February 2010
10 posts
The Incredible Book Eating Boy
It’s been a while since I’ve written about one of London’s books. The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers is one of my favorites. It’s about a boy who eats books (the book itself has a bite out of the back cover).
“Quite by accident,” the boy discovers eating books makes him smarter (plus he just likes the taste) and so he eats and eats and eats....
“There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there.”
– G.K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man
Brainstorming Crazy
Sometimes I feel like my life is too safe. I live in a middle class home in a safe little town with a safe job and middle class money woes. I eat spaghetti for dinner every Wednesday night. I drive a Taurus.
I honestly cannot think of something risky I’ve done this week.
I’m not okay with that.
Jesus was risky. Christianity should be risky.
So, I’m brainstorming crazy. You...
Tithing
I recently read Tithing: Test Me in This by Douglas Leblanc, another title in Thomas Nelson’s Ancient Practices series. Unlike other volumes in this collective work, Leblanc shies away from personal exploration or scholarly research, choosing instead to study tithing in action. Leblanc takes a journalistic approach, interviewing eleven individuals (or couples) who tithe and who’ve...
Broken in the Toy Aisle
Last night in the toy aisle of Target I met a woman who made me cry.
While our four girls, two of hers and two of mine, played with plastic-wrapped dolls and balls that weren’t ours, we introduced ourselves. She realized quickly that even an introduction was impossible without backstory.
I didn’t know her name and yet there she was, telling me about finding her husband in bed with...
“I can’t help but think that if we really believed our misplaced sexual...”
– This is one of the last lines in Randy Elrod’s new book Sex, Lies, and Religion (it releases today). I think it’s probably the most important thing he says. Longing, all longing, ultimately points to God and rightly ends in redemptive love.
I wish every person downloading a pornographic...
Does the body have to be present for a funeral to... →
Yesterday,on his blog, Justin asked the question, “Can a funeral be good without a body?”
He and I have been discussing this as he’s been reading through an assignment for one of his graduate classes. The book he’s studying has been very body-focused. At first I rejected this. After all, a person isn’t his or her body. Right?
Sometimes when I’m thinking...
Too Busy?
Yesterday was a LONG day. Started off on the wrong foot when I couldn’t find an open classroom in which to teach my 9 am Comp class. Ended with me writing this post at midnight. Somewhere in between I managed to get a lot done, including cleaning my house. I’m amazed at my efficiency, especially given London’s unusually sensitive temperament and general clingy-ness—totally...
“Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of...”
– Skimming through Proverbs today, on the hunt for a different, less challenging passage, I found this one. This line especially, “He will die for lack of discipline,” had me amen-ing and nodding even in the quiet of my living room.
This passage is about adultery, about the way a loose... 