Books - Summer Readings.
Ξ September 2nd, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ God, Reading, Theology |
This summer I’ve read a few books. I somehow have become a disjointed reader, maybe due to the fact that life is that way. I often find that I am reading 3 books at one time, based on my sitting location in the house. One by the bed, one by the couch, one at my desk and of course one in the bathroom. So I’ll tell you what I’ve been reading, but I won’t tell you where. you’ll have to figure that out on your own. 
The first book, which I just happened to pick up on a whim from a stack of gifted books from past Christmas times, is Bryson City Tales by Walt Larimore M.D. It is the story of a doctor’s first year coming to a small town in the smoky mountains. Honestly I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It is well written, funny, serious and emotional. Having grown up straddling between immersion in city life and familiar with country life and traditions of my parents, there were several parts of this book that brought tears and understanding and longing for those times again. There was the imagery of the outdoors, the no-nonsense ways of the locals, the feeling of the outsider being slowly accepted, even initiated. Country life and struggle, hospital action, family concerns, humor and sorrow all wrapped up. I’d recommend this book as a great recreational read. It would make a great movie, but they’d ruin it, so read it instead.
My second book of interest that I am right now in the final pages of reading is The Call by Os Guinness. Yes, related to the brewer of beer. The subtitle of the book is “finding and fulfilling the central purpose of your life”. This book is hands down one of the most influential books I have read as far as practical living and spirituality. It is from a Christian worldview and it goes to great length explaining some of the trends in culture today and exposing some of the great errors in past thought and teaching that has brought us to where we are today as a society and a culture, not just America, but the west as a whole. The premise of the book, if I have discovered it is that we have lost calling as a concept and purpose that guides our lives. This is primarily due to the fact that we have gone away from and done away with God. And basically calling makes no sense, in fact is not even possible if there is no caller. Instead we have changed the search for vocation to the search for what will make us money. We no longer do things in modernity because it just should be done or do it for the value of the thing or sake of the thing itself. We only do things based on the perceived profit and benefit. I believe that this is an excellent book for any reader of any background. It poses some interesting positions and viewpoints and deals with a variety of topics and historical events as well as philosophy and religion. Those not of the Christian faith might not easily take in all that Dr. Guinness puts forth here, but no matter what background you come from it challenges you to think about life, about meaning and about what it is that you were created for.
The third book of the summer that I have been reading is a classic. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Originally transcripts from a radio show that he did, they are adaptions of the radio show worked into book form. I have always enjoyed C.S. Lewis since I first read a young child the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. This book is more like a conversation you are having with Lewis, with him doing most of the talking and him anticipating some of your remarks. The chapters and short and the topics range all over life and religion. I believe he does a great job of explaining the core of Christianity to the non-believer and believer alike. He does not get into denominational traditions or issues, but just the core of what it means to be a Christian, and he brings a great apologetic and support against relativism and the popular thought that truth is relative and right and wrong are relative. Those are great awesome points and stir up great philosophical conversations with and between people. But as Lewis points out, relative truth and relative right and wrong are great until you personally are the one being wronged, or the one lied to or affected by someone else’s truth. Then all of a sudden we discover a standard that seems to be there across all peoples. The book goes from there. I’m just about finished.
The final book of summer was “confessions of a reformission rev. - Mark Driscoll“. This was a gripping book, a history and airing mistakes, disasters and successes of a church that started in Seattle in the 90’s and is now considered a mega-church with over 4000 weekly attenders. The pain and sacrifice of bringing the Gospel to Seattle, the learning and unlearning, the building and re-building, all this documented in this book by the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church (marshillchurch.org). Mark has a great ability to tell stories and get you right in the mix, as well as just let you feel the gut wrenching pain and the soaring satisfaction of success, all the while interjecting great humor and sarcasm among the gory details of building a church such as Mars Hill. He is frank and honest about people and about himself, about where they came from, about where they are and about where they are going and how. Anyone who wants to see and understand a glimpse of what it takes to truly be on mission and attempt to stay focused on that mission and learn and suffer a long the way should read this book. Then they should look at their own life, their own church, their own pastor and understand all that is going on that they don’t see, and then they should stop complaining about all the silly things that we complain about in church and get back on mission.
Well, that’s all that I’ve read this summer aside from some various readings in books of the bible. If you pick any up based on this, let me know how you like them. Peace out.
tomb