Category: reading

The photo above is the book that I am going to start reading tonight. I wouldn’t normally post about a book that I hadn’t even started reading yet, but this book is special. You see thanks to my absolutely amazing wife I received it as a gift from the author himself in the year 2000. That Fall Pam and I went to London for a week as an anniversary trip. It was a fantastic trip mainly because Pam is a very creative vacation planner (which is why the boys and I jokingly call her “Julie the cruise director”). Part of the plan that she established was a surprise visit to Oxford and an appointment to visit Dr. Alister McGrath.

I have a few tiers of favorite authors. 1st tier – Holy Spirit (since the Bible is the single book that I have read the most cover to cover it is a good thing that I like it), 2nd tier – C.S. Lewis , 3rd tier – a group of other authors who I love and read and read regularly, 4th tier – authors that I like but a little less than the 3rd tier, etc., etc. If there was a hierarchy of the 3rd tier Dr. McGrath would be at the top. That is why Pam setup the appointment with him. Yep that is right, Pam arranged for me to meet with one of my heroes in his personal study. Of course, I wasn`t at my best (physically or mentally) when I met him. It began with me stinking.

The airline lost our luggage on the way to England. This shouldn`t have been a problem because we weren’t going to Oxford for a few days and the airline kept assuring us that they would have our luggage to us at any moment.  Their assurances didn`t mean much. On the fourth day, when we were heading to Oxford, Pam and I had been rotating the clothes we had in our carry on for two days and washing certain garments in the sink at night. I was reduced to wearing the sandals that I wore on the plane. Since it was cold I added socks to the sandals. Just in case, you don’t know this, socks and sandals are not a good look, I didn’t care because it was really cold. Yep I was going to meet Dr. McGrath wearing sandals and socks. And then I wasn`t.

We took the Oxford Tube to Oxford.  We would get to Oxford around an hour and a half before the appointment with Dr. McGrath. That was until the bus broke down. No big deal the Oxytube has buses leaving every twenty minutes, or so, for Oxford. We were told another bus would come by soon and we would board it and make it to Oxford with time to spare. “Soon” apparently meant over two hours. Turns out we were going to be 2 hours late for the appointment. We called and asked if we could reschedule our appointment. Unfortunately Dr. McGrath was a busy man and it wouldn’t be possible. Well, it was worth a try.

We arrived at Oxford and started to walk around the community and colleges. That is when it began to rain. Since our luggage was lost we were unprepared for the rain. We bought an umbrella to share and continued to walk through Oxford. Unfortunately we soon discovered that the umbrella didn’t completely cover us. That was when the right side of my body began to get wet.

Around lunch Pam and I thought “I wonder if Dr. McGrath would just sign my copy of his Systematic Theology?” So we went to Dr. McGrath’s office and began to explain the whole story to his secretary. We talked about losing our luggage, we talked about washing our clothes in the sink, we talked about the bus breaking down, and we ended with the rain. I thought she was going to cry and she decided right then and there that we had gone through too much and that Dr. McGrath would gladly meet with us during his office lunch.

That is when I began to back peddle REAL FAST. I suddenly realized that I would be in the room with a world class mind and I might have to talk to him. I am not a world class mind and therefore the thought of having to say something to him intimidated the heck out of me. Especially when I was wet, tired, and had been wearing the same clothe for multiple days. What if I said something stupid, like telling Dr. McGrath that he was my SECOND favorite author (which I actually did say to him). Nope, I would be more than satisfied with Dr. McGrath’s autograph and at most a handshake. She insisted and we were soon ushered into D. McGrath’s study. I was shaking in my shoes and acted on the only plan I could think of. I would ask dr. McGrath long winded questions that would keep him talking and keep me from having to say anything. My plan worked perfectly.

Thankfully Dr. McGrath was very generous and the whole experience turned out great. Before we left Dr. McGrath reached over, grabbed a book, signed it, an handed it to me. He told me this book wasn’t out yet but was his newest. I was thrilled.

If you can’t tell, I married a pretty amazing woman.

Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in Everyday Life by Eugene H. Peterson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is a quick read. It is also a very good read. Peterson does his normal work of simple to understand depth. I haven’t started his other, longer work on resurrection yet so I don’t know how much crossover there is. This was a great start.

So Peterson’s basic point is that living in the resurrection is the basis for spiritual formation. In other words spiritual maturity is a matter of programs or methods but instead it is a matter of wondrously responding to the act of God bringing about moments of life in a culture of death.  Some could take this and turn it into an excuse to do nothing, but that is by no means what Peterson is writing about. Nope Peterson is calling for spiritual formation that is based off dependency rather than control. Programs, formula, and methods of spiritual growth can be all about control. Like a math problem or a computer programming language.  IF I do this THEN that will happen. Dependence is different. It involves a lack of control and based off trust and response. I have to look for what God is doing and respond to it.

What I am trying to say is that Peterson offers some good examples of living in resurrection by responding and the book is worth reading.

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A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So thanks to my friend Clint in Baton Rouge I picked up “A Distant Mirror” and started reading it. Then I put it down and picked it up again to start reading again. Then once again I picked it up and this time I finished it. I didn’t put the book down those times because of the book being boring. Nope it was great. It is just that it is rather long and the French names, for one who has never studied the French language, can be a little taxing to focus on. Therefore, I gave myself a few breaks in finishing the book.

I had forgotten what a monumental century the 14th century was in European history. You have the Black Plague, the Hundred Years War, various uprisings, the advancing of the Islamic forces of the Ottoman Empire, and, most interesting to me, the Papal Schism where at one time you have three different popes claiming to be the legitimate claimant to the Apostolic See. It really is a fascinating period of history.

One of the things that I was most intrigued by was Barbara Tuchman’s description of the 14th century tendency to romanticize the past. In other words they looked back at the blurry past through rose colored glasses, remembering and exaggerating the positive points of it, while minimizing and often forgetting the negative aspects. In the 14th century it wasn’t uncommon for people to claim that the present age was falling a part and the past was actually the model for life. Sound familiar?  Yeah it would seem this is a pretty common human trait. <SARCASM> Not that anyone would do this now</SARCASM>.

Anyhow it was a great book and well worth the read even if it did take me a year to finish the book.