Looking at History with Christian Eyes

A natural extension of my Africa picture book collection has been picture books that show African-American culture, especial religious life. (This passion has no doubt been encouraged by our relationships with brothers and sisters at Solid Word Bible Church in Indianapolis.) Besides picking up Under the Baobab Tree at Calvin College’s Festival of Faith and Writing last month, I bought The Beatitudes by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Tim Ladwig. 

Africa in a Child's Eyes

 I brought home several new books from Calvin College’s Festival of Faith and Writing a couple weeks ago. I have collected beautiful picture books since I worked in a Logos Bookstore children’s department when I was first married, long before my own kids. My children remember the antique glass cupboard with books that we looked at together, turning the pages carefully with clean hands. In recent years I have focused on books that represent Africa in a positive way.

Hungry for Justice

I started crying in the reaping scene, and nearly lost it in the riots. I think I got my cardio-vascular workout from the pounding of my heart through the whole thing. My husband doesn’t want to see the rest of the series when it comes out; it made him too angry—angry at injustice, angry at frivolous disregard for another person’s pain, angry at sin.

I’m talking about The Hunger Games. Don’t let the lines of teenagers outside put you off; this is NOT The Twilight Saga or Harry Potter. It is no sappy love story, and it wrestles with issues much closer to our everyday lives than a fantasy allegory.

For All the Saints

 I woke this morning with this hymn going through my head. It’s an old favorite going back to the summer at Cedar Campus in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when I met my husband. Cedar Campus is an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship training camp and mostly we sang from the organization’s Hymns, a collection I knew so well from family devotions that I could tell you number 27, number 36 or, my favorite, number 55, without looking. But that summer we also sang from a British hymnal, Christian Praise and “For All the Saints” became our theme song.

It has a lot of verses. Eight, to be precise. But oh, how exhilarating sung to the tune by Ralph Vaughn Williams. I have told my husband that I want this sung at my funeral. (Never too early to start thinking about what you want to be remembered for.)

“Eight verses?” he asked doubtfully.

“You can sing four at the beginning and four at the end,” I replied. “But don’t skip any.”

I don’t expect to die any time soon, but I share these words with you to motivate your living this week. Think about all the lovers of Jesus who have gone before us for two thousand years. Think about what God did for them across the ages, and what he can do for you today. Remember the unity that Jesus prayed for them and for us on the night he was betrayed. And when you are tempted to think the struggle against that old sin nature is more than you can handle, fix your eyes on the awesome finale of this story: men and women of every tongue and nation, streaming through the gates of heaven—you among them!—bowing before the Lord of all, Savior of your soul, the King of Glory. 

Take a deep breath and remember: It’s worth it.

For All the Saints 3/23/2012 1 Comment   Old Mill Point, Cedar Campus I woke this morning with this hymn going through my head. It’s an old favorite going back to the summer at Cedar Campus in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when I met my husband. Cedar Campus is an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship training camp and mostly we sang from the organization’s Hymns, a collection I knew so well from family devotions that I could tell you number 27, number 36 or, my favorite, number 55, without looking. But that summer we also sang from a British hymnal, Christian Praise and “For All the Saints” became our theme song.

A House Turned Upside-Down

Last week we invited friends home from church to share a pot of soup and a loaf of bread hot out of the bread maker. They left us with a book by David Platt that is being passed around church--Radical; Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. It is easy to read, but hard to put into practice. 

Platt challenges the dominant culture and the assumption that living well means being comfortable and having all the toys your neighbors have. He compares his own mega-church and the whole American philosophy that bigger is better with Jesus spending three years with twelve men. 

Levi's Will, Part 2

 Yesterday I began my review of Dale Cramers 2006 Christy-award-winning Levi's Will by pursuing the themes of non-violence that I have discussed in my reviews of Cramer's Daughters of Caleb Bender series. But this book isn’t really about war and non-violence. It is about relationships and about grace over three generations.

When Will runs away from home as a teen, he must lie to hide his identity and keep his father from finding him and dragging him home. He lies about his last name and where he is from in order to explain why in the midst of World War II he has never signed up for the draft. He lies about his age to join the military. 

Levi's Will, Part 1

 

Last year I reviewed Dale Cramer’s Paradise Valley, the first volume in his Daughters of Caleb Bender series about an Amish settlement in Mexico in the 1920s. In January I reviewed its sequel, The Captive Heart. I liked them both. I liked them enough to review them on this blog and not merely say something polite on Amazon or Shelfari. But THIS is the book you really want to read. In fact, Levi's Will stimulated so many thoughts that I will be spreading this review over two days. Today we deal with the non-violence theme that Dale and I discussed when I reviewed The Captive Heart. Come back tomorrow to hear more about the theme of grace found in this 2006 Christy Award winner.