mmmmm... That's Good Stuff

I've got a buddy who, when he has a rich experience (e.g. quality time with one of his sons, a perfect surprise for his wife, wonderful worship with the saints, etc.), he calls it "delicious." I love teasing him about that. But mainly I love him because of that -- how he savors rich moments in life.

When I read the following, I thought it was delicious. Not because it describes something grand. But because it is as grand a description of human despair as I've read in a while. From Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years...

I clasped my hand over my heart and knelt between the bed and the television and rolled onto the floor and cried out to God a lamenting demand that he would come and save me from the sorrow that, for the immensity of it, I could only attribute to him in the first place. I didn't want to learn whatever it was he wanted to teach me. I cried out to him an angry petition for rescue. I doubted him and needed him at the same time. God seemed to me, in that moment, a cruel father burning a scar into my skin with his cigarette. And yet I knew he was the only one with the power to make the pain go away.

mmmmmmmm. Ever been there? I know a few of you have. I won't give it away, but Miller gives a keen insight on suffering I don't believe I've ever heard or considered. I assure you: it's much more than a cruel father burning a scar into your skin with a cigarette. It was so incisive that it made James 1:2 make actual sense for the first time in my life.

But it's not just about human suffering. If I were to sum it up, what Miller is trying to accomplish with the book is to make you bored of being bored. And I liked it. I think a lot of you blog readers would like it, too. Check it out.

What the World Needs Now

Tonight I just finished Philip Yancey's excellent book, What's So Amazing About Grace? I really enjoyed the work, even though it appeared aimed more at Christians & politics than Christianity in general. He makes some excellent points, though, that speak to the perspective of the "Evangelical Right" today. Often, it seems that the Christian Right seeks to affect change through legislation. It's as if we could pass enough laws, we could clean this country up. To that perspective, Yancey says this:

A state government can shut down stores and theaters on Sunday, but it cannot compel worship. It can arrest and punish KKK murderers but cannot cure their hatred, much less teach them love. It can pass laws making divorce more difficult but cannot force husbands to love their wives and wives their husbands. It can give subsidies to the poor but cannot force the rich to show them compassion and justice. It can ban adultery but not lust, theft but not covetousness, cheating but not pride. It can encourage virtue but not holiness.

The point is that Christians should not look to government to affect change. Churches and Christians should be agents of positive change, one community and person at a time. And Yancey argues that our primary weapon in that process of change isn't power, or even truth. It's grace.

I give Yancey's book 4 stars out of 5. Well worth your time to read. Give it a shot.

I picked up some new books today. You'll be hearing about them soon.

No Mere Book on Grace

Mere Christianity is starting to bore me. It's a difficult book to sit down & read for chapters at a time for pleasure. Not giving up, though. Yet. Will keep trying to slog through a chapter at a time.

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I love Johnny Miller. I miss Ken Venturi doing commentary for CBS -- he was the best. Now that he's gone, Johnny is the best. Hopefully he hangs around for a while.

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So, since Mere Christianity has been so tough to work through, I picked up & started to read What's So Amazing About Grace? EXCELLENT book so far! Some very good writing in this book. There is some showiness, as well -- it's like literary narcissism, and it's distasteful to me. But there is also some very good, sermon-inspirational writing. Value- & worldview-changing writing. You can tell that he took time to think before putting pen to paper.

In Chains

Currently Reading:
Mere Christianity
Written By:
Clive Staples Lewis

Pretty good so far. He has a pretty good pulse on human nature, which is what he opens with. Also, I'm pretty excited that this book has a World War II slant, as this book was originally a series of radio addresses that C.S. Lewis made during the war. I will comment when something makes me have to think out loud.

Won't be blogging this weekend. Going with my Dad up to Birmingham, AL for a weekend of RVing & golf. No WiFi where we're going, which is mostly a good thing for me I think.

Had a strange dream that has lingered with me quite a while today. I don't remember most of the dream, but I remember the part right up to where I woke up. I was sitting in a seat in an auditorium with a group of guys, and all of a sudden some prison guards come in to clap us in irons and lead us away to be processed in a prison. It was the kind of cuffs that it goes around your neck, and then a string of metal dangles down & connects to hand cuffs. Not sure whether or not there were ankle cuffs -- don't remember. But then I was following somebody out into a courtyard in chains, and there was a point where the four people I was following had to stop. They found a 4-seat table to sit at, and I had to stand there behind them. They looked up at me smiling, and then I looked up and around and there were other inmates in jumpsuits sitting at 4-person tables, and I was the only one standing. I remember thinking, "I don't know what I did to get in here, but I deserve what I got." And, "I'm not sure how long I'll be here, but it's at least going to be for 5 or 6 months."

Strange dream. And I'm one of those who believes that dreams have something to do with one's subconscious. So I'm thinking it means that I'm feeling guilty enough about something that I need to be punished, or that I'm feeling trapped or hemmed in by something in life. So these thoughts have been haunting me today.

From stabbing my grandfather & poisoning my grandmother (both of whom are already deceased) in a dream a couple months ago, to this, I have some FREAKY dreams, huh?

Having some mellow time this afternoon. Instead of watching talking heads debate sports topics, I've listened to a little Bebo & am currently listening to my Pandora station. Calming me down some.