Four Books: Great Journeys through the Human Condition

Book One

These are abnormal book reviews. And Thomas a Kempis was an abnormal religious person.

In his 600-year-old best-seller, The Imitation of Christ, a Kempis seeks to show people how they can follow Christ completely and constantly. Anything less, for any amount of time, he explains, is not only wrong, but it also should be out of the question. Jesus lovingly and willingly gave His all for us, and He asks the same in return. This is certainly not a normal human philosophy.

Highlighting books is a two-edged sword. When I highlight, I feel guilty for reading slowly. But when I do not highlight, I feel guilty for not recalling the book better. Life is hard!

Anyway, without regret I underlined a lot in The Imitation. In fact, my only regret, or confession, about this book is that I turned down a chance to give it to an imprisoned Christian brother in the Middle East. I wanted to keep my underlining for my own future reference. He had not asked for it, and I did give him several other good books. But I should have given him this one, too.

But since I did not, I need to share it with everybody else! Of course, a Kempis is not on par with the Bible, but here are some lines I really appreciated:

“A humble peasant who serves God is better than the proud astronomer who knows how to chart the heavens’ stars but lacks all knowledge of himself.”

 “Be willing to suffer a little for Christ…there are many who suffer far worse things to achieve worldly advancement.”

“I am unable to offer You the praise and gratitude I ought, even for the least of Your benefits.”

Book Two

My most recent reading adventure ended with my second bout with the Russian novel Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I first read it in high school and hoped to reread it someday. At 505 pages, it is the shortest of three great Russian novels I have read, including Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Leo Tolstoy’s enormous War and Peace.

I am a slow reader, but worse, I can be lazy. I aged eleven months during Crime and Punishment. The exciting part is that I began it on a short trip to Oman with a friend—reading much in the hot hotel room where I could only sleep for one or two hours the second night—and I ended it in my new home in Montana, just miles from where I grew up in the gorgeous Crazy Mountains.

Perhaps my reading journey mimics that of the book’s protagonist: Raskolnikov. After his crime early in the tale, Raskolnikov starts seeing cracks in his worldview which had led him to murder. Someone whose own wrecked life God was redeeming, Sonia, patiently guided him toward truth and repentance.

In a remarkable passage, Sonia concludes reading part of John’s Gospel to Raskolnikov:

“‘That is all about the raising of Lazarus,’ she whispered severely and abruptly, and turning away she stood motionless, not daring to raise her eyes to him. She still trembled feverishly. The candle-end was flickering out in the battered candlestick, dimly lighting up in the poverty-stricken room the murderer and the harlot who had so strangely been reading together the eternal book.”

Book Three

My eight days in Rwanda were wonderful and terrible. It was a gorgeous country, to be sure! But I visited nine years after the 1994 genocide—which killed 1 million Rwandans in 100 days.

The sight and smell of death do not die as easily or as quickly or as human beings. I visited mass graves and killing sites, including churches. In the worst case, hundreds of butchered corpses lay on tables in room after room for all to see. They were preserved with lime powder.

Much of this could have been prevented had Rwandans resolved their own problems years before the outbreak of war and genocide in April 1994. But the international community also had a fatal hand in the catastrophe. Germany and Belgium exacerbated ethnic divides decades earlier. China and France armed those who carried out the decimation. And America refused to call it genocide (and thus respond forcefully) until it was all over.

In particular, the United Nations had troops on the ground when the killing began. But they were largely forbidden from stopping the violence. Canadian Lt. General Romeo Dallaire commanded this ill-fated U.N. force, and he shares his vivid story in Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.

Book Four

You know a great book when it sways your thinking in specific situations five years after having read it. Charlotte Bronte has led me into, I hope, better living through her classic juxtaposition of honor, heroism, and humanity in Jane Eyre.

The first half of Jane’s life is anything but easy. She suffered abuse as an orphan, lost her groom-to-be under chaotic circumstances, and thereafter lost her job as well. But she overcomes, thanks to her philosophy that morals are worth maintaining—always:

“I will keep the law given by God, sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and was not mad, as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation. They are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor. Stringent are they, inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth, so I have always believed. And if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane, quite insane. Physically, I felt at the moment powerless as stubble, exposed to the draft and glow of a furnace. Mentally, I still possessed my soul, and with it, the certainty of ultimate safety.”

Four Books: Great Journeys through Travel, Marriage, and Faith

Book One

These are abnormal book reviews. And Wadi Rum was an abnormal trip to the desert.

One of my favorite days of 2004 transpired about one-third of the way around the world from my native Montana—in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Thankfully, I was there in March, so the red desert was comfortable (in shorts and t-shirts), not impossibly hot.

The copper-colored sand, the steep mountains, the lifeless valley floor, the total lack of moisture, the awesome emptiness, the fearsome beauty, the Bedouin smiles and tents, the long saunter, the restful evening in another spectacular place—Petra—the late-night talk on the edge of a cliff, and especially the amazing friends who joined me through it all…Yes, it was a spectacular day.

So when my mom brought me a little book in 2012 by Casa Editrice Plurigraf called Wadi Rum: The Desert of the Bedouin, I eagerly soaked it up, and let my memories flow. Plurigraf obviously spoke English as a second or third language—or else had a worthless editor—but the history and politics and culture of the Bedouins of southern Jordan were clear and intriguing.

I hope to return someday soon.

Book Two

I typically consider myself an optimist, although I can be dreadfully pessimistic, too. So I think it is often better to affirm good things (and good books) more often than avoid bad things (and bad books). That said, one book is atop my terrifying and never read again list: Brave New World by Aldus Huxley.

The only redeeming quality to this tale is its strong warning against cultivating a godless, amoral society—what one could call hell on earth. But for stout and faint-hearted readers alike, Huxley’s famous work just sits in that hell from start to finish and details every aspect of it in a horrifically nonchalant manner.

Not unlike a 9/11 memory, I still recall where I was and what I was doing when I heard the worst part of the book. (Are not unabridged audio books terrific?) I was delivering packages for FedEx Ground on a gravel road, Morrison Lane, on the western slopes of the Crazy Mountains in south-central Montana.

Huxley’s graphic imagination does not merit repetition. Suffice to say that depicting baby torture as morally neutral or even socially good is deplorable—even if only in the eyes of his characters. One part of Huxley’s book echoes back to earlier eras, when real literature, learning, and life still existed. But to me, even this was presented grimly and does not justify another trip into his awful new world. Hell is a hopeless destination, but mercifully God offers His creation eternal hope on this earth.

Book Three

A famous American preacher, Chuck Swindoll, once said he reads a book on marriage each year. He has been married for more than fifty years.

I do not read marriage books every year, and I have been married for just six years. But one book both my wife and I have read is The Five Love Languages: How to Express Commitment to Your Mate, by Gary Chapman.

We learned about the five ways in which humans typically give and receive love, and discovered some of each other’s (and our own!) preferences. We sometimes keep these differences / desires in mind as we seek to grow in our relationship and work through our cold moments. Most people like receiving all five languages of love, but they really only crave one or two.

Sometimes what a person needs the most is what the other person has the hardest time doing, but it is good to learn this for progress to be made. Seemingly offensive words or actions can quickly become innocent if we know more about what is really going on in our spouse’s heart.

So, what are the five love languages? Quality time, words of encouragement, physical touch, acts of service, and giving gifts. Which ones are mine? Ask my bride!

Book Four

Wadi Rum was no best-seller, and as a foreign book by a minor publisher, it probably even lacks an ISBN. Likewise, Alan Stringfellow’s Through the Bible in One Year has acquired a relatively small following. Two friends with Ph.D.’s in religious or theological fields knew nothing of him or it (although Stringfellow just republished it this year under a new publisher—and it does have an ISBN).

So why mention such a little known book?

Before getting to that, more caveats are needed. The book reads like a textbook outline. The very traditionalist approaches to the material are sometimes distracting. And I disagree with the author on several points—though we agree more often than not.

So really, why on earth do I highlight this book?

Quite simply, because of the Book to which it points. Of course, countless books guide readers to the Bible. But for me, Through the Bible in One Year became Through the Bible in Three Years. I used the book as a guide and a companion (but not a replacement) to my reading of the Bible in what became the longest and greatest walk through the world’s best seller so far in my life, from 2008-2011.

I absorbed the Scriptures and Stringfellow’s insights and summaries in exceptional ways. I began taking notes (he provides lots of room on each page), and my use of ink noticeably increased as I charged ahead month after month. My faith in God and enjoyment of His Word changed forever.

Four Books: Great Journeys through History

Book One

These are abnormal book reviews. And North Platte, Nebraska, was an abnormal town in 1942.

You would think that if an army of six million men took on a town of twelve thousand, the larger force would win. But in World War II, one such force never managed to overwhelm the little city it occupied for four long years. Only this happened in the center of the United States of America.

During the war, American troops rode on trains across the continent en route to the East or West Coast. From there they were shipped across the ocean to the Pacific or European theaters of war. North Platte, Nebraska, was right in the middle of all this, and its train depot recorded six million soldiers passing through in the first half of the 1940s.

What the townspeople did for these brave, fearful, eager, green, or experienced veterans brought tears to my eyes. They voluntarily manned and supplied a canteen for the soldiers nineteen hours a day, seven days a week, for more than three straight years. Troops could expect kisses, snacks, letters, and more in this town, which had chosen its own sacrificial path during that abysmal war.

I love to put myself in the shoes—as best I can—of people I meet or learn about. I try to think as they might think; feel as they might feel. Unfortunately, World War II abounded with awful tales to imagine. But this story, captured by Bob Green in his book Once upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen, must still enrich the hearts of those who experienced it.

Book Two

It was some 150 years after the fact, and frankly it was a dry historical survey. But The Civil War by Bruce Catton reignited my interest in that momentous period of American history like nothing else had in a long time.

I had forgotten about many battles, Andersonville Prison, and numerous generals and politicians. Also, I like to buck trends and study the understudied. For example, the Eastern Theater is better known than the Western Theater or the Southern campaigns in America’s Civil War. So a review of these and other lesser known aspects of the conflict was a treat.

Zeroing in on a narrow topic—such as the North Platte Canteen—provides powerful insight to an epic event. But understanding the entire picture—such as America in 1861-1865—is crucial, too.

This seems clearer to me from my last interaction with this book. As I was finishing it, one of my colleagues expressed interest in reading it. I knew he knew little about the war. I knew he was an intelligent person. I knew an overview would be a great place to start. And I felt proud to share it with him. Why?

He is an Egyptian—and the Arab Spring was underway. He really was interested in my country’s history, but I cannot help but think he was pondering his own nation’s past and future as well.

Book Three

While flying to Uganda for my final college semester, I did not guess that a novel about colonial South Africa would fast make my top ten list. But Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country did just that.

I had never heard of the international best-seller, and I knew and cared little about South African people or politics. But I got hooked after I began engaging the story’s forgiveness, integrity, and self-sacrifice.

A favorite passage:

“Therefore I shall devote myself, my time, my energy, my talents, to the service of South Africa. I shall no longer ask myself if this or that is expedient, but only if it is right…I do this not because I am courageous and honest, but because it is the only way to end the conflict of my deepest soul. I do it because I am no longer able to aspire to the highest with one part of myself, and to deny it with another. I do not wish to live like that, I would rather die than live like that. I understand better those who have died for their convictions, and have not thought it was wonderful or brave or noble to die. They died rather than live, that was all.”

The story is somewhat Christological in nature, and it still plays itself out in my mind years after I read it. That reminds me, of the four books in this article, Cry, the Beloved Country is the only one I have read twice…so far.

Book Four

I earned a history degree in 2005. Since then my study and love of history has continued in book after book. One of the best was entitled, simply, Truman. The 1,120-page masterpiece by master historian David McCullough consumed scores of hours of audio-book listening for me in 2009.

But then I moved overseas—halfway through my library’s tapes. I felt flummoxed, but resolute. One year later, on my first vacation home, I re-borrowed it from the library and took it with me to finish it. Have you ever mailed a library audio book back to your local library from the other side of the world? A great book can be worth it!

Truman examines the life and career of President Harry S. Truman. From childhood to marriage, from World War I artillery missions to atomic warfare against Japan, from county courthouse to U.S. Senate, from vice president to whistle-stop reelection campaign as president, from quirks to beliefs, and from heritage to legacy, McCullough portrays Truman as a great, but human, leader.

Oh yes, and Truman was a dedicated, life-long Democrat. I am a dedicated, life-long Republican. But that mattered little as I rolled through this incredible biography.