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China, Faith, Quotation of the week

In which a Chinese bell becomes a living proverb

The LORD detests the use of dishonest scales,
but he delights in accurate weights.
Solomon (Proverb)

The feast is supposed to sustain the fast,
but we go back for seconds and thirds and fourths
stuffed to the brim and fat with inactivity.
 Jen Hatmaker

I love a pithy saying and have quotations scattered all over my home. Whenever I am in an airport in the US I am drawn like a moth to the bookstore and in the bookstore to the card section and in the card section to the clever magnets. I. CAN. NOT. HELP. MYSELF. Moth meet flame. Amy meet sayings.

But it’s much easier to read a proverb than to live it. Look again at the first one, are there any words you skipped over? If you’re like me, you read ‘detests,’ but you didn’t absorb it. Let me say it again: Detests. Not “the LORD is disappointed” or “disturbed.” Detests.

What do dishonest scales look like in our lives? One answer comes in chapters five and six of Jen Hatmaker’s 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. She devoted seven month to address, you got it, seven areas of excess. Months five and six find her wrestling with waste and spending. Nothing any of us can relate to, Poor Jen. {Cue the music the points out the disconnect between me and reality!}

In trying to live a less wasteful life she and her family adopted seven greener habits, one of which was partnering with KP Projects. KP Projects will come to your home, plant a garden, and give you half of the produce while helping formerly homeless transition off the streets. Is that not the coolest thing you have heard of today? I share it to show that there are more options out there for creative solutions (even partial solutions) to complex problems than I think. If China is a bit too heavy on only sharing good news, we in the West have gone the other direction and are obsessed with the bad.

The Hatmaker family limited their spending to seven places for a month and used the language of “fasting” to describe this month. The poetic practicality got to me. I’ll be honest that in China I don’t shop at that many places or eat at that many restaurants; I “fast” from being around my family, live sports, convenient Western food, and having my own car. But when I read about the rhythms of feasting and fasting, I know that I don’t fast in ways that are forming my spirit. Let’s be honest, I “fast” because I have to, not as an act of obedience that will lead to greater reflection of Christ.

I read these chapters and then went on a weekend trip to Qingdao (of Qingdao Beer, strong German influence) with a friend who is researching church bells in China. In March she “happened” on a most inspiring story (read about it here). Sunday morning found us sitting in a church that was designed by a Russian, founded  in 1938 in a Japanese controlled area of a Chinese city, holding a German bell dating 1883, attended by Chinese brothers and sisters. Five minutes before the service started they rang their bell for about two minutes. All was quiet in the sanctuary as we prepared to worship.

We were allowed in the bell tower for a closer look at the bell from 1863

Do you feel the weight of that place? The history? The enormity of the moment? Can you hear the bell?

It was not merely a call to worship, but a call to live the stories we were meant to live. We were not meant to be wasteful, selfish people who spend like we are in Vegas, extended beyond our means. No, we are the children of the LORD who wants us to feast, oh yes! He is generous and created a wonderful world. But we must also have times of fasting of helping the poor, the widows, those trapped in injustice.

Hear the bell as a call to live a life reflecting feasting and fasting. The clapper hitting one side and then the next. Feast, fast, feast, fast. 

Book, Community, Quotation of the week

How Lot’s wife and social media are a lot a like

We don’t even know her name. She’s simply known as Lot’s wife, in both the Old and New Testaments. The tale is familiar, as Lot, his wife, and their daughters were told to flee for their lives and they would be spared the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as long as they didn’t look back.

But Lot’s wife looked back and literally became the salt of the earth.

It’s easy to chalk that up to “just her.” Even though I’m not a farmer, I get the point Jesus was making when he said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Pillar of salt. Not fit for the kingdom of God. No sugar coating there. Let’s not kid ourselves that we can go two directions at once. In both examples, a person was to go in one direction but looked back and it cost them so much more than a mere glance.

I’m not running from a city or working in a field, so what do these passages have to do with me? With you?

It has always been an option to be in one place without fully being present, yet modern technology has upped the ante; we can turn back or remove our hand from the plow in ways that even a mere ten years ago weren’t options. Chapter four in Jen Hatmaker’s 7: a mutiny against excess delves hard and fast into the death grip that media has on many of us. Ipad, Wii, Xbox, Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, Hulu, Netflix, Apps, downloads, internet speed, gaming, and skype. It’s kind of mind-boggling (remember when Boggle was a fun game that involved real shaking of real cubes and could be really frustrating?).

If Jesus was translating his response into our lingo it might go something like this: “No one who tweets while worshipping is fit for the kingdom of God.” OR “Any one who gets more upset over an internet connection than poverty is not fit for the kingdom of God.” OR “If you travel and are more concerned about clever posts and pictures than connecting with my people, you are not fit for the kingdom of God.”

Jen acknowledges the reality that life now requires technology, but for the month she and her family fast from gaming, tweetiing, facebook, any internet that is not work related and any texting that is superfluous commenting on life. If she saw someone in a hideous outfit, she had to keep that thought to herself.

As someone who lives at a distance from friends, family and many colleagues, it is hard to imagine my life with no technology. Been there, done that. Like this better.

Just as with possessions, I don’t believe that media is inherently evil. But the potential to misuse it is something to watch and, more than that, be honest with ourselves about. When people move to China we talk about being physically and emotionally present in the same space. “I can see that your body is in China, but I can’t make your heart, interests, or investment be here. If you want to work here, but spent most of your time on Facebook and Skype, I can’t stop you. But I can tell you that you will really end up being a disjointed, fractured version of the person you were meant to be.”

I enjoy media, and the blessings and connections it brings. It is nice to get a call from my mom that Dad is taking a sister to the hospital because she is in pain and at the same time receive a text from another sister. Media allows us to be together. However, I’ve also been at a meal where the person I was eating with seemed to be much more engaged with someone they were texting than the real live dinner companion. Though with someone, I felt alone.

Jen found that as she unplugged from an electric life, it created space for more face-to-face interactions to occur, between her children, her family, and with God.

That’s the heart of the issue. Am I walking towards someone or task intentionally, or am I looking back and not offering the gift of presence to those around me.

Even if you haven’t read the chapter, when it comes to media what helps you to keep it in balance? Where do you feel greatest tension about media?

Book, Faith, Learning lessons, Quotation of the week

In which I dust my wood paneling

A couple of months ago I read The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul by Dave Bruno. Dave lived for a year with less than 100 personal items. He is married and has kids so he didn’t count shared goods like the kitchen table and he lumped “socks” and counted them as one of his hundred things.

Ironically, the part that has stayed with me is not the number of shirts he had or what he did for fun during that year. No. It was his pen. Yes, you read that right. His pen. Not his penS, said with an exaggerated “S” to be sure you’ve got the extremeness of it. He lived for a full year with one pen. Would you like to know how many pens I have? Neither would I! But, I’m kind of a pen hound. As long as I over-collect on a small thing, it’s OK. Right?! Right? I can’t hear you over those crickets chirping.

Enter Jen Hatmaker’s chapter three stage left: Possessions. (I’ve already looked at ‘food’ here and ‘clothing’ here). Her plan was to get rid of seven things each day for a grand total of 210 items. Which sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Jen thought so too. It ended up being a drop in the bucket. Even by the end, after giving away far more, there they had more to move on.

I don’t think possessions are the problem. It’s more a matter of who is possessing whom. Do I own something, or does it own me? Am I blessed to be a blessing or am I blessed to be a socially-appropriate-hoarder (a phrase you won’t find in the Bible because, well, it’s not Biblical!).

If Jen entered stage left, Haggai enters stage right. He’s visiting the Israelites who have finally returned home after 70 years in captivity. And by “home” I mean to a destroyed city, temple, and long-lost way of life. They set about to rebuild with an enthusiasm that would impress anyone (as did I after reading The 100 Thing Challenge). In a Maslow’s Hierarchy of safety way of deciding what to do first, they rebuilt the city wall. Next they turned to their houses. Not a bad choice. Except that they kind of stalled out and didn’t get to work on rebuilding the temple.

I keep hoping that this scene will play out in flannel graphs across the world:

“Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: ‘Is it time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?’

“Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.'”

Can’t you just picture this reenacted on a flannel graph? Their houses look a little bit like Elvis’ house. At least in my mind. I know that panelling circa BC looks different than circa 70s US, but the point is the same. WHY ARE YOU GATHERING PENS. This is not why I have you here! You were made for so much more, but you settle for … pens. We, like the Israelites, have gotten distracted. We started off well (the city wall IS done), but somehow we have stalled out.

We all need a Haggai to show up and gently say: GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER. Nice paneling, by the way, but do not stop here!

In response to Jen’s chapter I’ve decided to clean out seven drawers. I started with, you guessed it, my office supply drawer. How about you? Are there seven things you can share or give away as a gesture that, you too, have heard Haggai?

Book, China, Learning lessons, Quotation of the week

Clothing: Because you never know {at least that’s what I tell myself}

You know I’m participating in an on-line book group and am reading 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. In it she fights the encroachment of consumerism on the human heart and behavior in seven areas: food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending and stress. She devotes a month to each area and incorporates “seven” into the theme. Month two found her choosing only seven clothing items.

pexels-photo-38164

 

First recorded reason for clothing in the Bible? Sewed figs leaves to cover shame. Second record of clothing? God making garments out of skin and clothing his children.

Once again, a nugget of truth I have read so many times I simply don’t see it anymore. Two words, so similar I hear myself going “yea, yea, covering, yea, yea clothing.” But they are not the same; there is a distinction between covering and clothing. One out of shame and focused on self, the other on love and focused on provision.

Jen found this month much easier to live out, in general, than eating only seven foods. And it showed in her, um, lack of whining. Wearing an outfit over and over is quite common in China and I’ll often wear the same things for three days in a row. But here is the ugly truth: I often wear the same things because I am lazy. They are there on the floor because I was too tired to put them away the night before.

Here is another painful truth for me to admit. Living overseas, outside of my Target comfort zone (yes, the feelings and the store), has had many powerful positive effects. But when you live in a culture that is a different size from you and you simply cannot buy pants, shirts, bras, even shoes when you don’t have Asian hips, chests, or feet, you keep things because you never know.

Apparently my fear is that I’ll be in need of more than 20 pairs of pants, over 40 shirts and the footwear, don’t even get me started. We walk a lot in China and good footwear is essential. At least that’s what I tell myself.

I just double checked and — this is very hard for me to share (you’ll see right through me and rightly so, since this is covering and not clothing) — I have five pairs of exercise shoes outside my door. Three of them I’ve worn out, but I keep them because you never know. It would seem I do know. I know that if I don’t keep an eye out for my feet, no one will. “No one” could be substituted by God, if I’m honest.

I have decided that I need to get rid of three of the pairs today and an act of obedience and allow Jesus to cloth me. This should not be a bold declaration. The fact that I’ve gone back and forth as to whether I really will do this, shows I have a long way to go.

Lord, please cloth this child who settles for covering too often.

(See related article: The excess in my closet)

Book, Community, Quotation of the week

Not so different from the Israelites {Jen Hatmaker}

41PSauik+aL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_I’m participating in an on-line book group that is reading 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. In it she fights the encroachment of consumerism on the human heart and behavior in seven areas: food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending and stress.

Her first month centered on food which is appropriate since the act of eating is what got us in this mess. No, that’s not quite fair. But it was the external manifestation of the lie that ‘you, too, can be like God’. Bite. And just like that even our relationship with something as life-giving as food got out of whack.

Jen limited herself to seven foods she ate for the entire month. I will admit, I got tired of listening to her whine about her experience (sorry, Jen, but I did). I wanted to say, “Lady, you’re only doing this for a month and you got to pick your foods! Move to China, have no language, be dumb enough not to bring a cook book or any cooking supplies in a pre-internet world and you will go a lot longer than one month eating fried apples and potatoes. Um. Hypothetically, I mean.”

But complaining about food is nothing new. Ask Moses.

The Israelites were willing to trade their freedom for variety.

And lest I cast the first stone (really, the second since I already cast one at Jen), as one living outside of her home culture, I can testify that food takes up a disproportionate amount of thoughts and conversations. Even for those of us who aren’t foodies. We can find comfort in the simplest things. Highlight of a dance party? Toast.

I find that our problem in the industrialized world with food can be boiled down (yup, I see it) to three main areas:

1. Variety. As the heirs of Israel, we crave variety as much as they did. If not more. We have such variety it can make your head spin and instead of being satisfied, once you start feeding the beast, she wants, you got it, MORE.

2. Nutritional Value. Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food (which I highly recommend) makes the point that we have followed science down a dark alley and been mugged by her. Think you’re eating real bread? Think again. Real bread has about six ingredients, that stuff in your cupboard, twenty-eight. You do the math.

3. Size. Bigger is not always better. But in a land of excess we have lost all touch with what a “normal” serving size is. We do extremes well. We’ve got obesity and eating disorders down. What we can’t seem to hit is the middle.

And so it goes, a modern twist to one of the oldest problems a group of people have faced. Food no longer is just for sustaining life, it’s been turned into friendly fire on our souls.

In what ways has excess towards food crept into your cupboard, eating habits, or thoughts?

Messier than normal, Quotation of the week

Spring dust storms– I’ll be forever quiet from here on out

Heard of The Grapes of Wrath? Sure you have. Me too. Even if you haven’t read it (and I haven’t), most likely you know it’s about the Okies who were forced to relocate because of the 1930s Dust Bowl.

Very ashamedly, that’s about the sum total of my knowledge about the Dust Bowl until I read The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy. Looking for the nearest soap box, I call over my shoulder, “This book should be required reading for every single American (and for non-Americans who are interested in the relationship between over farming and erosion or modern day plague-like happenings).”

This is a gross oversimplification, but starting in the 1870s the grasslands in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Oklahoma were removed as farmers moved in and, well, started farming. WWI and the need for wheat, combined with good years of rain, stripped the land of the ability to protect herself when the rains stopped and a ten year drought started. If you think I’m exaggerating and surely it wasn’t that bad, you are not alone.

“Many in the East did not believe the initial accounts of predatory dust until a storm in May 1934 carried the wind blown shards of the Great Plains over much of the nation. In Chicago, twelve million tons of dust fell. New York, Washington – even ships at sea, three hundred miles off the Atlantic coast—were blanketed in brown.”

Read that again. How many million tons of dust? How far off the Atlantic coast? I know, it’s hard to grasp.

Whenever I complain about the spring dust storms in Beijing, you have permission to tell me to get a life and remind me:

“Cattle went blind and suffocated. When farmers cut them open, the found stomachs stuffed with fine sand. Horses ran madly against the storms. Children coughed and gagged, dying of something the doctors called ‘dust pneumonia.’ In desperation, some families gave away their children. The instinctive act of hugging a loved one or shaking someone’s hand could knock two people down, for the static electricity from the dusters was so strong…nothing compares to the black dusters of the 1930s, a time when the simplest things in life –taking a breath—was a threat.”

I have lived in Colorado and Kansas. My grandparents and great aunts and uncles lived through some of these hard times; because I thought it was just about Oklahoma and some John Steinbeck novel, I never talked to them about the storms or the drought or their experiences.

We can’t know everything. But this book reminded me of the vastness of what I don’t know. It also challenged me to ask more questions. This summer when I am back in the States I’m going to talk with my parents (and anyone else of a certain generation) and ask them what stories they recall people telling about that time.

Mom, Dad, world, you’ve been warned!

Poll on the Dust Bowl: Had you heard of blind cattle? Stomachs stuffed with dust? Muddy snow, not from melting, but from falling that way from the sky?

Book, Quotation of the week

Experience over information (or becoming Ira’s disciple)

Ira was right. Let me say that right off the bat.

Twice I participated in a monthly writing group the two months I was in the States. Twice Ira didn’t merely mention Self-Editing for Fiction Writers (Second Edition, by Renni Browne and Dave King), he preached about it. If there had been a physical soap box, he would have gotten up on it. His sermon didn’t vary much. If you only buy one book about writing, this IS. THE. ONE. It changed his writing. It will change yours.

Twice I left thinking maybe Ira was on to something.

He was.

This book is not only for writers, it is for every single reader of books. I speak with the passion of Ira. I have recommended this to several book clubs – if you want to know why you liked (or didn’t like) a book, this will put words to feelings. Most of us can sense when something isn’t good, but we can’t always express why the writing was flat or failed to moved. Now you can!

Here is a tip for writers and readers alike:

You don’t want to give your readers information. You want to give them experiences…It’s nearly always best to resist the urge to explain. Or, as we so often write it in the manuscript margins, R.U.E.

Experience over information. There’s a lot more than just a writing tip in there. Parents, teachers, pastors, leaders, are you listening? R.U.E. It’s that simple.

And that hard. Information is so much easier to provide than experiences.  Thanks Ira, I drank the Kool-Aid and loved every sip!

What’s one way you can provide an experience today instead of information?

Learning lessons, Quotation of the week

How do you know when enough is enough?

We have the constant sensation of not enough: not enough time, not enough rest, not enough exercise, not enough leisure. Where does God fit into a life that already seems behind schedule?

Asks Philip Yancey, a mere five pages into Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?

The phrase not enough stops me cold. Why do I see myself so accurately reflected in these two words when I —

  • Am reading in the privacy of my home (space, I have space and often a quiet environment)
  • Am sipping tea (out of one of many mugs, made with clean water, chosen from many kinds of tea)
  • Am sitting on a couch (I could have chosen to read on six other chairs, four stools, my bed, or two yoga mats)
  • Am reading by light (I have electricity and am literate)
  • Am wearing clean clothes (that I chose out of plenty of options)
  • Yet I resonate immediately with the constant sensation of not enough and it catches my breath. And saddens me. Really? That’s my story? Not enough?What would it look like to consciously say I have enough! For the last two weeks, I have been practicing saying the word enough. Enough. I have enough.

    Enough time

    Enough energy

    Enough information

    Enough money

    Enough friends

    Enough quiet

    Enough connection

    Enough space

    Enough significance

    Enough time with my family in the States

    Enough internet speed

    Enough fortitude to walk all the way to the store now that the neighborhood one has been closed for a year and I’m still working on “getting over it” (translation: I have enough convenience) and enough strength to carry back my groceries

    Enough Chinese language skill

    Enough clothes

    Enough influence

    Enough of a voice

    Enough of hearing from God

    Enough joy

    I have enough. What I have been given, I am claiming it as enough. I am choosing what I have and not looking for what I don’t have.

    Some of these are easier to believe (enough time with nieces? and sisters? and friends? and parents? Enough quiet in the loud, loud morning?). But I believe that I do not walk this path unguided or alone. If this is the path that God has chosen for me, I want to receive it as one who has enough.

    Who is grateful for the portion of joy or influence or money I have been given instead of pointing out how someone got just a little bit more than I did. Wondering (in politer moments) if I could have some more please and demanding through gritted teeth (in more petulant moments) FOR SOME MORE.

    Not this day. This day I have enough. Help me Lord when I forget. May the grateful prayer of my heart be

    Enough.

    Thank you, giver of all, who makes them good. I have enough. I am enough. You are enough. Amen.

    What do you have enough of this day?

Messier than normal, Quotation of the week

QOTW: Love is manically verb-centered

Imagine the time is the year 4012.

A group of people sit around discussing the Twilight novels, looking at pictures of Domino’s pizza and Diet Coke, and watching hologram re-dramatizations (what is known in the year 2012 as “home movies”) of weddings and sporting events. They poke fun at our “so-called” technology, stodgy attitudes, and food without trying to place any of them in context.

Let’s face it, taken by themselves, any one of these items might seem ridiculous.

 In her book Paul Among the People, Sarah Ruden cuts right to the quick of the matter for many people when it comes to Paul: “Jesus was my teacher; Paul was an embarrassment.” Unlike the group of people in the year 4012 who made no attempt to see from our eyes, Ruden uses her area of expertise, classics, to place Paul and his writings in context. This allows us a broader sense of the original recipients  would have been read, heard and understood his letters.

Paul’s writings are directly related to faith lived out in real relationships in a real society grappling with  real issues. Sound familiar? If you are reading this, you are real, you have relationships, and you’re placed in a societal context that’s grappling with real things. Take a look at the chapters in this book and see if they don’t also sound an awful lot like the nightly news in this political season:

  • Paul and the end of pleasure
  • Paul and homosexuality
  • Paul and women
  • Paul and the state
  • Paul and slavery
  • Paul on the foundation of the new community

The parallels are a bit unnerving! Instead of rehashing them, Ruden’s uses contemporary writers and shows how Paul’s writings stack up against what others were saying about each of the topics. I found it well researched and in the name of full disclosure admit to skimming some of the selections because I am not a classics scholar; but they did illustrate her points and are there for those who want to comb through them.

In the chapter on love, she looks at the passage most can quote in their sleep: 1 Corinthian’s 13. On Valentine’s Day I wrote about that passage saying it’s for more than weddings! Ruden backs me up and then does love one better. She points out that English uses adjectives that wouldn’t have been used in the original Greek. None, as in not one adjective! It was all about the verbs, baby! Love is something we do!

She includes a translation saying that,

Since the wording is so simple, I can translate this piece fairly literally without creating nonsense. I am also going to take out spaces between the words, punctuation, and the distinction between capital and small letters — none of these would have appeared in the original ancient manuscript. [I added spaces back in].

Here’s the original Greek translated:

The love endures long acts kindly the love not acts jealously not acts brutally not boasts not gets full of itself not disgraces itself not seeks what is its own not gets irritated not reckons up the evil not rejoices in the injustice but rejoices together in the truth endures everything believes everything hopes everything endures everything the love never falls.

She summarizes:

So manically verb-centered is the passage that Paul takes two adjectives and creates a one-word verb from each (neither verb being attested previously in Greek); and he creates yet another verb, in Greek  a one-word metaphor:

  1. [is] kind (verb: “kinds”)
  2. [is] boastful (verb: “boastfuls”)
  3. [is] arrogant (verb: “inflates-like-a-bellows”)

Manically verb-centered. So love is more than just a feeling? Hmmmm. In another place she calls them “machine gun verbs.” Now that’s a picture! Verb after verb after verb. Lived out. That we have handed the concept of love to Hallmark and allowed  love only one day a year is maddening! MADDENING, I say. Hallmark, nothing personal, but I am on the prowl and just as love actively pursues, I’m not going down without a fight! Go find another holiday to hijack, love is about to be set free from your clutches and released among the people!

How hard is it to “kinds?” Sometimes I act kindly, but to outright “kinds” someone. That sadly needs more than one day a year with phrases like “be mine.” To “kinds” someone means that whether or not they are mine, I am theirs and my behavior will reflect it.

Did you see that “endures everything” is listed not once, but twice? I double, triple checked to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks with all the spaces removed. They weren’t. Paul was compelled to stress that no matter what, love endures. Do you get it, he seems to ask? Keep on loving, it endures.

Kinding is hard. And unrelentingly necessary. The very moment I am with another I have a choice: Am I going to kind them or unkind them?

Paul definitely had opinions on these matters. And so should you. Buy this book and understand afresh how this Jesus, this lover of your soul came for the messy middle of the issues we face in real and really messy lives.

Today, who have you been given the choice to kind or unkind? Please share in the comments.

Faith, Quotation of the week

Bonfoeffer upped my game

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, SpyOne of my goals for the year is to read longer books. This goal was birthed out of my reading goal for last year which was a bit ambitious and based on number of books, not length. My competitive side wouldn’t adjust it in December, leaving me with few options other than to read short books that didn’t always interested me. You know it’s bad when your mom offers you a book about a snail saying, “I think this will help with your goal, it’s short.” OK, let’s be honest, that goal didn’t end in the most noble way. So, this year I want to read at least ten “long” books. I don’t know what I mean by “long,” but I’ll know it when I see it!

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas fit the bill. I reserved an electronic copy through my public library and was both delighted and horrified when it arrived during the busy conference I attended this month. The library only gives five days to pick up a book and once picked up they will take it back in two weeks (unlike physical books, which you can just keep if you are willing to pay the fine). So the pressure was ON. Bring it, Bonhoeffer.

Everything good you have read about this book is true. It is well researched, well written, and engaging. What I hadn’t expected was to be delighted by the vocabulary.  I highlighted about twenty-five words that I wanted to share because they caught my fancy! I had nouns, verbs and adjectives on the list but figured it might be a bit of overkill. In the end, what added to the deliciousness of the book were the adjectives used. Here is a small sample of sentences taken from the book (all definitions from Merriam-webster.com):

  1.  [Schoenfeld] had been in league with the perfidious Bishop Heckel. Perfidious – characterized by being faithless or disloyal
  2. Your letter has brought a salutary clarity into an unnecessarily confused situation. Salutary – producing a beneficial effect
  3. He acted the archetypical Lutheran pastor of that time, an unworthy ecclesiastical naïf who knew little of high-level intrigue. Naif – naïve
  4. What Bonhoeffer meant by ‘religion’ was not true Christianity, but the ersatz and abbreviated Christianity that he spent his life working against. Ersatz – being a usually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation
  5. In fairness to Hoepner, it was a brutal situation. Even the supremely doughty Best thought so. Doughty – marked by fearless resolution

Now that is a man who knows his way around an adjective! Something I only tuned into part way through the book is that Metaxas also likes comparing people to animals.

  1. At the end of May, the albino stoat had been ambushed by Czech Resistance fighters. Stoat — small animal that has a long body and fur that turns white in winter
  2. Bonhoeffer deeply admired the Pomeranian aristocratic class, but he was surprised to find such an ambition among its women.
  3. [There was a sentence I have hunted unsuccessfully for that used some animal like a slippery eel to describe someone. If you find it, please let me know.]

Bonhoeffer was both clear about and committed to his convictions and the need for Christ to be supreme and evident in our lives. The vocabulary aspect was a enjoyable surprise of this book, however the true value is in the subject matter. Regardless of your reading goals for the year, this book needs to be on your list!

Make a sentence in the comment section using: perfidious, salutary, naïf, ersatz, or doughty. Bonus points if you make a good animal reference! I will (seriously) buy a Diet Coke (or beverage of your choice) for anyone that catches my fancy with their sentence. Game on in the comment section!

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