I’m having to use another computer today as my laptop has crashed. I hope I might get it sorted later as this has happened before. I’m most worried about my files which I haven’t backed up in ages!
Anyway, that aside, I have been reading lots of books lately and should have written about them one by one but now I find after no posting it all comes at once! I want to mention three. The first one is Rob Bell’s Love Wins. I believe there has been some controversy over this one but not having read any of what people have said I can only comment from my own point of view. I have to say that I found it a most refreshing book and it answered some questions that had bothered me. The business of heaven and hell has always seemed unfair to me if what some say is true. I’ve had issues over who goes where and why! I know many good people who have no religion as such and if they are left out and condemned then this isn’t a God I want to know. Rob Bell explains things in an easy to understand manner using Bible passages to put his point across
Hell can indeed be here on earth – it is what we do, how we relate to others and there are some who just don’t want to change and don’t want to be helped. God gave us free will (thank goodness!). Rob Bell states that far from heaven being ‘up there’ and hell ‘down below’, the new creation will be here where we are, where things are familiar and that everything is interwoven. It is also about how we see things. Bell uses as one example the story of the Prodigal Son and how the son who stays with his father and works for him sees himself as the hard-done-by one. He doesn’t see that his father denies him nothing. He only sees his father as a hard task master so when his brother returns and gets all the attention he is angry yet his father tells him ‘you were always with me and everything I have is yours’.
We see things through our eyes, not God’s – that’s the difference. We make judgements, put people into slots, quick to pass sentence but slow to recognise our own faults and prejudices. We all do it, I know I do, but I try to stand back and think about it and hope I will do the right thing. But we are not perfect!
Bell states that he has written the book for thoes who have heard ‘some version of the Jesus story that caused their pulse to race, their stomach to churn..’….’.and think ‘I would never be a part of that.’ Great reading, lots to think about.
In The Beginning (A New Interpretation of Genesis) is by Karen Armstrong – a favourite author of mine since first reading her book of her account living in a Convent. Quite often Armstrong’s books can be academic and a bit of slog now and then. This is different. The style is easy to read and I enjoyed it a lot. At first I wasn’t quite sure where she was going but her words fell into that part of me that questions all things, especially creation happening word for word in the Bible and about confusion over two versions of the creation (two authors, no great editing!) and about God and how he interacts with those ‘made in his image’. Later the great stories in that first book come to life, showing how like us these men and women were with their weaknesses, jealousies and other petty ‘sins’ (as well as some big ones). The book shows that life is a mystery, how each successor in God’s plan inherited their father’s unworthy traits. But the story, according to Armstrong, is about coming to terms with who we are , our natures, our crimes, griefs and resentments. Armstrong concludes ‘It is a struggle in which we may never fully succeed but only if it is undertaken can we become a source blessing to the world and to others. The book comes with ‘The Book of Genesis’ at the back so you can refer to a particular passage as you read. Very handy.
Finally my favourite read – Faith Hope Love & Everything in Between by Mick Brooks. I loved this and read a chapter each morning. It really spoke to me in a way many books haven’t. I got a lot from it, it made me think. I always read too quickly and I would like to re-read it in the future because I’m sure I will have missed something! I really should have stuck postit notes in the pages because I can’t find the bits I’d like to talk about! However, there was something about our searching and what we do about it, how we buy things, do things yet it never fills that need. About us being homesick because we are not yet home. These feelings are so true. There are other things which I remember thinking ‘I’ve felt like that’ and the book has also made me want to re-evalue some areas of life.
Brooks tackes issues such as suffering, how our every action matters (there is a knock-on affect even if we can’t see it), about friendship and our enthusiams as a new Christian and what happens when the newness wears off . There is so much in this little book. I must just quote this as it made me laugh out loud – ‘Do you know how to tell when an English person is really, really angry? They start to walk in small circles, and eventually they say ‘I’m going to write a letter of complaint.’ This was about emotions and the difference between British and our fellow Europeans.
The last chapter was a great finish to the book with lots of handy ‘tools’ for prayer, fasting and so on. This was particularly useful to me as I am someone who lovse variety and and I get bored with routines and then things become a chore. Brooks says ‘that’s okay’ and gives me plenty to work with!
Whatever path you are on, signposts are helpful! A guidebook with a map is useful and if they contain suggestions for futher advancement on that journey all the better.
thepathseeker 