What am I reading...

'Reflecting' on Lewis' writings.

(North of Dewberry, AB)

Its quite a bit of CS Lewis actually.  Shay got me started reading Mere Christianity and I finally finished last weekend at camp.  I really enjoyed it!  There were one or two analogies I wasn't a fan of, but for the most part I loved what he had to say about what Christianity is supposed to be and why we should care.  There were so many good analogies that I won't even try to write them all. Read the book and see how amazing it is yourself. The people with me last weekend were bombarded by me reading snippets because it is too good to keep to yourself!  (I think that is why Shay had me read a couple of the chapters in the first place).

I do want to share a couple things though.  The first is a thought that I like and believe is very true:

"God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy."  If I commented this blog post would be very long. But think on it.

And the second was a great illustration of how God is the root of so many things. Lewis is talking about how God helps us become who he wants us to be. That he is not only rooting us on but actively engaged in helping and such. But some people don't think God is helping:

"You may say 'I've never had the sense of being helped by an invisible Christ, but I often have been helped by other human beings.' That is rather like the woman in the first war who said that if there were a bread shortage it would not bother her house because they always ate toast.  If there is no bread there ill be no toaste. If there were no help from Christ, there would be no help form other human beings."

I LOVE that. Because it is so true. God works through others and it is because God exist that the world exists, that good happens, that you are helped...

After I finished Mere Christianity it only took me three days to get through The Great Divorce. I LOVED that book too. I need to get my own copies of these so I can write in them.. right now I am using a library copy.

As for everything else in my life: I'm packing. I'm excited. I have all my flights booked.  But my external hard drive just stopped working 10 mins ago... lets hope its the heat and it works tomorrow!

What I'm Reading

This picture has nothing to do with the below post. I just like it. 

Derwent, Alberta, Canada

I noticed on someone else's blog that they say "what is in my basket"  as in what they have on the go for reading and knitting.  (still don't get the reading and kitting both... but beside the point)  So the point is that I would need to call my posts on what I'm reading "What is in my stack"  because I have an entire stack of books I'm going to try and push through before they come due at the library.

So last night was back to Crazy Love again (which actually isn't a library book, but I'm already half done so I figure I'll finish it then start another so I don't have 3 going at the same time).

But Mr. Francis Chan (who I really like) made some GREAT points in my chapter from last night.  It was Chapter 6- When You're in Love (if you have your own copy) and the first thing that hit me was actually a quote from another author:

The critical question for our generation - and for every generation- is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever like, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?  John Piper, from God is the Gospel

And somehow I think it is exactly what we need to be asking ourselves.  I definitely don't think that I'm fully there, but I feel very blessed to say that I am beginning to see how important it is that I don't just go to heaven, but that I am with God.   A good friend of mine once said, "God didn't make heaven so he could chuck us in there for eternity".   God wants us to be with him, and if we only realized what that means, we would want to be with him too.   But unfortunately, we are more interested in if we might be able to bungee jump in heaven (real overheard conversation).

So as the chapter title suggests, Chan begins to talk about how we can love God more.  And then he tells us the most important thing about loving Jesus:  "His counsel wasn't to 'try harder,' but to let Him in."  I loved how succinct he made it. We can't just will ourselves to love Jesus.  Doesn't happen like that.  But we can ask him to help us love him more, and by opening our defenses we let him in to make it happen.  That is why it can say in James 4:8 "Come near to God and he will come near to you"

I'm really liking this book... definitely on my "should read" list.  ESPECIALLY if you grew up in church.  Somehow we take our relationship with God more for granted I think, and maybe we never really realize how to love him.  So Crazy Love, is a great way to spark something to change in your heart.

What I'm Reading

Little Women comes first. Then comes Little Men.  Now I'm working on Jo's Boys.

And this is the first book that my brand-new bookmark is getting used with.  It was a birthday present, and I think I'll get alot of use out of it. 

I just love this book. I forgot what it was about, but now am definitely enjoying it.  Way to go Louisa May Alcott. 

What I'm Reading

I know people who blog about what they currently are reading and knitting. I don't knit. And I don't really have anything to substitute for knitting. And how can they have two hobbies like that anyways? You need your hands to both read and knit.

So instead of having a regular blog post on what I'm knitting and reading, it is just going to be reading.

And if you didn't know me in junior high and high school, they you won't know that I'm a huge reader. I love books. I devoured them in the summer all year long.  Late into the night. On the school bus.  And being in university interrupted my reading. I needed to read text books if I was going to read anything, so reading a novel wasn't very high on my list. My only fun reading would be a christian living book that I would have by my bed, but those didn't get finished very fast.  So now that I'm home for the summer, without anything very serious knocking down my door, I can read.  And it hasn't been as easy to get back into as I thought. Maybe my reading was just as much as a habit as a pastime.  But since reading Little Women over the last year on my iPod touch (that takes much longer than a real book too, even though it is more mobile. I definitely won't be a kindle customer), I've really wanted to keep reading.  I've read Louisa May Alcott's entire series a couple times already, but I'm working on my next time right now.

I just finished little men, and the book is waiting to go back to the library.  I don't remember the name of the next book in the series, but I'm probably the only person in my town that reads this series so I'm sure it won't be hard to find.  

I've also started Crazy Love, although it came to an abrupt stop when I started reading Little Men. Somehow little Daisy and Demi Brooke are much more enthralling than Francis Chan. However, now that I'm blogging that I'm reading it, hopefully I'll have reason to pick it up again.   So far I've really enjoyed it, but that isn't saying much since I'm probably only on chapter three if my memory serves right.

I have a whole bunch more books coming from the library over the next couple weeks, so I should have plenty of reading material to blog on for a while. But I won't just blog on books. I feel a renewed desire to write opinion stuff and what is going on with me too.  Hopefully today's inspiration follows over to tomorrow too.