Reshaping It All by Candace Cameron Bure

I could focus on the fact that at many points while reading this book, it seemed like a repeat of cliche's I've heard over and over again. "Give it to God." "Be self-controlled and don't give up!" "Make good goals and a plan; follow through."

That's what a lot of it was. I haven't read any diet books before, or any Christian books particularly relating to weight-loss, but I've heard all those things before. And I've always shrugged them off. "I'm not overweight," I would think. "God is more concerned with my heart anyway; I need to worry about that first, and not be so superficial."

So even though I've heard many of the ideas of this book before, THIS FEELS DIFFERENT because I am now poised and ready to make a change. It's not because I'm overweight or superficial, but I'm making a New Year's Resolution for weight loss for the first time ever as a direct result of this book.

Some quotes... "I do my best to honor my body by giving it the best option I can." [And she encourages others to] "stop looking at dining out as an entitlement to pamper your passion" (173). Ouch.

"I knew that abusing my body with food was a bad habit for me, but since I wasn't hurting anyone else, I hadn't seen it as sin. I finally understood. He created me. My body is a temple to be used by Him and for Him. He desires that we seek a spiritual transformation, not merely a moral one" (182-183).

"Life takes time, and we need to remember that--it takes time" (194).

"If I have learned anything from my experience with trials, it's this: I need to take that step of patience now--not tonight, not tomorrow--right now. Push the food to the side today. Why? Because it's not going to comfort me the way that I think it will. And guess what? That food will still be there tomorrow.
"Some might say, 'It's just food. Get real!' But no, it's not just food any more than gold is just gold. When your life molds or shapes it into something you idolize, or use to tranquilize, it becomes your golden calf" (195).

Candace's wise words have helped me see things in a whole new light. Here are the two main changes:
1) She helped me realize that I look to food for fulfillment. In the past I've justified my view of food by saying I'm just enjoying a gift from God, but in my heart I know the truth: I think about, long for, and crave food too much. It is an idol. I love sweets, eating out, eating good cooking, and if I'm honest I usually enjoy them more than the company of those at the table, I don't have a thought --least of all of gratitude-- toward God, and as soon as it's over, I'm thinking about what will come next. I have a pattern of over-eating, trying to get that full feeling, to find fulfillment. It is kind of shocking to realize this... am I not to be filled with the Spirit?? Shouldn't that be enough? Years ago, I practiced fasting from time to time. Now I think I need to daily (hourly) re-focus myself as to what I need for energy, fuel, and what will truly satisfy.
2) She helped me realize that over-eating, not exercising, not taking care of this temple--ie, not being self-controlled is truly a SIN. We tend in our culture to rank sins. So many Christians seem to think that homosexuality and abortion are the only ones that "count." In my circles, it seems that not having daily devotions is THE WORST. So many of us (me included) tend to think of certain kinds of things as "optional," though the Bible would say otherwise. It's not a choice to be COMPLETELY SURRENDERED to my God and find all fulfillment in him, to not think one thought anything short of love, to not "beat my body and make it a slave." I have many reasons to try to be healthier and lose weight-- I feel better (happier, more energetic), to look good for my husband, I am able to do more (hike with friends, etc). The thing stopping me is laziness and lack of conviction. And that cannot be.

My desire in this endeavor is to fulfill Elisabeth Elliot's words, "Discipline begets discipline." I mean that if I can be disciplined in this area of life, I know it will spread to others.

The Mystery of Marriage by Mike Mason

The subtitle "Meditations on the Miracle" is very appropriate. This book reminds me of the writing style of John Eldridge; it has Scripture sprinkled in and seems to come from a Christian worldview, but is so romantic, metaphorical, and fluffy that I'm not sure exactly what the author is saying or how much I agree with. I like my books more straightforward, with outlined points and clear-cut summary sections. However, some of it was helpful.

My favorite part-- indeed, the most helpful for me, was his discussion of "Otherness" in marriage.

"The fact is that our natural tendency is to treat others as if they were not 'others' at all, but merely aspects of ourselves. We do not experience them as the overwhelming, comprehensive realities that we feel ourselves to be. Compared with us, they are not quite real. We see them as through a haze, the haze of our own all-engulfing selfhood..."(45).

Indeed, I often think of God this way. But loving someone, knowing and appreciating the being that they are, helps us learn to better know and appreciate the reality of God.

I liked his explanation of "the two becoming one":

"Inevitably, as we shall see, a couple will grow more and more like one another in character. Yet at the same time, for two to become one flesh does not mean for the hand to become a foot. It means, rather, for the foot and the hand to become coordinated, to start doing the same task, heading in the same direction" (140).

I also resonated with this:

"One of the commonest illusions about marriage is that it is meant to be a sanctuary, a place of familiarity and protectedness amidst the alien harshness of the world, a place in which the rigors of change and challenge and uncertainty are expected to be minimized, the shocks of life abated....God wants us to enjoy security. Unfortunately, we have a way of equating security with complacency."

What a helpful exhortation!

Still, for all these helpful tidbits, the sum of the book wasn't my style, and there were some parts I couldn't agree with wholeheartedly. Often it seemed that instead of supporting the idea that "Relating to God is #1; marriage is a reflection of that, and a way to learn to do that better," it was saying that "Make marriage #1 because if you're doing that, you're learning to love, and ultimately that's serving God." On page 157, for example, it seems that we are to be most concerned with "directly" submitting to our spouse, more than to God (though it is implied that submitting to a spouse is "indirectly" submitting to God.)

One particular thing I didn't like about Mason's style was his repeated aggrandizement of "love." It wasn't defined, the idea wasn't applied to various situations in life, but whatever it is, it seemed to be preeminent to this life, and the primary way to express it seemed to be marriage. Much was made of following love and being long-suffering and forgiving, holding to love's ideal rather than ever giving up on one's spouse. I am a firm believer in marriage; I believe God hates divorce. Still, I think in all this discussion, there should be explanation of how all these ideals apply to us in our fallen world. Particularly, some discussion of abuse situations should be noted. We should still discuss the importance of patience, steadfastness, and commitment, but the church has ignored how to handle very real situations of abuse for far too long.

If it sounds like I'm being harsh, I don't mean to be. On the whole I appreciated this book, unique from other marriage books I've read which tend to discuss only leadership/submission. I think I set my expectations a little too high when I read JI Packer's foreward:

"...marriage, being the most delicate and demanding of human relationships, as well as potentially the most delightful, is a terribly difficult topic on which to write wisely and well. I should have pointed out that the Christian world is already full of bad books on marriage, books written, it seems, by extrovert Pharisees for readers like themselves who want to reduce life to routines of role-play....Rarely however, has a new book roused in me so much enthusiasm as has the combination of wisdom, depth, dignity, and glow--I don't know what else to call it--that I find in these chapters" (9-10).

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Yes, after reading this book I did put a banana in a pot of water to see if it would float. It did.

I enjoyed this book. Martel is a great storyteller. It takes a genius indeed to make a story of a boy alone at sea with only a tiger, after the cargo ship moving his family's zoo from India to Canada sank, seem not not only captivating but also believable! At the beginning the narrator claims the story will "Make you believe in God!" It's great fiction, great imagery, great metaphors... but the kind of ending I hate. The kind that makes you question the whole story you just read. ((spoiler alert)) At the book's end, two men come to investigate how the ship sank, and ask Pi about his experience. When he recounts his survival story on the lifeboat alone with the tiger, the men ask for a story that "does not contradict reality." At this point, Pi tells another story involving other people being on the lifeboat with him initially, and shares how each dies in turn- no zoo animals at all.

Of course neither recounting helps the men figure out how the cargo ship sank in the middle of the Pacific, but the men find the latter story more believable. Pi asks, "So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can’t prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which story is the better story, the story with the animals or the story without animals?" The men think about it and choose the story with the animals. That is the "better" story.

Pi responds, "So it is with God."

My response after getting this far was to stop and say aloud, "What a bunch of postmodern garbage!" To me, Martel seems to be mocking the idea of believing in God- making it seem like believing is just choosing a story that one prefers. It sounds like he's saying that truth doesn't matter, if there is a story that is more pleasing, more convincing, or perhaps more comfortable to believe for a particular person. The men at the end of the story preferred the story of a boy surviving heroically by training a tiger alone in a lifeboat. That was easier to believe than the horrible story of cannibalism and a boy watching his mother be murdered.

Well, here are more reflections from someone else with more organized thoughts. Generally I agree with him and he says it better than me: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/the-life-of-pi-by-yann/page-2/#ixzz1XbHvC3ae

Here was a book that was supposed to make you believe in God (or so the cover claims). Here was a book that took faith seriously, didn’t hold to that hard materialist worldview. After reading it, however, I think Martel substitutes a hard materialist viewpoint for a mystical post-modern view of the role of religion.

This ending weakened the power of the book for me. I find it hard to read this story any other way then to assume that the horrific story of murder and cannibalism is the actual story of what physically happened. What the author seems to be saying is that God is a better story. That religion is a tool to see life in a new light. That all things being equal isn’t it better to believe in the mystery and beauty of a wonderful story? Like a great deal of post-modernist thinking there is kernel of truth in this view. People of faith know that a cold materialist view of life fails to explain what it means to be human. It fails to explain art and beauty, love and wisdom, a meaning beyond ourselves. Faith surely encompasses tradition and experiences that can’t be tied down to cold hard facts. But what is missing is truth. Nowhere in the story does the issue of truth come up. Pi does not embrace religion because it is true or a warped human approximation of eternal truth. The contrast between the two stories is not between what is true and what isn’t between what captures the essence of what happened and what doesn’t. No, for Pi the difference is what each story offers. One offers pain and suffering and despair while the other at least offers some beauty, some hope.

Pi goes beyond an intellectual humility that realizes that it could be wrong and therefore keeps from encroaching on God’s authority. Rather, in Pi’s world there seems no ultimate truth; no standard to appeal to regardless of position or background. I for one, fail to see the point of religious belief it is not a valid truth claim; if it doesn’t speak to a reality (a deeper, even non-physical reality but truth nonetheless). Perhaps, I am reading too much into all of this but for me the spiritual moral of the story muddied the work rather than giving it weight.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I enjoyed this book. Couldn't put it down. It dealt with a heavy issue very personally.

I saw the movie the day after finishing. The book is better, but the movie was good!

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

I didn't actually read the whole thing. I will refrain from either strongly endorsing or finding fault with it, though I will say during my reading of the first half there were moments when I felt like doing both. I suppose that is my feeling with most books that contain some truth but end up still being bestsellers...

I will say however, that I am grateful for the effect this book had on me. Voskamp challenged me with scriptures about practicing giving thanks. Her sensual, romantic giving of thanks for soap bubbles and cheese curds brought me to a place of longing for more of the practice in my own life. I know I am called to give thanks in all things, and give thanks for God's gifts, and it is unwise to overlook God's gifts such as these, but I wasn't content to stay there even for one second. Especially on days when I don't feel there are a lot of "little things" to be grateful for, and the harder I look the more bitter I become, what I need is not a sunburst in a camera lens but a strong, weighty promise of God that can truly sustain me. The reason that I could add things like a pink sunset and perfect ripples in the cup of water on my med cart to my own personal "thankful list" is because I know from whom they come, and am ultimately thankful for him!!

It is funny because most of the sermons I hear at church are about this very thing-- how the promises of God, the character of God, the Gospel of Christ, etc. are all we need, and that being thankful for these things in the midst of struggles and suffering is what will bring joy. And most of the recent sermons I've heard at church don't touch my heart. They leave me frustrated that I don't feel more gratitude. They feel me feeling a little guilty for wanting more.

I think that Voskamp did what a couple dozen SovGrace sermons couldn't, by bringing me to the place of fighting for gratitude enough to grab hold of it and not let go. In my desire for joy and ultimately to obey and give thanks, I find myself writing on my list that, "I am a child of God, and heir of God, and fellow heir with Christ" on my list and MEANING IT. I so desire to continue to grow in this practice of giving thanks. I will give thanks for cool rain and for midnight giggles, but I will give my thanks to God and always focus my gratitude on his promises.