Think On These Things

I wrote a post on Phil 4:8 a couple of months ago, from the perspective of dealing with pain and loss. Today I find myself reminded of this verse for another reason. My sons are home from college for the summer, and we've been having some wonderful late night conversations about the state of the world and our response. It is a blessing to hear the wisdom that comes from the mouths of these people that I once held in my arms. They are held by far stronger and wiser arms than mine these days, and it shows.

We've all done a lot of reading and listening this year, and been profoundly impacted by what we've learned. I often feel overwhelmed by it all, seeing so many issues that need to be addressed and feeling quite incapable of having any impact. My youngest son probably encouraged me the most, with a reminder of something he learned from a Frank Peretti lecture his literature class watched. Mr. Peretti spoke about the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem, and Dan took the lesson to heart.

Rebuilding the wall around an entire city was a huge task, far too much for any one person to accomplish on their own. Instead of looking at the whole wall, each worker was instructed to focus instead on their one section. He described the action of laying one brick at a time, spreading the mortar to hold it securely, then placing the next brick. One person, one piece of the whole. This makes sense, which is why I didn't think of it myself.

We want to be smart about how we lay our bricks, and want the wall we build to be straight and true. 'Many counselors make for wise decisions', and the books we read often provide that counsel. I am grateful for the teachers and friends who have pointed us toward many of these books.

To give you an idea what the shelves around here look like these days, here are some of the books we shared ideas from [in no particular order]:

The Bible, by God; Joni, By Joni Eareckson Tada; Free To Choose, by Milton Friedman; Something Beautiful For God, by Malcom Muggeridge; Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians, by Marcello Pera; Be Amazed, by Warren Wiersbe; Modern Times, by Paul Johnson; Scribbling in the Sand, by Michael Card; The Normal Christian Life, by Watchman Nee; Born Again, by Chuck Colson; How Do You Kill 11 Million People? by Andy Andrews; We Won't Get Fooled Again, by Jackson & Deace; Politics According to the Bible, by Wayne Grudem; A Patriot's History of the United States, by Schweikart & Allen

What books have been helping you build your section of the wall lately?

What books would you recommend to your fellow wall-builders?