Famed historian Stephen Ambrose is best known for writing Band of Brothers, which more famously became the HBO miniseries. I read one of his books two summers ago and enjoyed it enough to read some more of his work. I have recently had an interest in reading about history, and the story of Lewis and Clark has intrigued me for quite a while now. Surprisingly, there aren’t many books about the pair, and Ambrose’s seemed the most accessible for a non-scholar such as myself. I picked it up at the local library and went to work.

Getting started was a little daunting (no pun intended with the title). The book was thick and the words were small. The only saving grace was the short-ish chapters. It is certainly interesting though. It turns out to be a biography of Meriwether Lewis rather than simply a look at the Lewis and Clark expedition. This means you get a few chapters of his early life before you even get started with their epic trek west. It is slightly boring, but gives you the necessary context for the kind of person Lewis was (a bit crazy, after reading the book) and how he ended up captaining the journey.

As already mentioned, it’s a bit of a bear to get through. I must confess, I did not finish the book. I finished the expedition, but there’s another few chapters beyond that that I just couldn’t get myself to read. What makes it difficult is that Ambrose uses A LOT of direct quotes from the journals of Lewis and Clark. This part is wonderful in itself, and makes it much more authentic. For some reason, however, Ambrose does not translate them into modern English so we’re left with unintelligible spelling errors and Olde English. The result is not fun.

Having said that, the book is rather interesting. That is probably because the facts and story of the expedition are simply astounding. The things they encountered, often as the first white men to do so, are crazy, to say the least. That much itself will make you want to keep reading, even if you have to make yourself, as I often did. I have a natural interest in history, so I was able to do so. Those with no desire to learn about American history will not likely enjoy this book or have the desire to work though it. I do not judge you one bit. Perhaps Ambrose should stick to the war narratives we are used to from him. 

Other Books by Ambrose: Band of Brothers, Wild Blue, Citizen Soldiers

I’m assuming most of you have heard of this book, even if you don’t realize it. The Broadway musical has made it more famous than the book itself, but it was actually published 15 years ago, which seems ancient to my 22-year-old self. It basically takes our beloved tale, The Wizard of Oz, and flips it on it’s head to create a adult version which features philosophy about good and evil, racism, rights for minorities and somewhat too-frequent sexual episodes.

We are all familiar the Wicked Witch of the West, but we don’t know her background. Gregory Maguire attempts to fill us in. She is actually just a green-skinned girl named Elphaba who had an adulterous mother a preaching father in the land of Oz and a disabled sister to take care of. She was an educated woman, with a fierce passion for animal rights that basically dictated the flow of her life.

We don’t encounter Dorothy, Toto, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion until the last few chapters, and honestly, they don’t really even feel all that relevant to the story. I may have even preferred those parts skipped over. It seems that Maguire inserts them in simply to tie back to the traditional story we grew up with.

The best parts of the book deal with an underlying issue of the origins of good and evil.Yes, I seek out a good plot in a book, but what makes it great is when it can force you to think about culture and society in fresh ways. It will, at times, make you rethink the very definition of good and evil and almost more importantly, how they are labeled.

How poor little Elphaba acquired the title Wicked Witch of the West will be up to you to find out.

P.S. This book is just part 1 of the 3-part Wicked Years series. I may at some point read them, but they’re not first on my list. If any you have read them, feel free to let us know how they are in the comments!

Other Books by Maguire: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Mirror, Mirror

The benefits:

• It’s small. This mean’s it is super easy to carry around. If you wish to study one book of the Bible, these little guys are the way to go.
• It includes the full text of the Scriptures, plus WAY more background and notes than you get in your average study Bible.
• It also includes 12 unique Bible study layouts for you to use in a small group setting (or personal use, should that be your cup of tea).

Again, this book (booklet, really) is only 70 pages and super thin. Sure beats the heck out of carrying around a massive study Bible with you everywhere you go. I will most definitely consider purchasing this type of item if and when I am ever needing some extra research on one book of the Bible. Way to go Tyndale!

P.S. I know this post feels very commercial.. It’s not. I get the book for free, but am under no obligation to give a positive review. If I hated it, I could tell you and keep getting books for free. I promise.

It’s all about how Christians engage culture and how we are to respond to culture.  His main argument is that the only truly effective way to do so is to actually be creating new cultural goods and environments. I just want to focus here, though, on one small point he made that made me think quite a bit.

Crouch correctly pointed out our desire to be people who change the world. This is especially true of my own generation of twenty-somethings. We are extremely ambitious, which definitely has its pros and cons. It’s good that we want to take initiative with things, but it can also be a little destructive when we settle for nothing less than changing the world.

In reality, however, we cannot change the entire world. By simple fact, that statement cannot be true. Some would say the Internet has changed the world, and yes, the Internet has changed the vast majority of the world, but there are still billions of people that do not even have Internet access.

What we can change is our world. We can and do have profound influence on the cultures we are a part of and that is ultimately what we must focus on. Take me for example: I have influence at The Gateway Church,  America’s Family Coaches (employer #1), InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (employer #2), Grinnell College, Des Moines and within my family and friends groups.

Within those groups, I have the ability change culture. Whether or not it goes beyond those places that I have direct contact with is completely beyond my control. You see if we focus on changing the world, our sights are too big to know where or how to start. We must concentrate on the things that are right in front of us, and slowly our ability to influence and change grows.

I will not be a world changer.

But I will be an influencer within my social location.

It’s a really good book. It’s all about leadership and followership. I love the format, which is just a series of conversations between the two men ranging in just about everything from prayer to civil disobedience. Like all of Claiborne’s other books, it has the potential to mess you up inside. He challenges most assumptions Christians have about leadership and dwells in the land of gray (as opposed to seeing things in black and white).

Although they cover a variety of topics, the one thing that purveys throughout the entire book is theme of leaders entering into the pain and suffering of their followers. Christian leaders have almost tended to be too protected from their own people by board room meetings and planning committees. A great leader, the authors suggest, is someone who can deeply relate to the suffering of his/her people. Jesus was the ultimate example of this in coming to us to be a servant, not some highly exulted “leader”. God chose death for our sake. We must do the same. If we really want to be leaders, we must kill our selfishness and see the needs of those around us.

I loved this book because it really did read like a conversation. I had the privilege of hearing these great men speak together at a conference, and I could hear their voices as I flipped the pages. I had a hard time underlining things because you obviously can’t underline someone speaking.

Read it. It might not change your life, but it’ll probably at least make you think, which I’m sure is exactly what Claiborne and Perkins are hoping for.

Some snippets just from Chapter 1:

• Movements require deep faith and revolutionary patience.
• Jesus was always available and attentive to the interruptions and surprises. He was never so fixed on His vision for the Kingdom that He missed the folks right next to Him.
• Before we can lead we need to have confidence in God.
• There must first be leaders who can imagine a different world from the one in which they live.
• The content of your character will determine the caliber of your relationships.
• Stashing away our resources is not how we’re supposed to live. The best way to take away money’s power is to give it away. Keep doing that, and eventually it won’t be worth much.

Love and Peace,

Jeremy

P.S. If you don’t recognize the name of John Perkins, you should. Wikipedia him here. It doesn’t do a justice to his life, but he did incredible things for the Civil Rights Movement in the ’60s. He’s an 80-year-old man and the humility enough to write a book with a young dude who makes his own clothes. That is awesome.

This is a book review for Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain by Paul Meier and David Henderson. I received it as part of Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program. I am in no way required to give a positive review.

Honestly, I wasn’t looking forward this book. The title killed it for me. I’m in a pretty good place in my life right now and I’m not experiencing any overwhelming pain or depression. I figured I would read it when and if that time came. The book was sitting on my shelf though, so I figured I’d skim it and give it a shot.

What I learned, mostly psychologically, was deeply beneficial. The authors both have their MDs and it shows. They bring incredible insight into what it means to feel pain and how to not only move beyond it, but find God’s purpose in it. Most of us, whether we admit it (or even realize it) are generally experiencing some form of pain in our everyday lives. It can be anything from the injustice in our world (BP oil spill, for example) to the simple feeling of worthlessness that comes over us when we waste a few precious hours of time.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of pain, I think of the big things. One of the biggest things in overcoming any pain, however, is realizing that we are actually experiencing it. Sometimes this is especially hard for Christians to do. We are so caught up in being the light of the world that we often just rush by the hurt in our lives. We also have this fear of admitting to people that we’re not in a good place, because Christians are obviously just supposed to have everything pulled together all the time. To really be light, though, requires that we know ourselves and know what God says and promises about pain. Here’s a hint: you probably won’t like what He has to say.

Reading this book not only gave me insight into my life right now, but I know has helped prepare me for the pain that will someday come. It’s inevitable, and I am okay with that…because I’m ready.

Love and Peace,
Jeremy

It’s written semi-fictionally in that Matt is being led on a journey by the Apostle Peter to hunt down all kinds of different Imaginary Jesus’. There’s:

• Masculine Jesus: eats red meat and protects woman (while still making her cook for him)
• Bargain Jesus: will do things for you if you do things for him (i.e. read the Bible every day)
• Hippie Jesus: just wants to be everyone’s friend
• Political Jesus: thinks the only way to change is through power
• 8-Ball Jesus: gives fuzzy answers to questions that appear right out of an 8-ball
• Evangelism Jesus: has no arms because he’s too busy evangelizing to serve
• Janitor Jesus: has no mouth because he’s too busy serving to evangelize

The list goes on and on…

The main point is that all of us construct a Jesus in our head that matches our theology and context. The Jesus of Scripture might look quite different than the Imaginary one occupying our brain space. Mikalatos wants us to take a long, hard look at who we think Jesus is and how we picture Him. The reality is that’s He’s much more unpredictable and inconvenient than we care to admit.

So how do we get rid of the Imaginary Jesus? The number one thing is to simply recognize him and fight him off. We have to start fresh with a blank slate and dig deep into the Gospels to find the real Jesus, and it’s probably going to be messier than you expected.

A few highlights:

• If you never confront the Imaginary Jesus, he’ll keep popping up, perverting what you know about the real Jesus.
• To be a disciple is more than just learning. It means to become like your teacher. It means transformation from what I am into what my teacher is.
• The real Jesus isn’t afraid of your questions. The Truth is our friend.
• Jesus liked story, but he also taught in lecture. A good teacher doesn’t box himself into one mode of transmission.
• You say you can’t hear Jesus, but it’s because you have earbuds in all the time. You’re afraid of silence.
• He is talking. You’re not listening. You’re trying to avoid him by filling up your every moment. You need to clear some of the static.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free as part of Tyndale’s blogging for books network. I still highly recommend it though, as I’m not receiving it in order to give a positive review. I could’ve hated it and told you all. Seriously though, read it, it’ll mess with how you think of Jesus in the best way possible.

Love and Peace,
Jeremy