back to the books...

I have been spending more time on the couch reading and less time mindlessly watching TV. I don’t actually watch too much TV, but by the time I’ve spent time at church, been in a car for 2 hours driving, running around playing “chase” with Kyra, eating dinner, putting Kyra to bed…I just end up plopping down and doing, well…nothing.

But recently I’ve been reading. I seem to have a habit of reading several books at the same time. It makes it a bit hard to keep it all straight, especially when coupled with extended bible reading. “Was that quote from C.S. Lewis or Jesus? " I've finished Chris Tomlin's first book (just OK) and have been going through the English Standard Version of the Bible. Right now, I'm going through John. I’m 90% through “Generous Orthodoxy” by Brian Mclaren. I was first introduced to BM through his comments in the book “Emerging Church” by Dan Kimball. I then got to hear him speak at ZOE this past fall. It’s gonna take me awhile to process thoughts from this book…

I also just finished another Mclaren book “A New Kind of Christian”. Now that was a bit easier for me to digest. Although I must admit, I’m not sure quite what to do with all the thoughts now racing through my head. Basically, I walked away from this book thinking there is something about his writings that resonate with me in a way I can’t fully explain. For a long time (since I was about 12 I guess) I’ve had a hard time fully embracing the “church world” I saw around me. That would seem ironic to anyone who knew me back then, cause I was sort of a poster child of a church kid. But I remember sitting in an ice-cream bar at Lake Geneva, WI and having ice –cream with Landon Saunders. For some reason, he had taken a liking to me. I was in AWE of him. I’m not sure what it was…something about him intrigued me. But I digress…

ANKOC is a must read in my book. Not so you can walk away saying, “just what I always thought, but couldn’t put into words.” But so that you will ask, “What if?” I used to get myself into trouble asking those questions…now, a little older (I’ll be 29 in 2 days) and a bit un-wiser…I guess I don’t care if I get into trouble.

I’m rambling…anyway, I can’t see any way for me to just go back to my life as it was. Mclaren's thoughts have caused me (or was it the Spirit) to stop and take a long hard look at everything I’ve been doing, or better yet, not doing.

Last night, we all decided to go to Borders. This has become our family outing of sorts…it’s free and Kyra has a blast in the kids section, while Angela and I read through book and magazines. I thumbed through MacWord (or something like that) I have been drooling over a Mac for years…but never have had the opportunity to own one. I’m not sure that it is about a Mac that is so appealing to me. Something about the simplistic beauty of it all…but then I realize it’s just a computer and I can do the same, if not more, with my 2.4G, 1MB Ram, 120G HD PC. But then I want a Mac….

At Borders, I also picked up Donald Millers, “Blue Like Jazz”. I have heard tons of comments about this book from some people I admire. I read through ½ of it last night while listening to Miles Davis, Kind of Blue on my ipod…I thought the music choice was appropriate. Miller also conjures up some thoughts I will have to sit with for awhile.
More to come…back to work.