On A Whim by Robin Jones Gunn

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

To Own a Dragon by Donald Miller

I read Blue Like Jazz three years ago and was rather unimpressed. But now I want to read Blue Like Jazz again because I think, being in such a different place now, I would appreciate it more for what it is (instead of being disappointed for what it is not.)

I feel differently about his most popular work, of course, because of the stellar job Donald Miller did with To Own A Dragon. It was easy to read, and FUN to read, packed with valuable insight for those without fathers, but for all of us... I loved what he said about work ethic (pp 163-165), and how it is about participating with God, pointing out that work is not a result of the curse, but what we were created for. I loved what he said about education, and that if we think we are coasting, we are moving downhill (177). There were a lot of things like this that he reflected on... I guess kind of showing how God had taught him these lessons in various ways, even though he hadn't had a father to teach him. Well I have a great father, but I still learned a lot from reading this book.

I appreciate the tone of this book. Miller doesn't try to take on an authoritative or persuasive air. He is simply sharing his story, in a way that is sometimes humorous, usually helpful, often vulnerable, and always honest.

Peculiar Treasures by Robin Jones Gunn

Robin Jones Gunn, you have done it again. You have sucked me into a non-fantastical story, taught me truth, increased my romantic ideals, and left me confused about what to expect from men. And I enjoyed every page of it.

Marley & Me by John Grogan

Each chapter was an enjoyable story. And oh, how reading books about dogs makes one love them more. I loved this entire family. I was finishing this on the plane and crying... oh my.

Seven by Jeff Cook

Reading Jeff Cook's book was almost as good as hearing him speak. I was fascinated by the juxtaposition of the seven deadly sins with the characteristics in the Beatitudes. What a contrast between death and life! I was especially captivated by Jeff Cook's way of explaining them, especially his take telling of many familiar Biblical parables and narratives. I loved what he had to say about John Eldridge and turning the other cheek, I loved what his take on why Judas did what he did, I loved his explanation of lust and gluttony and envy....... five stars for sure.

Justice in the Burbs by Will and Lisa Samson

"One of the most famous verses on this issue is Micah 6:8, which states, 'He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" (NIV).

Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. These are actions, visible signs that we are following God's desires. When we focus too much on thinking right, we can forget to do right in ways that follow after God's heart. This can manifest itself in busyness of conversation, multiple Bible studies a week, and feeling so secure in our rightness that we don't naturally seek areas where we might be lacking. We contend that any notion of thinking right that does not involve acting right was anathema to Jesus. The apostle James said it succinctly: 'Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17 NIV)." (79)

"..the word religion has come to be devalued and scorned. People say things like, "I love Jesus, but I don't like religion." That's a shame, really. Followers of Jesus have always been linked by a common set of values. That is what it means to follow Jesus--to be a people held together by common values, the same values held by Christ himself. Remember what Jesus prayed for: 'I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one' (John 17:20-21)." (91-92)

"Let's suppose American Christians still owned slaves. Can you imagine the outcry from out sisters and brothers in Africa? There are now more Christians on the continent of Africa than there are people living in the United States. Do you believe the gospel would have ever taken hold in Africa if slavery were still legal in America, a nation closely associated with Christianity?" (94)

"[talking about the huge amount of corn-based products and use of petroleum-based fertilizers]... So in some weird but fairly direct way that Twinkie in aisle 12 is linked to all the struggles around obtaining oil in the Middle East.

Yikes. Let's take it down a notch and think about the people involved in the food chain. Migrant workers pick much of the food not harvested by big machines, food like lettuce and tomatoes. While no hard statistics are available, it is estimated that immigrant workers pick between 50 and 80 percent of our fruits and vegetables. So the current immigration debate in America is directly related to what you will serve for dinner tonight.

How about grocery store employees? What are they paid? Is it far? Are they carrying a heavy financial burden, perhaps living without insurance or medical care, so that you can pay ten cents less for a dozen eggs? Do you shop for groceries based solely on price, or do you consider the implications of a world where the store with the lowest price wins?

Okay, even that may be too heavy a place to start...[talks about overnutrition in the US, and cites this article... interesting.]" (can't actually find the article they cited though?)

"Let's look at the word "go" first. The word is given in a passive voice and could best be translated "as you are going." Jesus realized that his disciples would be leaving Jerusalem. he also realized that, to paraphrase the great Yogi Berra, "wherever they went, that's where they would be." So he inspired them toward missional movement, but he also let them know that in whatever location they found themselves, their involvement in the work of the kingdom was crucial." (147)

These were quotes I found redeeming and worthwhile from the book. They did make several good points. They urged a change in mindset and focus from the normal of Suburban Christian sub-culture which I appreciated. Sometimes, though, I felt they lacked decent description of Scriptural foundation. I also didn't appreciate the idea that becoming progressive and correct meant moving away from the church. Granted, the church is not perfect, and the church can be slow to change. But I agree very much with this blog post on the issue. Also, I know it shows only my own critical spirit, but this book was published by Emergent Village, and I admit I'm not sure how I feel about identifying with that movement, especially one that seems to be so against the church rather than lies themselves....... I don't know. This book was similar, but in my opinion somehow inferior, to other books I've read on the topic, so I did read it but wasn't that amazed.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

This one came so highly recommended that I expected better. An intense story. But I was left craving a more climactic finish, and clear moral lesson. Oh well. It was a fairly enjoyable read.

Why the Rest Hates the West by Meic Pearse

The word "hate" being used in the title is rather deceiving. Rather than focusing on global rage, this book explicates how and why many perspectives, beliefs, and practices of the Western world are so offensive to others outside our culture. He does indeed explain them in a way that makes it understandable why this would arouse hate in the rest of the world, but this is largely implicit.

The prologue sucked me in... It discussed how concepts of being tolerant and multicultural have developed in our culture. "Tolerance has been radically redefined. Originally it meant that two people (or groups or institutions) that were divided by hard, nonnegotiable differences refrained from oppressing one another on account of it. Now it has come to mean a dogmatic agnosticism about all truth claims and moral questions, with any dissent from it hounded at every turn until all submit to its insistent nescience.... The new "tolerance" will not tolerate traditional morality: 'everything is permitted in the permissive society-- except, of course, Christianity or Judaism or Islam or...'" (168-169)

Yet this concept of "tolerance" is almost something we take for granted in our culture. (By "our" Western culture, I speak mainly of the United States, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand.) We also highly prize privacy, see work as something for outside the home and value the family for emotional rather than economic support, and esteem education and progress (and also tend to devalue tradition.) But concepts we propose as "common sense" are not common in the rest of the world. We are rather the only ones in the world (and in fact, in all its history) to have these views. And because of our hyperprosperity (which is also quite unique to our place and time) our culture and economy easily "obliviously dominate."

Pearse explains how the reformation brought us the ideas of not just doing good, but being good, and how this led to ideas like business integrity and sportsmanship. Eventually these ideas came to permeate even Western Catholocism, and integrity became a high value. Then, influenced by Romanticism, the value shifted from integrity to being true to oneself. Now, rather than making ones inward life conform to outward morality, we "radicalize interiority and discard traditional morality." We think that acting however we want is better than doing something we don't agree with. Of course, to non-Westerners, this makes us dishonorable. Whatever the interior motivation, non-Westerners at least continue to DO the right thing.

An interesting quote about this:
"People behaving hypocritically is, of course, a bad thing-- but the existance of this phonomenon is a sign of a good thing. One can only be guilty of it if one aspires-- or at least feels one ought to aspire-- to high moral standards.... When Jesus denounced the hypocrisy in the Pharisees, he did so while speaking to an audience who bleieved, as he did, in traditional moral codes in their full rigor. He calle don his followers to be above hypocrisy. If postmoderns are guiltless of this failing, however, it is not because they are above hypocrisy-- but because they are beneath it. Without the least detracting from Jesus' denunciations of the Pharisaic moral double-dealing, I would venture to suggest that our circumstance is one that the gospel writers--indeed, any premodern sources-- did not entirely envisage. To be guilty of hypocrisy, one has first to accept the validity of the morals upon which it is predicated-- and our culture, uniquely, does not." (62-63)

My favorite chapter was on "Divided Lines, Infantilized Culture." A few quotes:
"But in a society where I can reinvent my life in an anonymous pea soup of people, change my career, leave home and make new friends in a different place, marriage bonds will be weakened. This was hardly an option open to premodern people. Quite apart from the laws and the more powerful force of social disapproval, the very material realities of life conspired against it. Moving away and reinventing one's life from scratch was not an option unless one was happy to submit to beggary.... For ordinary people, the necessities of life were best guaranteed by strong family ties. When the glue that holds the marriage together is no longer the self-interest of survival (for even moderate prosperity can be taken for granted nowadays) but the ability to enjoy the same entertainments together for half a century, then the edifice of the family is prone to come apart." (131)

"Premoderns knew who they were--and who other people were--by reference to their families. In modern society, the teenager must prove himself an adult by 'finding himself,' 'becoming his own person,' and he is to do this precisely by rejecting his family. The crisis of adolescence is a crisis of our own making..." (139)

"As our Western world intrudes ever more on non-Western space, we believe ourselves to be offering freedoms, prosperity and rising aspirations. And in a sense, we are. but we are also seen as egoists, rooted in no solid culture and no fixed network of family or relationships. The things we believe ourselves to be promoting do indeed appeal to non-Westerners. But quite understandably, not all of them are ready to throw themselves into the moral and social void in the process." (144)

Pearse proves that these things that separate Westerners from the rest of the world are not only offending them, but are negative for and will prove fatal to our culture and civilization. By the end, a call for a return to many pre-modern values, which are more sustainable and honorable, does seem in order.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

I don't believe in reincarnation or karma, and I actually don't even believe dogs have souls. But this book isn't really about that. It's about being human the things that go with it-- like generosity in love and discipline in perseverance. Some may say it is tied up all too neatly, but I do like happy endings.

A quote that made me laugh... especially because it is a dog that is writing it:)
“The human language, as precise as it is with its thousands of words, can still be so wonderfully vague.” So true!

Christy Miller #4-8 by Robin Jones Gunn

Oh yes. "Who's your hero, Sarah?" "I have two: Christy Miller and Todd Spencer."

The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller

This is a different spin on the gospel. It is a little bit different than what I've heard lately, but still more like what God is showing me recently than anything before three years ago....... I guess you could call it "reformed," but by that I mean only that the emphasis is on what GOD does rather than on what we can do. And it proposes that we need the gospel every day... Timothy Keller says, "The Gospel is the A-Z of the Christian life, not just the A,B,Cs." These are things I have been learning, from Alan Kraft's book and all of CCCG, and from my time at SGC, and even from reading Mere Christianity. But it bears repeating... over and over:)

The Path of Loneliness by Elisabeth Elliot

Let's just be real; it has been a lonely time for me. But I benefit from reading Elisabeth Elliot's sobering and re-orienting words any time. This particular book seems to focus more on issues related to loneliness. I like her idea of offering loneliness to God.

"It is a very different line than I offer [than joining a health club, etc], more practical, more "useful" in the long run than any diversion, one that has been for me not only eminently workable wherever I was, whatever the cause, but fundamentally transforming. It is not a trick or a program or a method of getting rid of loneliness altogether. I do not believe there is such a thing. It does not cost money, require skill, or depend upon the cooperation of others. It is this simple matter of seeing loneliness as a gift-- to be received, and then to be offered back to God for His use. We might say it is a coin, exchangeable for something of everlasting value.

"When a coin is spent it's gone. I have often found that loneliness given to God disappears. I cannot find it anywhere. My heart is light. My work is a joy. I am healed. and all unbeknownst to me, there has been, in addition to my own healing, an exchange I did not dream of: Someone else's load has been lightened.

"But then it comes again, in a different way, perhaps, but loneliness all the same-- the reminder that I was made for god, my heart will never rest anywhere else, and nothing the world can offer will satisfy.

"Can I promise that your loneliness will disappear at once? No. It does not always happen so. I cannot offer a want which when waved in the proper way will make your troubles vanish. I cannot say, "This is what you can do about it," but I can say, "This is what you can do with it-- right now." Receive it willingly from God. Offer it thankfully back to God.

"You will still be alone, but you will not be lonely. You will find solace in solitude, and your oblation brings you one step nearer to spiritual maturity." (147-148)

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

What can I even say? This book is soooo good. I can't describe it. Just read it. Whether you are a Christian or not. It is beneficial.

Emma by Jane Austen

I do like Jane Austen. But every time I read one, I feel like it is too long.

Treasury of Christmas Miracles by Karen Kingsbury

I know I'm late! I did read most of these during the Christmas season but for some reason read the last one just last night. It has been refreshing for me. I tend to think that God only works miracles like Shadrach, Mechach, and Abednego, saving the lives of those who are about to die for him, and in the process bringing glory to himself amoung entire peoples... So reading about how he works in tangible ways, sometimes just to bring comfort to one of his children, reminds me of the personal and powerful God that he is.

Good News for Those Trying Harder

This book was written by the pastor of my church in Greeley. I've heard messages based from this perspective that have really changed me and brought me life. So while it can stand alone as a good book with a very worthwhile message, to me it also represents the impact this message has had on me over the past 28 months or so now. It has brought me from a place of "trying harder" to understanding, though as of now only on a superficial level with still much to practice, that I cannot live "the Christian life" in my own strength. God's blessing and strength are not dependent on my performance. One of the most liberating new ideas of all this is that "we are not only justified by faith; we are also sanctified by faith." (173)

So often we have areas of our lives in which we have posted a "No Trespassing" sign to Jesus. The guilt, the shame, the fear we feel keep us from every letting Jesus get near. Ironically and sadly, it is often this shame that will lead us back into the sinful behaviors of which we are so ashamed. Sin always thrives in secret. But imagine what might happen if you choose to come to Jesus in that moment, to welcome His presence as you are raiding the refrigerator, or looking at porn, or exaggerating the truth. What if you choose to be aware of His loving presence in the midst of that sin? (170)

He goes on to explain that this does not mean thinking of Jesus as a Big Brother-like figure. This leads to shame and guilt, which can be powerful motivators in the short-term. But we really need is the heart change that comes from hearing the twin melodies of brokenness and faith. First, recognizing our sin for what it is, and then, after seeing how awful it is, looking to our Savior, not our own efforts for faith. I need to see that he is right there with me, saying, "I love you. I know why you are doing this, but it will not fulfill you the way you think. I am here to offer you motivation & a better way." And this can only happen by gazing upon Him, by meditating on His words to me, by drinking deeply of him- in other words, practicing His presence, as Brother Lawrence taught me.

The Heart of Racial Justice by Brenda Salter McNeal & Rick Richardson

I'd had some exposure to the ideas in this book... but some of them were new to me. And I can't say that I wholeheartedly agree with all the viewpoints and methods proposed by this book, but the truth is-- it's very good to hear a different viewpoint about something I don't think of enough. It is a good reminder of something I do believe strongly- that God designed for many nations to know him and for this to bring him glory. He is glorified by groups and cultures worshiping him in unity but not in ways that look identical.

And I believe that is our sinful brokenness that has caused those with power to use it to harm. And too often in America, in particular in my culture as a comfortable, I-haven't-done-anything-like-that, upper middle class person of a great amount of privilege, we don't even try to consider what it is like for other people...... we don't like to think about these tense, gritty, issues that make people like me feel guilty. But it is essential- because I am called to be united with my brothers and sisters in other cultures, and also to fight against injustice as a Christian. So now the most difficult question arises- how?