Books – Page 9 – all said and done

Published May 24, 2008 by Rebecca Matheson

Read it before

Oh the profundity.

I have realised, or rather decided that sometimes I read too many theological books and not enough of the Bible. I think I do this a lot, not just in this particular. I get so wrapped up in the extremities that I kind of leave out the true guts.

Today I read some of Acts, Fetus and Agrippa and Paul and I could see it. I hope the reason I liked it so much wasn’t only because I hadn’t heard it in a long time.

With only a few exceptions I steer clear from reading books over if I can remember them. There is an element of the forgetting that allows some of the excitement to creep back in and enough for me to revel in the satisfaction of an ending. The same for movies.

Yes the Bible’s a reasonably big book, the copy of the Pijin Bible that I got to hold today is a really big book. There’s a lot in there.

That big lot of book gets beautifully shoved around and sliced down to Sunday-school edible bites and somehow the rest of it wanders off. Then there’s the bits I ignore and the same that are taken up gleefully by others as the one and only.

I think we treat the Bible as a bit of a pick and mix package. I used to (and sometimes still do) open at random to see what kind of answer/encouragement/ephiphany ensues. What crap.

I’d like to learn the Bible again as a story. It is one after all. Who the hell cheats and reads the middle of the novel without giving the honor of reading the rest.

I don’t think that we always need to start from Genesis and read through to Revelation, but it’s a sad old day when we steal our Psalm of choice and ignore the rest.

It feels like I’m a 14 year old learning this over again. Perhaps a random verse now and then is better than nothing but I’m really not so sure.

But then hey, I haven’t even really been doing the one verse thing, so who am I to talk. I love it, but it’s so terribly difficult.

Oh to blow all my spoon fed understanding out the window and to be able to think free from preconceptions. I am jealous of people who come from no church background and get to read the Bible with an open mind.

Books Christianity Life

Bible

Published May 1, 2008 by Rebecca Matheson

All things new

Henri Nowen wrote this little book (and I say little, because it is) called, Making All Things New. It was truly interesting reading coming off the back of some of the stuff that Geoff and I have been contemplating since Forge about the pace of life and some of the things I’ve been thinking about personally – solitude and community – not polar opposites

It is a simple and quick read that holds quietly given suggestions that are thoroughly there and entirely applicable despite it being written some time ago.

Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life by Henri Nouwen is a short, clean, clear book about how to begin finding the peace of mind to hear the voice of God. The book’s epigraph, from Mark, is anchored in Jesus’ words: “Do not worry.” Nouwen acknowledges that worry is so ingrained in many people’s daily lives that it seems to be an integral part of positive achievement and self-protection. Yet he explains, with devastating directness, the destructive effects of busy-ness and its attendant habit of worrying, then shows how Jesus responds to these worries, and finally describes some disciplines that “can cause our worries slowly to lose their grip on us, and which can thus allow the Spirit of God to do his recreating work.” Nouwen’s voice sounds like that of the mentor or spiritual director that many people have always wished for: his authority stems from a talent for realistic comfort rather than forceful coercion. So when he writes the following words, it’s eminently possible to believe him:

A hard struggle is required…. But this struggle is not beyond our strength. It calls from some very specific, well-planned steps. It calls for a few moments a day in the presence of God when we can listen to his voice precisely in the midst of our many concerns. It also calls for the persistent endeavor to be with others in a new way by seeing them not as people to whom we can cling in fear, but as fellow human beings with whom we can create new space for God.-Michael Joseph Gross

Books Christianity Life

henri nouwen

Published April 23, 2008 by Rebecca Matheson

I COULD MURDER A CURRY

There’s this awesome character in the Terry Pratchett books, his name is Death. He has kind of this half wonderful, half terrible existence. Note now that Death doesn’t actually kill people, he merely assists progression, it’s difficult to describe. Death frequently tries to escape to try understand ‘humans’ by ditching his role for something along the lines of being a chef. In short, he’s a skeleton that rides around on a big white horse called Binky, he keeps his scythe in an umbrella stand, people mostly don’t seem him because they don’t want to, and he talks LIKE THIS -with authority.

The curious thing about Death is that he as as real as the Pratchett characters get. I’ve just finished reading ‘Mort’ and there is a scene in which he begins to take on Death’s role – Mort becomes this intensified reality, more real than anything else in DiscWorld.

I find it interesting. I’m not really sure why.

Perhaps it’s that life-death, intensified living thing? Or perhaps I’m just a nerd averaging one Pratchett book a week (And it’d be more probably if my supply was in-house).

Books Humor Life

Death Mort nerd terry pratchett

Published March 31, 2008 by Rebecca Matheson

Op Shop Dali

What better way to get used to the weirdness of the new WordPress backend than to talk about someone weird.

Salvador Dali.

In truth I know very little about him, but I did manage to score a nice looking Phaidon book about him today. Some of the work is familiar so I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of my invested $3.00.

Books Culture Op Shop

Art opshops salvador dali surrealist art

Published March 19, 2008 by Rebecca Matheson