reading: so many choices, so many questions

I recently received a question from someone who was honestly requesting feedback about a topic that has become quite a hot button among modern, Christian readers. It went something like this:

Why do people of our religious belief recommend books 

authored by those who do not hold to our doctrinal beliefs 

and who, through their study and research, 

do not agree with the Apostolic doctrine and, at times, speak ill of it?

I think this was a very valid question that deserves honest reflection.


(Just for the record, I guess this is a good place to say that I have yet to read a book, an article, or a study in which I agreed with the author, apostolic or otherwise, one hundred percent. I always find at least a little something that I disagree with!)

I addressed this issue in a post I made at the end of 2009.  You can read that post by clicking on this link:  http://questmiles.blogspot.com/2009/12/reading-in-2010.html.


In that post, I maintained that it is the personal responsibility of the reader to process everything they read through the filter of the Word. I said:


"It would be interesting as well as scary and horrifying to know how many well-meaning people with an intense hunger to know God were led off the path into the the side roads of humanism, self-adulation, and dependence on abilities and marketing instead of the Spirit, all because of what they fed their mind on a daily basis.  

Every book must be processed through the filter of the Word.  

Every innovative idea must be processed through the filter of the Word.  

Every emphatic re-discovered "truth" must be processed through the filter of the Word.  

Otherwise, our souls will soon become a product of of our culture, and the eternal will be swallowed up in the slick, and our lives will become worthless, empty, clanging bells. But there is no way to process all the new books and ideas through the filter of the Word if we don't KNOW the Word. If it isn't hidden in our hearts. If we don't read it over and over and over again to allow the layers of revelation it contains to overwhelm us fresh and new every morning."

I have not changed my position in that regard. I still maintain that so much misdirection occurs when good people read bad stuff and don't know it's bad stuff because they don't know the Word.

The problem does not lie with their desire to grow or do better--the problem lies in the fact that they do not have the Word hidden in their heart and, consequently, do not have the filter of the Logos through which the "stuff" can pass.

As far as whether or not we should read authors who do not agree with us doctrinally, I think the Word itself provides that answer. Paul talked about reading after the authors of the day when he spoke on Mars Hill in Acts 17:28 and told them that "certain of your own poets have said." In 2 Timothy 4:13, he also asked Timothy to bring him his coat and his "books, especially the parchments" when he came to see him in prison. It only stands to reason that those books were not all authored by ones who had accepted Jesus Christ as Lord. They were probably copies of Old Testament writings, but as evidenced by his knowledge of the Greek poets on Mars Hill, they almost certainly included books authored by Greek philosophers.

It is my opinion that the answer lies in how well one has metabolized the Word.  

The Word is the filter.

We must apply the same filter to the writings of those who do not share our doctrine that we do to conferences, sermons, and music of those that do not share our doctrine.

We must make a clear, distinct difference between "directional voices" and "inspirational voices."

The Word draws the line for us.

Island of the Blue Dolphins

So, I think I have mentioned before that I am returning from a long, dead period of my life where I did absolutely no reading.  An avid reader all of my life, I went through about a decade of nothing.  Wasteland.  No books, no desire for books, no growth.  That is a story within itself that is beside the point, but in January, 2010, I declared 2010 to be the "Year of the Book."  And it was! I probably shouldn't have said "year" though...I feel my soul returning and my insatiable appetite for the written word has once again taken over.

In the process, I am catching up on some old books that I missed during my desert sojourn.  So, even though you have probably read many of the ones I am just now discovering, thanks for bearing with me as I delight in uncovering even the older treasures...

Today's book is "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell.  Based on a true story, it captivated me.  It is an easy read--one that is recommended reading in middle school.  But the tale it tells is one as old as time and should be required reading regardless of age.

It is one of survival and amazing discoveries of the true capacities for survival that lie within each of us.  Set on a deserted island in the 1800's, it details a story of resourcefulness, discovery, and hope in the face of what most of us think would destroy us.

Get it.  You can finish it in about 3 hours. It's worth it.

Are you well-rounded? (What does that mean?)

A friend sent this list to me on Facebook and I found it very interesting how much I had NOT read!  Of course, this list is just someone's personal opinion as to what constitutes a well-rounded reader and if I had been making the list, I would have definitely taken out some titles and added in a few others.  Still, it's interesting to see where you fall on someone else's reading list.

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.  You are supposed to copy the list and bold or italicize the ones you have read.

I haven't read nearly as many of these as I would have thought, but I have read tons that are not on here.  Does that count?

Next on my list: "The Bell Jar" #76.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible 

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams  

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding  

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker 

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazu Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams 

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Annie Dillard

So....I'm just now reading Annie Dillard.

Where have I been?  Why have I not read her before?

Presently reading "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek."

I have only just begun, so am not in a place to totally recommend it.

But her writing is mesmerizing.

Have you read her?

2011 Book List

Here is where we will share books for our 2011 reading list.

My startup pile includes:

The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me by Bruce Feiler

Faith Begins at Home by Mark Holmen

Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson (I have started this book twice and can't get past the first chapter. I'm going to give it one more shot.)

On Earth as It Is in heaven: How the Lord's Prayer Teaches Us to Pray by Warren Wiersbe

Raising the Dead: A Doctor Encounters the Miraculous by Chauncey W. Crandall

The Lineage of Grace series by Francine Roberts  (It has 5 volumes)

Valley Forge: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory by William Forstchen

Operation Daybreak by David Norris

Thou Shalt Keep Them: A Biblical Theology of the Perfect Preservation of Scripture by Kent Brandenburg, Editor

Every Prayer in the Bible: Discover God's Patters for Effective Prayer by Larry Richards

How To Read a Book by J. Adler Mortimer and Charles Van Doren

Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp

Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp

The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson

As you can see, if I am going to read 52 books next year, I have 38 more to go.  So please post your comments with any suggestions.  (Or, if I'm going to be like Rick Warren, I have 349 more to go for 2011!)

reading and such

I am beginning my annual "season of reflection" which will last throughout the month of December.  I do not travel during December and try to keep any speaking to a minimum.  It is my time to draw close to the fire and reflect on the good and bad parts of the year that is ending and make resolutions of what to do better in the year that is ahead.

My resolution for 2010 was to make it "The Year of the Book."  Although I'm an avid book lover, various circumstances had forced reading to the back burner on way too many occasions for several years.  I felt stifled and felt as if a part of me was dying and knew that I had to return to a steady diet of books in order to see past the sameness of the every day.  I resolved to try to average one book per week in 2010.

So, my reflection has revealed that I actually averaged one book for about every 10 days.  I was very pleased about that until I read a tweet from Rick Warren yesterday that said:  "In January, I'm starting a Christian Leader's Library webcast.  For much of my life I've read a book a day."

A BOOK A DAY!!!

What kind of book?  Dr. Seuss or a 300-pager?  Retention rate?  Who pastors the church?  When does he find time to write?  Has his wife seen him lately?  Does he eat?  Does he sleep?  That may be it.  I could read a book a day if I didn't have to sleep.  Is he a speed reader?  A genius?

That just floored me.  Boggled my mind.  Did he mean a book a week?

Well, I will definitely be listening to his library webcast.

In the meantime, check out the Book Club label to get my thoughts on some of the books I have read this year and to add yours to the 2011 list.

A book a day.  How in the world...?

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Shock Book of the Week! By Michael Pollan.

The choices, preparation, and eating of food has a spiritual connection.  God spent a lot of time discussing food in the Old Testament and much of his earthly ministry and miracles were associated with food.  The Power of the Table has not been adequately addressed in the lives 21st century Christians.

For several years, I have been reading and studying, trying to analyze information vs. propaganda, and have become increasingly convinced that the Western diet is not only killing us, it is hindering our effectiveness in the Kingdom because of the vast amount of energy we must use to fight physical conditions which should not be.  After years spent under the care of doctors trying to find the cause of several physical malfunctions in my own body and ultimately being miraculously healed in March, 2009, I have made it my goal that I will do all in my power to keep my body as healthy as possible in order to fulfill what God has called me to do and to be.

I am also responsible for making sure my family is presented with healthy choices so that their bodies can remain healthy.

Michael Pollan has made more sense about the Western diet and some practical things we can do to cope with the food choices we have in America than anybody I have read in a long time.  He is not radical nor  unreasonable.  This book doesn't leave me with a helpless, hopeless feeling that it's just too hard for me to make right choices because of my lifestyle, my lack of time, and my location.

This book not only increased my knowledge, it left me with hope and some tools to make a difference in what I deem to be a very spiritual area of the lives of me and my family.

The Heart Mender

The second of two books sent to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers that I was asked to review was The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews.  I have enjoyed Andy's writing through the years.  I have not had any epiphanies while reading his works nor can I say I have ever been riveted, but they have been enjoyable reads and I eventually get around to reading whatever his latest happens to be.

The Heart Mender does not fit into his normal category.  From the first page I was intrigued.  Actually, his introduction was what hooked me.  He explained that the story was "for the most part" a true one.  A few names and locations had been altered since the principal characters are still alive, but in one word, "yes," the story was true.

Then, the setting intrigued me.  Realizing that the story was set on the beaches of southern Alabama, in and around Foley, Orange Beach, and Perdido Key, Florida, was plenty enough to grab my attention.  I have spent many pleasant days and hours there with my family when my children were younger.  We had access to a vacation home there and the landmarks and locations Andy describes in the book are all very familiar to me.

I am also intrigued by World War II history.  Having toured prison camps in Germany as well as many historical sites in the Pacific theater, I have long been amazed at how the United States seemingly turned its head for so long against the atrocities that were being committed elsewhere.  It was only when our own men and resources were attacked at Pearl Harbor, HI in 1941 that we began to sit up and take notice.  To find out that the evil that pervaded the world during those years was actually right on my back doorstep--off the coast of my own state, Louisiana--is amazing to me.

But it was the actual story itself that wouldn't let me put the book down and forced me to read it in two sittings.  An early morning forced the light out the first night.  The second night, nothing could have forced it out.  I read until 3:00 a.m.  There was no way I was going to save the end for later.  Amazing, mesmerizing, incredible...a story of love, forgiveness, suspense, horror, yet beautiful...

I wish so badly I could meet the characters who are still alive.  I know it would be infringing upon their privacy, but there are so many questions I would love to ask.

Male or female, you simply must read it.  I'm requiring it of my 8th grader in his Language Arts curriculum during the coming year.  I want my husband and college student daughter to read it, also.  I'm giving a copy to my mother.  And I'm calling my uncle, a history buff from Texas, to tell him to get it tomorrow.  It's a book for all ages.

You won't be able to put it down, either.

What difference do it make?

I have discussed the sequel to Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent in the past few posts.  What difference do it make? had some of it all.  It provoked me (to anger, sometimes), it inspired me, and it educated me as to how many of us with a compelling desire to help those less fortunate sometimes just spin our wheels because we do it "our" way instead of "their" way.

This book is not nearly as captivating as Same Kind of Different as Me.  However, that does not mean that it is any less effective.  It is simply different.  The first book is the story.  The second book is the world's reactions to that story.  It challenges us to act upon their challenge and make a difference.

Although not as mesmerizing as the first, I would still definitely recommend What difference do it make?  There are passages that will ring in my ears and that I will re-visit for a long time to come.  It's not enough to be stirred and filled with overwhelming good intentions, we must act upon them if we are going to make a difference.

When I die, I want the world to be a better place because I lived.

Programs Ain't Gonna Cut It

I will try to leave it after today.  I will try to write about something else.  But you need to hear just one more of Denver's stories:

"George W. Bush walked right up to me and stuck out his hand.  "Denver Moore! What an honor to meet you, sir."


Well, I felt like I had to be dreamin now.  Here was the president of the United States of America, treatin me, a poor homeless man off the street, like I was some kinda important person.  I didn't know what to think.  I don't even remember what I said back to him . . . somethin 'bout bein glad to meet him, too, I imagine.  But I shook George W. Bush's hand and I ain't the smartest fox in the barnyard, but in that handshake I felt like a whole lotta history passed through: croppin all year just so I could pay the Man, passin by water fountains where a colored man couldn't get a drink, and spendin most a' my life bein called a nigger.  Bein dragged by my neck behind horses when I was sixteen years old.  Scratchin and scrapin and bathin in fountains in Fort Worth.  And now here I was, an ol' 'cropper with a prison record, shakin hands with the most powerfulest man on the earth.


Ain't nothin that can do somethin like that but love.  The love Miss Debbie had for the homeless had carried me all the way to the White House.  And while the president still had ahold a' my hand, God reminded me of that scripture where He says, 'Through Me, all things are possible."


Government programs aren't the answer. Just writing checks and handing out rights aren't the answer.  It won't happen without love.

I John 3:17 -- But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

excerpt from What difference do it make? by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent

Don't Waste Your Burden

Okay.  Moving on.  Let's leave the little offensive "nut ball holy roller" phrase that we talked about yesterday behind and move on to a passage in the book that is a must-read for anyone who loves people and has a burden to make a difference in our world.


This passage is written by Denver Moore, the man who was homeless for so many years and who found Jesus and a better life because of the dedication of Ron and Deborah Hall.  He has a message found on pages 44-45 that may surprise some well-intentioned people who are attempting to live out Matthew 25 to the best of their ability. Here is what he has to say:

Denver Moore

"Most a' the people on the streets know Jesus loves 'em. But they figure nobody else loves 'em but Jesus.  Street people done heard more sermons than most preachers ever preached.  Lotta good folks come 'round the 'hood, talkin 'bout Jesus this, Jesus that.  Tellin us about Him is one thing . . . who gon' stick around and show us Jesus?  See, deliverin kindness ain't the pastor's job.  That's our job.  When Jesus sent the disciples out two by two, He didn't go with 'em. He stayed back and laid low, maybe had Hisself a cup a' coffee.


Listen at this: Jesus sent the disciples out. John and Mark and Nathaniel and them went into the villages.  When I was homeless, one thing I just couldn't understand is why all these folks kept tryin to invitin me in someplace that I didn't wanna be.  They'd come out and hand me some kinda piece a' paper, talkin 'bout, 'Jesus loves you! Come fellowship with us!' Now, their hearts was in the right place, and they just tryin to show me the love a' God.  But seemed like they didn't understand that it just ain't that easy.  


For one thing, them folks that invited me was all smilin and clean, and I was all ragged and dirty.  'Sides that, most a' em was white, and I was black as a coffee bean.  Wadn't no way I was gon' show up at their church lookin like I looked. 


For another thing, where was I gon' leave my bags with all my worldly goods, my blanket and my soap and my half-pint and what have you? It wadn't much, but wadn't no way I was gon' leave it in the 'hood with all them fellas ready to split it up amongst themselves. And I was pretty sure they didn't have no luggage check at the church. 


Then they'd say, 'God bless you!' and leave me with that piece a' paper so I wouldn't forget where I was s'posed to show up. 'Course, they didn't know I couldn't read.


See, we don't need to be tryin to drag the homeless, or any kinda needy people, to 'programs,' to 'services.' What people needs is people.


What people needs is people.  


Don't waste your burden.  Spend it wisely.

Don't Throw the Baby out with the Bath Water!

So I told you yesterday about the new book I was reading, "What difference do it make?"  I also told you it was a sequel to "Same Kind of Different as Me."  Make sure you read "Same Kind of Different as Me" before you read "What difference do it make?" because you will get so much more out of it.


These books are true; they tell the story of how an incredible woman ministered to the homeless in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and the fabulous connection her aristocratic, snotty husband made with a homeless black man who lived on the streets.  I have been mesmerized with the whole story for a long time.  The homeless black man was originally from Red River Parish about 75 miles from where I live.  The fact that there are others like him all around him has captured my mind and my heart.  I haven't done anything with it yet, but this story with me isn't over.


Anyway, back to the subject at hand.  I am now reading "What difference do it make?" and am just as enthralled as I was with the first book.


However, yesterday, I hit a major snag.


Ron was describing how his wife witnessed to him and ministered to him through her prayers.  It is a beautiful description and I was reading along a bit teary-eyed until I came to this passage:


"To tell you the truth, even I felt intimidated when praying with her.  Deborah prayed with such passion -- not like some nut-ball holy roller but with such knowledge of the Father as though He was her daddy and she was His favorite child..."


BAM!  Excuse me?  "...nut-ball holy roller..."  I stopped reading.


I am a Pentecostal.  Pretty passionate about my God and all things spiritual, actually.  The church of which I am a part has been in existence for over 60 years and was labeled in years past "the holy roller church." So, I guess Ron was putting me in the box he labeled "nut-ball holy roller."


I was offended.


I am not a nut-ball.  Most of the times, I pray quietly.  The times I do pray out loud it is a conversation with God and I have never, ever even considered the fact I may be a "nut-ball."  I wanted to stop reading, close the book, and give it to someone who might be spurred by its message to do something good for somebody, and forget about it.

Then it hit me that Ron's whole story is that of a man who overcame his prejudices and propensity toward judgmentalism to love people on the streets who were incredibly different from him.  

He just hasn't overcome his judgmentalism toward "nut-ball holy rollers" yet.  But he will.  God has brought him a mighty long way and he can conquer this, too.

And, in the meantime, I might need to look in the mirror and check out the level of my prejudice and judgmentalism toward people that I don't understand, also.  After all, that's the whole message of this book.  

This whole thing just illustrates beautifully the point that we will never totally agree with an author on every point he makes in a book.  But if there are enough truths there to overcome the negatives, we must learn to glean the nuggets and throw away the rest.  

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Read it anyway.

Two New Books

Good morning from the hot place!  No...it's not hell, but the temperature sort of makes you think of it.  It's just a major heat wave in August in Louisiana.  Temps soaring over 100 each day, humidity so thick you can swim in it, and oppressive, smothering heat when you step outside the door to walk the few steps to your car. I'm keeping those pics of the snow from a few months ago very close.  They help.

The nice folks from Thomas Nelson ran across my blog and some of the books I have been recommending the past few weeks.  They were nice enough to send me a couple more to preview and talk about on this blog.  Life's schedule the past couple of months has been brutal and my reading time has been reduced to a few stolen moments here and there when I can make myself invisible behind a door or something, but I'm excited to dive in to the new stuff.



Ron Hall and Denver Moore have another book following "Same Kind of Different as Me."  You just MUST read that book if you haven't already.  It's a true story and will inspire you to live your life more in line with Matthew 25.  The sequel is "What difference do it make?"  I can hardly put it down.  I will be
finished in the next day or two and will write about it here...I hope you will read it, too, and comment about it.  Incredible book, incredible people, incredible God.








The other book is "The Heart Mender" by Andy Andrews.  I love anything he writes, so I can't wait to sink my teeth into it.



While we're on the subject of reading, there is a fabulous blog post on Donald Miller's blog at http://donmilleris.com/2010/08/06/do-this-one-thing-and-youll-rise-above-your-peers/ that discusses the importance of reading and what is happening to the state of reading in our nation.  Please take just three more minutes and go to his blog and read it.  Readers are leaders.  If we become illiterate, we become robots.  Read!

The Shack

The Shack.

One of the most polarizing Christian novels to have come along in a long time.  You either love it or you hate it.

The story of author William P. Young is a compelling one.  Raised as a missionary kid in New Guinea, he endured sexual abuse at the hands of the tribe his parents were serving, suffered untimely deaths and losses, and the result was a faith that was deeply shaken and a life that became a train wreck.

Young originally wrote The Shack as a story for his children.  Following an adulterous affair, his wife, Kim, declared that he must change and forced him to confront all the painful issues of his past in order for him to heal and begin to make sense out of tragedy.  The Shack is a product of that confrontation.

In The Shack, the protagonist, Willie, endures a painful tragedy called The Great Sadness and, as a result, has a personal encounter with God.  The details of that encounter as well as the way Willie deals with his tragedy are met with extreme criticism from many religious arenas.

In my opinion, the book starts a bit slow and the description of The Great Sadness is very hard to read.  It is painful and I was tempted to put the book aside.  However, once past the graphic description of the tragedy, I was mesmerized and could not put the book down.  The end of the book presented yet another twist which was totally unexpected.  I pondered it for weeks after I finished it.

You must read the entire book in order to develop a complete perspective.  I will wait until comments indicate that several have read the book until I post my comments.  I don't want to give away any details that could possibly color someone's interpretation.

Of one thing I am sure: you cannot walk away from the book without a strong opinion.

"Crazy Love" by Francis Chan

The following review was written by Tim Challies on the Amazon website.  It is thorough and one with which I agree.  So why re-invent the wheel?  Here's what he had to say:

There are many voices critiquing the North American church today. The voices come from both within and without; from those who love the church and those who hate it. We all know that there is something wrong. But what? In many cases the prescription is the same while the cure varies widely. In his new book Crazy Love, first-time author Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, regular speaker at Passion conferences and other events, and the guy who recorded that "Just Stop and Think" evangelistic video where he walks for miles holding a surfboard, takes his opportunity to challenge the church. "This book," he says, "is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don't want to plateau, who would rather die before their convictions do." It is a book that is meant to change the way Christians live their lives.

There are two ways of critiquing the church. We can critique out of love or out of disgust. Chan is committed to critiquing the church as an act of love. In a recent interview, when asked about the emergent church, he said this: "As a pastor I hear a lot of emergent leaders talk about what is wrong with the church. It comes across as someone who doesn't love the church. I'm a pastor first and foremost, and I'm trying to offer a solution or a model of what church should look like. I'm going back to scripture and seeing what the church was in its simplest form and trying to recreate that in my own church. I'm not coming up with anything new. I'm calling people to go back to the way it was. I'm not bashing the church. I'm loving it." And his love for the church is obvious throughout this book.

The format of Crazy Love is straightforward and effective. Chan dedicates three chapters to renewing our understanding of the character of God and seven chapters calling Christians to examine themselves. Within the book are two ongoing themes that are going to get people talking.

The first theme is that we must painstakingly examine ourselves. We cannot assume we are saved, or to use the biblical metaphor, we cannot assume that we are the good soil. Chan calls the reader to a serious self-inventory through a chapter that provides a profile of the lukewarm. He concludes, "a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there's no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are `lukewarm' are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven." God wants all or nothing.

The second theme is deeply counter-cultural, going against the stream of both Christian and secular culture. It is this: live your best life later. Chan wants to see Christians living differently--living in a way that is markedly different from those around them. He wants to see Christians forgoing much of what we consider necessary, what we consider our due, in order to focus on treasures that are eternal. He wants us to get outside the realm of what is comfortable to us and focus instead on radical obedience. "God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through."

I found that this is a paradigm-shaking book with a message that Christians desperately need to hear. Too many of us are living too safely and too easily. But for the brief moments we spend at church each week, we are practically indistinguishable from the unbelievers around us. This is not the way it is meant to be. The church could use a loving exhortation and Chan delivers well.

Questmiles Book Club

I have always wanted to belong to a monthly book club.

You know, the kind that everybody reads the same book and then meets somewhere once per month to discuss what they liked and didn't like about it and how they agreed or disagreed with this or that and the thousand different things the author may have meant when he opened with the line, "It was a dark and stormy night..."  Yeah.  That kind of book club.

Finding time to read the book is not the problem.  But having a free evening to get ready, travel somewhere, spend a couple of hours discussing the book, chit-chatting with the other members while drinking a coke and eating cookies, then driving back home....well, THAT is next to impossible.

So...Questmiles Book Club will be our place to gather and discuss books.  I will post a review and you can respond with your thoughts and opinions.  We will also have a place where you can post any recommendations.  We will consider several genres: motivational, inspirational, instructional, thought-provoking, fictional (historical and Christian), etc.  I'm not into sci-fi, mysteries, or Westerns.

The only way this will work, however, is if you respond and get involved.  It's not going to be much fun to read the book, write the review, and nobody respond to it.  That's just work with no feedback.

So.  Are you interested or not?

We will start with the book, "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan.  Available through amazon.com and on Kindle.