Junk Drawer Spirtuality

Book Review: Rapture Ready

On the plane ride to Texas over Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to finish reading the wildly entertaining, sometimes offensive, but usually enlghtening book, Rapture Ready: Adventures In the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture.  It is a book by a guy named Daniel Radosh who describes himself as a "liberal New York Jew," who took it upon himself to spend a few months trying to better understand the subculture of evangelical Christianity.  He talked to popular Christian authors, visited a Christian theme park, went to Christian concerts, music festivals, raves, visited Christian bookstores, entered "Hell Houses" on halloween and attended Christian WWE style wrestling matches in the south.  Radosh wrote about his experiences, the things he saw, the conversations he had, and the impressions that were left on him. 

As an evangelical, I appreciated the book. . . 

The Cockney Bible

I was just reading a BBC article about new Bible versions and translations that are being marketed to reach new crowds.  There's a coffee-table book version of the Bible, a Manga Bible (that's Japanese animation for those who don't know), but I discovered a new Bible translation that was produced in 2001 that got me really, really excited-- The Bible in Cockney.

If you're unfamiliar with the term "cockney," it's an east London dialect that was made famous in movies such as "Oliver Twist."  You know . . . "Why, 'ello guvna."  They actually made a Bible translation written in Cockney dialect.  In it, Jesus feeds "five thousand geezers" with "five loaves of Uncle Fred and two Lillian Gish."  Needless to say, I went to Amazon.com immediately and ordered it. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving In Texas

This morning, I flew to Texas to visit family for Thanksgiving.  It's been a long day of travel, but it feels good to see the people I love again.  Eating some Turkey tomorrow, watching the Cowboys and the Aggies, then Friday we're going to do some hunting.  Hard to beat that.

The Real Saul, Sloppy Pitching

It was a little league baseball game, and I was only 11 years old.  I was not a particularly impressive athlete in any of my childhood sporting endeavors, including my short-lived stint in little league.  I spent most of my time in right field where I endured the boredom of the game by making mounds of grass and dirt, occasionally lifting my head in the off-chance that a ball was actually swatted in my general direction.  I was in little league baseball's "no-man's land."  But occasionally I had the opportunity to make the leap from least on the defensive roster to greatest.  On a few occasions, I was given the opportunity to pitch.  Pitching is the creme de la creme of little league.  And I actually spent some time practicing my pitching between games.  I wanted to pitch. . . badly.

Seven Days of Sex

Ed Young from Fellowship Church in the Dallas area, just made the New York Times because of his latest sermon series where he challenged all married couples in his congregation to have sex for seven straight days as a means of strengthening their marriage.

It seems like a great idea for a sermon series, and as my friends Jim and Sheri Mueller say, who lead a not-for profit marriage minsitry called Growthtrac, sex is one of the most important areas of marriage enrichment couples need to work through.  I'm glad to hear Christians are trying to tackle it . . . no pun intended.  

Out of Gas

There have only been two times in my life when, while driving, I completely ran out of gas like a nincompoop.  The first time, I was about 17 years old and I was driving with a friend and a good looking girl I had just met.  I was driving on the highway in my hometown, and I felt the familiar jerkiness of a car nearing the "E" on the gas meter.  So I quickly found an exit . . . a gas station sat ontop a hill at the end of the road but we didn't quite make it.  The car came to a hault.  But I was 17, and it was a warm Saturday night in the Texas summer.  And we were just cruisin' around town doing nothing anyway. So my buddy and I hopped out of my car and started pushing from behind while the cute girl took the wheel and steered us to the gas station.  It created alittle adventure on a boring night in Amarillo Texas, and I had the opportunity to impress a cute little filly with both my silliness and my hulking strength :).

The second time I completely drained my gas tank was this afternoon.  There were no friends with me to help me push.  There was no attractive females to impress.  It was just me. . . alone . . . on a cold, wintery, windy, Chicago afternoon sitting in my truck on 75th, with cars whizzing by me, wondering how I forgot to put gas in my car today.  I walked only a mile or two to the nearest 7-11 to buy a gas can and some gasoline, but I didn't have a jacket . . . and did I mention it was COLD and WINDY?  The second experience wasn't nearly as interesting as the first.