The Chronicles of Narnia

I forgot to mention (much like how I forgot I have a blog!) that I’m reading through The Chronicles of Narnia. I read them/my mom read them to me when I was younger. What I know of them now is what I remember from seeing the movie once.

The Magicians Nephew was amazing. I got embarrassingly excited when I realized the tree turned into the wardrobe and that Digory bought the house. But The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a hard to read. The reading level is probably 3rd grade (okay I just looked and it’s RL5 according to the back cover). But every time I pick it up to read I get really nervous. Emotionally hard to read.

“No, Edmund, she’s evil!” “Peter, listen to Lucy- she’s telling the truth!” “Come on, tell them you’re Digory and you know about Narnia!”

These are all things I’ve shouted in the past week. I know that in the end this emotional turmoil will be worth it, if for no other reason than that I can move onto the third book in the series.

Thanks For All Things

I just finished Thanks For All Things by Sandra Kring. It had a weird ending, but perfect at the same time. I think a book is good when I find myself hoping that things did end up going well for the people in the story, even though the story is finished and then I feel sad that I will never really know. A book that emotionally invests me (when I don’t intend to become emotionally invested) is a good read. That’s Thanks For All Things.

New Book

Thank You For All Things, by Sandra King.

I am taking a break from Christian help books and Christian reading all together. I randomly picked this book from the “New Arrivals” section of the library and I’m really glad I did. I would definitely recommend pages 1 to 236. I haven’t read the rest of it yet.

The only problem with this book is that when I woke up this morning (after reading 9 chapters yesterday), I caught myself narrating my life in the voice of the author. Annoying, especially because the “narrator” of the book is an 11 year old girl. And even more annoying because it was 5 am.

Work and other news

I love my job, but after working 30 of the last 48 hours, I am exhausted! Its left little time to sleep, much less pray, run, see friends, eat, or clean. It is probably just my tiredness taking over my attitude, but I really feel like the last 2 and 1/2 weeks of living right have been blown in the last few days. My saving grace has been listening to sermons on my iPod as I’ve walked through the park from my car to my “temporary housing” (refusing to call anything besides my future apartment home!) and at work when its permissible.

I found a great training program on runnersworld.com. So far I’ve found at least 5 different programs all calling themselves “the” program, even though they’re all published by the same magazine.

I cant wait! to go home (to Cali). This time next week, I will be there! It is coming up f a s t.

Finally, I have always wanted to like reading, especially so since summer has started. Slowly but surely I’m getting there. I’m reading through PrayerWalk right now (yes, its one word). Its not written specifically for women, but I can’t imagine a guy really liking it. It is motivating, spiritually and physically. I’ll write more on it when I finish it.

Book Review

Just finished reading this book. It was really good. I loved the writing style. I’m a nit-pick-er when it comes to author’s style. Too many lists, not enough description, every sentence starts with “I…” Jeanne Houston is an outstanding author. She tells the story of her childhood in a Japanese Internment camp called Manzanar. I personally identified with this book because California, where I was raised, was deeply affected by the internment. My family wasn’t affected, but there are many lingering hints to what happened 60 years ago. I highly recommend this book, especially if the extent of your knowledge of of Japanese Internment is contained in a paragraph of your 9th grade social studies textbook.

I am also reading a book called John: The Maverick Gospel. It is the best text critical, somewhat liberal, book on John I have read so far. It has actual substance despite not being a commentary (which makes it very easy to read). I’ll write more about that book when I am finished reading it.

Servant Leadership

I am reading a book called Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. Even though I was told before I started reading that it was the best book on leadership, I still wasn’t expecting much. I don’t tend to put a lot of effort into reading (which is an area that I need to grow in), so I don’t get a lot out of books.

So, it’s kind of ironic that the first idea that really grabbed me caught my attention because I misread while skimming. At the end of the second chapter, Sanders quotes(?) a poem which goes like this:

Because we children of Adam want to become great, He became small.
Because we will not stoop, He humbled Himself.
Because we want to rule, He came to serve.

I have heard over and over and read book after book about how Jesus was a servant leader. I memorized Mark 10 in Missionettes. I’ll bet that the North Central student body collectively has heard so many lectures and sermons about how Jesus modeled servant leadership while He was on Earth that we could write our own textbooks ten times over for our Leadership Development class (aka “How Jesus was a Servant Leader and Why You Should be Too”). But I have always studied about how Jesus servant-led on Earth 2,000 years ago. Jesus was a servant leader. “Because we want to rule, He came to serve.”

Yesterday I was reading too fast over the poem and misread it. Instead of past tense, I read it in present tense: “Because we want to rule, He comes to serve.” (Try to forget for a minute that Jesus is not currently “coming” anywhere but is in Heaven for the time being.) Reading the tense wrong made me realize this: Jesus is still my servant leader.

When I’m having a bad day, He serves me by listening to me cry and comforting me. He tells me how much He loves me in the most intimate of ways. Because I sin, He is in constant intercession on my behalf with the Father. When I am happy, He rejoices with me. When I feel unusable, He washes my feet. It is incredible to think that He- JESUS! – leads me by serving me! I don’t believe this because I think I deserve these actions from Jesus. I know I don’t deserve it, but He thinks I’m worth it. What a humbling thought. What an incredible Savior we have! The One who created the entire universe could rule with cruelty and harsh control, but with the absolute power that He possesses He chooses to rule by continually giving of Himself for us.

The cross was only once- but His devotion to us is eternal.

How could I not follow His lead?