June 29, 2008

Hiking

My wife's pretty cool.

Elizabeth and I have been hiking every chance we get, and since we're still pretty new to the area, we tend to choose different parks or different trails almost every time.  Today we were fortunate to have selected a rather magnificent little stretch, and had a fantastic hike.  Along the way, I came to a realization that's been months in the making.  While I tend to get most excited about grand scenic views and big-picture atmosphere of nature, Elizabeth is much more likely to enjoy the little detailed bits of creation.  I like getting to the top of a hill and looking out over the mountains and valleys and rivers and lakes.  I like trying to see how deep into the woods my eyes can look.  She gets a thrill when she spots colorful wildflowers, or when even the smallest of butterflies comes to rest alongside our path.  She pauses frequently to admire the budding pinecones on the trees, or to point out the goofy looking insect that she almost stepped on.  Hiking with Elizabeth is rather refreshing.  I think we both add a little something to the other's experience, and in turn, we each get a slightly fuller picture of our omnipotent creator.

(note: the late post is the result of me not being able to sleep, and my blog winning the debate between writing and reading yesterday's TIME magazine)

June 27, 2008

Book list

I'm not that bad.

In the 103 days since I started this blog, I've written 23 posts.  That averages out to one post every 4.5 days, or about 22% of the time.

There are some books coming out soon that would be good for you to at least know about, if not read.  Next month Mark Driscoll is publishing a series of short books called "A Book You'll Actually Read."  They include On the Old Testament, On the New Testament, On Who is God?, and On Church Leadership.  Then in September Driscoll is publishing Death by Love.  These are all published by Crossway.

The ESV Study Bible, also produced by Crossway, will be available this fall as well.  There are 8 formats to choose from including hardcover, and a number of different genuine and bonded leathers of various colors.

Denver Seminary New Testament professor, Dr. William Klein, has a new book out from Navpress called Handbook for Personal Bible Study that looks really great.  

Also, if you haven't heard of Christians at the Border yet, you need to read it.  It's written by Denver Seminary's M. Daniel Carroll R. and it's published by Baker.  Dr. Carroll is Guatemalan-American, and he has a unique perspective on the immigration issue that's both timely and biblical.

Finally, I'll mention Timothy Keller's new book, The Prodigal God, published by Dutton, which will be available in Octobor (Keller's recent book, The Reason for God, was fantastic).

June 25, 2008

Parole?

Watching the news is disturbing.

This morning on the Early Show there was a story about a man who, 22 years ago, was convicted of raping a 13-year old girl.  In the '70s and '80s he was a serial rapist who stalked women while jogging and then raped them, becoming known as the Jogger Rapist.  After his conviction, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.  Now he's up for parole.  Here's the real kicker, and reason why this story completely pissed me off.  The parole board recommended that the serial rapist be paroled, despite REPEATED PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS THAT SHOW HE IS VERY LIKELY TO REPEAT HIS CRIME.  Who is on this parole board, and would they mind if their 13-year old's rapist was let go if there was a 75% chance he'd rape other little girls?

K, that's my rant.

Bookstore an' more

I like it when my friends post new blogs every now and then, because it helps remind me that I have one too.  It also makes me feel bad for the millions of readers who every day hope to find a new blog post here at "Make My Life A Prayer to You" and are almost always let down.

The transition at the bookstore doesn't seem as bad, looking back, as it did at the time.  It was a tough week, no doubt, but now things are going pretty smoothly with the new folks.  The Denver Seminary Bookstore has always been a really great relational place, where knowing customers by name and discussing theology and having good conversation were prized above all else.  Our new management is done by a secular company, so naturally the goal is now more about making money than making relationships.  The biggest fear that I (and my fellow seminarians) had was that this new company would bring in Thomas Kinkade paintings and Precious Moments figurines and "Jesus Loves You" bumper stickers and cross pendant necklaces, turning it into a Christian trinket store rather than a seminary bookstore.  Today my fears were realized, though in a less terrible way than I thought they'd be.  The corporate office has ordered and sent us a good chunk of those kinds of items ("Christian crap," I've heard it called), but it seems like we'll be able to basically tell them that those aren't the kinds of items we want to sell in our store.  If all goes well (and it seems like it might), this will be the last order of its kind.  I feel like I'm really having to step up and  start becoming more aware of new books that are coming out that would sell in our store, so I can inform my manager and, in turn, the corporate office, so that we can continue to provide the wonderful selection that we always have.  The new owners don't know much about theologies and Bible handbooks and systematics, and they've never heard of Bruce Waltke, Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, Wayne Grudem, John Calvin, Bill Mounce, D.A. Carson, Ben Witherington, N.T. Wright, or Tremper Longman.  Therefore, I'm working extra hard to educate my manager in the "ways of a seminary bookstore."

(note: It's perfectly acceptable not to know who those people are... but if you're going to own and operate an evangelical seminary's bookstore, you should start learning about them.)

In other news, Elizabeth and I are going to be making a trip to Iowa next weekend, and we're STOKED about it.  We're going to get to hang out with our 8-month old nephew who is way cuter than any baby you're related to.  This will only be the third time in his life we've been able to see him.  The first time lasted about 90 minutes, and the second time was for about two days... and he spent 90% of them crying or sleeping.  We haven't seen Joel and Pam since New Year's, and we miss 'em!

June 1, 2008

Unsettled

I'm not really looking forward to the next couple of days.

The bookstore where I work is coming under new management/ownership in a couple of days. I feel very unsettled about the whole thing.  I personally have a lot of things I need to finish up at the store before I'm really ready for the "transition."  The new folks aren't supposed to be here until Wednesday, but I found out on Friday that they'll be in on Monday and Tuesday doing some preliminary work too, so now I don't know if I'm going to have the time I need to get things straightened up.  On top of all that, I have a ton of questions that have not yet been answered, because communication from those who know the answers has been severely lacking in recent weeks.  I feel jerked around both by my current employer, and the folks that are "taking over" and will be my new employer, because nobody has been upfront and open about sharing information with me or my coworkers.  At a time when my wife and I have almost no money and we're trying to survive the summer, it'd be really nice to feel some security and peace in my job, and I don't.  It's terribly frustrating and I wish I could skip ahead a couple of weeks so I'd know what my job will look like in the near future.

In other news, we watched a really great episode of The Cosby Show today when we got home from church, which made me feel good.  Church this morning was refreshing too, because I was able to chat with some folks that I hadn't seen in awhile.  And our senior pastor was back in the pulpit after a couple of weeks off, which is always good.