Why God Hates You

What is the What is an engrossing tale that straddles wars, decades and hemispheres.  It follows Achak Deng, a real life Sudanese refugee from his days as a child in southern Sudan to his struggles adjusting to American Life.

The book really has it all:  tragedy, war, love stories and hope.  Dave Eggars narrator captures the voice of African refugees, with their zest for the small things in life and their deep understanding of tragedy.

The book makes it clear that refugee camps don’t go away.  Achak grows up in a refugee camp: a tent city built on a barren desert plain.  With no agriculture and little schooling, and the only economy at the mercy of the foreign aid workers,  there is little to do but wait.

Although Achak seems indomitable, he can’t help but struggle with theodicy.  Having lived through wars only to arrive in the U.S. and experience continued tragedy, he asks the question “does God have a problem with me?”  Neither Achak or Eggars ever answer the question directly, yet the hero never gives up, neither on his faith or his desire to build a better life.

This question is one that we have all asked in our lives, and What is the What is a reminder that there are many who have persevered through much more difficulty than we can imagine.

It is also an invitation for Christ followers to respond from the very core of their faith.  From the time of Abraham, God’s people have been refugees in a world not their own.  God loves them, and has given us the privilege of demonstrating that love.

Have you read What is the What?  How should we respond to stories of orphans and refugees?

Tags: 40 Books in 2010, Dave Eggars, orphans, refugees, theodicy, What is the What, widows

Sex, Lies and Preaching to Birds

On the quest to read 40 books in 2010, I’ve just knocked out #s three and four.

I picked up Dark Nights of the Soul, because of the St. John of the Cross reference, and because of my life long wrestling match with depression.
It’s mainly pagan dribble by some New Age dude trying to work out his childhood catholic guilt.  It had a few nuggets that jumped out:

1- Reframe “depression” as a Dark Night of the Soul: not a problem to be fixed, but a chance for spiritual growth.  You are like a ship adrift at sea, just because you’re not moving forward, doesn’t mean your not moving.

2-Dangerous lust and sexual desire are often just undirected desire.  When you’re overwhelmed with an unhealthy sexual desire, you should search for what it is that you really want.

Now The Life of St. Francis of Assisi is the kind of book that will change your life.  As a protestant, it’s hard to know what to do with stories of the medieval Saints.  But we have to remember we are a 2,000 year old family, with an immense amount of wisdom to learn from. Francis, like Paul before him, is one who could honestly say, “follow me as I follow Christ.”

Of the many beautiful things about this man, let me highlight a few:

1- He had a deep love for poverty.  He called it “his lady,” and strove to be faithful to it as a man would his wife. He owned nothing more than his robe and belt.  When he begged for alms he would then give them away to someone “worse off.”

2- He was known for his gentleness, to the point that even animals noticed.  My favorite story was of how he agonized through prayer and fasting over whether to dedicate his life to prayer or preaching.  When wise counsel urged him to preach, he ran as fast as he could to find an audience.  The first he found was a flock of birds that he exhorted to remember their gifts from God.

3- He pain was a blessing.  His passion for the lost led him to believe he must become a martyr.  He went to the middle east to preach to a powerful sultan.  The Muslim king was impressed, but would not convert.  Francis was not given the chance to die like Christ, yet “instead” was given the stigmata, a painful sign of Christ, that would give him pain for the rest of his life. This painful miracle gave many people faith in Christ.

It’s hard to explain the effect Francis has had on me.  It makes me want to be more like Jesus than ever, and gives me an idea of what that might look like.

Tags: 12 Plans for 2010, 40 Books in 2010, Dark Nights of the Soul, following Christ, St. Francis, St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas Moore

Monkeys, Guns and Lesbians

Y: The Last Man, began as one the most fascinating and addictive graphic novels I have ever read, but ended in lethargy and preachy-ness.  Published and told over five years, Y is a unique post-apocalyptic story of manchild Yorick, the only living male to survive a catastrophe that kills every male creature on earth.

Yorick is a pop-culture junkie a la Kevin Smith, aspiring escape artist, and woefully immature.  He is accompanied by a fem fatale from a secret organization, a shy genius biologist on the verge perfecting human cloning, and a monkey.  As they travel across the U.S. and eventually the world, they are faced with the worst that both mankind, and womankind have to offer.  Yorick is seduced by desperate women, attacked by violent anti-misogynists, and hunted by foreign governments.  With half its population suddenly gone, most societies delve into violence and rampant sexuality, while the remaining institutions, such as women’s prisons and orders of nuns, struggle to redefine themselves.

I hesitantly recommend The Last Man.  Stephen King called it the best graphic novels he’d ever read. It’s compared to Lost in it’s depth and addicting nature.  It is also surprisingly fair, condemning both feminism and misogyny.  However, the only overarching theme is that of Yorick’s own disjointed and disappointing descent into adulthood.  As the book progresses it’s theme gets lost in the graphic portrayal of widespread homosexuality.  The authors try to wrap it all in a touching love story, however even this is lost, along with a clear answer as to what caused the catastrophe in the first place.

Y: The Last Man is a lot of fun, raises some good questions, but is too graphic and looses its way.  In other words, it’s not for everybody.

Tags: 40 Books in 2010, Comics, Graphic Novels, LOST, Stephen King, Y: The Last Man

Terrorism Can Be Stopped

This is the first reflecction from my goal of reading 40 Books in 2010.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin is part biography and part field manual on how to truly make a difference in the world.  Relin shares Mortenson’s story, growing up as a missionary kid in Africa, failing to summit K2, stumbling into the mountain villages of Pakistan, and creating an NGO to build schools for girls in those villages.  Tea is a fun read, laying out a life that takes place on three continents and is filled with deeper love, danger, failure and success than most of us can imagine.

The book climaxes just before 9/11.  Just as Mortenson’s organization, the Central Asia Institute, has just begun to catch some steam, he learns of his competition for the hearts and minds of impoverished muslims: Saudi funded Wahabi Madrassas and Mosques teaching and preaching jihad. 

Mortenson’s argument is straightforward: the causes of terrorism are poverty and ignorance.  With a little education (it cost about $12,000 to build a school) both of these can be eliminated. 

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragging on, Three Cups of Tea serves as a canary in a cole mine, sounding disaster if we do not treat the roots of our problems.

Tags: 40 Books in 2010, Afghanistan, Central Asia Institute, Greg Mortenson, Pakistan, Three Cups of Tea, War, War on Terror

12 Plans for 2010

Instead of resolutions, I’m making plans for 2010.  Here’s my top 12:

1.  Read the whole Bible.

2.  Run a full marathon.

3.  Climb a 14,000′ Mountain.

4.  Visit somewhere I’ve never been.

5.   Find a full-time job.

6.  Take at least one graduate course.

7.  Read 40 books.

8.  Volunteer at least 1 time a month.

9.  Pay off all debt, except school loans.

10. Share my faith regularly.

11. Begin leading and/or hosting a regular gathering for skeptics and Christians to study the Bible.

12. Write daily, including journaling, blogging and working on a book.

What are your plans for the year?

Tags: 12 Plans for 2010, 40 Books in 2010