I must confess that I have read the book of Ruth more than few times. And I have read many different books on Ruth. I absolutely love the story. I loved the story so much that I used Ruth's vows at my own wedding years ago. It really has been a life-long love affair with the actual book in the Bible.

I read this book years ago and wanted to revisit it this summer. I remember it rocked my world. Carolyn Custis James rocked my world with this gem that just put so much about Ruth and Naomi into context. 

Don't get me wrong. The book of Ruth is a love story. It is a story of how God redeemed two widows. One felt that God had turned his back in her and the other just refused to leave the other alone. She just clings. This is clingy at it's best. 

Widow really is a complicated word to understand. Naomi has lost everything. Her life is in ruins and her soul is drowning in grief. She is a female Job. If she was Job there might be an opportunity for her. Poverty is not inevitable for a man. He can work or rebuild. He may endure "the unjust accusations of trusted friends, but he will face degradation, discrimination, of physical abuse because he is male" (p 58). He has a level of stature in the community even though his character is under the microscope. He has rights and can take legal action. 

Noami faces a whole new layer of adversity because she is a woman in a man's culture. "Death strips her down until she stand nakedly before God without the usual props a woman counts on to justify her significance" (p 58). This is where the story enlarges to encompass every woman who is alone regardless of the reason. She is bitter and she says, "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter" (Ruth 1:20). 

And yet something extraordinary is happening. This is the beginning of a female story. Generally, in the Bible, men rule to roost or command the spotlight. Male stories are being told. Women are written up as they relate to men. 

"Miriam was Moses' sister. It's easy to forget that was a prophetess and a leader of God's people in her own right. "Sarah and Hagar broke rod in Abraham's coat-tails. Rebekkah had her three minutes of fame because Abraham's son Isaac needed a wife and she matched the search criteria" (p 60). With patriarchy, everyone expected men to dominate the story. We really do take "it is not good for man to be alone" very seriously.

But this book breaks all the rules! Ruth and Naomi, two un-escorted woman take command of the story line and the men recede into the background. The three male names in the opening scene are forgotten in the credits. This is not to say that the male characters are not important. They are just not at the forefront of the story.

But God is there. He is there in every scene. He is there when Ruth is in the barley field. He is there when Boaz shows kindness to Ruth. He is there when Ruth responds to this kind with, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you would notice me - foreigner?" He is there when Naomi hatches her plan to get Boaz's attention. He is there in the threshing room floor where Ruth encounters Boaz sleeping. He is there with Boaz as he approaches the town gate. He is there when Boaz announces that Ruth is his wife. He is there when they have Obed. He is there when the women say, "Naomi has a son" (Ruth 4:17). All the small things became bigger than the sum of the parts. Obed is the grandfather of King David and Ruth is his great-grandmother.

God really does take care of everyone. He was very interested in the cry of Naomi's heart.

This female Job ministers right to my heart as well. He moved heaven and earth to let Naomi know that she is not forgotten, not unloved, not meaningless or purposeless. She is loved!

"Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz remind us powerfully that even in a dark era like the days of the judges, God always has his people the Blessed Alliance is still alive and well. He is working in our hearts, summoning us to be strong and courageous like Ruth - to embrace and embody his gospel on our 'bit of earth'" (209).

I pray that this story ministers to you the same way it touches me. 

-When you were young
you put on your own belt 
and walked where you liked;
but when you grow old
you will stretch your hands
and somebody else will put a belt round you
and take you where you would rather not go.

John 21:18

This book is about professionalism. You wouldn't know it from the title but Creative Ministry sounds, well, creative. It's treatise on the relationship between spirituality and professionalism in ministry. The quote above starts the book. I think he was thinking about Peter and how much he grew over the course of time. At the end, he was professional. It was a long, difficult journey but he was professional. 

Nouwen starts us off with a story. A young woman of twenty-six years is suffering from Hodgkins disease. The priest, a very young intelligent pastor, was quite aware of the fact that this young woman would probably never leave the hospital and that she would probably die within the coming year. 

They talked. They talked about the nurses. They talked about the food. They talked about the pain and the possibility of getting some sleep. And they they talked about what it would be like when she got home.

All of this goes into his reports. Very little of the reality of the situation until one day when the pastor is asked a question.

"Say-I wonder if you are really aware of the fact that you are going to die, too, perhaps not within a year but in any case pretty soon."

Suddenly all the discussions about skillful pastoral care stopped and there was a long silence. And then the priest said this. "Perhaps not - perhaps I am more afraid to talk about death that my parishioner is, and perhaps I do not her to remind me of my own mortality..."

Hmm. What would you say? Someone who wants to be a real minister to a dying patient cannot say so when he as not been able face his own death and relate it in a Christian way. This question about ministry was intimately related to the question about the spiritual life of the ministry himself. 

From here he goes on to describe five ways of that ministers usually relate to people. These include teaching, preaching, pastoral care, organizing, and celebrating.

Chapter I is entitled Teaching: From a Violent to a Redemptive Way of Learning. He describes this violent way  and the redemptive way of teaching. Teaching needs to be evocative. It needs to draw a person out of themselves. It is bilateral. The teacher must learn from his students. It is actualizing. It's a way to build a better world. 

He goes to explain the difficulties within this. Why aren't we learning? It has to do with our wrong supposition. Let's look at "It is better to give than to receive." We have heard it, but did we really listen?

"A gift only becomes a gift when it is received; and nothing we have to give - wealth, talents, competence, or just beauty will ever be recognized as true gifts until someone opens his hands or heart to accept them" (p. 17).

We are under false pressure and the horror of self-encounter.  False pressure refers to the myriad of degrees and certificates that we all seem to need. The horror of self encounter is standing before the teacher and sharing the same reality. "They are both naked, powerless, destined to die, and, in the final analysis, totally alone and unable to save each other or anyone. It is the embarrassing discovery of solidarity in weakness and a desperate need to be liberated..." (p. 19)

We can come from a violent form of teaching to a redemptive form of teaching through a conversion that pervades our total personality and breaks the power of our resistance against learning.

Jesus can be called Teacher in the fullest sense of the word precisely because he did not cling his prerogatives but because he became one of the many who have to learn. 

Chapter II is entitled Preaching: Beyond the Retelling of the Story. There is much here on the problems with preaching but the task of the preacher is to assist men in their ongoing struggle of becoming. Can he genuinely start a dialogue? Can there be real risk of engagement? 

"When a man listens to a preacher who really available to himself and, therefore, able to offer his own life experience as a source of recognition, he no longer has to be afraid to face his own condition and that of his world because the one who stands in from of him is the living witness that insight makes him free and does not create new anxieties" (p. 39).

Chapter III is entitled Individual Pastoral Care: Competence and Contemplation. He talks about self-affirmation and self-denial. "But when a pastor has really found his own identity and he discovers at the same time that it is exactly his task to relate to many people in many different ways. It that has, in fact, these alternatives of relating that enable him to exercise a ministry has many forms and many different possibilities" (p. 55). 

"Pastoral care means more than pastoral worries" (p. 63). Does this sound familiar? "It needs a careful and critical contemplation of the conditions of man. Through this contemplation the pastor can take away the veil and make visible to himself and to others the fact that God and evil are not just words but visible realities in the life of every man. In this sense, every pastoral contract is a challenge to understand in a new way God's work with man to distinguish with a growing sensitivity the light and darkness in the human heart" (p. 63).

Chapter IV is entitled Organizing: Beyond the Manipulation of Structures. This chapter gets into the questions that haunt ministers. He basically says to stop all the questions to come to a place at the table. "A minister can be an agent of social change without having to be trapped in the pitfalls of a manipulative world. But this requires a spirituality, a way of living that allows man to be very much involved in this world precisely because he is free toward it and does not cling to it with destructive possessiveness" (p. 71). 

This is difficult and Nouwen knows this. He goes on to describe the pitfalls of the organizer. "Change the world by changing yourself" does not work for the organizer. If he really wants to change the world must change.

There are a number of ways that organizer struggles. One way this works out is to make very concrete and visible results the main motivation for social action. There is also the danger of power. If we tell others what makes good sense to us, it will automatically make good sense to them. Many social reformers think that if you give people the right info and the right instructions they will become so enlightened that they will do whatever the reformer has in mind. Then there is the danger of pride. "Everyone who wants to change society is in danger of putting himself above and being more conscious of the weaknesses of other than of the weakness in their own soul." Instead of seeing himself as a full member of a society, he holds to the fantasy of a redeemer who is always just and right.

A social reformer needs to offer hope, a creative receptivity, and shared responsibility.

Let's look at hope. "...hope is not directed to the gift but to him who is the giver of all good" (p. 81).  He offers the example of a child hoping in his mother. He is constantly asking for very concrete things, but his love for his mother does not depend on the fulfillment of these wishes. "The child knows that the mother wants only good for him - although  he might cry or even be angry at times. 

Creative receptivity is developing in himself and others "the willingness to receive". He can prevent man from falling into the temptation of power. If he want to bring about change he has to be changed by those he wants to help. "But no man will be able to really give if he has not discovered that what he gives is only a small thing compared to what he has received" (p. 83).

His last point is on shared leadership. "It is amazing to find that most priests are still working very much on their own and have not found the creative ways to mobilize the potential leadership in their parishes and share responsibilities with others.

Chapter V is entitled Celebrating: Beyond the Protective Ritual. "...the minister is the man who challenges us to celebrate life; that is, to turn away from the fatalism and despair and to make our discovery that we have but one life to live into an ongoing recognition of God's work to man" (p. 94). 
​
"Celebration can only really come about  where fear and love, joy and sorrow, tears and smiles can exist together. Celebration is the acceptance of life in a constantly increasing awareness of its preciousness" (p. 95).

We have three main components of this: affirmation, remembrance, and expectation. 

Affirmation is about living in the present. "If anything has become clear, it is that we have to a large extent lost the capability to live in the present. Many so-called celebrations are not much more than a painful moment between bothersome preparations and boring after-talks. We can only celebrate if there is something present that can be celebrated" (p. 96). We celebrate Easter because of Jesus. We celebrate Pentecost because of the Spirit. We celebrate Christmas because it is our Savior's birth.

Remembrance is about remembering the past. "He who celebrates life will not make his past a prison nor a source of pride, but will face the facts of history and fully accept them as the elements that allow him to claim his experience as his own" (p. 98).

Expecting is celebration filled with expectations for the future. "If the past had the last word, a man who would imprison himself more and more the older he became. if the present were the ultimate moment of satisfaction, man would cling to it with a hedonistic eagerness, trying to squeeze the last drop of life out of it. But the present holds promises and reaches out over the horizons of life, and this makes it possible for us to embrace our future as well as our past in the moment of celebration" (p. 99).

There is so much here, but I digress. You need to read the book and challenge yourself to be more professional. I will leave you with this from the conclusion. "It calls for men and women who do not shy away from careful preparation, solid formation, and qualified training but at the same time are free enough to break through the restrictive boundaries of disciplines and specialties in the conviction that the Spirit moves beyond professional expertise. It calls for Christians who are willing to develop their sensitivity to God's presence in their own lives, as well as in the lives of others, and to offer their experiences as a way of recognition and liberation to their fellow men. It calls for ministers in the true sense, who lay down their own lives for their friends, helping them to distinguish between the constructive and the destructive spirits and making them free for the discovery of God's life-giving Spirit in the midst of this maddening world. It call for creative weakness" (p. 118-119).

I already loved Sally LLoyd Jones because of the Jesus Storybook Bible. Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing is a great companion to that Bible.

It uses a conversational tone that pairs perfectly with the illustrations to look at profound spiritual truths—drawing insights from creation, history, science, the writings of great thinkers and preachers and writers, and more—to turn the reader’s eyes toward God, the God who loves them with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.

Some people have been critical about content. While I think most of it is really good, parents should know about it.  There is a WWII prisoner of war where one steps forward to take the blame for something that he didn't do. The guards end up killing him. Also, there is the image of a woman with dark brown skin standing up being auctioned off as a slave. These are snippets of a very well done piece of children's literature.

How am I using this? I am starting to use this for family devotions and my heart was singing as I read it to my children! Do yourself a favor and make sure you have it.

First of all, I would like to say that this woman, Anne Bogel, is just delightful in terms of writing style. The chapters of this book, and her first book, are well written, easy to understand, and long enough to feel that you chewed on a great concept, but short enough that you are not going to be upset at the length of the chapter. This would be a great summer read when you are not in the mood for a full blown narrative. 

There are 21 chapters in this little gem. My favorite chapters were entitled "The Books Next Door", "Bookworm Problems", and "Again, For the First Time". 

I find that book reviews with quotes from the book give a sense of whether it's good or not. Here are a few from "Again, For the First Time".

"I've found that a good books not only holds up to repeated visits, but improves each time we return to it"  (118). I immediately thought of lectio divina when I read this. The stories that I read in the Bible are even better when I have returned to them to revisit the character and how their story is wrapped up in God's story.

"Great books keep surprising me with new things" (119). We return to great books to revisit and relearn, but often we just see new concepts or ideas that bless us.

"When we revisit a book we've read before, we see how life has woken us up to understand passage that previously went over our heads. The book itself highlights the gap between who I am and who I used to be" (122). I loved then when I first read it, and I love it now. I am changed and I get to see it! A reflective moment at its best.

"A reader's character is her fate - and I'm determined to remain open to new experiences in the same old (new) books, to see the ways I've changed and how those books have too" (123). Openness is a great key to life, not just reading. Experiences can be different depending on our stage in life. The way I view books now is different from before. They are treasures that tell stories that reflect how I have changed, how my thinking has changed, and how we all fit into God's redemptive plan for humanity. We really need to stay open to that last one.

This is a delightful and easy read! Download it or pick it up at your bookstore!

This is a hope-filled and profoundly simple book that speaks directly to those men and women who want to be of service in their church or community, but have found the traditional ways ineffective. 

Amazon said this: "In this book, Henri Nouwen combines creative case studies of ministry with stories from diverse cultures and religious traditions in preparing a new model for ministry. Weaving keen cultural analysis with his psychological and religious insights, Nouwen has come up with a balanced and creative theology of service that begins with the realization of fundamental woundedness in human nature. Emphasizing that which is in humanity common to both minister and believer, this woundedness can serve as a source of strength and healing when counseling others. Nouwen proceeds to develop his approach to ministry with an analysis of sufferings -- a suffering world, a suffering generation, a suffering person, and a suffering minister."

This book is a class for a reason. We are all called to love and to heal in spite of our own wounds. Our wounds, in turn, help others heal. 

There are sections of the book that are hard to read, but I will forever appreciate the needed humility of understanding our own woundedness. As a Christian we are always aware that our Great Healer came to us through the wounds of crucifixion and through our own wounds. The last chapter of the book should be required reading for all who minister to others.

I would like to give you some quotes from the book that were thought-provoking for me. 

"...I realize that I have done nothing more than rephrase the fact that the Christian leader must be in the future what he has always had to be in the past: a man of prayer, a man who has to pray, and who has to pray always. That I bring up this simple fact at this point may be surprising, but I hope I have succeeded in taking away all the sweet, pietistic, and church aura attached to this often misused word." (p 47)

"For a man of prayer is, in the final analysis, the man who is able to recognize in others the face of the Messiah and make visible what is hidden, make touchable what was unreachable. The man of prayer is a leader precisely because through his articulation of God'w work within himself he can lead others out of the confusion to clarification; through his compassion he can guide them out of the closed circuits of their in-groups to the wide world of humanity; and through critical contemplation he can convert their convulsive destructiveness into creative work for the new world to come." (p 47)

"... it has become clear that Christian leadership is accomplished only through service. This service requires the willingness to enter into a situation, with all the human vulnerabilities a man has to share with his fellow man. This is a painful and self-denying experience, but an experience which can indeed lead man out of his prison of confusion and fear. Indeed, the paradox of Christian leadership is that way out is the way in, that only by entering into communion with human suffering can relief be found." (p 77)

"Even when we know that we are called to be wounded healers, it is very difficult to acknowledge that healing has to take place today. Because we are living in days when our wounds have become all too visible. Our loneliness and isolation has become so much a part of our daily experience, that we cry out for a Liberator who will take us away from our misery and bring us justice and peace." (p 95)

This paragraph followed: "To announce, however, that the Liberator is sitting among the poor and that the wounds are signs of hope and that today is the day of liberation, is a step very few can take. But is is exactly the announcement of the wounded healer: 'The master is coming - not tomorrow, but today, not next year, but this year, not after all our misery has passed, but in the middle of it, not in another place but right here where we are standing." (p 95)

"If indeed we listen to the voice and believe that ministry is a sign of hope, because it makes visible the first rays of light of the coming Messiah, we can make ourselves and others understand that we already carry in us the source of our own search. Thus ministry can indeed be a witness to the living truth that the wound, which causes us to suffer now, will be revealed to us later as the place where God intimated his new creation." (p 95-96)

​"When the imitation of Christ does not mean to live a life like Christ, but to live your life as authentically as Christ lived his, then there are many ways and forms in which a man can be a Christian. The minister is the one who can make this search for authenticity possible, not by standing on the side as neutral screen or an impartial observer, but as an articulate witness of Christ, who puts his own search at the disposal of others. This hospitality requires that the minister know where he stand and whom he stands for, but it also requires that he allows others to enter his life, come close to him and ask him how their lives connect with his." (p 99-100)

"What we can know ... is that man suffers and that a sharing of suffering can make us move forward. The ministry is called to make this forward thrust credible to his many guests, so that they do not stay but have a growing desire to move on, in the conviction that the full liberation of man and his world is still to come."

There is so much to reflect on in this short but deeply rich little book! I would say it's an excellent reading choice for Lent, the church season right before Easter.  

If you are read this section of the blog regularly, you know I love a good book. Great books are in every room of my home! I even have books in my kitchen.  I recently found these three that I would like to share with you!

​The first book I want to mention is The Word in the Wilderness by Malcolm Guite. 

I started this book last week because it has a poem for each of Lent and Easter. It is a very do-able read in the best sense. I am able read it over lunch hours and I love that the poems he has selected (yes, some of his own verse) are understandable. 

I want to include the poem for the First Sunday of Lent by R.S. Thomas. 

The Bright Field
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the 
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have 
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning 
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you. 

I love the gospel paradox in this. Losing to find, giving away to gain, giving everything up only to find it given back in a new and more beautiful form. The gospel and Lent is not about giving up and going without for its own sake; it is about making room for something wonderful. It is about clearing out the clutter, making space and time for the small seed that prove in time to be the great branching tree in whose canopy we will find a place. 

If giving something up isn't something that you do (yes, our family gave up chocolate), I recommending picking up this gem and reading The Word in the Wilderness!

Another book I am slowly working on is The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith.
​

I admit to starting this book at the beginning of February, and it has held my attention. It has held my attention to the extent that I have slowed down to savor it. 

I have read more than a few memoirs or autobiographies over the years. There have been a handful of hits, but many, many misses and it's been interesting to read this in that she is writing to people who want to write memoirs and do it well. And it's not just a good book. It's brilliant.

Well, she is brilliant. This book is full of golden nuggets. They are not general nuggets. They are personal golden nuggets of how to tell a story, your story, well. 

I cannot do the book justice with this minor review. If I had the time and money, I would take this woman's online memoir course. Alas, I will continue to teach and think and ponder of this one over the semester and summer break. Beautifully done!

Last, but not least, I am reading through the book of Luke in the Bible!
​

For 2019, I am reading through one book of the Bible every month. January was Matthew, February was Mark, and March is Luke. 

This is the gospel written by the doctor named Luke to Theophilus, his friend. They shared two loves. A love for Christ and a love for facts. They were interested in truth. The result is part letter and part research paper. Like many great pieces of literature, this was gospel is a labor of love. Luke studied carefully and wanted Theophilus to benefit from his study. With the skill of surgeon, Luke probes for truth.

Like all gospel writers, there are many beautiful themes that emerge. First, Luke portrays Jesus as fully man and fully God. Second, Jesus brings total physical and spiritual restoration to the body and soul through death on the cross and his resurrection. Another theme is Jesus experiencing the conflicts of life, yet performing miracles. Also, Jesus fulfilled God's mission and taught about God's kingdom.

Here are some others to ponder over.

Forgiveness at both human and divine levels are a beautiful theme woven throughout the whole book.

​His death and resurrection open up the possibility of salvation and make possible a direct relationship with God. 

Another thing I love about this gospel is theme of prayer. In addition to specific teaching on prayer, Jesus exemplifies a life of prayer by communicating with God the Father. 

The compassion or heart of Christ is there. Jesus Christ is the friend of poor, list, brokenhearted, alienated, oppressed, and abandoned sinners.

I wonder if Luke had any inkling about the impact of this book that he wrote for a friend. It is for the person who is interested in facts but has come to realize that there are things cannot be rationally explained. It for those who are interested in Jesus, but do not necessarily believe.

This is my little trinity of reading material for March. I hope and pray something in this has made an impression and you are motivated to pick up and read any of these books!

I love books. In fact, I live in them. I have lived in books more than anywhere else. That is saying something considering that I have lived in Asia for over 20 years now. For this post, I wanted to reflect on authors that I hold in great esteem and how their work affected me. Travel along as I review three works that worked their magic in me. 

I received As Kingfishers Catch Fire as a Christmas present last year.  This is the last book poet-pastor Eugene Peterson published before he passed away. It's a rare piece of depth and grace, contemplation on what it means to a Christian, and exposition on how Peterson went from someone who didn't know how to preach to someone who was able to pull people into the stories of the Bible, into the biblical imagination, and allow that pull or contemplation to transform his congregants. 

Eugene Peterson called his pastoral transformation congruence. Living a life where there was little slippage between what one is saying and what one is doing. He picked a poem of Gerald Manley Hopkins to explain it:

Without going into an exposition on the poem, we can understand that the Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence. "...congruence ... between what we do and the way we do it, congruence between what is written in Scripture and our living out what is written, congruence between a ship and its prow, congruence between preaching and living..." (Preface)

Preaching is the weekly verbal witness to the essential congruence of what Christ is with His work that "plays" in us. Everything that we do during the week, the prayers, conversations, interactions with children, students, colleagues, everyone are a part of the good news. The "Word ... made flesh" (John 1:14, KJV) is the word becoming our flesh, our limbs, our eyes, our hands. 

The sermons in the book represent his three decades of collaboration and conversation with his congregants. It is his on-going narrative with his people and his contemplation on many biblical heroes.

You do not get to hear his voice as this is not a listening opportunity, but a reading opportunity. These are his "kingfisher" sermons. It is Peterson at his best and in the company of his conversations with Moses, David, Isaiah, Solomon, Peter, Paul, and John.

There is so much richness here that you should not miss. The section on Isaiah is stunning and worth the price of the book. And if that doesn't catch your attention, this amazing picture of a kingfisher really should. 

Do you want to whet your imagination and close the gap between what you believe and what you do? Start this intense reading journey with the master poet-pastor. 

Another book that rocked my little world this winter was Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge. I will be revisiting this writer every winter for as long I breathe. 

Just in case you are muttered under your breath, who?, I'll tell you a little bit about her. Fleming Rutledge is one of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church. She is recognized in North America and the UK as a preacher, lecturer, and teacher of other preachers. Her sermons have been widely praised and her book The Crucifixion was named Christianity Today’s Book of the Year in 2017. (That book is a topic of a upcoming blog post!)

She makes many a comment on John the Baptist who we all know prepared the way for Christ. "Advent is the season of the uncovering: 'Bear fruit that befits repentance ... Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees'!"

Advent is the right time root out the cover-ups in our lives as we wait with bated breath for the lights to come on and the announcement of the angel that God is not against us but for us. 

This book is a collection of her sermons and thoughts, and it is written in three sections, writings, sermons, and a service of lessons and carols for advent. The section on sermons is organized into nine parts: waiting and hastening the king yet to come (Pre-Advent), the universal grip of the enemy (Pre-advent), justice and the final judgement (Pre-advent), God's apocalyptic war (the feast of Saint Michael), the coming of the Lord (Last Sunday of the church year: Feast of Christ the king), Advent begins in the dark (Advent I), the armor of light (Advent II), bearing witness on the brink (Advent III), the king of last things (Advent IV). The other two sections are much shorter but just as rich. She has the rare ability of allowing Bible text to speak to present day political realities. 

This is not a book you read to give yourself a warm, cozy, Christmas-y feeling. There is so much here about waiting, turning, repenting ... in getting ready to meet Jesus as King and redeemer.  It's just beautiful and I am not even close to forging the depths of it. 

Another one I want to mention quickly is The Mystery of Holy Night by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer, a Christian theologian, was killed by the Nazis in Flossenburg on April 9, 1945 for his role in a conspiracy to murder Hitler. He was 39 years old. ​

This short but profound gem is a meditation on the significance of the birth of Jesus to the lives of all Christians. He wants to unite the religious and the secular in an ethical humanism.

​The nativity of Christ in the manger speaks directly to this unity: it addresses a Christian's attitude toward the lowly, Christian experience--being humble in facing God and the world.

"Who among us will celebrate Christmas right?" Bonhoeffer asks. He answers, "those who finally lay down all their power, honor, and prestige, all their vanity, pride, and self-will at the manger." Brief, poetic selections from two Bonhoeffer sermons provides material for meditation on the meaning of Christmas and of Christianity. As well, the art work has been carefully selected and enhances what has been written. But what makes this special is that it is an Advent-hymn, a collection of his writings put together in such a way as to call out of the soul the same hope he was experiencing in his prison-cell. The Mystery of Holy Night weaves the Christmas story, theology, history, and art into an amazing Advent-hymn.  

And what am I looking forward to reading in 2019? Here we go...

I am looking forward to re-reading Fujimura's Refractions, The Gospel of Ruth, A Million Little Ways, and Holy Luck. The new books include A Velocity of Being, Hind's Feet in High Places, Creative Ministry, The Memoir Project, Writing Down the Bones, and the Wounded Healer. 

What books will you be reading in 2019? What great books did you read in 2018? I'd love to hear from you...

The anticipation of Christ's birth during Advent is always a blessing and trial in its waiting.  (Yes, the blessing comes in the trial of waiting!) Here is a poem to help us look forward to the birth of Christ and the meaning of Christmas. It did give pause and a moment of breath and space to believe...

CALM and Bright

​C A L M as  
Near-got slumber
C A L M as
Longed-for solitude
C A L M as  
Your own steady breathing
From dark rows of empty pews


B R I G H T like
Candle's glow at midnight
B R I G H T like
Summer's longest day
B R I G H T like  
Hope that will not falter
When your heart can't see a way
 
 
C A L M  &  B R I G H T 
And ever shining
C A L M  &  B R I G H T
And never done  
C A L M  &  B R I G H T
The slow revealing
Of the Father's perfect Son  

​-Leigh McLeroy

I wanted to give you some Advent book recommendations that are blessing me with thoughtful reflection. So, here is my trinity of Advent blessings. These recommendations are beautiful in their ability to take you deeply into Christ and his heart as well as the human experience. The first one I would like to recommend is Malcolm Guite's Waiting on the Word: A poem for Advent, Christmas, and Ephinany. I am revisiting this book this year after listening to him on Sally Clarkson's podcast earlier this month where he made some brilliant statements about how imagination is above reason. 

This one explores a wide range of poets including some contemporary poets like Luci Shaw and Scott Cairns.  The poem is first, and then his theological and spiritual insights into the poem are expounded. This book is not for those who are interested in Hallmark comments on Christmas. He goes deeply into all kinds of Advent paradoxes. At the end of each chapter, I feel like I have worshiped, nudged a little closer to our God in heaven, and come away refreshed.  This man is Chaplain at Girtin College at Cambridge and lectures on poetry and you need to read him (I will be ordering his book of poetry for Easter  as well)!
​
I was a little late to start this but I'm loving this one as its new and amazingly thoughtful in helping me understand more than just Advent. In The Art of Advent, I am learning how to look at a piece of art, how to see spirituality in great artistic works, and that is leading to reflection on my own life choices. This woman lectures in Systematic Theology at Saint Mellitus College has written a number of books that explore theology for the lay person as well as those interested in academic perspective.

I have wanted to check on this one for years. but it didn't happen until now.  This is the story of Christ's birth told through Jotham, a ten year old boy searching for his family in Israel at the time of Christ's birth. He encounters robbers, thieves, kidnappers, as well as shepherds, wisemen, innkeepers. This book brings some real insight into culture at the time of Christ that is easily understood by young readers, but even I have been able to gain insight into a completely different time and place that really is rarity in a narrative like this. 

I also like the scripture references and comments/reflections that come at the end of each day's reading.

All of this has inspired me to focus a little more on reading next year. I am picking 12 books to read through 2019, one for each month. A few are books that I feel I need to revisit along with some new ones that I just didn't quite get to this year. Do any of you want to join in making 2019 a reading year? It really is a beautiful idea...

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.  -Revelation 1:3

I remember watching the movie and reading the book based on my mother's recommendation. I followed this coming of age story of Scout and Gem, and was inspired to do the right thing, like Atticus Finch. He stared racism and prejudice in the face and I became a more thoughtful person because of the book. I learned about the South in terms of it’s weaknesses. And I had new understanding of a minor character, Boo Radley, by the end of the book.

If you have never heard of this book, I recommend it highly. It was one of the inspirations for my own Advent book (not published yet) on the named trees in the Bible. Three trees dream of what they want to do when they grow up. Things do not work out as imagined, but God had an even better plan in mind!

The magical world of Narnia! The characters of Edmund, Lucy, Susan, and Peter still live in my mind as they deal with the witch and learn to love Aslan. A beloved classic for many, including me!

This was my first introduction to literature in English about another culture! I remembe this beautifully written travel memoir won an award in Canada when it was published. The writer really did have a transformative Thai experience, and I still follow her writing...

Anne Shirley let me visit the other side of Canada at a time when many people just stayed in their own province or the one right beside them. Anne, Marilla, Matthew and Gilbert are well loved characters that continue to live in my mind. It's a bonus that it's also a story of family love and forgiveness.  (I still smile when I think of the slate Anne broke over Gilbert's head!)

Of all the books I’ve known and loved since childhood, one has carried me farther than all the others combined: the Holy Bible. Its stories and characters are the ones most deeply ingrained in memory: Jonah swallowed up by the great fish. Noah building an ark and floating above the mountain peaks in it. Baby Moses, found in the river by an Egyptian princess, and shepherd boy David, whose slingshot and fearlessness slew giants. 

Then there are the Gospel stories—the most magical ones of all—where Jesus walked and talked, and water became wine, and fish and loaves multiplied in one great picnic with leftovers galore. Where blind men got their sight back and where the wildest waves imaginable were tamed by a word from the one who made them. 

My other books did indeed take me worlds away, but only the Bible had the power to bring its Protagonist into my world and change it—and me—by his presence. Other books were for a time, and that time has come and gone. But I can’t imagine a day when I won’t ask this book to tell me its old, old story all over again. 

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish. JOHN 1: 14, MSG

I would love to hear back from you. What books have allowed you to travel? What books have changed you in some way?

Sarah Mackenzie of Read Aloud Revival fame recommended the Mr. Putter & Tabby series for emerging readers on a podcast over the summer. and I am so glad I decided to make this purchase! This book, a little more than the others in the series, just stole my heart and cracked me up while I was reading it to my two youngest sons.

It is winter and Mr. Putter and Tabby are happily stuck in the house getting cozy beside a fire and in a warm chair.  Mr. Putter gets an idea.  He decides to write a mystery novel.  He gets out the pen and paper and begins...

He eventually manages to write out a title and is so pleased with himself that he is off to the kitchen to make a snack. (I would be too!)

And thus begins his journey into writing the kind of mystery novel that he remembered reading as a boy!

It’s a journey filled with snacks, disappointments,delights, and lists. I have to mention I love the gratitude list at the end of the book! Gratitude really is a beautiful attitude!

I love the Mr. Putter series. The character development is exquisite and, necessarily, very economic. The characters are 3D and not dumbed down. The plots are tender, fun, touching. But this one in particular grabbed me because I related to Mr. Putter finding so many other things to do beside write.