Quote #11

2010-07-07T22:18:00.001-07:00

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking. -- Jerry Seinfeld

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

2010-05-01T13:25:00.001-07:00

This book was published in 1850, but reminded me of the much older "novelas ejemplares" by Cervantes that I saw (I'm not claiming I read them) in Spanish lit. Like the "novelas," The Scarlet Letter is also a tale with an overly obvious moral.

The story begins with Hester caring for her infant in a jail cell, both imprisoned because the child is illegitimate. The author only alludes to the crime that brought the child into the world. And by that point, the modern reader is already transported to a strange world, long past, where immorality was against the law. The story eventually unravels the truth about Hester's tragic past, and reveals the secret identity of the father.

The language and style seemed very archaic to me, but I've read much older writing, so maybe "old" doesn't truly describe the style. Countless cultural and historical references were lost on me, I'm sure. The narration is repetitious, and the whole story is saturated with drama, exaggeration and exclamation points. Endless references to the scarlet letter on Hester's dress reinforce her constant shame. The emotions of the characters are too dramatic to be realistic, but must be necessary for the plot.

I was amused by how Hawthorne took the role of omniscient narrator to be not only all-knowing, but also all-powerful. The sun comes out in happy scenes, and clouds darken all the sad scenes. Sun/happy. Dark/sad. Throughout the story, the sky collaborates with the author to reinforce the emotions of the scene, creating a sense that these events were so profound that the nature itself agreed. It's amusing, if not realistic.

I don't know Hawthorne's background, and I don't know his real purpose for this story. I read this book at a time when I was already thinking about honesty and the seemingly infinite forms of dishonesty. I've heard it said, "The mask wears thin," "Life will reveal who you really are," and "Once you lie, you have to lie again to cover up the fact that you are a liar." The tragedy in this story is not the one sin of passion, but the lie about the sin, and the misery of hypocrisy. In the narrator's words, "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."

Hester says, before revealing a shameful truth, "But a lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side!" And the father of Hester's child says, "More misery, Hester! -- only the more misery!...As concerns the good which I may appear to do, I have no faith in it. It must needs be a delusion...I have laughed, in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am!...Even thus much of the truth would save me! But, now, it is all falsehood! --All emptiness! --all death!"

The saddest part of this story is that even though the cause of all the suffering is a knowledge of right and wrong, there is no redemption. The sinners are not forgiven. The sombre last words are the words on Hester's grave, written in stone "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules." (Sable=black, gules=red)

It appears that while Hawthorne wasn't presenting a Christian message, he understood the Bible. This story exemplifies Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death," and ignores the best part of the verse, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Thank God we can be made free from sin, and become servants of God, walk in a new life, and the end is everlasting life! That deserves an exclamation point!

Comments?

2010-05-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

For now, I've disabled comments to stop the spam. I didn't realize my security settings weren't helping out the way I had them set up. Oops.

Quote #10

2010-03-30T17:10:00.001-07:00

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read. -- G. K. Chesterton

Quote #9

2010-03-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

To write that essential book, a great writer does not need to invent it but merely to translate it, since it already exists in each one of us. The duty and task of a writer are those of translator. -Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)

Face of Betrayal, Lis Wiehl & April Henry

2010-02-20T11:11:00.000-08:00

The easiest book review is two words: “Read this!” Soooo…this blog is going to be a bit longer because this book disappointed me. The mystery line of the story is about a young girl who disappears near her home in Portland. The story unravels the past leading up to her disappearance, and eventually reveals the cause and culprit. The main characters are three women (prosecutor, investigator and reporter) who work on the case.

I was excited about this book, but I was fooled by good marketing. I felt like I had read it before in actual news stories. I was hoping for more creative plot “twists and turns” as advertised. I was hoping to be surprised, and I wasn’t. And now I just sound like a complainer, but I felt the book lacked the sensory details that can make a good story come alive.

Because many of my reading buddies are much younger than I, a few scenes in this book prevent me from recommending it. Between an abusive boyfriend and an affair between an underage girl and older man, some scenes could have been left out. As I said before, they are elements common in the news. But it bothered me that they were presented neutrally, almost like news, and not as moral issues. The news is depressing. I enjoy books that deal with real issues, but in fiction I’m looking for an added entertaining, or inspirational, or educational spin. And life’s short, why not hope for all three?

Extra: Some similar books I’ve read are Randy Alcorn’s Deadline, Dominion, Deception series, and also recently, Sibella Giorello’s The Rivers Run Dry. They are also mysteries set in the Northwest, and – for me – were much more entertaining and thought provoking.

Shrinking Song, Ogden Nash

2010-01-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I may be on a poetry kick after all. I discovered this and a few other really great poems in an old book at my grandma's house. This one is a great display of good vocabulary and good writing, even if it's about socks. And I learned a new word, "hie" means "hasten."

Shrinking Song
Woollen socks, woollen socks!
Full of color, full of clocks!
Plain and fancy, yellow, blue,
From the counter beam at you.
O golden fleece, O magic flocks!
O irresistible woollen socks!
O happy haberdasher's clerk
Amid that galaxy to work!
And now it festers, now it rankles
Not to have them 'round your ankles;
Now with your conscience do you spar;
They look expensive, and they are;
Now conscience whispers, You ought not to,
And human nature roars, You've got to!

Woollen socks, woollen socks!
First you buy them in a box.
You buy them several sizes large,
Fit for Hercules, or a barge.
You buy them thus because you think
These lovely woollen socks may shrink.
At home you don your socks with ease,
You find the heels contain your knees;
You realize with a saddened heart
Their toes and yours are far apart.
You take them off and mutter Bosh,
You up and send them to the wash.
Too soon, too soon the socks return,
Too soon the horrid truth you learn;
Your woollen socks can not be worn
Unless a midget child is born;
And either sockless you must go,
Or buy a sock for every toe,

Woollen socks, woollen socks!
Infuriating paradox!
Hosiery wonderful and terrible,
Heaven to wear, and yet unwearable.
The man enmeshed in such a quandary
Can only hie him to the laundry,
And while his socks are hung to dry,
Wear them once as they're shrinking by.

Quote #8

2009-12-31T19:12:00.001-08:00

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin

Mary, did you know?, Mark Lowry

2009-12-25T19:07:00.000-08:00

Some Facebook friends have been joking about bad Christmas lyrics, such as "Let's give thanks to the Lord above for Santa Claus comes tonight..." and "A child shivers in the cold, let us bring Him silver and gold..." [not a blanket?]. This morning I pondered that I've never seen "folks dressed up like Eskimos," nor did I give my heart away last Christmas. Some music just doesn't bring out the Christmas spirit in me.

While there are scores of excellent Christmas carols, the popularity of these unrelated songs highlights the unfathomable time and space that separate us from Jesus' birth. I can't help wondering, How did we get from a world-changing story about the Messiah in a manger to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree?" I don't mind the goofy holiday music, but every Christmas I have to dust off my own CDs and make time for music that's actually about Christmas.

In my opinion one of the most profound Christmas songs ever written is "Mary, Did You Know?" Mark Lowry wrote this song in 1984 - a lifetime ago for some of us. :-) It captures a moment in time while our Savior was helpless and small, and the world didn't know what was coming. Mary held Him in her arms and must have wondered so many things. After learning this song in choir I've been accidentally analyzing the lyrics as poetry, and the more I think about it, I really love this song. Literature terminology is ugly, and it's Christmas. So do yourself a favor, and take a moment to read these words and just savor their meaning:

Mary did you know that your baby boy
will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy
will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy
has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered,
will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy
will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy
will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy
has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby,
you have kissed the face of God.

The blind will see,
the deaf will hear,
the dead will live again.
The lame will leap,
the dumb will speak,
the praises of the Lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy
is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy
will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy
is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding
is the great I AM.

A Notable Apocalypse That Didn't Happen

2009-11-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

This almost made me laugh. I opened this article in Smithsonian magazine called "Ten Notable Apocalypses That (Obviously) Didn’t Happen." (Isn't it rare to see the word apocalypse pluralized?) This first example has had me thinking the rest of the day. "An Assyrian clay tablet dating to around 2800 B.C. bears the inscription: “Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.”"

Bribery, corruption, disobedience, and what? Every man wants to write a book. How is that the a sign of The End? My thoughts are provoked. It's almost impossible to understand the Assyrians writing these words in that time period. People are talking now, today, about the change we see in the world. Kids these days. Murders, suicides and murder-suicides. We see corruption everywhere, not just in sensational types like Bernie Madoff. Politicians. Dictators. Terrorists. Pirates. Entire governments. Degenerates. Just regular liars. Oh yes, and men and women are writing books. Everyone has something to disagree with and something to say. Anyone can write a book.

I can only guess at the meaning of this Assyrian reference - especially since it was written on a clay tablet. What did the word "book" translate from, and what did it mean in 2800 B.C.? Maybe they were writing doomsday stories. Maybe people self-promoting to the point of being rediculous. The statement "every man" sounds like an exaggeration. Maybe it points to a general arrogance in the population. Whatever it was, it was awful because they obviously didn't think the human race would survive until 2009, predicting a new apocolypse for 2012.

I looked up Jesus' words spoken 2,800 years later when the disciples asked Him (a two part question) the signs of the end and signs of the Second Coming. A few key words in Jesus' reply were wars, famines, pestilences, offense, hatred, deception, deception, deception...false prophets and false miracles; there will be lots of sin and little love. I could pick up just one newspaper dated today and find an example of every single one of those things. Describing His return, Jesus never used the word "apocalypse," but He did say it would be an event like lightning -- instantaneous, brilliant and surprising. You could say that the end isn't near because people have been saying that for thousands of years, since the Assyrians. Or you could say--and I say--it must be closer than ever.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Ten-Notable-Apocalypses-That-Obviously-Didnt-Happen.html?c=y&page=1

Found in Translation

2009-08-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

I got inspired to run a section of my previous blog entry on Lincoln through a web translator. Twice. Yes - these are MY words double-translated on Babelfish. I see a brilliant future for myself in manual translation work. But for now, this is too hilarious!

Lincoln wrote three autobiographies to request. " After it was twenty-three and he had himself separated of his father, it studied the English grammar--imperfect, by all means, but to speak and to write as well as he now does." Those are the their words, speaking in the third person. One of autobiographies becomes fragments and hardly contains 47 words. The other two are a length small piece more, and add for above to less than 4,000 words--shorter than a basic test; you can read the three works in near ten minutes. Lincoln' the tone of s is effective, humble and minimisado. He doesn' t is discriminated, although his father was tremendous man, and the family was poor of the dirt. If Lincoln' the history of s had happened during the memory-saturated market present of the book, he could easily have produced to bestseller cheesy.

Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen

2009-07-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

2. A guy likes you, but you don't like him. 3. You like a guy, but he doesn't like you. 4. You and a guy like each other. (More later on why that's a problem.)

The Picture Bible

2009-07-03T18:42:00.001-07:00

I grew up with a Picture Bible, and just recently my mom found our old one and gave it to me. It's been so funny looking through it. It brings back my first impressions of all the Bible stories as I first learned them. My mom was surprised when I told her that I actually still think of the images from the Picture Bible, especially in connection with the more obscure Old Testament stories. I have a very visual memory, so this makes sense to me, but it might sound odd to others. (My brother thinks it's weird, and he used to read these exact stories to me.) Before I could understand the words, these pictures were the story.

As an adult, sometimes I do my Bible reading without really visualizing how dramatic and colorful the Bible is. Our society is choked with colorful media. They have figured out every effective way to hook our attention with colors, movement, and ideas. Even many textbooks are very colorful and designed with visual hooks and illustrations. Depending on these gimmicks can shorten the attention span, and trick us into settling for being entertained instead of taught. So back to the Bible, the grown-up ones without the pictures. With a little imagination added to the black & white pages, Bible stories are the most interesting, dramatic, romantic, suspenseful, complex, and life-changing stories in the world. And if you don't have the imagination for it, start by reading a Picture Bible. The illustrations are a little old-fashioned now (the hair!), but it's a really fun way to see the Bible stories, and is the perfect way to start out teaching them to a child.

Old & New

2009-07-03T18:19:00.001-07:00

I saw these books (top) with my own eyes in the rare book room at Powell's, and something in me agreed that the price ($2,400.00) was probably reasonable. They are old, and in good condition, hardback... This is the complete works of Jane Austen in 12 beautiful volumes. If that doesn't inspire you, you probably shouldn't be on this blog.

In contrast, the picture below is of my very own set of six Jane Austen novels, the Barnes and Noble paperback classics series. The whole pile is worth less than $50.00 altogether. And they aren't for sale. Now the question is, what should I do with the $2,350.00 I saved on these stories?

Thr3e, Dekker

2009-04-21T22:22:00.001-07:00

This whole blog entry is a spoiler. First, a quote from G.K. Chesterton (1925): "A novel in which a number of separate characters all turned out to be the same character would certainly be a sensational novel." There is Chesterton's futuristic (or was it a prophetic?) opinion of Dekker's sensational novel, Thr3e.

Reading Thr3e, for me, was a great example how each person has a different experience absorbing a story. I had two main reasons for loving this book and its devices. 1-I had just memorized Romans in Bible Quizzing, 2-I had just taken abnormal psychology in college. The combination of ideas intrigued me to no end. How in the world did he connect them? If you didn't just quiz Romans, or do abnormal psych, I can see that this may not excite you.
With Dekker, I can forgive his crazy plots. In this book especially, the message outweighs the characters and the plot itself. Technically the story should rule, but I'm on Ted's side this time. He captured a part of Romans that resonates with me. I would but I don't. I wouldn't but I do. The will, the sinful nature, and the desire to do good are battling to the death. Except that sometimes I forget that the battle is that serious.
An intriguing element in this story is the voice of condemnation, the voice of Slater that nearly leads Kevin to self-destruction in the end. Of course I believe in the devil, but I appreciated this portrayal because sometimes the voice beating us up the hardest is really our own. The heart is deceitful and in its sinful nature is self-destructive--to the extent of eternal death. To me, Slater and his duct tape are a weird but workable portrayal of this truth. We could die in our sin, even without the devil's help, as Kevin almost dies even though their is no real "killer."
What is the message of this book? 1. There is a part of you that will destroy you (Slater). 2. There is a part of you that wants to be saved (Samantha). 3. The human will struggles between the two (Kevin). 4. You can't overcome sin (Slater) without the help of God. 5. You can only be saved (Samantha's desire) by the grace of God.
Once one of my friends who hated this book acted out the final scene, which did kind of ruin it. Kevin shoots himself in the leg, and is pointing the gun at his head, talking to himself. Hm. Well, I hadn't visualized it, but there it is. I guess all of this goes to prove I like weird books.

The Rivers Run Dry, Sibella Giorello

2009-04-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

I need books like this for when the weather stinks. Here is a novel that takes you places--first, into the mind of Raleigh, a southerner in the Northwest, into the heart of Seattle, into the FBI, and of course, into a suspenseful and unpredictable mystery. I enjoyed the plot, the characters and the descriptions, but I think my favorite part of this book was all the unique metaphors. I've studied this type of writing, and it's harder than it looks. The descriptions are all her own - no clichés. Giorello's writing style is a distinct element that pulls you into the book to see what's going to happen and how she will say it.

Even though this is labeled Christian fiction, I was still pleasantly surprised that it contained many overt Christian elements. Raleigh's Christian faith keeps her from drinking, gambling, exploding in anger. She doesn't even flirt with her handsome coworker, who is kind of a jerk anyway. She goes to church, and brushes off her aunt's New Age mentality. The narration discusses the origins of the geography in Washington state from Creationist standpoint. This book was a relief and a lot of fun to read. I say relief because it seems like a lot of modern Christian fiction is just "clean" fiction. Rather, it's like secular fiction with the most graphic elements (hopefully) edited out. I felt that Giorello must have a genuine belief because her boldness stands out in this genre. That said, it is a gritty story. There is vomit, drug addiction, a creepy bad guy, and some suffering that doesn't really resolve itself. But there is also a strong message of hope--the Christian kind, of course--all the while acknowledging that resolution doesn't mean all of life's situations ending perfectly.

Abraham Lincoln

2009-01-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, 1861
I've been intrigued with Lincoln lately, and have enjoyed looking back to the history of his time. Especially considering the point in history we're at today in the wake of another historical inauguration. First, an excellent article about his speeches: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/man-of-his-words.html). Secondly, his autobiographies: http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htm. Lastly, a book I got for Christmas. I love coffee-table books, and this one is about the same size as our coffee table. "Looking for Lincoln: The Making of an American Icon," by Philip B. Kunhardt III. Thank you, Rachel!
Lincoln's upringing was rough, backwoods, and maybe...Redneck? The article I linked above illustrates Lincoln's innate talent for language, so I was shocked to find out his education was informal, delayed, often interrupted and incomplete. He said of himself, "He regrets his want of education, and does what he can to supply the want." In contrast to our modern politicians with their speechwriters and teleprompters, Lincoln's speeches were his of his own composition. He may have used other people's ideas, but the enduring speeches, the ones carved in stone, are of his own design. His talent with language was like a diamond that emerged roughly and became surprisingly brilliant.
Lincoln wrote three autobiographies upon request. "After he was twenty-three and had separated from his father, he studied English grammar--imperfectly, of course, but so as to speak and write as well as he now does." Those are the his words, speaking of himself in the third person. One of the autobiographies is fragmented and contains just 47 words. The other two are a bit longer, and add up to less than 4,000 words--shorter than a basic essay; you can read all three works in about ten minutes. Lincoln's tone is factual, humble and understated. He doesn't victimize himself, even though his father was awful man, and the family was dirt poor. If Lincoln's story had happened during the current memoir-saturated book market, he could have easily produced a cheesy bestseller.

A while ago, they published the before & after pictures of George W. Bush, illustrating how dramatically he's aged during these years of war. Lincoln faced the same stresses as our leaders do today. Besides the dark years of the war, his past and his family situation was not too cheerful. A loveless father raised him, and a self-centered woman married him; their firstborn son died too young. Lincoln's story wasn't balanced out by tons of love and personal support. In fact, considering the positive changes he made in the world, the entire story rings a discord, as if it wasn't really meant to be over when he was shot.
I'm impressed that Lincoln ending one of his writings by dismissing the details of his personal story: "What I have done since then is pretty well known." Maybe he knew that his life was so important that the details didn't matter, and that hundreds of others would write and re-write (and even blog about) his story.

Quote #7

2009-01-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

"[He's] fooling hisself with eddication. I tried to stop it, but he got that fool idea in his head, and it can't be got out." -Thomas Lincoln, on his son, U.S. President and orater, Abraham Lincoln

The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Mark Twain

2009-01-01T21:10:00.001-08:00

I found this ratty paperback for $1.50 at a bookstore on the way home from school--as if I needed a new distraction right then. I enjoy Mark Twain's witty character as it shows through in his short stories and essays, and I envy his creativity. This book is stories of the real characters and adventures that inspired Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. There are some politically incorrect moments, but they are in no way offensive unless you are too stiffminded to appreciate the world as it was back then. This book captures that world, at least from Twain's perspective. His way with words is almost as amazing as his adventures -- I laugh out loud. He paints pictures. Not just of his life and his family, but of his whole society. He alternates from serious topics like death, poverty, slavery, to his mischievous pranks, and the funniest things that happened to him, just for the sake of a laugh. (He once tricked a friend into climbing onto an icy, second-story roof, all the time hoping the poor guy would fall into an outdoor party in progress below and cause a commotion. He did and it did.) Mark Twain was the kind of kid that when he got smacked for something he didn't do, his mother said he deserved it for something she didn't know about. Less interesting men have written much about themselves, but Twain is one man who owed the world at least one autobiography.

Endurance, Alfred Lansing

2008-12-20T17:39:00.000-08:00

Subtitled, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage...First off, there are a lot of books about the Shackleton expedition, and this is the only one I've read and can recommend. It has a forward by James Dobson, and is recommended as an inspirational story and a "metaphor of the Christian experience." Shackleton and other members of the expedition have their own books published. This book is a mixture of journals and other research woven together. It is as suspenseful as the best novel you've ever read.

Ernest Shackleton was an explorer who took a crew of men and dogs from England to the Antarctic with the goal of reaching the south pole, I believe. The goal doesn't matter because they shipwreck so far away from their mark that the rest of the story is of their struggle to survive the worst possible place on earth to be shipwrecked. Many times, you wonder how you can be reading the story because surely these men didn't live to tell the tale. It's hard not to pity them for surviving. It is amazing and sobering how much suffering the human body can endure, and how strong the will is to live, even when the only option is living miserably.

I don't know if this story is a metaphor, but it is surely an example of the impossible coming to pass. If you've ever hoped for something that seemed impossible, or prayed a prayer that seemed to much to ask, this story will remind you that anything, is possible. My advice is to read this story during the dead of winter to maximize the effects of the freezing wind, barking sled dogs, the noise of a ship crashing through antarctic ice, and the rocking sensation of camping out on an ice floe. Reading this book made me cold, but the ending is really, really good.

The Unseen, T.L. Hines

2008-12-18T23:48:00.000-08:00

I read this book pretty quickly because I was snowed in when it came in the mail. I enjoyed it. It was an interesting plot, well-written, and suspenseful. The main character is a weirdo, even if he’s important to the plot. I had hoped Lucas was a clone, but he wasn’t. I did get a feeling of satisfaction from the creative explanation for his identity. A repetitious “Humpty Dumpty” quote gets annoying, and then it resolves nicely. It seems the more you observe, the less you participate. This story is an extreme example of a man trying to observe the world without being involved in it. Instead his face ends up in the paper, and the law and 20 killers are looking for him. I liked the line, “People look, but they don’t see. People hear, but they don’t feel.” There are a lot of thought-provoking ideas, although a few are more creepy than anything. I’m not asking for preachy, but I was anticipating more of a Christian message than this book offered. I found myself making comparisons with Dekker. (Couldn't help it.) Hines, a new author to me, handles violence more tastefully than Dekker. I can handle suspenseful scenes, but Dekker's last two books I read triggered disgust. Call me a wuss, but I don't consider nausea entertaining. The ending of The Unseen gets pretty violent, but without much blood or grisly details. The very very ending is a modern version of riding off into the sunset – driving out of state with a brand new set of identification. Comparisons aside, this author is no copycat. He did his research and wrote a bizarre, entertaining novel about a subculture I’d never heard of, and one that hopefully doesn’t really exist.

Quote #6

2008-11-28T16:58:00.000-08:00

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. --C.S. Lewis

William Cullen Bryant

2008-10-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Phyllis is my witness. A few months ago I told her, "I hate English poetry!" I meant it too. After reading poetry in Spanish, I got really turned off by the whole English language and its glottal stops. Spanish has a lot of aesthetic advantages over English. But, maybe my low opinion of English was due to my ignorance of it. :-) So some night, I was going to open my lit homework, which I was reading on a website. I wandered away from my assignment and found this gorgeous poetry by William Cullen Bryant, who I had never heard of. He writes about death, but sentimentally and even religiously, but not not at all like those famous suicidal poets. If no one's watching, read this out loud. It's from Death of the Flowers, about a woman who died in the fall. Here is a man who made English sound pretty, and I'm truly impressed: Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood/ In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood?/ Alas! they all are in their graves, the gentle race of flowers/ Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours./ The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain/ Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely ones again./ --http://www.19.5degs.com/author/ebooks/william-cullen-bryant/18/0#list

Spycraft, Wallace & Melton

2008-10-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

The subtitle is "The secret history of the CIA's spytechs from Communism to Al-Aqaeda." I found this book on accident, and I kept reading it on accident when I was supposed to be doing other things. The whole book is anecdotal so you can always pick it up and put it down (only to pick it up again). These are entertaining stories from back when technology was big and clunky. They actually tried surgically implanting a listening device into a cat. Only to realize after "humanely" testing the procedure, that the cat could not be told what to do. It kept wandering away from the target. I guess those agents weren't cat owners. Other stories show the real genius and guts it takes to be an agent. This is a really fun book if you like spy stories from the good old days.

Quote #5

2008-07-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?" --Henry Ward Beecher

Summer

2008-07-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

For nine months of the year I am a slave to schoolwork and dream of the endless hours I'll spend reading in summer. That's a leftover dream from being a kid... when the dream actually came true. I remember one summer where I stayed up reading until truly ungodly hours of the middle of the night, all summer long. I read Gone With the Wind, and most of the works of Thomas Costain, and Lloyd Douglas, Jerry Jenkins, Bodie Thoene (who I can't keep up with anymore) L.M. Montgomery, and many others when I was about 14. In some ways, I travelled more in those summers nights than I have in real life. I was reading for entertainment, for adventure, and for suspense. Now my summers consist of 40 hours a week working, hours at church, hours with friends, hours cleaning the corners of the house that have been neglected for three terms, hours doing everything but read... I'm trying to be responsible here. But I have managed a few hours reading too. Sometimes it's my only escape, my only adventure, and my only vacation.

Quote #4, Sor Juana

2008-06-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

"...Podía conmigo más el deseo de saber de comer..." - Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a Mexican nun who learned to read at age three, saying that as a child she had more desire for learning than for eating.

Quote #3

2008-06-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

Last term I was waiting for a lit class to start and overheard a couple of girls discussing a recent bestseller promoted by Starbucks. One said, "What I want to know is where the kids in the orphanage got all that pot..." Not long after, I saw this quote: "Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher." (Flannery O'Connor) I couldn't agree more!

Lost in the Amazon, Stephen Kirkpatrick

2008-05-12T12:26:00.001-07:00

Stephen Kirkpatrick is a career wildlife photographer - a mix of adventure, danger, misery, and big-time rewards if you succeed.

In this story, Stephen optimistically makes a poorly planned, highly adventerous trek into the Peruvian Amazon jungle to get some once-in-a-lifetime photos that will hopefully be that big break in his career. He has a team of guides, and they have maps. He is thrilled to encounter unknown species and uncharted territory, but somehow they walk right off the map into a seemingly inescapable place called "lost."

He describes the feeling of separation from the entire world so that you understand what he went through mentally. It's scary, even for a moment, to glance around and realize you've lost your bearings. He has that feeling for miles and miles, plus being a million miles away from civilization and his young sons.

He also brings you to feel the misery of the invasive heat and constant moisture. The humidity seems to seep out of the book and smother the reader. And he is babysitting hi-tech camera equipment in a place where,"If the heat, the bugs, and the starvation didn't kill you out-right, the mold would do it, one inch at a time." It's ironic that a place so lush and dense with life is a killer if you aren't prepared to be in it. Somewhere along the line, he realizes that "Christians die just like everyone else," and he is forced to rely on God to help them get out. At times, you just have to hang on to the fact that he wrote the book, so he must have survived.

Two images stick with me. 1. The team walking for hours, chest deep in a smelly, murky bog, carrying equipment over their heads. That is my fear of water on steroids! I would have died and decomposed sooner than go knee-deep... 2. Forcing himself to drink straight from a wild stream. Parasites aren't funny.

What makes this story a keeper for me is Stephen's passion for God's creation. I witnessed the edges of the jungle in Panama, and it's 'something fierce' but also awe-inspiring. Being inside it would be overwhelming. When I hear the Newsboys line "So much wonder/shaded by ancient trees..." I can't help but visualize this type of scene: massive vine-covered trees with sunlight filtering down in thin strands. Stephen describes the experience of the darkness, the lights, colors, sounds, strange animals and exotic flowers, and even lets you visualize some of his awesome photos that never made it home. With words, he has packaged up an extreme experience for people like me to enjoy - people who would rather curl up with a latte and read all about it.

After reading Lost in the Amazon, I've been following his website http://www.kirkpatrickwildlife.com/. I haven't bought into his photography (yet), but Romancing the Rain is one of those books I keep meaning to buy. His photography is truly excellent - 100% full of awesome pictures I could never hope to take. I hope he'll recieve all the recognition he deserves in his field of work.

Lyrics and language

2008-04-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

I love books, words, languages... even a little of poetry lately, (in Spanish it's at least pretty even if it doesn't make sense.) So I've been noticing lyrics to the music I listen to. This can be fun or annoying depending on the quality of music. One song I downloaded lately goes"Say it again, Say it again, Say it again..." and so on. The violin solo redeems the lyricist.

I've also been listening to the Newsboys. They have good rhythms, good guitars, good drums, but their lyrics (with Australian accents) are what keep me coming back to their music, which has been around for nearly my whole life! What's funny is at school, I'm sick of studying poetry in lit classes: hyperbole, hyperbaton, alliteration, asindeton, metaphors, rhythm patterns, rhyme patterns. But through it all, I can see these things showing up in music, and I'm all the more impressed with the good stuff.

One of my favorite songs of theirs is Adoration. It's the song of one of the shepherd's worshipping Jesus: "He raises a wrinkled hand/ Through the dust and the flies/ Wrapped in rags like we are/ And with barely open eyes/ He takes my finger/ And He won’t let go/ And He won’t let go /It’s nothing like I knew before/ And it’s all I need to know // Come, let us adore Him/ He has come down to the world we live in / And all I have to give Him/ Is adoration."

Another favorite "Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals /To the faithful gathered underground /Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation/ Some were meant to persist /Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples /None rings truer than this// It’s all God’s children singing/ Glory, glory, hallelujah /He reigns, He reigns."

As tempting as it is to analyize, I love to kick back and just enjoy this. Mark Twain said, "I am thankful that the good God creates us all ignorant. I am glad that when we change His plans in this regard, we have to do it at our own risk...People who understand art find nothing in pictures but blemishes, and surgeons and anatomists see no beautiful women in all their lives, but only a ghastly stack of bones with Latin names to them... Accursed be all such knowledge." He was a cynical old goat, eh? It's true that too much attention to something and you start noticing the flaws. But that's only unless it's something great. Then you just appreciate it more.

Magnet Poetry #1

2008-04-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Rachel gave me "Magnetic Poetry for Book Lovers" for my birthday - little magnet words you can string together... It's fun, especially if you don't have the time or patience for composing poetry. Here's my first attempt:

"No Spine Unturned"

Wander through ancient libraries.

Imagine human wisdom.

Question empty magic.

Search beautiful volumes.

Explore first plots:

People, heroes, spirits, monsters.

Mark vivid descriptions.

Entertain mystery.

Desire Truth.

Whisper epic answers.

Discover the world of language.

Quote #2

2008-04-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

"I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone." Mark Twain

The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis

2008-03-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

I got this book for my birthday... in 2007, Thanks, M. I thought about reading it for 9 months, but never picked it up. Four days before Christmas (2007), a 26-year-old from my work was killed in a horrible accident. This book seemed relevant all of a sudden. I read with the attitude that if there was an answer to 'the question', I wanted it right then because I was contemplating a tragedy that seemed absolutely senseless. The next week my Dad was hospitalized. While he was stabalizing, I got serious bad news from a friend. I kept picking up this book, and every time it was getting more and more relevant.

Lewis (and I love him for it) never really answers the questions I thought he would, but he offers insight that shifts my thinking. He says, "I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine of being made 'perfect through suffering' is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond my design."

From the title on, he treats pain as a problem and not a question. He tells us that pain is only unjust to our self-centered universe. But, "man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake."

Ouch.

The argument that a good God wouldn't allow suffering is a moot point. God is love, but love does not imply an absence of pain. In fact, for Him, it brought on more suffering than anyone else has ever known. Goodness is not to be confused with pleasure. His goodness and His love are greater than we can comprehend. Paraphrasing what I understand Lewis saying: The mess we've made of the world doesn't change the quality of God's love or the purity of His goodness.

For me, the 'centre' of this book was that if pain brings us to repentance, it cannot be unjust. It is only the love of God that would allow us to suffer because "love is more sensitive than hatred itself to every blemish in the beloved." If God were indifferent He would let us self-destroy.

"When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy." This struck a chord with me, because God has dealt with me, as He does with us all, about what I want versus what He wants. I think I know, but He really knows. Cutting edge psychology is confirming that we don't know intuitively what will make us truly happy or fulfilled. How frustrating. And yes, I already knew that. When we follow what we thought was right it's always a painful path.

If we suffer, and we trust God completely, there is a little part of our intellect that can accept the suffering as somehow, even if in an unknown way, giving us a chance to become what we are meant to be. We think that if we were free of pain, we would be more perfectly happy. Lewis says no, that is not the answer at all. In Heaven maybe, but not on on the Earth, not under the Curse. Joy and happiness can only be found in God, and we are born kicking and screaming into a world that has turned it's back on God.

This book encouraged me more than I thought it would. Partly because it's a good book, and partly because I needed the message. I wish the author were alive for me to write fan mail.

Reading Habits

2008-02-28T18:18:00.000-08:00

I'm going to confess a quirk (one of several) about my reading habits. I like to read more than one book at once. So, as a reality check to myself, and a trivial tidbit for others, I'm going to list the books that are currently on my headboard shelf. My immediate reading choices are always based on how tired, bored, nerdy I am feeling at that moment, and each book fits a different mood.

Mennonite Exodus, Epp (research)
German New Testament (keepsake)
My church Bible
My old church Bible
The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis
Spanish New Testament
Spanish/English Bible
Ensenando con variedad, Arlo & Jane Moehlenpah
L'Espagnol (novelty, teaches Spanish to French speakers)
The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton
How High my Mountain, Carl Ballestero
The Case for Easter, Lee Strobel
A Lady's Experience in the Wild West in 1883, Rose Pender
Word Painting, Rebecca McClanahan (library book on writing)

Wow. I guess I really do have a problem. Am I the only person who does this?

Through Gates of Splendor, Elisabeth Elliot

2008-01-12T20:49:00.000-08:00

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Did you know those words were written while Jim Elliot was still a college student? It was long before his mission to the Aucas, and long before his life became an example of what that statement means. The subtitle of this book is "The martyrdom of five American missionaries in the Ecuador jungle," but it's not really accurate, because the book isn't about death. The first two-thirds is about the lives of the missionaries, and all the intensive planning that went into the encounter with the Aucas. Their dedication is stunning and humbling. They were determined to fulfill the prophecy that every tribe would be represented in Heaven. They wouldn't rest until the Aucas had at least heard of Jesus. The five men were well aware of the moment when they were possibly writing their last words and singing their last hymn.

The word martyr has an obvious negative connotation, but after reading this, you can't see the men as victims . We like to put the verse "God loveth a cheerful giver" with the idea giving a money offering, but after reading this, I think that verse must mean more than giving money. These men and their wives experienced the peace of God as they faced life-threatening danger, and they truly gave without holding back. Nate Saint wrote a letter explaing thier motives, just nights before leaving home for the last time: "Would that we could comprehend the lot of these stone-age people who live in mortal fear...those who think all men in all the world are killers like themselves. If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts;"

This book was published in the 1950s, just after the martys died, and so the epilogue leaves us with no more knowledge than that Rachel Saint and Elisabeth Elliot were going to try and continue reaching the Aucas, but had not seen results yet. (See my notes on End of the Spear.) It took years and years to see any local good come from this event, although the immediate spiritual impact was worldwide. The Aucas did stop killing, and the mission hasn't ended to this day.

If you haven't read this, or if you just think you've read it, READ IT. It's an awesome reminder of where our treasure should lie.

Quote #1

2007-11-26T20:13:00.000-08:00

"Frank Peretti kicked open the doors that all of us Christian novelists are passing through today. We owe him a huge debt." --Jerry Jenkins

Jane Austen

2007-11-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
I haven't read all six novels, but so far, Jane Austen a favorite author. (I've read Emma, Sense & Sensibility & Persuasion. Need Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park.)
If you know me, you know my annoyance with most romance stories. So am I a hypocrite to call Jane Austen one of my favorite authors? No. No. No... Let me explain why. First of all, literature and genre fiction are different like apples and pizza. (Decifer that simile how you wish.) Modern fiction writers know there is a market for a type of book, be it mystery-thriller, sci-fi-romance, whatever... and they write to that audience without caring if all the books in that genre bear striking resemblances to each other. Romance fiction in particular (or more specifically, Christian romance) has a pre-set, often one-dimensional plot. Boy. Girl. Variations where The Unsaved is Saved, or Misunderstatnding is Cleared Up. Happy Ending. Austen's first critics said her works weren't appropriate for anyone not willing to plumb their depths. I can't say I've done that, but I enjoy them! The plots are excellent, and there truly is more depth than can be appreciated on one read-through.
Her novels are not predictable. I hate predictablity! That is one (of several) reason I don't read much romance fiction. You can guess without reading past the title what will happen because the picture on the cover tells all. To the contrary, Jane Austen created something new. She was a single woman in a world that respected married women, and she wrote a commentary on her society so descriptive that we can feel like we've been there, if only for awhile. The happy endings usually aren't altogether perfect, and they aren't really the focus of the book. Reading her stories feels like real life - you don't know how things will work out. Like in Emma, it's not just that Knightley & Emma fall in love, but the other issues so tightly connected, like her father's happiness and Harriet's broken heart. Fiction has changed so much that her style is new and refreshing today.
Jane's descriptions are not physical, and that has always intrigued me. I know her characters, yet she never told me what they look like, only who was elegant, who was not, or who had integrity, who did not. We know them by who they were, and not by their looks. Modern fiction has strayed far away from this treatment. Even modern Christian fiction characters are startingly good looking, with piercing eyes, sculpted... well nevermind. But watch for it. It's there. Some of my favorite authors fall back on generic Hollywood-quality descriptions. It's a cop-out, even if they redeem themselves in other ways. It's not about who has better cheekbones.
Critics have compared Austen to Shakespeare. How did that happen? She was educated by her father & brothers and she read a lot. She was a common person who became a very uncommon creator of literature. I think she had a genius for observation and understanding human nature and behavior. She once said, "A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment. " Another time, "The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love." And she never did.
Austen thought that artists should have to work, and she did. She set a high standard for enjoyment and for imitation. Her books are old, the English is quaint, but are well worth all the time it takes to read them. Even if it takes me another 20+ years to get to the next three.

End of the Spear, Steve Saint

2007-10-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

I don't live the most adventerous life, but I compensate by reading books like this one. Steve Saint moved his wife and four children into the deep Ecuadorian jungle to live with the Waodani tribe. Good excuse to write a book, eh? If you've read Through Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliott, then you already know the beginning of this story. Steve's father, Nate Saint was one of the missionaries speared to death by men from this very tribe, back when Steve was five years old. The rest of the story is that Steve has practically adopted Mincaye, the man who killed his father, as a second father. They share a friendship you would never think possible. If you've ever had to forgive someone and found it difficult, you'll be amazed at the miracle of this story. While the elements of the story itself are fascinating (a wild pig for a pet; monkey meat for dinner...) I was also impressed with the quality writing. You really get a taste for the language and customs of the Waodani, the distance and isolation of the world they live in. Their mindset is so far removed from ours. The Waodani thought white people, being so pale, must live inside trees. When Steve brought Mincaye to the States, his culture shock was more severe than an American in the jungle. Mincaye told his people back home that we don't use money - everything is free in America! You just show a little plastic card... More sobering was that they'd never heard of war as we know it. Men who used to kill with spears and had the highest mortality rate of any known population were horrified that our people sometimes kill total strangers en masse with bombs and guns. The Saints' ministry is not what we think of as typical missionary work. They had to re-interpret the Bible just to get basic concepts of Christianity across. Following God became "walking Waegongi's (God's) Trail." Stephen Curtis Chapman is a character in this story, and he was even instrumental in shedding light on an old, unknown miracle. [Listen to the song "No Greater Love" on the album DECLARATION and you'll hear Mincaye chanting at the end.] The ending of this story lets you know that in the middle of that long past tragedy, God was watching over the missionaries that died, over their families, and especially over five-year-old Steve Saint.

The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis

2007-09-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

When I open a book with C.S. Lewis on the cover, I'm always expecting something grand. But Lewis never tries to sound grand. He wraps his ideas in the commonest words. Chapter 1 of this book begins, "Most of my generation were reproved as children for saying that we "loved" strawberries..." If you avoid this type of reading because it looks boring, take it from my attention span and I that this book is as interesting as it is important. It's a masterful explanation of all those things we call "love" in English. He's not just finishing the sentence "Love is___." Rather, he discusses all those things we call love, their similarities, and the differences. Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity are the Four. There are many quotes, but here are a couple: "In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out." "True friendship is the least jealous of loves." "The Vicar says Mrs. Fidget is now at rest. Let us hope she is. What's quite certain is that her family are." You can't read this without examining yourself and how you love. One passage that spoke out loud to me was about charity. He says, "Of all the arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as "Careful! This might lead you to suffering." (I wish I'd written that!) He goes on, "When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ...There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken...lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket...it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." Well, as much as I'd love to post the whole book on my blog, I hope that's enough to bait a few of you into reading it for yourselves.

Miracle in the Andes, Nando Parrado

2007-08-28T21:33:00.001-07:00

After reading "Alive," I looked up Nando's story, written 30 years after the disaster. I was surprised by the impact of this book because I had just read the factual account, "Alive". But there was no feeling of repetition. If you've ever felt true panic, that is what Nando experienced nearly every moment for 72 days. This book places the reader "inside Nando's skull" and "in his rugby shoes, on the frozen slopes he was certain would be his grave." The emotions and philisophical questions raised here are profound.
Nando doesn't believe in the 'conventional' idea of God, although he remains Catholic to this day. He was one of the strongest heroes because he summited a mountain and walked 45 miles through the Andes without climbing gear. He decided a million times over to suffer a little longer through the cold "as painful as fire." He got a rescue team, but he degrades his own courage saying because he was so overtaken by fear at the time. He was more afraid of dying at the crash site, so he left to get help, and became convinved that he would die trying. He likened it to jumping out of a burning building - choosing one death over another. He doesn't accept that prayers helped him get out of the mountains either, although he calls it a miracle.
On his trek out, he summited the 17,000 ft. mountain and was devestated to see no farmers' fields, but just miles upon miles of more mountains. He writes, "In that moment all my dreams, assumptions, and expectations of life evaporated into the thin Andean air. I had always thought that life was the actual thing, the natural thing, and that death was simply the end of living. Now, in this lifeless place, I saw with a terrible clarity that death was the constant, death was the base, and life was only a short, fragile dream. I was dead already. I had been born dead, and what I thought was my life was just a game death let me play as it waited to take me."
He ends his story by bringing it current, to his loving wife and family, and also gives a brief update on all the other survivors. The sixteen have a lifelong bond and many are close friends. They occasionally visit the graves at the crash site, and even keep up with the Chilean peasant who was their first outside contact. With all those memories to deal with, Nando's father counseled him just days after the rescue that he not let the plane crash be the most important thing that ever happened to him. In one way, Nando is gifted to know how just how fragile and special life is. He ends with a strong message to savor every moment of this precious gift: "Live every moment. Do not waste a breath."

Alive, Piers Paul Read

2007-08-06T19:51:00.001-07:00

My boss recommended this book to me, and I confess that I read it because it sounded sensational. The story is a Uruguayan rugby team who charters a flight over the Andes mountains into Chile. They crash in Argentina at 12,000 feet. Most of the 40+ passengers die of injuries and infections. Sixteen live to the end of the book; all of them were forced to eat the flesh of their dead friends. Incidentally, I started reading this on a bad (horrible, no good...) day, and it momentarily helped me keep my problems in perspective. The book is developed from extensive interviews taken within a year of the rescue. There are some areas of TMI, and yes, it gets gory. If you have a "morbid fascination" you'll be okay. If you get grossed out, skip it. Since the media arrived almost before the rescuers did, this book needed to be written to tell the story with respect for what these men suffered, and not just to take advantage of a media sensation. This book is a reality check - the "heroes" were scared to death. They didn't conquer the mountain or cheat death. They fought and cursed each other at times, but moments later would apologize. This book held my attention on every page, but I read it so quickly that I couldn't keep track of all those names. I missed some of the continuity of individual people's stories, but I got a good feel for the big picture. Now, go read my entry about "Miracle in the Andes" By Nando Parrado, a survivor who told the story in his own words.

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

2007-07-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

I promise I'll get to some fun books, but Mere Christianity is a book that I think every Christian should read. It presents a framework for the Christian worldview. Although the doctrines are not always what I believe, it's written so I glean much more than I leave. The thing I love about Lewis is that he takes grand ideas and tells them to you in his perfectly understandable, British, grandfatherly voice. This book has an excellent chapter on morality. And Lewis is one of my favorite metaphor people. Here he uses a fleet of ships to illustrates our responsibility to ourselves, to each other, God, and our destination. He makes abstract ideas so clear to understand. This book is a gem! Here is one of my favorite quotes, mainly because I hear a lot of "patronising nonsense" at my crazy university. "Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

Book Club!

2007-07-18T22:42:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody! We've talked about an online book club for months, so I'm working on a blog about all things bookish. A special welcome to all of my friends who have ever stopped or been stopped midsentence with, "Book club! Ah!" when we realize we're talking about books. Again. For now, the formatting I'm envisioning is whoever wants to be in the conversation can open a blog at blogger.com. It's very simple - I did it! This way each have a room with our own opinions, and can still comment like crazy on each others blogs. The key to connecting them is that everybody links to everybody else. Sound good? I've started my blog with an author post and a book post, and I can't wait to hear what you're reading.

Frank E. Peretti

2007-06-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

We can't have book club without Frank! When I was two years old, Peretti published This Present Darkness, and invented the Christian novel of my generation. I don't know any better than to love this guy. He's truly one of a kind. The day the Apple iPhone came out, I heard a geek on the radio say that iPhone is the first cell phone ever, and it makes trash of all the rest. In some ways, Peretti is one of hundreds of authors in his genre, but he's not just another cell phone. He's the first to mix spiritual warfare, adventure, suspense, and supernatural monsters with Christian characters (some of them apostolic), and hard-core Biblical messages that condemn sin and preach a prayerful, sincere relationship with God. All that inside a seamless novel. Don't ever forget that he was the inventor. Others can imitate, but they can't compete. Looking through his books, The Visitation, The Oath, Prophet, Piercing the Darkness, Tilly, The Veritas set, The Wounded Spirit, Monster, and others, he delivers every time. He's a great example of what Christian authors should be. If I ever meet him, I want him to sign my copy of Monster and tell me what he was thinking when he wrote it.

Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel

2007-06-28T18:47:00.001-07:00

Okay, friends. Humor me. I'm going to post on some books that I know you haven't read. Two things could happen. 1. You will be so impressed you will want to read the book on my recommendation alone. 2. You'll be so satisfied just reading my blog, and won't want to read it. My mom has trained me to try and stay a step ahead of my comfort zone in reading, and this is the type that pushes my patience, but is well worth the effort. Galileo's Daughter, A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love by Dava Sobel. She is a historical science writer and author of "Longitude," a NYT Bestseller. That's a cool book too. She has a drop-dead vocabulary, but a very beautiful style of writing. I don't say this a lot, but I like her English. Sobel weaves Galileo's public life with his family story by mixing mainstream research with a set of letters he recieved over the years from his daughter, Suor Maria Celeste, a nun who from the age of thirteen lived inside the walls of a convent. Sobel actually translated the letters herself. Maria Celeste always starts out, "Most Beloved Lord Father," then chats about the day to day life in the convent, and often throws in, "please send money." A strong emotional bond is evident in every one. They are signed, "Your most affectionate daughter." There is actually a very sweet surprise ending to the story that I won't spoil. :-) Some interesting facts: Galileo was born the year as Shakespeare, and died the year Isaac Newton was born. Newton built on Galileo's work, and credited him as the father of science. The themes that interested me most were

the medieval life, especially the medical response to the Plague
gleaning scientific knowledge from nature without modern tools, measurements, standardization or reference books
the relationship between a scientist, the Catholic church, and the Bible, compared to today
the struggle of an intellectual pioneer burdened with ideas before their time (some of his discoveries weren't confirmed until the 20th Century!)
a productive person who had every excuse in the world to not be productive.

Take a deep breath and read Galileo's words written around 1615: “And to prohibit the whole science would be but to censure a hundred passages of Holy Scripture which teach us that the glory and greatness of Almighty God are marvelously discerned in all His works and divinely read in the open book of Heaven. For let no one believe that reading the lofty concepts written in that book leads to nothing further than the mere seeing of the splendor of the Sun and the stars and their rising and setting, which is as far as the eyes of the brutes and of the vulgar can penetrate. Within its pages are couched mysteries so profound and concepts so sublime that the vigils, labors, and studies of hundreds upon hundreds of the most acute minds have still not pierced them, even after continual investigations for thousands of years.”