Archive - December, 2009

Book Review: The White Horse King

December 5, 2009 in Reviews with 2 Comments

This post is part of Thomas Nelson’s BRB program (Book Review Bloggers, not Be Right Back). Have a blog? Like free books? Check this out.

I think I read this book in two or three days. It’s absolutely captivating.

It could be that I’m fascinated by history in general, but Benjamin Merkle brings Alfred the Great to life in such a stunning way that he may make a history buff out of just about anyone. His writing is well-paced, and approachable without being simple. He will draw you into an epic story and then make you laugh when you least expect it.

Merkle’s own interest in King Alfred is evident from the beginning. He ends his short Introduction with,

“Alfred was great because Alfred was a great king.”

Merkle sets your expectations for Alfred high, and Alfred the Great meets them. By the end of the book I can’t help but think it’s one of the great tragedies of our time that Alfred the Great is not a more prominent figure in our history classes and texts.

The first half of Merkle’s biography traces Alfred’s seemingly endless battle with the Vikings. The youngest of a long line of heirs, no one ever thought Alfred would be king. Not only was he king of the Anglo-Saxon people on the island now known as Great Britain, he was the last English king left standing before Viking invaders. He went on to become the longest-standing, most-loved, and most influential king the Anglo-Saxons had.

The stories of Alfred’s battles with the Vikings are wonderfully inspiring. Genuinely the stuff of legends. The stories of his grace and forgiveness are almost mind-blowing, and the stories of his renaissance are beautiful. Alfred the Great may as well have been King David alive again in the flesh; it’s no surprise he found such comfort and wisdom in David’s Psalms.

Such a great man should be remembered in all the great stories his life authored, and such stories could not have been written better than Merkle has here. Alfred genuinely deserves his title as “the Great,” and Merkle deserves all the acclaim this book has afforded him for bringing King Alfred to life again.

What are you reading? Do you love it?

Taking a page from al-Qaeda’s playbook

December 3, 2009 in Discipleship with 4 Comments

I was listening to talk radio a few days ago (don’t judge me), and started to get excited about the opportunities the Church might find in learning strategy from al-Qaeda.

The conversation started with Nidal Malik Hasan, and as it evolved into a discussion on the nature of a new age of terrorism, the “experts” mentioned this Time article. Some of the quotes that were read and tossed around are where I think we can learn from these people.

But the terrorist techniques of even a decade ago are already outmoded. “I used to argue it was only terrorism if it were part of some identifiable, organized conspiracy,” says Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. But Hoffman has changed his definition, he says, because “this new strategy of al-Qaeda is to empower and motivate individuals to commit acts of violence completely outside any terrorist chain of command.” …

Do you see what I see?

It shouldn’t need to be said that I’m not advocating terrorism or physical violence, but this is the internet so there you go. I’ll even say it again: I’m not talking about the terrorism or the violence. I’m looking at strategy.

Because the crazies that no one can even find got Hasan to turn on his fellow soldiers and, in the name of their god, kill his own people. Why can’t we use that for good?

What if there were a group of people who followed the God of love, mercy and redemption with as much passion and conviction as those who follow a god of terror? And what if that group of people was as willing to set aside the entrapments of the world and live differently? What if they preached a better way, a difficult but worthy way, and modeled it at the same time?

What if that group of people wasn’t afraid to shamelessly recruit people to their God and their lifestyle? What if the story and the faith of those people was so true inside of them that it inspired and invited others? What if they – like this new breed of terrorist – put it all out there, and empowered people to do something about it?

What if they post service ideas and prayer requests instead of bomb recipes? What if they taught and modeled forgiveness instead of airplane mechanics? What if they encouraged the curious and the new recruits to go and do likewise instead of come and hide in a building with a steeple?

What if our “new strategy” were “to empower and motivate individuals to commit acts of love completely outside any Christian chain of command”?

Could we do it? Is our story so compelling? Are our lifestyles so inspiring? Are our convictions so strong?

November in pictures

December 1, 2009 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Any semblance of artistic effort has completely given way to the fact that I have no camera, and I’m just determined to make it to 365 days for the sake of completing something. If I do this again next year I’m taking out that stipulation about having to be in the picture myself.

November was uneventful. I stole a couple books from Thomas Nelson, had some chronic neck pain that was alleviated by a new mattress, hit up ATF with some of the students, finally fixed the couch for good, had Thanksgiving with the fam and pimped Jimmy Bratcher’s event in December. Not bad. I still can’t believe that it’s December (and that it’s supposed to be in the 50′s today.)

I’m calling this one my favorite, cause it was a fun night hanging out with Husband and pretending we were graffiti artists again:

December is going to be killer. The Electric Rev. is going to be in town this Sunday, the Christmas Eve service is shaping up to be pretty stinking cool, and really – it’s pretty much Christmas all month.

So let’s talk Christmas traditions. Husband and I are in the third year of my new favorite tradition: the ornament-making party. We got married in October, so come Christmas we had a cute Charlie Brown tree and nothing to put on it. We had a few friends over to eat cookies and make ornaments, and it was so much fun that we tossed out the ornaments with the tree so we could do it again next year. A tradition was born.

What’s your favorite Christmas tradition?

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