Old Books

     I am of the age that antique stores are becoming a trip down memory lane. It’s like answering questions in a Trivial Pursuit game when the history category covers events you have personally lived through. It is interesting to me to realize the cyclical evolution of “things” within the framework of society–where they begin and ultimately where they end up. Often, contemporary evaluation misses the boat. Once an item has lost points on the scale of usefulness, usually because something more useful has been invented, that item is prime for a new beginning and sometimes an even greater value because as a society we discard so hastily, and we so readily adapt to new technology. Look at the way we purchase cell phones. We like our things to continually do more with less. It isn’t so much that we align with the thinking Less is more, it’s more like Less with more Apps.
     Has anyone else noticed that since everyone (except me…I am not a Luddite, I am just technologically inept) is reading from Kindles and Nooks and downloading E-books from personal computers that are also phones, calendars, game stops, and television screens, how many magazines (the hard copy kind) are using old books in their layouts? Old Books are everywhere–in window displays at Pottery Barn and Main Street. Girls are standing on them in high heels to promote the fashion of J Crew. Old Books are used to support table tops and as support beams for the shelves that used to house them. I’ve even seen them used as room dividers to define our open concept floor plans.
     Recently, I have ventured into a major bookstore chain store that is going out of business and one of the local variety that is a haven for vintage books that is, sadly, going out of business as well. Seeing all those books on the shelves for the last time evokes that “Toy Story 3″ emotion of experiencing something soon-to-be-nostalgic for a last time. I wonder if my grandchildren will cut their first teeth on actual books as my children did? Can a baby drool in a Kindle? The day will very likely come when no one will  have ever seen a church hymnal except in an antique store and no one will read their Bibles from well….Bibles. The Word is the same regardless of the medium…I know this. Before there was even the written word, there was the Word.
    I can’t help but hold to the belief, however backward, that books are precious and that in their archaic-ness, their value might become invaluable. And I can’t help but pray that my grandchildren will grow up to know the difference between a book and a brick, a history that is, for me, vital to my being because I have lived it. Old Books know best.

Lifestyle or Life?

Watching the horrible tsunami wash life literally away produced within me the usual safe and non-threatening response, a response which is perhaps the curse of the evangelical on the world around us–it’s what I like to call the “Al Franken” effect for those who, like me, curled their hair to the late-night antics of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players on SNL. I am not without deep empathy for the victims of this latest natural disaster. What must it be like, I have thought this to myself…to run a few steps in front of that monstrous and watery filth in a frantic race for life when you cannot win? I have lifted and continue to lift prayers for our neighbors in Japan. I have opened my pocketbook, but in reality, non of this makes me the least bit uncomfortable or stressed in the same way those whose lives will never be the same have and will be impacted. What must it feel like to rock one’s child on a small island with nuclear reactors threatening meltdown? How helpless would a prayer feel?
    I do know this. When life and mere survival becomes “life or death,” it’s amazing how quickly LIFESTYLE  gets tossed out like possibly contaminated bath water. Who cares if your car hasn’t been washed or a little bird poop is on the windshield? Who notices the name on the back pocket of someone’s jeans? Who takes a moment to make mental note of the fact that your Bible is wrapped in Vera Bradley fabric? Or whether or not you are sweating those onions in the most glamorous of oils with a Rachael Ray spatula? Who is watching arms jiggle in the midst of a rescue and saying to themselves, “See, I knew those shake-weights were all gimmick?” Who takes the time to name-drop the latest- and- for- the- next- five- minutes last word on Heaven as declared in the book you just read?
     Identity in survival takes on an authenticity as all the falseness rolls away. Tsunamis and tornadoes and earthquakes and hurricanes are not happening so that we, the “Al Frankens” of  Christ’s church will learn this lesson, nor do they happen at the whim of an angry God who we tend to project our own mood disorders onto because Christians and non-Christians alike will do just about anything to avoid facing our own flaws. We will go to great lengths to avoid natural consequences through a curious summoning of allegory when the time is ripe. With our own hands and many times in the place of God we build the machines of our own undoing.
    The truth is, no one knows, really, why terrible things happen to folks who aren’t any less perfect than I am or you are. When catastrophe happens to us, why it happened usually takes a back seat to making it through the day. There are mysteries we will never understand for reasons we will never know, but there is something I could learn today, watching video footage of the tsunami wave indiscriminately covering all that is inanimate and animate in its path.
   I could quite easily discern in this moment the vast difference between living the Christian lifestyle and living the Christian life. Prayers might come less readily. Pocketbooks might fly open.
-submitted by Kerri Snell

Heaven is For Real

 
 From the Thomas Nelson Newsroom:


New York Times #1 Best seller Sets New Thomas Nelson, Inc. Record
Since its release 16 weeks ago, sales momentum for Heaven Is for Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent has continued to surpass every expectation. For the week of March 6, Heaven Is for Real will be listed as the #1 “nonfiction paperback” and #1 “print hardcover and paperback combined” on the New York Times Best Seller List – its seventh week in the top spot and a record for Thomas Nelson, Inc. Inside My Heart by Robin McGraw held #1 nonfiction hardcover spot for four weeks (October 2006).
Heaven Is for Real also is listed currently at #6 (all books) by USA Today, #4 (nonfiction paperback) by Publisher’s Weekly, #4 (nonfiction paperback) by National Public Radio, and #3 (all books) by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. (Complete best-seller list information below.)
In addition to being ranked near the top on numerous best seller lists, the one millionth copy of the acclaimed title has recently been printed.

“It has been incredible to watch the contagious enthusiasm of readers drive the success of Heaven is for Real,” said Michael Hyatt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson. “Colton’s story gives a wonderful glimpse into what lies ahead for believers, and encourages us to embrace our childlike faith.”
In March 2003, Todd and Sonja Burpo were on the verge of their worst nightmare – losing a child. Their 4-year-old son Colton’s appendix had unknowingly burst days before, and he was now fighting a life-threatening infection. To save Colton, surgery was the only option. But what would happen during that surgery was more than healing through modern medicine.
Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back is the true story of the Burpo family and Colton, who during his life-threatening illness and sudden surgery, slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He narrowly survives. Several months later while passing by the same hospital that saved him, Colton begins talking about his experiences during surgery and making a trip to heaven. The family didn’t know what to believe, but soon the evidence was clear.
Written in the first-person narrative of Colton’s father, Todd, and by New York Times best-selling author Lynn Vincent, Heaven Is for Real walks readers through the revelation of Colton’s trip, his parent’s initial uncertainties, and the lessons learned by such a small child.

Todd Burpo is pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan and a volunteer fireman. His wife Sonja is a children’s minister, busy pastor’s wife, and mom. Colton, an active eleven year old, has an older sister Cassie and a younger brother Colby.
Lynn Vincent is the New York Times bestselling writer of Same Kind of Different as Me and Going Rogue: An American Life. The author or coauthor of nine books, Vincent worked for eleven years as senior writer, then features editor, at the national news biweekly WORLD Magazine where she covered politics, culture, and current events. A U.S. Navy veteran, Lynn is also a lecturer in writing at the World Journalism Institute and The King’s College in New York City.
Best-Seller’s Lists
New York Times

• December 5, 2010       #3 paperback nonfiction
• December 12, 2010     #11
• December 19, 2010     #5
• December 26, 2010     #5
• January 2, 2011,          #13
• January 9, 2011,          #13
• January 16, 2011,        #9
• January 23, 2011,        #1
• January 30, 2011,        #1
• February 6, 2011,         #1
• February 13, 2011
  • #1 paperback nonfiction
  • #2 E-book nonfiction
  • #2 Combined Print and E-book nonfiction
  • #3 Print Hardcover & Paperback
    
    

Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

     In preparation for a C.S. Lewis book study which I am about to dive into with an impressive group of intelligent ladies at the church of my choice ( or as I should say… God’s choice of church for me), I read through a biography of C.S. Lewis during the downtime of a ski vacation. The book, entitled C.S. Lewis Through the Shadowlands, was written by Brian Sibley, who researched Lewis and his wife, Joy Davidman, extensively for the PBS movie Shadowlands.
    Can you visualize it….me unable to contain my speed on the bunny slopes of a cross-country course, falling headlong into the deep snow bordering the well-groomed path I was supposed to stay on, my skinny skis pointing various random directions, my knees twisted into unnatural positions, my not-so-skinny back side covered in snow… I would pull the handy little soft back biography out of my pocket and peruse a page or two while waiting for my friend to dig me out of the snow…..Okay that’s not really what I mean by downtime, but the mental picture painted itself in my head and I just had to share….
     This ski story is an apt metaphor for the journey of C.S. Lewis which eventually led him to Christ. I was again amazed at the details of Lewis’s life, at the way so many random events and invites worked themselves in and out and through Lewis’s own mental preoccupations and startling intellect to turn this great mind at just the right time from atheist to adamant Christ-follower. While an atheist, so many of the friends he deliberately chose and surrounded himself with were Christians, including J.R.R. Tolkien.
   I am surprised at the faith which led Lewis to such an avant-garde generosity. He was not preoccupied with stuff. He was preoccupied with ideas.  Lewis at his best occurs when he encounters the personal and spiritual downside of that preoccupation. He gave money away freely, and felt it was his Christian duty to do so. Sometimes, though, as he relates best in “A Grief Observed” he held on to his ideas a little too tightly. A more logical thinker never existed, and yet, Lewis’s faith was inextricably linked to loss and to joy, to feelings–his own.
    I am also struck by the reality that Lewis’s life even with such a great faith was not a neat-and-tidy picture of Christian perfection. He married a divorced woman. He dealt with his own limitations socially, and in his closest relationships he could be characterized as possibly an enabler. His own words, which sold millions of copies of books, struck him down and caused him pain when faced with his own personal grief. Throughout his life, his friendships sustained him as did his love of fantasy literature. Both led him ultimately to a uncompromising belief in Christ.
-submitted by Kerri Snell
Come check out the selection of C.S. Lewis books that we offer at The Well.