Dive into a good book! (elementary teacher nerd:)

I have been back in the U.S. for about a month now and it really is great to be back home. I enjoyed time with my family and I've been busy. I'm really getting acclimated to this culture again. I have a new cell phone, a car and car insurance! The Lord provided a nice car in my price range and I'm glad to get some of those basic things taken care of.

I just spent a week with my family in sunny South Vero Beach, FL. We had a nice time playing on the beach, relaxing and eating. I love my family for many reasons, but one thing that makes me swell up inside is how we love to read and get into deep conversations. I am always intellectually and spiritually stimulated after spending time with them, especially concentrated time on vacation. We discussed politics and religion and history and social issues and I always learn so much just from listening to them. Which leads me to my topic...

Summer Reading
So, what was I reading as I sat between my mother, reading Jane Austen, and my brother, reading Tolstoy? Um, yeah, Shopaholic Ties the Knot! Which is so not intellectually stimulating, but so entertaining. On spring holiday I read Shopaholic Takes Manhattan and actually laughed out loud at some bits, so I grabbed another installment of everyone's favorite shopaholic to read at the beach. I really enjoy a light read on vacation.

I'm also reading God is Closer Than You Think by John Ortberg. It was given to me years ago and I finally got to it recently. I'm finding it encouraging and challenging. I really enjoyed how the author discussed the story of Mary and Martha. I'm a bit of a Martha myself (always busy in the "kitchen") so I was encouraged as he explained that the story is not about changing activities or ceasing activity, although that may be needed at times. It's about being distracted. The author explains, "The 'one thing' Mary chose would not be taken from her. The one thing was not that she would spend the rest of her life sitting in contemplation letting Martha do all the work. The one thing was being with Jesus no matter what else was going on around her."
I'm only about half way through it, but it's basically about experiencing God's presence in our daily lives.

And my final book choice for the summer is The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Politcal Power is Destroying the Church by Gregory Boyd. After some thought-provoking political discussions with my brother, Michael, a recent college grad with a degree in History, I decided I wanted to read a poly-sci book this summer to learn a little more about what he was talking about. I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble and it is excellent! But, it's a tough read. Not because it's full of difficult words or sentences that are half a page long (thank you, Jane Austen), but because it challenges many of my preconceived notions on political activism as a Christian. It has caused me to rethink many things, which is something I think we need to do continually. I don't want to trivialize it by sharing a quote that may not make sense without reading the whole chapter, so I'll just encourage you to pick it up. I haven't finished it yet, so I'm not sure how he's going to wrap it up, but either way, whether I can go there with him or not, I appreciate the opportunity to think it through.

Next on my list, per recommendation by my brother, Robby, Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne. And a few more recommendations from me along this same vein:
1) Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne, if you want to be challenged to live more simply, among other things, and
2) Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I learned so much about 1st century Jewish culture from this book and it really enhanced my understanding of much of the New Testament. An EXCELLENT read!

I hope you'll pick up a book this summer! (I'm such a nerd...it makes me so happy to look down the row of chairs and towels at the beach and see everyone in my family with a book!)

Oh, and listen to some good music too! The song of the moment for me right now: The Story by Brandi Carlile.