Covered with Books

Being back in the States provides a wealth of opportunities to catch up on reading.  Though, I tend to bite off more than I absorb at a time and literally surround myself with reading material.  Just for fun I counted…6 books on my bed, 4 on my nightstand, and even more on my bookshelf’s to-read section.

Last night, I finally moved one of the books to the done section.  The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. The book made me want to jump up, find a sunny, cute little writing desk and pour out all the thoughts jumbling in my head into written words. I also found myself tossing around some quotes from the book.  Here are a few that stuck out:

“Now he has a world. What can he possibly do with it? He has no muscle tone on his wings. They are atrophied, probably beyond hope of recoevery. Where his pectoral muscles should be, he has a breast weighed down with words of human beings: by words interred, free-as-a-bird absurd, unheard! Sometimes he flaps his wings as if he nearly remembers flight, as he did in the first jubilant terror of his release. But his independence was frozen in that moment.”

“Can’t they be patient? Could you be? If your belly was empty and you saw whole baskets of bread on the other side of a window, would you continue waiting patiently, Beene? Or would you throw a rock?”

“Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you are good, bad things can still happen. And if you are bad, you can still be lucky.”

Have you read it? If so, what did you think? If not, what are you reading or what else should I add to my stacks of books??

Memory Memo

John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

This is the verse I’m mulling over in my head this week.  I pull it out at the gym while on the bike.  I use it as a book marker for The Poisonwood Bible (I’m finally reading it!).  I ponder it in between car rides when I’m not jamming out to some tunes (“More Like Falling in Love” by Jason Gray).  I’m letting it sink in and settle it’s way down.

But, now I’m asking you, friend, what do you think of the verse? What’s God telling you through it and what insights have you gained from it? Practical, tangible, vague, undeveloped, hearty, any of the above or any other.  Or on the flip side, are you memorizing any verses now? What about those? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you.