A short bio, but full of information, and well-written.
In our quest to reduce clutter and dis-accumulate years of accumulation, Lynda and I pulled a few books from obscure shelves in the basement family room, and will read them next. These are all “non-keepers”, books we will discard. One of these books was George Mueller. Not too long ago we read that aloud in the evenings.
I’ve known about George Mueller and his life of faith for a long time. I’ve read about him in various books and articles. I included him in a chapter of Acts Of Faith, my book about Bible people and Christians who had special faith experiences. But I had never read a biography of him.
This was a short book, possibly geared towards teens, though actually a good read for adults. It covered Mueller’s growing up in Germany, his wild youth period, his conversion, and his growth as a baby Christian. He gave up a prospective marriage to a woman who did not appreciate his desire to be a missionary.
He made contact with a missionary society that wanted him to work among the Jewish people in England. He went there, but it didn’t work out. He became co-pastor of a church. Before long, he started a Bible distribution ministry. Not long after that, he took notice of orphans in Bristol and their plight in the workhouses. He decided to develop orphanages, which he had seen in Germany but were a new concept in England. Over the years, he developed multiple orphanages, first in the heart of Bristol, then on the outskirts.
This includes a chapter, or rather part of a chapter, about George Mueller.
The act of faith? He did all this without ever soliciting donations. Not for renting property. Not for staffing the orphanages. Not for provisioning them. Not for buying property and building multiple orphanages on it. He prayed for the needs and trusted God to supply.
The book concentrated on the orphanage years. There were times when they had nothing for breakfast, and a bread truck broke down in front of the orphanage. There were times when a 5 pound bill was due, and an envelope came in the morning mail from someone they didn’t know. Mueller had faith when he needed a shilling and was trustworthy with it. God then gave him faith for tens of thousands of pounds and trustworthiness with that.
The book was an easy read. Not terribly long, but long enough so that by the end I felt like I understood Mueller’s life fairly well. Now I’m sure that, in a short book, much was left out. I want to read a fuller biography of this.
I highly recommend this book, which I give 5-stars. But this little paperback is long out of print. If you can’t find this, grab any bio of Mueller and dig in.
This book is not a keeper. However, we might give it to our grandchildren to read. It’s quite readable at that age.
Moving this 7 foot high woodpile about 60 feet downhill might interrupt my writing rhythm.
I haven’t looked back to see what my writing goals for March are, but I know I’ve been busy writing. I’m into a rhythm of sorts. I need to be since I’m working on two projects at once, while still waiting on two others to truly finish and drop off the radar.
The two waiting to be finished are the church Centennial book and my MG/YA novel There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. The former is done and sent to the printer. At least the insides are. The cover has lagged due to the designer’s busyness. She sent it to me on Tuesday. I immediately shot it to our pastor and committee chair for approval. Both wanted tweaks or changes, one involving a new photo. That photo arrived in my inbox today. I sent it on, and the cover designer says I should have the revised cover tomorrow. Once I send it on to the printer, that project will be truly done.
The other project is also done—sort of. I’m waiting on five beta readers to give me feedback, four of them in the target age group. I’ve given nudges but hear nothing from them. The cover is under preparation by a different designer. I think, once that is done, I will publish it with or without the feedback from the five. If they give me good suggestions for substantive changes, I can always make the changes and republish the book. Meanwhile, I’m giving my critique group a chapter every two weeks and getting good feedback. Alas, as adult writers, they aren’t in the target demographic. Both of these projects are taking very little of my time.
My Bible commentaries are out, resting one on another on the kitchen table, and likely to stay there for a couple of months. I see blank paper to write on, but what did I do with my notes?
Now, as for current projects, they are two Bible studies that form a pair. First, some background. Last year, Feb-Apr, I taught a Bible study on the Last Supper, 13 weeks I think it was. It was Part 3 of a larger study, A Walk Through Holy Week. We are studying it in our Life Group, one part a year, based on the harmony of the gospels I wrote. I realized that the entire study would make a good series of books. I didn’t do anything with Parts 1 and 2, but Part 3 seemed especially suitable for a Bible study book.
Alas, when that study was over, I was fully involved in the Centennial book, and when I had it mostly finished by June (with a research supplement not done till Aug), I moved straight into the time travel book because the iron was hot and I wanted to get it done. Meanwhile, I preserved my teaching notes, some of which were handwritten and some typed. Whenever my schedule freed up, I would be ready to write it.
That happened around mid-January this year. I gathered my notes, merged and organized them, then created the book file. I labored at it for a month. Yes, labored, for I found it very difficult to write. My plan was to have one chapter for each week’s lesson. Chapters would be organized into seven sections, making for a reading a day should the reader want to proceed that way. I was able to make some headway on it, starting the seven readings for Chapter 1 and completing some of them. I got some “days” done, others not. By around March 3rd, I had perhaps 12,000 words of a book that I think will be 50-60,000. Not great progress, but some.
Then a dilemma hit me. On Sunday, March 6, we were to start Part 4 of the Holy Week study. I immediately thought I couldn’t work on both studies. Teaching the new one would consume so much time, and cover different material, that writing Part 3 while teaching Part 4 would be difficult. But the thought came that maybe I should just write the new one and lay Part 3 aside. That way, I could write the chapters (again, planning for seven readings in each chapter) as I was teaching it. The material would be fresh, and hopefully the writing would go fast as well.
I taught the first lesson of Part 4 on March 6. The day before, Saturday, I did an intensive study for it. Coming home from church on Sunday, I went to my computer and began writing the new study. As I hoped, it was easier. I was able to incorporate class discussion and thoughts not in my notes that came to me as I was teaching while all was fresh on my mind. Sunday, I wrote one complete reading and part of another. I also organized the chapters and readings. Monday, I did two more readings, Tuesday two more, and Wednesday, two more, completing the chapter. Yay!
That left me Thursday and Friday to return to the Part 3 book and see what I could accomplish. What I found was I really needed to re-study the material just as if I was going to teach it anew. I did that on Thursday, and on Friday I wrote two days of readings. My writing time on Saturday had to go to study for the next lesson in Part 4.
So it seemed to me that this was a viable rhythm. Saturday: study to teach a lesson in Part 4. Sunday, teach the lesson and work on writing the chapter in Part 4. Monday-Tuesday write the Part 4 chapter, hoping to finish by Tuesday evening. If I couldn’t, continue with Part 4 writing on Wednesday. When that was done, shift to Part 3, hoping to study a chapter and write it on Wednesday-Thursday-Friday.
It worked out like that this week. I completed the second chapter of Part 4 on Wednesday, early enough to give me some time to shift to writing Part 3. As of the time of this writing, I should finish tomorrow (today when you read this) the most difficult chapter to write in Part 3. Then, it’s on to Chapter 3 of Part 4 and another chapter in Part 3. I hope this is making sense.
Part 4 finishes on Easter Sunday. The week after Easter I have a medical procedure scheduled that will prevent me from writing a whole lot. I hope to finish Part 4 by the end of April—the first draft, that is. I’ll be very surprised if I am even half-way through with Part 3 by then, but maybe I will be.
As of yet, I have no publishing schedule for either of these. I don’t know if I’ll publish Part 4 when done, and Part 3 a couple of months later, or if I’ll withhold Part 4 until Part 3 is done and publish them together, or maybe a month apart. Once I know, I’ll let you all know here.
God moved in Timor, and Mel Tari was part of the revival there. A good read, this 1971 book.
In the quest to reduce our possessions, of which books are the ones we have most of and need to reduce, the wife and I went to the shelves in the basement family room, which is really part of an open space that includes The Dungeon, and grabbed a number of books to bring upstairs and read aloud in the evenings. We now have a stack of six or eight books to read. Except we finished two of them.
One was Like A Mighty Wind by Mel Tari, Cliff Dudley being his collaborator. We bought this used hardback some years ago. At least, I assume we bought it. I don’t remember the many book purchases we made. This could have been given to us. No matter. It’s been on that shelf for a long time. We finally got to it. Originally published in 1971, our copy is a tenth printing from August 1972. Ten printings in one year. Obviously, this book struck a nerve when first published.
Mel Tari was an Indonesian native from the island of Timor. The Foreword begins:
Four nights before the nearly successful Communist coup in Indonesia in 1965, God sovereignly began pouring out His Spirit in a small town on the little-known island of Timor. He alerted the Christians to pray, and the country was remarkably spared.
A revival broke out in Timor right afterward and Mel Tari, at the time only 18, was saved and empowered to preach the gospel. The book tells his story. How he became a preacher on Timor. How God did miracle after miracle, things like helping the evangelistic team find their way in a roadless, pathless jungle to a village they had heard of but never been there. How doors opened and closed, and God’s work progressed. How he learned as he went along. It’s a fascinating story.
Despite the above quote, the book isn’t about politics, but about Mel’s journey. He turned down a scholarship to a university in Russia, and instead came to the USA for study. Expecting to come to a Christian country. Instead, he found sin all over the country. He was quite disappointed.
The story is, as I said, fascinating. Tari sees miracle after miracle. He grew in his faith as he took the Bible at its word. He prayed much. He preached. He helped many people on his native Timor.
The book gives Tari’s journey for the first ten or so years during and after the revival on Timor. It’s a story well worth reading. As I did a little research while putting this post together, I see that controversy now swirls around Tari, who is now a US citizen. I wasn’t able to make sense of it all, but I take it he is considered something of a fraudster-preacher. Could be; I would have to do more research to know for sure. It’s possible that the spiritual condition he experienced in his early years didn’t carry through to his later years.
I give this book 3-stars. It has some typos that distract. Tari also gets into a couple of controversial doctrinal issues, which slightly lessened my enjoyment of it. Should you read it, given Tari’s current reputation in the USA? If you come across it (and it’s available where used books are sold), yes. As I said, whatever his faults now, this book is of a time many decades ago, when the moving of God in Tari’s life was new and fresh.
But, it won’t go back on the basement shelf. Into the sale/donation pile it will go later today.
The second Bible verse (see here for my discussion of the three verses and here for the first verse) I try to say each morning has been with me a long time, probably twenty years. I’ve used it in my e-mail signature at least since 2005. I think I first took note of it in 1993-94, when coaching our church’s teen Bible quizzing team. It is 2nd Corinthians 4:17.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all.
I more or less remember the day I found this verse. It hit me hard. Whatever our troubles are on this earth—and they might be many—they are nothing in relationship to heaven. Persevering through earthly troubles will result in heavenly glory for us.
The load about to go to Salvation Army. Glad to have this go; sad to think this a small amount of what we need to get rid of. A light and momentary trouble.
At some point I began saying this every morning. That is, except when I got up and forgot, which happens occasionally. I know that the day will have troubles. That’s a sign that I’m living, interacting with people. Quoting it helps me to keep those troubles in perspective.
However, recently I realized I wasn’t getting the full benefit of this verse. Sure, seeing my troubles in an eternal perspective was important, and beneficial, but the verse says something more. Those troubles are supposed to be achieving for me an eternal glory that’s much greater than the troubles. But were they?
I had a couple of incidents of troubles this week, and they almost slipped by without my realizing the full benefit of them. On Monday, after many false starts and delays, I loaded up the van with remnants of the garage sale we had over a year ago to take them to a thrift store. We decided that this load would go to the Salvation Army donation center about 20 miles from our house. We have a closer thrift store where we normally take donations, but decided this time to help out the Salvation Army.
A couple of months ago I had called them and learned their donation hours were 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. I had the load ready around 1:30, thus figuring I was safe. But to be sure, I called the donation center. Alas, their phone was busy. Busy on the first call, the second call, the third call. For 15 minutes their line was busy. I should have just got in the van and made the trip. Finally, they answered the phone, and I learned that their closing time had changed to 2:30 p.m. It was about 10 minutes to 2 p.m., and I had 20 miles to drive.
What to do? Knowing I had a busy day planned for Tuesday, I quickly hopped in the van and left. The recently opened Bella Vista bypass allowed for quick travel, and I reached the mall they were in (I’d not been to S.A. since they moved to this declining mall). I drove around it and no Salvation Army. I called, knowing I hadn’t been able to reach them easily earlier. But they answered right away, told me where they were in relation to the mall building and said drive around back. Although, the woman answering said “go past the mall….” I asked her east-bound or west-bound, but she didn’t know her east from west. A follow-up question gave me what I needed.
I got to the back at 2:22 pm, and the door was closed, the sign in place saying they were closed for donations. I knocked and no one came. I pulled the door open and no one was in sight. I called out and no one answered. I was hot. I drove around to the front and went in, ready to give them a piece of my mind. They assured me they were open for donations, to drive around the back again, and they would meet me. I got back in the van, still hot, when my verse came to mind. I was reminded that this trouble was, in fact, light and momentary.
But was it achieving me an eternal glory that outweighed the trouble? Not the way I was going. I had to change my attitude. I realized the worst that could happen was I might have missed delivering to this store and would have to drive to the other. The cost would have been just 10 miles of extra driving—not an inconsiderable cost these days. I got around the back. Three workers met me and they made short work unloading my full van while we had pleasant conversation. It was 2:30 p.m.
The other trouble came on Tuesday. After breakfast, when I was going to start my writing day, I remembered I really needed to prepare the income tax form for our partnership. Partnership tax returns are due March 15. Oh, such a problem.
All the information needed to complete the partnership taxes was on spreadsheets. I opened these. One was the business records, the other was the tax computations. But, the two spreadsheets didn’t quite match. I had some manipulation to do before I could dump the business records into the tax spreadsheet. Is this making sense?
Alas, I had much trouble with it. I had two spreadsheets open, and two worksheets in one spreadsheet. I kept making changes to the wrong file, or the wrong tab in the file, and had to un-do a lot and start over. I couldn’t remember how I did it last year. Finally, in frustration I left The Dungeon, went upstairs and got another cup of coffee. I had wasted over an hour.
As I sipped coffee back in The Dungeon, I realized that this trouble was light and momentary. But, my frustration and anger wasn’t achieving for me an eternal glory that outweighed the trouble. That would only happen if I calmed down, figured out how to do this a step at a time. It meant I would have to give up completely my morning writing session, which would put me behind my week’s writing goal. “If that’s what it takes,” I decided. Two hours later, and the problem was solved. The tax spreadsheet had all the information from the business accounting spreadsheet. Filling out the actual tax forms would be a two-hour task on Wednesday, and the deadline would be met.
Light and momentary troubles. I’ve recognized that for close to 30 years. But I haven’t always achieved the eternal glory part. This week, I think I took a couple of steps in the right direction.
Except for running a little long in places, this was an excellent book.
Our church recently did an all-church study of the book Organic Disciples. Our pastor preached on the concepts in the book, and all adult Sunday school classes (a.k.a. Life Groups) studied it.
What exactly are organic disciples, you ask? Well, in the food industry, organic means “natural”. In terms of discipleship, it would mean we should naturally grow/improve as disciples of Jesus.
The idea of organic disciples grew out or organic outreach. This is a ministry of Kevin and Sherry Harney, pastors of a large church in California. Organic outreach means natural outreach. Your life should be structured in such a way that reaching people with the gospel happens naturally. It is not forced, not a trial or burden, but a joy that comes from everyday living. The Harneys have a series of books, church resources, and small group resources designed to help with the concept of organic outreach. Organic Disciples is one of those resources.
The book focuses on six spiritual markers that the disciple can use to measure their progress on the road to being more Christ-like, which is the definition of a disciple. Such things as Bible engagement, prayer, worship, generosity, etc. are what marks a disciple. The book has chapters based on these concepts. Examples from the authors’ lives. Suggestions on how to make these items natural in your life.
The book I found to be useful and well-written. I found nothing to disagree with. The book stayed clear of politics and controversial subject. At times the discussion ran a little long. I felt that several chapters were repetitive, or went into too much detail. But, overall, a good book. I give it 4-stars.
But as to keeping it? Alas, no. If I didn’t have a couple of thousand other books to read, I might. But the likelihood of my ever reading it again is small. So to the donation piles it goes. Hopefully today it will go to one of the area thrift stores.
A few posts ago, I mentioned that I had three Bible verses that I tried to start each day with. I also confessed that I wasn’t always that faithful with saying these verses. I’m getting better at it, however. I started this about two years ago, though two of those three verses have been special to me for longer than that.
The first of these verses comes from the Psalms. I find it in two places there: Psalm 57:8 and Psalm 108:2.
I will awaken the dawn.
Actually, that’s not the full verse. I should quote the full verse.
Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.
While I have probably read this more than once, it first grabbed me when we were doing a study of Psalm 119 maybe four years ago. For some reason this verse in Psalm 108 must have been cross-referenced to something in Psalm 119.
This, as I say, grabbed at me. What did it mean exactly? To try to find out, I checked other translations (the above quotes are from the NIV). I found they were surprisingly the same. The New Living Translation has Psalm 57:8 as, “Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song.”
What did it mean? I pondered it for a while, internalizing it, and concluded that the psalmist woke in the morning excited about the day that was before him. He couldn’t wait for the sun to come up so that he could be about living another day joyously in service to God. So he wrote, “I will awaken the dawn.” I will call upon the day to start so that I can get to my daily chores, my work, my career, or whatever it is he had to do.
That struck me as a good way to start my days, to be anxious for what God had in store for me today, and what the world has for me. C’mon day, let’s get going. C’mon sun, I need your light so that I can be out and about, meeting people, serving God, serving mankind.
First, I had to think, is this how I really feel? Am I excited to have another day to live? Thankful, of course. But when nature calls early in the morning, and I swing my feet off the bed to the floor, and I anxious for the day, so anxious that I say, “I will awaken the dawn”? I decided yes, yes I am excited to be living another day.
What about that Saturday in late February, when I spent three hours chopping ice in the driveway and shoveling it off so that I would be able to get to church on Sunday and teach Life Group? My back was tired, my hip was tired, my mind was tired. I woke up that Sunday with many more aches and pains than usual. Yet I was able to say, “I will awaken the dawn,” get up, and get to my normal Lord’s day activities.
What about income tax season? I have a love-hate relationship with income taxes. I enjoy the challenge of doing them myself. Yet, it’s a lot of work and often frustrating. In early March, when I work on the partnership taxes, and then in early April when I do our personal taxes, saying, “I will awaken the dawn” isn’t all that easy. Still, I say it anyway, realizing I have another challenge to tackle and overcome.
Then there’s the daily “grind” of writing. Yes, it is a grind. I can’t say it any other way. Sometimes it’s almost a drudgery. Yet, again, there’s that challenge waiting me in the morning, to get my coffee, walk down the stairs to The Dungeon, have my time of devotions and prayer, check overnight e-mails and social media, then get to whatever book I’m working on. While it severely cuts into my retirement idleness, I can joyously say, “I will awaken the dawn” as I open a book file and begin typing.
I actually wrote a poem that kind of sums up, or maybe expands upon, what this verse is saying. It’s the second poem in my book Daddy-Daughter Day.
That says kind of the same thing, I think. Written in 2005 (or 2006), it speaks of wanting the day to occur and being excited about the adventures that await you.
So, what happens on a day when I wake and just don’t feel ready to claim the day as my own? When I don’t particularly want to awaken the dawn? Yes, I have days like that. I still say the verse. And the verse seems to get hold of me, once again. My attitude quickly changes. And I get on with the adventures that God has for me today.
Last day of the month, a short month. Time to see how I did on reaching my monthly goals, and to set some goals for next month.
It has taken over a year of work to get to this point, but finally we are within a couple of weeks of going to print. I said this last month, but it seems closer now.
First, the progress on goals I set back on January 31.
Make any edits to the church Centennial book and deliver it to the printer. I guess that means we will have to make a decision on the printer, but that decision is actually almost made. This goal depends a bit on the cover designer, but it’s a fairly simple cover so I don’t see this as a problem. I sort of achieved this goal. I made all the final edits, and am now just waiting on the cover creator. I received one new photo from the descendant of a former pastor. While waiting on the cover, I’ll see if I can work that in.
Related to that, though not necessarily writing, finish pulling my research notes together into a format and organization that will make the job of a future researcher easier. I assume someone, in 25 or 50 years, will do something similar to me at a future milestone anniversary. Nope, didn’t work on this at all. Once I picked up some of my notes and tried to put them in some kind of order, but gave it up. It takes a different mindset to do this kind of task, and I’m afraid I never had that mindset this month. I’ll add it to next month.
Make any edits necessary to There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. I want to get a few more chapters through my critique group, and of course I’m waiting on the beta readers and then the cover artist. Assuming that all comes together, I’m looking at publishing either in March or April. This project continues to move forward. I’m waiting on two key beta readers to get back with me, which I hope will be this week. I was supposed to have met with the cover artist last week, but two days of snowstorms got in the way of that. While waiting, I’m going through the book one more time, looked at suggestions the critique group made, and seeing if I can make other, similar changes. I would say that March is unlikely for publishing at this stage. April is still possible.
Complete significant work on The Last Supper Bible study. I’ve had some trouble coming up with the right format; or rather, I’ve had trouble seeing how the format I came up with a year ago will work. I have to get some words on paper and see how well it comes together. As such, this goal is a bit unfocused. Just as this goal was unfocused, so was my work. I did accomplish a few things. First, I got all my files together. I moved words already written around so that they were in the right place. I temporarily gave up on Chapter 1, which was giving me much trouble, and moved to Chapter 2, which I all but finished. While I wish I was further along, I feel good about where I am. I’ll have to get a little way into Chapter 3 before I can say, for certain, that this is a viable project.
As always, attend writing group meetings, both in person and on-line. That will likely be five meetings, three of which will be in person. Well, between pandemic and travel and snow, some meetings were cancelled. I had one in-person meeting, of the Scribblers & Scribes, and two on-line meetings. March promises to be better.
As always, blog twice a week on Monday and Friday. Did this, though one day I remembered late in the day that I hadn’t posted anything and rushed something and posted it. Hopefully that won’t happen next month.
Okay, so what do I plan to do in March? Should I set high goals, or just what I can accomplish without a lot of effort? Since two projects are dependent on others…well, we’ll see.
Repeat from last month: Finish pulling my research notes for the church Centennial book together into a format and organization that will make the job of a future researcher easier. I assume someone, in 25 or 50 years, will do something similar to this at a future milestone anniversary. I want to leave my notes in a condition that will facilitate their work. This is likely to take several days or even a week of concentrated work. This task includes writing a short document (short as in 10-15 pages) “Notes for a Future Researcher”. That document, however, is most likely a task for a future month, say April, or May.
Continue to shepherd the church Centennial book to publication. I have minor things I can do while waiting on the cover, slight improvements to be made. Almost certainly this will go to the printer in March.
Continue to plug along on There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. I’ll finish going through it this last time, getting critique on two more chapters, while waiting on beta readers. I’m not sure of the timing of the cover, but should know this week.
Make good progress on the Last Supper Bible study. I’d like to finish three more chapters in March.
Begin work on a Gethsemane Bible study. Since I’ll be teaching it beginning next Sunday, I hope to make my notes this time in publishable format, being essentially done with it by the time the study ends. I think tonight I’m going to do the final “programming” of this study, figuring out the chapters, estimating length, etc.
Attend writers groups. I expect this will be three online and three in-person meetings. I don’t think we’ll be doing any traveling this month (though I’m not sure of that), winter weather is less likely (though not impossible), so I expect these meetings to happen this month.
Blog twice a week on Monday and Friday. This should be a bit easier this month. I have three blog posts that I know I’m going to write, and four book reviews to write, so I think I’m good.
I’ll throw in one more for good measure. For a while, I’ve wanted to revamp the “Available Works” page on my website. I made a small beginning on this in February, and would like to make significant progress on it in March.
So, there’s the goals. They are somewhat lofty, especially what I want to accomplish with the two Bible studies. I’ll check back in, probably on April 1, and let you all know how I did.
Tolkien and Lewis were highly educated, deep thinkers. Those who write about them often seem to focus on this.
In this modern era, as I pick books to read, I try to have both a print book and e-book I’m working through at all times. That lets me read a print book in the sunroom, or to be an example to the grandkids, and to have something to read on my phone in those odd moments of waiting (doctor, DMV, etc.). My current print book read is The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas. I have about 100 pages to go in this 950 page book.
My current e-book read is The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings. This book focuses on J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. I’m currently on page 185 of 685. I would have loved to have this book in paperback, but I really need to reduce the number of books in this house, not increase them. So to the phone I go when I want to read this book.
It’s a good book but, to some extent, it’s a little over my head. The authors, Philip and Carol Zaleski, talk about the philosophy of these men (so far mainly Tolkien and Lewis, with a little of Barfield), and how they held language so high that they almost worshiped language. Okay, the authors don’t say that, but as I read the book, it seems like that to me.
Some of what the book discusses is philosophical ideas, or “schools”, such as realism vs. idealism. What was Lewis at different time in his early life, a realist or an idealist? What moved him from one to the other?
I want to scream “Shut up!” I don’t really care about their philosophy. Tell me about their friendship, their writings, their collaboration. Tell me about their meetings and how they encouraged one another to write more and better books.
No, I’m not a deep thinker into things like realism and idealism. I just try to live life to the full, to learn as much as I can (including stretching myself), to draw closer to God. Does knowing how the debate of realism vs. idealism in C.S. Lewis’s mind helped to shape his later years do any of those for me? It might stretch me to know more about those, but I doubt they will help me to be a better Christian, to win a lost world for Jesus.
I don’t think I’m a shallow thinker, however. But my own writing and conversation are, apparently, not the stuff of Lewis and Tolkien. I’m just concerned with improving the world, beginning with my little corner and working out. Am I an idealist or a realist? Maybe I’m just a pragmatist. What is practical for helping me achieve my goals? That’s what I want to concentrate on.
And what I will concentrate on. Let others deal with the ins and outs or realism vs. idealism, and any other ism you care to bring up. I won’t be dealing with them.
No, when I think about things, I’m just trying to live in a way where each day I’m a little better than the last. Toward that end, I try to start each day with three Bible verses. I say “try” because, despite good intentions, I sometimes get up and go about my business without quoting the verses. But I say them more often than not. Here are the verses.
“I will awaken the dawn.” Psalm 57:8b
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:17
“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Luke 17:10
In future posts, I’ll discuss each of these verses: when I “discovered” them; why I chose them; what they mean to me. I won’t be doing those posts immediately, but spread out over the next month
Oh wow, it’s Monday, and I didn’t have a blog post planned. Shame on me. It’s a holiday, and I just wasn’t thinking. I had my mind on something else. Today I had a 1:30 p.m. appointment for a heart stress test. This was a test postponed from January due to weather. Strange the hospital was open for routine appointments on a Federal holiday, but it was. I didn’t even think about it being a holiday when we rescheduled the appointment.
Then, about 10:30 a.m. this morning, they called me to ask if I could come in early, say right away. I suppose they had a cancellation and wanted to finish early. I thought about it for a few minutes, and decided to go. The type of tests took some time, and I was at the hospital three hours. After the tests were over, I went over to the lab to have blood drawn for the routine tests I have every quarter. Then, a stop at Five Guys for burgers and fries to take home.
Once home, I ate half of a burger, tried to read, and fell asleep on the living room floor. All this time, from when I was driving to the hospital to when I fell asleep on the floor, I knew I needed to have a blog post today. But here it is, late in the day, and I’m just now writing the post, a filler rather than a real post.
I’ll be back on Friday, hopefully with a proper post. That will be after two days of winter storms, if the current forecast holds.
I’ve had trouble enjoying a couple of C.S. Lewis essays, but this is the first of his books I didn’t like.
I have known about C.S. Lewis’ book A Grief Observed for a long time. In fact, it’s the second of his books that I bought. That was back in 1976. I had discovered Lewis the year before and read The Screwtape Letters, finding it very helpful to me in my then new Christian walk. When my grandfather died in 1976, I learned that he had written this book and bought a copy and sent it to my grandmother, even though I didn’t read it first. She and I never had a discussion about it, and I don’t know if she read it.
Somewhere along the line, I bought another copy of it, a used, large print edition. I’ve always had difficulty reading and enjoying large print books, and this one was the same. It sat on a shelf for a few years with my other Lewis books. I finally got around to reading it a couple of months ago.
A Grief Observed came from Lewis’ grief at the death of his wife, Joy (Davidman) Gresham Lewis. The story of Jack (as Lewis was called) and Joy is a long, complicated one, which I won’t go into now. After marrying Joy at her hospital bed, expecting her to die within days or weeks, she unexpectedly recovered and they had about three years together. When the cancer eventually took her life, Lewis went into a tailspin of sorts. As a means of mourning, he wrote down his thoughts. When his publisher learned of this, he (the publisher) suggested it ought to be published. And so it was in 1961 under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk.
This is the Lewis book I least enjoyed. I understand grief and how it affects a person. It was over forty years before I wrote about the grief I felt at my mother’s death. Each person must grieve in their own way; there is no right or wrong way. But this book is just…strange. It doesn’t seem coherent, unified. It truly is a collection of Lewis’ thoughts as he grieved. He questioned God. He questioned Christianity. He questioned himself. He rambled. The book doesn’t follow a linear path from first grief to later triumph. He wondered how he could go on. Yet, of course, he did go on, for three more years until his own death.
It seems that the purpose of a book is to: entertain, convey information, instruct, work for change, or a few other noble purposes. For me, this book did none of those. Since it’s a short book (72 pages in large print), it was a short read. I think I finished it in just three or four sittings. At the end of the read, I felt unfulfilled in regard to any of those noble purposes. Of course, I’m not in a grieving process right now. Perhaps if I were, I would have found the book helpful. I can’t imagine that my grandmother was helped if she read this.
I’m afraid I give it a mere 2-stars. If you’re grieving, perhaps you will find it helpful. If you want to read everything Lewis wrote, by all means read it. But otherwise, don’t worry about bypassing it.
The book is a keeper mainly to keep my C.S. Lewis collection intact. Otherwise, it would be out to the sale/donation shelves in the garage.
