On my nightstand...

I love to read non-fiction. One of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon is perusing the new non-fiction shelves at the library, then bringing home a nice big stack... I usually read two or three at a time, leaving them on my nightstand so I can grab whichever one I'm in the mood for at the time.

So here's what's there right now:
This autobiography of George Muller was a gift from the pastor who oversaw my internship at church last year. He handpicked a book for each intern, based on what he learned about us over the course of our time together... he chose this book for me because George Muller believed great things from God in terms of provision... Russ (my pastor) knew that our trip to Sierra Leone is a huge step of faith in that arena... I'm reading it slowly - a chapter here and a chapter there... but loving the faith of this amazing man of god.

Green Like God: I'm so excited about the church becoming more aware and active in the environmental movement... if God reveals himself to us through creation, and we're destroying creation, perhaps we're going to miss something God would have us see... love the premise of this book...

The New Good Life: Written by the son of the Baskin-Robbins co-founder, this is a challenging book about choosing to define success and 'the good life' differently. I read this one cover to cover in a couple of days without picking up any other books in between. I don't do that very often. Lots of good stuff in this one...

My dear 'son'/friend Jay gave me this book on Sunday... literally hours before he left to drive to Texas to begin staff training with Mercy Ships. He wrote me the loveliest inscription in the front, thanking me for all the input into his life over the years and we spent the whole Sunday service at church crying next to each other... I'm so sad to see him go but thrilled that we will be able to visit him next year because the ship he'll be on is moving to Sierra Leone in January or February! I'm eager to read about the history of this amazing ministry (which consequently performed Tejan's first surgery on his jaw back in 2005!)

Radical: I am usually resistant to jumping on 'christian book bandwagons'. I never read "The Purpose Driven Life" or "The Prayer of Jabez" or even more recently "Crazy Love" because everyone else is reading them and I'm a bit of a rebel that way. But this one really caught my eye because it's basically the christian version of "The New Good Life." And because a few close friends are reading it and we've already had some good discussions around it.

I have one word for this book: Fascinating. Especially because I choose not to get air conditioning in my home... so I feel like I've taken the high road and this book validates my choice. But it's really not a value judgement on air conditioning as much as it's a realistic assessment of the fact that human beings are taxing resources and destroying ecosystems that weren't designed to support human inhabitants because of air conditioning. Really. I love this stuff. I haven't gotten to the chapters dealing with how we can make changes... very curious about that since I can't imagine he's going to recommend that everyone get rid of their AC...

This is one of the books we had to read last year for the internship. I hated it at the time but have grown to appreciate it. I'm re-reading a few chapters to get ready for an in-depth missional training I'm going to participate in beginning next week.

Sacred Marriage: Asia and I are slowly making our way through this one. Asia won't read non-fiction, so if there's a book I really want him to read, I have to read it out loud to him. Ugh. But it's worth it sometimes. This is a good one for us to have under our belts as we mentor couples... good stuff.

And there you have it.

What are you reading right now? (I'd love to know!!!)