IQ BOOK CLUB: Gilead

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson just became one of my favorite books of all time.

Reading it was like eating a super-rich dessert: One part of me wanted to consume it slowly, to just hold it on my tongue and savor every bite. But the other part of me relished it so much I couldn’t stop stuffing my face!* Now it will take me a while to digest.

I knew very little about Gilead before I picked it up. I remember reading reviews of it when it came out in 2004. I knew it won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award. I had a vague idea it touched on religious themes. Several friends recommended it.

But it was nothing that I expected.

I loved it as a Christ-follower. I loved it as someone who serves in full-time ministry. I loved it as a child, sibling, spouse, and parent. I loved it as a friend. I loved it as a human.

At first I kept thinking, Oh, I wish I had read this when it first came out! How have I gone this long without reading it? But then I realized I wouldn’t have appreciated nearly as much in 2004 as I did now, in 2011. It also made me wonder how much more I might appreciate it in another 7 years. Or 14. Or 21.

I realize I haven’t said much about the actual book. I find myself at a loss. I think I’ll simply leave you with some of my favorite quotes (it was nearly impossible to narrow down to these)…

“I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you.” 

“Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water.” 

“Grace has a grand laughter in it.” 

“Love is holy because it is like grace--the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.” 

“People talk about how wonderful the world seems to children, and that's true enough. But children think they will grow into it and understand it, and I know very well that I will not, and would not if I had a dozen lives.” 

“I don't know exactly what covetise is, but in my experience it is not so much desiring someone else's virtue or happiness as rejecting it, taking offense at the beauty of it.” 

“The Lord is more constant and far more extravagant than it seems to imply. Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don't have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?” 

“’He will wipe the tears from all faces.' It takes nothing from the loveliness of the verse to say that is exactly what will be required.” 

“There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient.”

Who else loves Gilead?

*I finally decided I would purchase a copy of my own and read it again, next time at a more leisurely pace.

Funniest Tweets of 2011

So I recently ventured back on Twitter. For the most part it’s been a positive experience. I do love stumbling upon random things like this:

HappyPlace.com recently posted “The 50 Funniest Tweets of 2011.” Here were my top 10 favorites:

To view the entire list, click here. Warning: many of the top 50 are quite offensive.

InfiniteQueso Book Club 2012: The Year of the Biography

Thanks so much to all of you who joined me throughout the year for the InfiniteQueso 2011 Book Club! Although I experienced a couple of lows, overall I’m thrilled with how the “Year of the Great Novels I’ve Never Read” turned out.

I finally got around to reading classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, gained a new obsession with the Harry Potter series, and lost myself in stories from other cultures and times. And I’m still finishing what might be one of my favorite books of all time, Gilead. (Official review coming soon.)

I debated about continuing the book club another year. I’m not always the most sober judge of my personal capacity. But if I learned anything from this past year, it’s that if I don’t have some kind of external motivation, I often don’t get around to those important-but-not-urgent things…like reading great books!

So for 2012, I’m hosting “The Year of the Biography.” I still haven’t decided how many books I’d like to tackle or even which ones. That’s where you come in…

I want you to help shape my 2012 Book Club!

These are the books currently at the top of my list:

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom  

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas 

A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot

But you get to influence the rest of the list! What are your favorite biographies? What biographies have you always meant to read, but never got around to reading? I’m pretty loose about what I consider a biography…and I’m happy to include autobiographies and memoirs. Simply submit your requests in the comments section below, before midnight CST on December 31.

For those of you who, like me, need a little advanced warning so you can borrow a copy of a book from a friend or the library, let’s go ahead and say we’ll tackle The Hiding Place in January.

I’ll post the rest of the final list and schedule for the year on (or near) January 1!

MIXTAPE: Come Let Us Adore Him

I love Christmas music! I pretty much have it playing constantly from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Day. And I love it all, sacred or secular. (Well, except for novelty songs like “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.”)

A couple of years ago I shared my Mistletoe Medley—a playlist of songs I put together for a holiday party I was helping put together. This year I’ll share my “Come Let Us Adore Him” mix—songs that cause me to worship Christ.

You’ll see I have a thing for alternative arrangements of traditional carols (see #1, 4, 16).

As well as a fondness for story songs from the perspective of Mary (see #5, 8, 11, 17).

With some songs, I can’t explain why they help me worship the Lord. Take “Little Drummer Boy” for instance. It’s a completely fictional narrative. There’s just something about identifying with the line, “I have no gift to bring/That’s fit to give a King.” It moves me.

Hope you enjoy these songs too!

Come Let Us Adore Him

1. Angels From the Realms of Glory – Steven Curtis Chapman
2. Go Tell It On the Mountain – Frank Sinatra & Bing Crosby
3. Hark the Herald Angels Sing – Irish Tenors
4. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear – Sara Groves
5. Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song) – Amy Grant
6. Little Drummer Boy – Glee Cast
7. The First Noel – Revive
8. Mary Sweet Mary – Selah & Plumb
9. No Eye Had Seen – Michael W. Smith
10. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus – Fernando Ortega
11. The Night Before Christmas – Brandon Heath
12. O Come All Ye Faithful – Celtic Woman
13. The Wexford Carol – Alison Krauss & Yo-Yo Ma
14. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Barlowgirl
15. Silent Night – Sarah Brightman
16. Come and Worship – Bebo Norman
17. You’re Here – Francesca Battistelli
18. O Holy Night – Faith Hill
19. Joy to the World – Casting Crowns
20. Hallelujah Chorus – Boston Pops Orchestra                                       

Is there a more majestic piece of music in all the world than the “Hallelujah Chorus?” I can’t listen to it without crying. My favorite version is by the Boston Pops Orchestra, because it zips along at a nice pace (and sounds amazing). Sadly, I couldn't find a version on YouTube to link to. What's your favorite version?

What songs focus your attention on Christ and help you to worship Him during this season?

And The Winner Is...

In a last minute surge, “Puke Tree” by Brian took the lead to win the 3^rd Annual Infinite Queso “Haiku for the Holidays” Contest! Brian, you can let me know if you prefer a Starbucks or iTunes gift card.

Congratulations to all the finalists, and a big thanks to everyone who took the time to enter a haiku and vote in this year’s contest.

Happy Holidays everyone!

An Unhurried Life

“The truth is, as much as we complain about it, we are drawn to hurry. It makes us feel important. It keeps the adrenaline pumping. It means we don’t have to look too closely at the heart or life. It keeps us from feeling our loneliness.”

The Dangerous Women group I’m a part of is reading John Ortberg’s The Life You’ve Always Wanted this year. It’s such a great, practical book about spiritual disciplines. Part of our reading this month was a chapter called, “An Unhurried Life.” We thought it was quite appropriate that as moms of young kids, we were reading this during the holiday season! I mean, who has time to live an unhurried life at Christmastime?

But seriously, the chapter is so chockfull of great quotes, like the one at the top of this post. I thought I’d share a few more here. Hope you enjoy (and are challenged like I am)!

“Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. Hurry can destroy our souls…As Carl Jung wrote, ‘Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.’” 

“For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.” 

“One of the great illusions of our day is that hurrying will buy us more time.” 

“Jesus often had much to do, but he never did it in a way that severed the life-giving connection between him and his Father. He never did it in a way that interfered with his ability to give love when love was called for…Jesus was often busy, but never hurried.” 

“The most serious sign of hurry sickness is a diminished capacity to love. Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time.”

So what is the solution?

“Solitude is the remedy for the busyness that charms…At its heart, solitude is primarily about not doing something. Just as fasting means to refrain from eating, so solitude means to refrain from society.” 

“’In solitude,’ Henri Nouwen wrote, ‘I get rid of my scaffolding.’ Scaffolding is all the stuff we use to keep ourselves propped up, to convince ourselves that we are important or okay…We are conditioned to feel that our existence is justified only when we are doing something.”

Do you suffer from hurry sickness like I do?

What would it look like to practice the art of slowing, especially during this season?

How can we rearrange our schedules in order to make room for regular times of solitude and reflection?

How would our holidays improve if we ruthlessly eliminated hurry from our lives?

Don't forget to vote for your favorite entry in the "Haiku for the Holidays" Contest! Polls close at midnight (CST) tonight, 12/15/11.

Vote Now! 3rd Annual Holiday Haiku Finalists Selected

[Update: the polls are now closed for this contest.]

Big thanks to everyone who submitted an entry in the 3^rd Annual Infinite Queso “Haiku for the Holidays” Contest! Once again, it was really hard to choose finalists.

In an interesting twist, this year all the finalists are haiku about the beloved special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Here they are, in the order they were originally posted:

From Kelley:

I picked the wrong tree
So what is Christmas about?
"And there were shepherds..."

From Tracy G:

Pantophobia
Silly dance trumps rehearsal
Best ending ever!

From Ragan:

"I killed it," he said
As the young, little tree drooped.
Charlie gave it love.

From Brian (this really did happen to him a few days ago):

Weak tree Charlie Brown
But at least yours didn't get
Puked on like my tree

Now the contest is in your hands! Who will win the $10 gift card to Starbucks or iTunes? Vote now using the poll on the right hand column of this blog.

The polls will close at midnight (CST) on Thursday, December 15, 2011. The grand prize winner will be announced in a new post on Friday, December 16, 2011.

What Do 'The Undecided' Want in a Religion?

My friend Gary Runn recently posted a link to a thoughtful New York Times article by Eric Weiner called, “Americans: Undecided About God?”

Weiner finds himself dismayed by his lack of religious options during the holiday season. Although he would once have described himself as an atheist, hitting middle age and weathering a health scare influenced him to become more open spiritually; now he would identify himself simply as “religiously unaffiliated.”

Photo source

As Weiner “drifts” and “dabbles” in the religious world, he can’t find a place he feels at home. He belongs somewhere between the “True Believers” and the “Angry Atheists.” But where?

Here’s what Weiner would find attractive in a religion:

• Spiritual practices that actually make its followers better, more loving people

• Followers laugh often and well, have a sense of humor about their religion

• Straightforward, unencumbered, intuitive

• Space that celebrates doubt and encourages experimentation

• Most important: Highly interactive

Unfortunately, here’s how Weiner has experienced organized religion:

• Too political (specifically, “too Republican”)

• Irrational and superstitious

• No fun

• Angry God, angry followers (“constantly judging and smiting”)

• Leaders who shout

Finally, here’s what Weiner offers as a solution:

“The answer, I think, lies in the sort of entrepreneurial spirit that has long defined America, including religious America. We need a Steve Jobs of religion. Someone (or ones) who can invent not a new religion but, rather, a new way of being religious.”

Fellow Christians: How shall we receive this? What can we learn from Weiner’s article? How shall we respond?

The Holidays and the Undocumented

Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Something isn’t sitting well with me.

GOP Presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann drew fire from Bill O’Reilly this past Monday when she clarified her stance on undocumented immigrants while being interviewed on his Fox News show. O’Reilly was following up on a statement Bachman made last Saturday at Mike Huckabee’s presidential forum (also on Fox News.) Bachmann stated that if she became President, she planned to deport all 10-12 million undocumented immigrants from our country.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

O'REILLY: But all of them that are here now are going to be an enormous problem…if you're going to start dragging them out of here, it's going to be very, very difficult to do that. 

BACHMANN: But remember they broke the law to get in here there is a consequence. 

O'REILLY: I'm not justifying it I'm just saying on human basis, I don't think it… theory is one thing. Dragging people out, putting them on a bus with their children crying is going to be quite something else. 

BACHMANN: It can be done. That's the thing. It can be done and… 

O'REILLY: It can be done but at what cost? 

BACHMANN: It's… but you know what it's time we start acting like a first world nation and enforce our laws. Other nations enforce laws. Let's do it. 

O'REILLY: All right but you're taking a very tough stance in a human way. 

BACHMANN: It's time… it's time we do take a tough stance. I'm a compassionate person but we have to get tough on illegal immigration.”

[To watch the video or read a transcript of the entire interview, click here.]

Immigration reform is a very complicated issue. I certainly don’t have all the answers. But I do know that as an Anglo-American Christian, I can’t support Bachmann’s “Enforce the law, deport them all, no matter the cost” position. Here’s why:

First: I just celebrated Thanksgiving. A holiday which commemorates a harvest festival hosted by my people, English Pilgrims, at Plymouth Plantation in 1621. We had not asked for permission to settle at Plymouth from the nation’s current citizens; we just decided the land should be ours. We had arrived a year earlier and had suffered through a terrible winter, during which roughly half of our settlement died. But God moved the hearts of the land’s citizens to act mercifully toward us. They did not force us back onto our ship and send us home—a trip we undoubtedly would not have survived. Instead, Wampanoag king Massasoit donated food stores to us when our supplies brought from England ran out. And Squanto, a Patuxet citizen, taught us how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for us.

So when I see an undocumented immigrant, I see myself. I am forever grateful that when my people immigrated into this country they were received mercifully by its citizens. How can I not respond mercifully to this generation of immigrants? They came here for the same reasons many of my peoples did (I also have Irish and Scottish ancestors): to escape persecution, famine, disease, poverty, and violence. We left everything behind and braved a dangerous crossing on the chance we could provide a better life for our children.

Second: I am about to celebrate Christmas. During this season, I will create multiple opportunities to tell my children the story of a baby boy born in a stable in Israel, 2000 years ago. And not just any boy, a King. A King whose life was in danger because the current ruler of Israel didn’t want to lose his power. So he ordered a massacre of all male babies in the vicinity. Fortunately, an angel appeared to the baby King’s father in a dream, warning him to flee with his family to Egypt. The father didn’t wait for the morning; while it was still dark he woke his wife and baby and they began their long trek. No time to gather provisions or make arrangements.

When I see an undocumented immigrant, I see my Savior. The bible doesn’t say anything about Mary, Joseph, and Jesus’ sojourn in Egypt. We don’t know what Egypt’s immigration policy was at that time. So I can’t say for sure that Jesus’ family was “undocumented.” But I can surmise with a fair amount of certainty that as cultural outsiders who didn’t speak Egyptian, they would have been vulnerable. God commanded Israel, “When [an immigrant] lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him…love him as yourself.” (Lev.19:33) I doubt the Egyptian gods prescribed the same. And what we do know is, when Jesus’ family did leave Egypt to return home, they did so on their own terms and time table.

As I said before, I don’t have all the answers to the immigration situation. But what concerns me is when I see fellow citizens speaking about and treating undocumented immigrants as though they are not even human. Maybe because so few of us actually know someone who’s undocumented, it’s harder to put ourselves in their shoes. To think about their stories. To consider their plight. To extend them mercy. Oh, but those of us who have known the love of Jesus, we who have drunk from His fountain of grace, we who have been extended mercy so far beyond what we deserve it causes us to fall on our faces in worship…how can we not extend mercy to those around us?

When I see the undocumented, I see myself.

“Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9)

When I see the undocumented, I see my Savior.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was…a stranger and you invited me in…Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we…see you a stranger and invite you in?'…The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.'” (Matthew 25:34-40)

3rd Annual "Haiku for the Holidays" Contest

Announcing: The official opening of the 3^rd Annual Infinite Queso “Haiku* for the Holidays” Contest!

The grand prize (ok, really it’s more like a stocking stuffer) will be a $10 iTunes or Starbucks gift card.

Here’s how to play…

InfiniteQueso’s 3^rd Annual “Haiku for the Holidays” Contest Rules: 

1. The theme for this year’s contest is “Classic Christmas TV Specials.” (This is not to be confused with Christmas-themed
movies that were originally shown in theaters and are now often aired on TV during the holiday season—that was our theme last year.)
2. All entries must follow traditional haiku form: 17 syllables in three lines—5 in the first line, 7 in the second, 5 in the third.
3. Bonus points will be awarded for adherence to traditional Japanese form and nuance. For more information, read here.
4. Judging will be based on creativity, insight, depth, and/or humor.
5. All entries must be clean! No vulgarity or cursing. Any entry violating this rule will be deleted.
6. All entries must be an original composition of the entrant.
7. All entrants must reveal their identities. Anonymous entries will not be eligible for the grand prize. (If you don’t have a Google or Blogger account, feel free to just include your name in the body of your comment.)
8. There is no limit to the number of entries a contestant may submit.
9. All entries must be posted in the comments section of this post by midnight (CST) on Monday, December 12, 2011.
10. Finalists will be announced in a new post on Tuesday, December 13, 2011.
11. The grand prize winner will be selected from among the finalists by a public vote. The polls will close at midnight (CST) on Thursday, December 15, 2011.
12. The grand prize winner will be announced on Friday, December 16, 2011.

The contest is officially open! You may now post your entries in the comments section below.

*I realize many of the entries in this contest will technically be senryu. However “Senryu for the Season” didn’t quite have the same accessibility as “Haiku for the Holidays.” My apologies to purists.