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My wife and i spent Saturday the 3rd at one of my best friends houses having a pre-4th party! We a had a great day for sure, made it “ok” that we didn’t see any fireworks on the 4th, sort of. On the 3rd my wife picked up a book that was on the table and just started pursuing through it. On Sunday the 4th she mentioned to me that the book was really good despite the unfamiliar topic to both of us, running. I responded with “yea, whatever” but picked up, read the first page, and didn’t put it down for the next 6 days. By Saturday the 10th i had breezed through about 290 pages of the book and was absolutely inspired!
I’m not a runner and despite the amazement with these fellows that can run hundreds of mile and be smiling as they reach the end of their run and my awe-inspired soul at a journalist who went from being a shabby, broken down want-to-be runner to running one of the hardest 50 mile courses you could image… so despite my amazement and inspiration i am not sure i will ever be a runner but i sure am convinced that we were indeed born to run.
In the midst of talking about the science of running, the evil of the shoe, and the evolution of running man (not the dance) author Christopher McDougall tells a compelling, page turning, epic story of a handful characters that were “born to run”.
The central figures of this story are the Tarahumara Indians from Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, most likely the best runners in human history. These crazy Indians run hundred of miles, some say they can chase deer until their hoofs fall off, and the idea of the persistence hunting by running is a really cool little section of the book. They live in peace, seclusion, and in the kinda of community i long for. They drink lots of beer, eat tons of junk, dress like kings and run like their existence depended on it. There are a lot of “teachable moments” in the book but the Tarahumara Indians provide a compelling story for running, living and simplicity.
I really did loved this book, little fascinating tid-bits like the persistence hunting, the idea that the shoe was the worst invention ever for the runner, and the component most runners lack is a simple love for running because wanting to look good or be healthy isn’t gonna cut it when your running 100 miles and could die at any moment along the journey. All these little nuguts weaved into an epic story lived out by the author really makes for a great book!
I’m not a fast reader by any means but i breezed though this one. And like i said, i might never become a runner but am glad i read this book.
And PS :: i’ve been online looking for running shoes – thin and cheap ones… we’ll see!
Go get Born To Run
This is a book i am been needing to review for awhile now. I finished reading it a month ago for so… so here ya go!
The Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher
On the back of this book are quotes by a couple well respected people; Brian McLaren, Lauren Winner. McLaren’s words I agree with, Nora Gallagher opens up The Table to wide audience in her book The Sacred Meal.
She is a great writer and as you read this book you will sense this and feel as if your sitting along site her, having a conversation about a often misunderstood but incredibly important aspect of the Christian life. She communicated the truth and mystery of the Eucharist in a very accessible and creative way. Which makes this book well worth the read.
Lauren Winner makes the statement, “I know of no contemporary writer whose insights about the Eucharist match hers.” I know Winner is smart and well read which is why this statement blows me away. That is a huge claim and one I would not even come close to making. As good of a book as this is I have read many that are better when it comes to Eucharistic theology.
Gallagher opens up the conversation of the Eucharist to all, which is great, but sometime she goes a little to far and leans a little too much into her trade as a novelist. I don’t need to agree with everything she says but I thing she stretches her metaphors a bit far at times and fails to simply tell us how to live a Eucharistic life, even though i think this is her aim.
This book is worth the read but go in open minded, ready to agree and disagree, but most importantly be ready to engage in a horribly important topic for today’s church, The Eucharist.
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If you want to buy this book get it here!
(buying it here sends eMinistries a little cash, So buy it!)
I got this book for free from Thomas Nelson to review on this blog.
THANKS!
Tags: Book Review, books
Here is a book i’ve been needing to review for about a month now ::
An Introduction to the Devout Life | Saint Francis de Sales
Like I said I finished reading this book awhile back but have been re-reading some of my favorite quotes and pondering the idea of the devout life.
It’s hard for me to embrace books by old timers like de Sales sometimes. I had the same issue when I read Brother Lawrence’s Practicing the Presence of God. It just seems like these guys are so spiritual and I wonder if I can ever really “get there” or something, if I can ever really live the kind of life they encourage.
Some of the problem is with the old school language and the perfunctory verbage but some of my problem is simply with myself. Can God’s grace really enable that kind of holiness in me? The answer is, YES! Yes He can. But it’s a journey, it’s a battle, it’s a epic story that won’t be finished anytime soon.
That, I need to remember!
Saint Francis de Sales write a great book here. Some very challenging things and some really practical things. The books format is as if he’s writing to a young daughter in the faith guiding her into the devout life.
It’s long and not the easiest read but I highly recommend it!
Below are a handful of my favorite quote and a thought or two about them, enjoy!
Read the rest of this entry »
It’s the first week of Lent so I will stick with the theme of confession…
I DON”T GET IT!
Poetry, at least the little of it I have read, baffles me. I read but I don’t often really get the point. Maybe that’s the point some times but that makes it really hard for me to get into.
We had a book of Poetry by famous poet T.S. Eliot laying around. I decided I needed to broaden my reading scope so I picked it up. It’s a collection with his famous poem The Waste Land and a bunch of his other work (buy on Amazon). Now I enjoyed bits and pieces, but like I said, for the most part I didn’t get it.
It reminds me a bit of the parables of Jesus.
They are often a bit cryptic, they make you think, they engage your imagination. And this is much of their point. They don’t want to make a clear cut statement, they want to lead you to imagine the beauty and challenge that is between the lines, that is in the middle of the letters and words… a parable leads you into a prophetic imagination of how God created you to live, breath, and interact with the world. Maybe poetry, at it best has a similar purpose. To engage your imagination and stir you to think things you wouldn’t have thought otherwise. And lead you in a way that doesn’t give you the answer but rather helps you to find it yourself.
Or maybe they are just cryptic ramblings… poems that is, not parables.
With all that said, I bought another book of poems. I was talking with my friend Brandon Heath at the coffee shop a while back and he recommend a book of poetry by author Billy Collins entitle, Sailing Alone Around the Room. Last night I saw it Barnes and Noble and picked it up. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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A poem fitting for LENT (maybe)
By T.S. Eliot
The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues the circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
I perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearer to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from God and nearer to Dust.
My first finished book of the year was by author Eric Geiger and was entitled :: Identity; Who You Are In Christ.
This book was as much research for some preaching and writing I’m doing as it was anything but I took a few nuggets away for myself as well.
Honestly, I’m only giving this book a 2 1/2 maybe 3 (***) our of 5 stars. It wasn’t really that great but definitely had some solid points to it.
If you are wanting to read / study a book with a group of people who maybe need some foundational insight and a reminder that they are not what they do but who they know… this would be a solid book. Very basic but solid.
Eric pretty much uses 1 Peter 2:9-11 “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge yo, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.”
He uses these verses to outline his book, walking you through what it means to be a chosen people, a royal priesthood, holy nation, etc.
Not extremely creative or orginal or profound but like I said, solid. And if you have a group that just needs some basic foundation stuff to walk through this would be a great book.
So I recommend it… for the right group.
Enjoy and if you going to get it get it here…
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Awareness is the start of Revolution and a good story can stir the imagination of the masses.
These are two things that are true and come to life in the book, Take Your Best Shot by Austin Gutwein. This is simple book, written for a Jr. and Sr. High school audience but commutates a story that wakes up any reader to action and compassion.
As I read Austin’s story I thought over and over again, if this kid can do it why can’t I? I think that is the power of this book, the reader, regardless of age, profession, or resources is inspired to keep her eyes and heart open to the needs in the world and then to think of ways to use passion and purpose to make a difference, which is exactly what Austin does in this book.
Revolution is about turning corrupt and incompetent systems on their head and living in such a way that compassion produces change. Austin saw a system of poverty in Africa and decided something had to change. He was filled with such compassion that he became a revolutionary and his story challenges us to join this revolution of love and compassion. Read this book and be inspired to a revolutionary way of life!
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Thomas Nelson send me free books occasionally to review. I get about 200 words to share my thoughts. Above are those thoughts.
Grace and Peace
Erik
A lot of us evangelicals have focused on heaven, hell and getting people saved. This has been our gospel. And our mission efforts have reflected this. Richard Stearns is aware and disappointed! So he is challenging the Church, through his book “A Whole in the Gospel” to a holistic faith of following Jesus by reaching to those in the margins and meeting their needs. He challenges us the reader to this because he understands this is a central part of the gospel of Jesus!
This is a great book if you have a heart for issues of justice or if you need to develop a heart for justice : specifically for the poor and the oppressed.
Now, it’s never a bad time for these words but I do think Sterns has published his book a few years late. As a young(er) Christian I think this issues has really been on the table for the past 5 years, at least in the circles I run in and among the books I read. But this doesn’t really take away anything from The Hole in our Gospel, a book I would recommend everybody and anybody read!
You can get ahold of this book on amazing or any major book seller.
I recently received this book in the mail to review, there was a mix up with my address so I received it a bit late (I’ll use that excuse but really it’s just been a busy few weeks).
But I am really looking forward to reading Gardening Eden by Michael Abbate.
I once made a “urban garden” for my wife, it was a birthday present. It was really fun and as we cultivated our little box of gardening goodness I really began to realize how beneficial it is to do something with your hands and realized how one totally thinks about food, groceries, and the earth differently when you have a stake in it, other than just consumption.
As I have flipped through the book, reading bits and peices it seems like Abbate hits on some really key and relevant topics for the aspiring gardener who has a desire to follow Christ in biblical ways and is thinking about God’s call on our lives to care for his creation.
Here is a quote I came across, “We need to discover what our faith has to say about the issues of environmental stewardship. As God followers, we’re convinced that our faith is relevant to the issues of the day, but we remain unclear about God’s perspective on the environment.”
So true and it seems like Abbate is on his way to helping us think about these important issues.
And hopefully helping us realize our call to be green / to care for His creation!
Abbate also has a section that is simply about becoming a better gardener and then give tons of great resources at the end of the book.
Like I said, I haven’t been able to read more than 20 or 30 so pages but I am excited about diving into this one!
Go online and pick up your copy :: Amazong :: Gardening Eden
And if your the first person to comment on this blog post i’ll send you a free copy!
Just give me your address.
Peace & green!
Erik
Tags: Book Review, books, gardening, green, Michael Abbate, theology
Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit that has always intrigued me. They called him An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ I love the imagery and implications. The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something that institutionalized Christianity has missed out on.
Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.
The Introduction to Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson
That’s where Mark Batterson starts in his new book Wild Goose Chase and from there, he leads his reader through an exciting, inspiring and provocative journey of chasing hard and fast after the Spirit of Jesus, the Wild Goose who is trying to lead all of us into the full and exciting adventure we call life.
Early in Wild Goose Chase I think Batterson really hits a 21st century Christian nerve when he says, “Christians are bored with their faith.” Our Christian (sub)culture has established a very safe and calculated way to be “successful,” but Batterson would say chasing the Wild Goose, the Spirit of God is never predictable and as good as it might be, it’s definitely not safe.
This book is full of great one-liners to put in your pocket and chew on later. Sometimes the one-liners become a bit cliché but overall, there are tons of great nuggets that really leave you thinking and challenge you to take your pursuit of God to the next level.
One of my favorite was is found on page 58, “Spontaneity is an underappreciated dimension of spiritualaity.” “It is our moment-by-moment sensitivity to the Holy Spirit that turns life into an everyday adventure.”
Another thing Batterson does well is to keep his content challenging yet uber accessible for the average reader. He never gets too fluffy, too “spiritual” or too heady for the average guy or gal to get ahold of what he’s saying.
And in the vein of any good rabbi or pastor he asks great questions! Wild Goose Chase is full of inquisitive and challenging question for the reader. This was a part of the book I really enjoyed and it really displays his pastor’s heart.
Batterson’s book is honest, simple and full of great challenges for the Christian who want to pursue God even if it’s going to be like a Wild Goose Chase, who knows, maybe that’s a good thing. Mark Batterson would tell you it is! And he would say the adventure is well worth it!
Check out the website www.chasethegoose.com
and order your copy—it came out today, at Amazon.com.
You can also check out Mark’s blog at Evotional.com
Enjoy the read,
Erik
Tags: Book Review, books
Just got my copy of Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson in the mail today. They actually sent me 2 copies if anyone wants a free book just let me know. This is actually my first “official” book review. I am excited about reading it and letting you all know how it is. The official review should be up in the next week or so. The book hits stores on the 19th but you can go on Amazon and pre-order it. You can also go to the website, www.chasetehgoose.com to find out more.
Peace & reading
Erik
Tags: books