…or so I told my friend last night as I finished reading a 500+ page book.
I love seeing kids read! I almost stopped a mom in the grocery store last week and complimented her as her son was holding the cart reading a book as he walked with his mom…who does that? He was probably home-schooled! I also noticed he was eating a pear! Again, who does that? What is wrong with me? I definitely vote that mom as "Mother of the year"!
Back to reading!
As a child, I don't think I was ever an avid reader, but I definitely read books for fun. I would sit in awe of my sister who could read a 350 page book in a couple of hours. Now she is smart…not just kind of smart, but Mensa smart. To this day, she speed reads her way through whatever looks interesting. I always thought that was kind of like knowing another language…what a gift! In the past few years, I have developed a true love of books. I love to read just about anything as long as it's not too academically intense. My idea of an accomplishment was reading Laura Hillenbrand's "Unbroken" about a fighter pilot in World War 2 who was resilient in the face of sure death. I recommend that book highly. I felt pretty good about myself…I am no war aficionado but this is an incredible book about the human spirit.
Well, this week I went one step further. After hearing the author of "Bonhoeffer" speak at our church a couple of weeks ago (Eric Metaxas), I dove in to a 500+ page autobiography on an amazing man of God who was in the middle of Nazi and Hitler's Germany. I am one of those crazy readers who, if I start a book, need to finish it in short time. Once I put a book down for a couple of weeks, I almost need to re-read it to the page I left. (Is this a sign of age??)…I knew once I started this, I needed to finish. It took me about 8 days of reading since it is not an easy read. It is amazing what your brain can do, if you stretch a little. Some of my world history even came back from high school. Many themes will stick with me for a very long time. The incredible tragedy that the Jews endured at the hands of the Nazis should not be forgotten. As a Christian and feeling driven to help, Bonhoeffer became a spy and was in on the attempt to assassinate Hitler. "Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will" Metaxas writes. That sentence, in itself, has had me thinking for days. It is so easy to sit back and "do well" but being active and stepping out of the box as a Christian is much more difficult. Can you even imagine preaching Jesus in the face of a terrorist? I humbly say that I am sure of my faith but not sure of my ability to give my life for it. In theory, I am ready. Bonhoeffer gave a sermon years before his death at the hands of the Nazis and said, "No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick for that hour, waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence…Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is what is so marvelous, that we can transform death." This book is both difficult to read and gives great hope at the same time. I highly recommend you take the time to read it!
Read on Coffee Talk Peeps and Have a great weekend!!!
CTM
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