Among the Realm

Here is my summer reading list.

Bear Grylls believes outdoor adventure is not just about pushing your limits. It’s about overcoming challenges and living your dreams. This is the complete survival guide from the Everest mountaineer and ultimate survival expert.

Bear Grylls story about his ascent on Everest at the young age of 23.

Written by a young Jewish girl while in hiding with her family from the Nazis during World War II, Frank’s Diary has been dramatized in one form or another in every major language and country around the world.

Survivor, the second novel by Chuck Palahniuk–whose debut novel The Fight Club was widely received to critical acclaim–is a deranged comedy of nightmares, a groin-kick at Western society’s worst excesses. This is satire at its best, and Palahniuk handles it all with a distinct, engaging prose style and with plot devices that keep the pages turning long after your tea break should have finished.

In December 1937, the Japanese army invaded the ancient city of Nanking, systematically raping, torturing, and murdering more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. This book tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved many.

What I am currently reading:

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Need some help making your own summer reading list? Here are some resources to help you get started.

40 modern non-fiction books everyone should read

30 books everyone should read before their 30th birthday

C.S. Lewis was a brilliant thinker. I have been re-reading Mere Christianity. This material in the book was first given on the radio and then later published in three separate talks.

I will admit it starts out slow and boring. I almost put the book down and gave up on reading it again. Trust me make it through the first few chapters and your golden. Hopefully it will challenge you and make you a better person and Christian.

God has been revealing a lot to me lately (probably more along lines of I am being open to what God has to say). TRUST is what I have issues with. God is destroying the barriers I have built.

The Cardinal Virtues- This is one of the chapters I have recently read in Mere Christianity. Cardinal is not one of those Roman Catholic guys dressed in the funky clothing. It is from the Latin word meaning “hinge of a door”. They were given the name Cardinal virtues because they were pivotal. There are four in total; Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude.

1. Prudence is practical common sense. God is efficient in my mind. “He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have” (Mere Christianity, 77). God does not care how smart you are, instead He wants you to use what He has given you. In other words be efficient don’t waste energy in becoming someone your not, use the intelligence you have to make a difference.

2. Temperance in today’s world means teetotalism which is a fancy word for abstaining and promoting abstinence from alcoholic beverages. This was not the original definition. “Temperance referred not specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further” (Mere Christianity, 78).

• The mark of a bad man is that he struggles to give up what he desires and demands every one else to give it up too. “That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons-marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.”
• God is not deceived by externals. When people focus on the word Temperance as it relates to drinking, they forget that we can be just as intemperate about anything else. Focusing on a golf game or becoming obsessed with shopping is just as dangerous. The only difference is it does not show on the outside as much as a someone who gets drunk at night.

3. Justice- “Justice means much more than the sort of thing that goes on in law courts. It is the old name for everything we should now call ‘fairness’; it includes honesty, give and take, truthfulness, keeping promises, and all that side of life.”

4. Fortitude- “Fortitude includes both kinds of courage-the kind that faces danger as well as the kind that ‘sticks it’ under pain. You will notice, of course, that you cannot practice any of the other virtues very long without bringing this one into play. In the same way a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of a virtue.”

If actions were only thought of it would encourage three wrong ideas:

• Right actions done for the wrong reasons do not help build the internal quality or character called a ‘virtue’.
• We would tend to think that God wanted us to simply obey a set of rules: But God really wants people of character or who are willing to build their character.
• “We might think that the ‘virtues’ were necessary only for this present life-that in the other world we could stop being just because there is nothing to quarrel about and stop being brave because there is no danger. There will probably be no occasion for just or courageous acts in the next world, but there will be every occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as the result of doing such acts here.”

That is deep stuff. Ponder on that for awhile without your brain hurting. If you want more brain hurting and possibly life changing thinking go read this book….twice…maybe even five times.

I wrote a book review on this for my survey of world views class. If you have not read this book go get it and read it… It will be tough to get through at times but it is well worth it.

Night chronicles the life of Elie Wiesel as he was persecuted as a Jew during the time of the Jewish Concentration camps. Unbelievable events lead Wiesel on an incredible journey testing his endurance, faith, and love for God. The worldview of naturalism was evident among his captors, which causes Wiesel to think those thoughts.

The story begins with a young Elie training in the Jewish customs of the day. The Germans established a presence among the Jewish communities and over time began the oppression of the Jewish people. The German troops began to relocate the Jewish people in communities called ghettos. It was not until the eight days of Passover that the “race towards death had begun.” The German’s first rule was that people were not allowed to leave their homes for three days and if broken was punishable by death. The troops wanted to establish control early so they began to confiscate valuables.

Elie and his family were transported to the second ghetto, the last stop before being transported to the concentration camps. The day arrived for Elie and his family to leave. They were instructed to head to the synagogue which acted like a train station. Eighty Jews were escorted in cattle cars, which would deliver them to the camps. They spent two days travelling, not able to lie down and in the stifling heat. The trip in itself was bad enough, but then Mrs. Schachter began to lose her mind. She was having visions of a fire off in the night sky. This went on for hours until she was beat and gagged to keep her quiet. A few hours later, they saw the flames rising in the sky that Mrs. Schachter envisioned. The smell of burning flesh was in the air as they left the car leaving their belongings behind.

In Birkenau they were sorted according to gender: “Men to the left! Women to the right!” This is the last time Eli saw his mother and sister. Elie and his father remained together, were told what ages they were and instructed to walk towards the crematorium. Two steps away from certain death; they were instructed to turn left to the barracks. The grueling process of sorting continued. They were shaved, beaten, disinfected, and prison garb were thrown at them.

Elie and his father were transferred to many camps throughout their journey. The camps were similar in operation. Elie witnessed his father being beaten many times but felt no emotion. January 28, 1945, Elie spent his last night with his father, but he could not find the tears to cry. Elie was relieved to be free of the burden his father had become. In April of that year, the detainees received word that they were going to be set free. On April 10, Elie was a free man.

The worldview of naturalism was evident among Elie’s captors. The guards had no respect for humanity. They threatened the Jews with death and suffering. The German’s who were capable of this violence had no place for God in their hearts.

One act of inhumanity towards the Jews was sealing them in a cattle car. The Germans wanted to strip everything away from the Jews. Families were torn apart and dignity was not left for anyone. One officer said, “If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot like dogs.” The Jews were reduced to animals.

The Germans succeeded in making the Jews feel unwanted, unloved, not deserving of God. Elie said, “ We were incapable of thinking. Our senses were numbed, everything was fading into a fog. We no longer clung to anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride had all deserted us. In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until end of time, seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either.” A man who believes in God would not say these things under normal conditions.

The worse act of inhumanity by the German’s was the hanging of a child while everyone was forced to watch. This forced people to ask, “Where is God?” These acts that were facilitated by humans were forcing people to question their belief in God. Elie questioned God himself, “Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because he caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves?” The violent acts committed by a human that Elie witnessed caused him to think these thoughts.

As Elie was having a conversation about his father to his commander, the commander told him that it is every man for himself; and in this place there is no such thing as a father, son, or friend. He said, “Each of us lives and dies alone.” He also told him to stop helping his father by feeding him. These comments made by the commander were void of God and with no concern for humanity. A Christian does not live alone and die alone. The commander does not see value in a relationship with God and helping humanity.

Elie’s journey diminished his faith as his soul and self diminished from the oppression of the Germans through their violence and lack of decency for humanity.