Five Books I've Read this Year

Blogging Prompt: List Five Books I've read this year.

Since we're only about three months into this year, I will include books from this past year that I have read.

1) The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian: This is one of my new favorite books. A literary friend suggested it to me, so I had to read it (: This book is about a girl, who after being attacked, goes on a hunt to figure out why Bobbie Crocker, a recently deceased man in the homeless shelter, has a photo of her from that awful afternoon. This book also winds in The Great Gatsby, so if you're a fan of that book (another favorite) this book will be interesting to you. It's not necessary, but it's a good idea to re-read The Great Gatsby before reading this book.

2) Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund: This fictional memoir about Marie Antoinette is interesting, even if you aren't a big history person. Although this is fictional, Naslund used real journal entries and letters either to or from Marie Antoinette, and she made it as close to how she believes life would have been for Marie Antoinette (after thoroughly studying her life). This book changes the way you perceive the Austrian-French princess, realizing that she's not the villain that history has made her out to be. 

3) Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption by Katie Davis: This is one of the most inspirational stories I have ever read! Katie Davis, now in her early twenties, moved to Uganda straight out of high school, started a non-profit ministry, and is in the process of adopting fourteen Ugandan girls. Katie shares the story of her life in Uganda and how God has completely changed her life and the way she goes about doing things. God's strength and grace is so dominating in her life and it just pours through this book. It's both encouraging and convicting.

4) Midwives by Chris Bohjalian: Yes, another by Chris Bohjalian. He's just so good! This book is about *shocker*a midwife. The story, told from the point of view of a midwife's daughter, is about a delivery gone awry, the woman who dies in labor, and the trial to determine whether guilty or not. This story is so gripping, you will not want to put this book down. (As a side note: if you are squeamish, this book is probably not for you.)

5) When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor...and Ourselves by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett: It's pretty obvious what this book is about based on the title. This book is really good for anybody that wants to be involved, or is already involved, in a care ministry or outreach ministry. This book helps break down common misconceptions about the poor and about ourselves as care-givers. Very interesting and informative read. This book has definitely helped me shape the way that I go about working in ministry.

Quotation

Find a quotation that moves you and write it down. Why does it move you?

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake." Victor Hugo

A Facebook friend posted this quote the other day as encouragement for anybody in an overly busy, stressful period of their life. It was an encouragement for me. Everyday we are faced with numerous road-blocks, grievances, or just flat-out stressful moments, but we are to face these with courage...more particularly, courage from the Lord.

This Sunday, at church, we went through Hebrews 2:14-18 and our Pastor said that as believers, we are to focus on the cross. This isn't some magical "make your problems go-away" cure; when focusing on the cross though, we remember that Christ suffered, and he didn't have to, but He loved us enough to do that. Remembering this gives us courage not only to face our current struggles, but also courage to not fall into temptation.

When we have this courage to face our sorrows, patience to face the small every day issues, and we've done all that we can do of our simple tasks in a day, we can go to sleep. We can rest in what Christ has done. That He has won the battle over sin and death; eventually these afflictions we've faced will be light and momentary (2 Corinthians 4). We can go to sleep, knowing that "God is awake." And how comforting is that?

<sup>Hebrews 2:14-18

14</sup> Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. ¹⁶ For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

"What we should be doing..."

This is my blogging prompt from yesterday, that I just didn't have enough time to finish: "What we should be  doing..."

I'm going to start this out by saying that I have been guilty of this at times, so I am truly including myself in the "we" instead of casting any blame on others. But what we should be doing is ending our judgments of people and communities (read: impoverished people) and actually doing something to help...or at least try to find a better system. I get tired of hearing people in Christian circles saying "The decisions they have made landed them on the streets."  Or ""I'm tired of my hard earned money being given as a handout to people who don't try to better their situations. They just use it on drugs and alcohol." Or one of my favorites: "They just need to get off their butts and find a job." 

In case anybody hasn't noticed, we are in tough economic times, and "another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it. (Tavernise, Sabrina [2011]: "Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade’"). With the number of people below the poverty level rising and the number of decent paying jobs lowering, people can't find jobs. And sure, there are some people who abuse the system. They use their welfare money for things like drugs and alcohol, but not all of them, and stereotyping everybody who is impoverished is wrong. 

This past summer I read Tim Keller's book Ministries of Mercy and at the very beginning Keller gives statistics on those below the poverty line. (This book was written several years ago, so numbers would have changed by now.) I was shocked to read though that a large percentage of people below the poverty line were working--or at least working for a job. The problem, though, is that these jobs weren't paying enough for these people to rise above the poverty line. Or else, they were looking for a job, but because they don't have a car (or because of other extenuating circumstances), they can't make it to job interviews. Finally, there's such a stigma with homeless people, that certain companies are unwilling to hire the individual, labeling him/her as "untrustworthy" or "questionable."

So you see, it can be a cycle at times, and rather than stereotyping these people and communities we should get out and do something. Sure, there is still so much to be done to better these statistics, but one person intentionally serving others--rather than trashing them--can make a huge difference. Serve at a community work day (United Way of Greenville has a day like this), serve in a soup kitchen and personally get to know these people and their stories, but whatever you do, stop stereotyping and judging these people based on situations that could possibly be out of their hands. 

(Via: Miracle Hill Facebook Page)

Blogging Prompts: Day 1

I recently found some blogging prompts on another blog I was perusing, and thought it would be fun to try my hand at some of them. Who knows! Maybe I'll blog a bit more frequently. 

So as I sit here in the campus coffee shop, sipping on a very diluted (yuck!) vanilla latte, I bring you prompt 1: "Do you believe the saying that with great risks come great rewards?"

Yes, I do believe this saying. Obviously every great risk doesn't lead to a great reward. Hello?! Think of all those people who make bad investments and lose the entirety of their fortunes. But on the other hand, think of all those people who make investments into those little unknown companies that eventually skyrocket. They've ended up taking a big risk with their money, and it's paid off. 

I think that more often than we realize the decisions we make are risky...even if the decision is basically a non-decision. What if I decide that to take a risk would end up hurting me in the long-run...but what if I also see later that someone else has taken that same risk and it has majorly paid off. I'll always wonder "what if?" it's almost as if there's an invisible risk. 

This fear of the "will the obvious risk pay off? Will my non-decision be a risk?" reminds me of a line from an article my mom sent me recently. The journalist shares how whenever she was  scared to do something--for fear of other's judgments, fear of mistake, etc--the tiny voice of her mother would pop into her head saying "Fear means go!"

So rather than the fear of taking a "visible" risk (or possibly even the "invisible" risk), maybe that fear means "GO!" And who knows...the payoff could be huge.