Mark's #44 - Wise Blood by Flannery O'Conner

Wise Blood is one of those books that gets English teachers tingly all over.  It's a book full of imagery, and metaphors, and symbolism, and foreshadowing, and parallels... you name it. But, like any good book your English teacher tried to get you to read, you probably won't understand or see most any of those things on your own - or at least this was my experience.  For this reason, I'm looking forward to our monthly Apologia book discussion tomorrow night to discuss and unpack these things which, to my underdeveloped mind, I can sense that they are all there under the surface just waiting to blossom for my understanding and appreciation... we'll see.  In the meantime, I have been left to scratch my head and often say to myself (and others), "I don't get it."

Wise Blood is novel which follows the character Hazel Motes as he tries hard to reject the God of the Bible and flee his own conscience through a pursuit of sin and blasphemy of God.   After serving in the war (probably the Korean war or WWII), Hazel Motes has lost his faith in God... or rather, Hazel Motes seems to be trying hard to lose his faith in God - yet he seems to remain a tormented soul, who is ultimately unsatisfied by his pursuit of nihilism.

Along his journey, all sorts of interesting characters with their own disfunction's and bizarre personalities impose on Motes and his quest.  Each one having their own literary symbols and functions I'm sure (but can't quite place them yet).

Perhaps tomorrow after our discussion I'll update my review with some of the keen literary and philosophical insights... but I'll probably just let you read Ron Coia's review since he is an english teacher, since he also happens to be the one selected this book and who will lead the discussion.

In the meantime, I found this little nugget out there on someone else's blog in which the Sadie, the blog author, put together a wish list with Wise Blood a part of it:  "I want to own this book so I can read it every year and maybe when I'm 60 I'll get the whole thing." - Good luck Sadie, I doubt you'll get there.

Mark's #43 - Matterhorn: A Novel of The Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes

As a missionary to the military community, I try to read a few military related books each year.  When I saw this highly recommended book on Amazon, I realized that my depth of knowledge regarding the Vietnam War was very shallow and that this book could help broaden my understanding in regards to one of Americas less than fondly remembered forays into war (not unlike our current campaign in Afghanistan). As a highly decorated  Marine officer and veteran of the Vietnam War, Karl Marlantes does an excellent job of immersing the reader, almost immediately, in the deep tropical jungle of Vietnam.  Along the way, the story mostly  follows the young Lieutenant Waino Mellas and the men of Bravo Company.  As a 'boot' Lieutenant, he faces the horrors of war for the first time.

Through Mellas' eyes, one gets a sense of both the shear terror of leading a patrol in the jungle which could at any moment explode with NVA fire, land mines, or grenades. Beyond the heart pumping adrenaline of combat, there is an almost overwhelming monotony of jungle related ailments such as swarms of mesquites, blood-sucking leaches, and constant jungle rot.

In addition to helping me understand what it would be like to be in Vietnam during the war, the author also makes it clear of what he thought of the asinine political maneuvers during the war - both by Congress as well as those of the upper ranking military members trying to make a name for themselves and continue their climb up the ladder of rank and position.   While I have certainly heard and seen military commanders make baffling and blatantly stupid decisions, I felt that the author tried too hard to make all senior officers look like self-serving buffoons (other reviewers with stated Vietnam war experience seem to agree with this assessment).

Another point which seemed a little far fetched was that of the tension in race relations amongst the troops of the time.  Certainly the Black Panther movement was growing back in the states, but Marlantes makes it seem like a central point of concern for the men in the field during this time.  Perhaps it was, I don't know.

The book does seem to take a liberal slant on the war as a whole.  It also paints the NVA soldiers as utter professionals with a personal stake in winning the war because it was 'their land'... It wasn't their land, they were trying to sweep down south with their communist ideology.

Overall, this book is a sobering look into the lives, emotions, triumphs, and tragedies of a dark, difficult, and frustrating war.  I think that, for the most part, the characters are well developed and the scenes are masterfully described.  This is a good novel for an introduction to what it might have been like for the men on the ground in Vietnam.  Be warned, however, the imagery and language of this book can be very graphic at times.

Mark's #42 - Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Miller and Tom Shales

I'm a huge fan of ESPN... or so I thought.  After 450 pages of reading this book I gave up... and I wasn't even close to finishing the book (It's 750+ pages).

I'm wondering what the authors were thinking writing such a massive book on a sports television network.   You have to be a sports nut to really enjoy this book... but if you're that much of a sports nut, then you're probably not reading ANY books, not to mention a 750+ page book.  You wouldn't have time, you'd be watching Sportscenter.

I did enjoy the occasional walk down memory lane of my childhood as various ESPN announcers would share about certain events in the world of sports and how ESPN interacted with those events.

However, this book was way too much in the weeds... Perhaps a better title for the book would be, Those Guys Are Way too In To Themselves.

I like books about sports history... this book though, is more of a very detailed inside look at various executives and personalities making decisions, backstabbing, cursing, planning, and producing the network that became "The Worldwide Leader In Sports".

I'd rather just watch Sportcenter....

Mark's #41 - Evangelism and The Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer

If you're a follower of Christ and you only read one book this year, it should be this book.  By far this book is the best book I've read in respect to the biblical mandate to evangelize.  This book is a thoughtful, clear, biblically sound look at how the doctrines of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility work together in respect to the advancement of the gospel. This relatively short book is divided into four main sections:

1. Divine Sovereignty - Here Packer shows that regardless of what a Christian may say they believe about the doctrine of divine sovereignty, all true Christians believe in it. In prayer, we are acknowledging our helplessness and God's sovereignty.  We give thanks to God for our salvation, not to ourselves. We pray for the salvation of others. etc...
2. Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom - Packer calls these these an antinomy - an apparent contradiction; two truths standing side-by-side that both have cogent reasons for believing them.  The Bible teaches both of these, and we should not put the two in opposition to one another, because the Bible doesn't.  We have to recognize that our minds and our reasoning is finite and that our ways are not God's ways. The only way to handle an antinomy is to accept it and learn to live with it.
3. Evangelism - Here Packer explains what evangelism and the gospel are and are not. For one to evangelize, one must faithfully teach and apply the truth of the gospel message.  There is no one single mode of evangelism, but a variety of way in which this can and should be done (i.e., personal evangelism with friends, family, co-workers, regular church services, Bible studies, etc.).
4. Divine Sovereignty and Evangelism - In conclusion, Packer shows once again, that these are not in contradiction, but rather it is the sovereignty of God that is our ground and hope in evangelism.  When we share the gospel with people and the offer of salvation, they have a real choice they will need to make and be accountable to.  Likewise, as Christians, we too will be held accountable for our faithfulness in obeying the command to evangelize.  Nevertheless, God is sovereign over the ends as well as the means of salvation.   Successful evangelism without God's sovereign grace is impossible.

A couple of months ago I read an article about one of my favorite pastors and teachers: John Piper.  In the article, Piper was asked what would he do differently after 40+ years of ministry.  His answer: He would pray more and he would do more personal evangelism.  I've tried to take that advice to heart.  This book is certainly and encouragement to that end.

Mark's #40 - One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven by Mark Cahill

Mark Cahill is passionate and excited about telling people, anywhere and everywhere, about the good news of Jesus Christ. As a speaker, author, and personal evangelist, he has taken Christ's command to "go make disciples" very seriously and joyfully.   This is a book that is meant to be an encouragement to other Christians to do the same.  The strength of this book is in the authors passion and many stories from his own experience in sharing the gospel.

I want to be very careful in any kind of critique of a book on evangelism, especially one so heavily focused on the experiences of the author actually doing the work of an evangelist.  As D.L. Moody once said to a gentleman who criticized his street preaching evangelism, "what I'm doing to share the gospel beats what you're not doing" (or something like that).   I pray that God would give me the boldness and passion He has given Mark Cahill.   He clearly wants people to go to heaven and not to hell, and he's doing something about it!

However, I do have a few concerns with the book.  The writing is a bit too stream-of-consciousness and not well organized.  The author often slips into guilt or even poor theology as motivation for evangelism.  For example, Cahill writes, "Jesus did His part two thousand years ago, and now it is time for you to do yours."  At other times I felt that Cahill's apologetic responses were not well grounded or good arguments (for example, one of his 'proofs'  for the Bible being God's Word is that it's the best selling book in history).

The overall thrust and motivation for evangelism is, for Cahill, to get people out of hell and into heaven... But what about God? You get reconciled to God when you embrace the gospel! Yes you get heaven and avoid hell, but even these are secondary motivations... "God is the Gospel" -John Piper.

Again, let me say I respect and appreciate the work and passion of Mark Cahill.  I would simply encourage him to spend some time growing deeper in his understanding of theology, apologetics, and writing ability.

Mark's #39 - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Earlier this year I discovered and read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, which I really enjoyed.  I have since purchased two more books by Gladwell, including this one.  As a writer, he has a way of looking at the world, digging deep into the ordinary, and drawing out some extraordinary conclusions and applications.  Like Outliers, Gladwell challenges traditional notions of how the world works, and in a compelling fashion, re-interprets the world as we know it.

In short, in this book, Gladwell attempts to explain how certain things "tip" to become social epidemics. For example, how is it that Paul Revere was so effective in spreading the word about the oncoming British, whereas other riders with the exact same message were unable to do so? Answer: Revere was what Gladwell calls both a connector (someone who knew a lot of people) and a maven (someone with expert knowledge - in this case, knowledge about the British).  Or how is it that fashion trends take off? How do books become best sellers?  Why has there been a rise in school shootings?  Why is Sesame Street so effective, and why is Blues Clues even more effective? Why did crime substantially drop on New York City Subways in the early 90's? What's the link between suicides in the South Pacific and teenage cigarette smoking?

Gladwell argues, and encourages others to think about, that there are often very small catalysts that cause various epidemics to 'tip'.  For example, the dramatic rise in school shootings 'tipped' after the Columbine shootings in my home town of Littleton, Colorado, as other teens connected to the event, almost like they caught a a virus.

Or take the drop in crime on the NYC metro. The 'tipping point for this decline was when new management of the system made it a top priority to crack down on and eliminate graffiti on the cars... to see why, you'll need to read the book.

At times this book did feel a bit disjointed, though Gladwell throws in enough interesting illustrations to keep the reader engaged.  Also, though there was some, I would have liked to see a bit more application for thinking about creating epidemics ourselves, rather than reading example after example of how these things happened in the past. Because of this, I did not find this book quite as engaging as I did  Outliers.

As I reflect on the book, I wonder what changes I could make to create positive change in my world.  What small changes could you make in your life, career, community, or church that might serve as a 'Tipping Point' for an avalanche of change?