Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy, by Eric Metaxas

This book is now known to some people as the book Kristi couldn't shut up about. This was the best book I’ve read in years, and I read a lot. Eric Metaxas is a brilliant writer and researcher, and owing to his own faith and heritage, he presents a mountain of information without losing sight of an important story that needed to be told. This book blends World War II History, Bonhoeffer family history, and various writings (including many personal letters) by and about Dietrich Bonhoeffer into a seamless narrative. It’s better than fiction in terms of romance, intrigue and suspense. I knew the ending was coming, but I became so involved in the story that I kept hoping Bonhoeffer would think of himself and change course.

Bonhoeffer was a complex and fascinating person. From my notes: He was multilingual (Spanish, German, English and more), a hiker, athlete, theologian, smoker, PhD, twin, world traveller, pianist, singer, flutist, teacher, preacher, believer, children’s minister, outlaw, expatriate, genius, writer, romantic, conscientious objector, undercover agent, fiancé. He had a temper at times, owned a St. Bernard once, and liked to argue. “You could not be a friend of Dietrich’s if you did not argue with him.”

I saw Metaxas joke in an interview that he wrote the title for rhythm. Pastor, prophet, martyr, spy. How could one man be all these things? Bonhoeffer was a pastor from a young age, and a spiritual leader even on his dying day. As “prophet” he recognized advancing evil and took a strong stand against it. He died a martyr because his Christian conscience led him into illegal activity. He was a spy in the sense that he carried on a deceptive identity in order to plot against the Nazis. (He once saluted Hitler in public as part of his false identity.) In reading how these random facts are linked in one person you get a feel for who he really was.

I loved reading from the German point of view. Most of what I knew about WWII was from a non-German perspective. It seems there is no end to the damage done by unfathomable evil, the tragic stories, or the sadness in the broken lives of survivors. (This hit home last year when I had the opportunity to hear a Polish holocaust survivor speak in person.) For me, Bonhoeffer’s story hammered a great wedge between the horrible holocaust stories and the greatness of Germany as a country and a people. As Hitler rose to power, some opposed him from the beginning, others were truly blinded. Some who had mistakenly supported him in the beginning had a slow revelation and a change of heart. Bonhoeffer played only a small part among countless German heroes, but his aristocracy and previous fame propelled his story into greater public interest.

The most challenging aspects of this book are the moral questions. Is it ever right to lie, disobey the law or kill? When you delve into the reality of being a Christian in a country where evil has taken over, the truth of right and wrong doesn’t change, but what has to be done for the sake of right and wrong can change. Sometimes you have to break the law. This area gets confusing to me, and even after some long conversations with friends, I am not so worried about what Bonhoeffer did, because no matter how we want to judge him in retrospect, he believed it to be right. I can easily leave that between him and God. But so many hypothetical situations come to mind... Would I have courage? Would I know what is right? Those were the battles Bonhoeffer faced in his mind. He made decisions that he believed were right, and they cost him his life. He had the courage to consider his eternal soul before his physical life. Some of us will never have to make the decision in terms of life versus death, but we do have to decide between an ordinary life and a dedicated life. In a slow way, we have to make the same decision. This book is praised by a broad audience, but I imagine the Christians who read it will be challenged in a much deeper way to live their faith with actions, and to evaluate their own convictions. Metaxas promotes this quote elsewhere, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

The ending. As I said before, I knew it was coming. Bonhoeffer is known as a martyr, and that status can tend to sound saintly and elevated. It can’t be overlooked that he was an extraordinary person who lived in extraordinary times. Yet Metaxas resisted glorifying Bonhoeffer’s death with pompous words. Yes it was heroic, but what comfort is that? It was one tragic loss among millions, an idea-churning mind halted, a writer stopped mid-book, a fiancé prevented from marrying, and a family's loved one gone without a grave to visit. Even though he died unjustly (as did so many others) the focus of the book is on his life, on his legacy, and on the empty space his death left in his world. I'm glad I read the ending alone, because I really don't like to be seen crying.

Life Without Limits, Nick Vujicic

If you are busy, skip my blog and go read Nick’s book. It will inspire you.

If you aren’t busy, watch this video, then sure, read my blog.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CBNonline?ob=0#p/search/4/i-OkIuQTBdo

Nick Vujicic is a man of many contrasts. He has no limbs, but he travels the world extensively. (I envy.) He struggles physically, but he is always smiling like he has won something. His future may look bleak to some, but he is ridiculously excited about his life – all because he chose hope instead of despair. His emotional suffering and physical limitations have pushed him to discover some truths in life that most people never experience.

Nick speaks to all kinds of audiences, Christian and non-, and this book is marketed to a broad audience. It isn’t preachy or overly religious, but it’s obvious that his trust in God is the strength of his life. He uses the word happiness a lot, but he possesses a deeper joy, and a hilarious sense of humor. This book is very future-oriented and discusses many angles of trusting, hoping, planning, with many examples from Nick’s life and many others.

Maybe I gravitate to Nick’s story because I know about disability. My dad is severely disabled with MS, and he also has a great attitude. People who just met him five minutes ago will comment on his amazing attitude. He doesn’t complain. His sense of humor is intact. He isn’t angry. He loves God, and he loves sharing the Gospel. I hear people carelessly say that if they were in a similar situation they would rather be shot. I’ve come to realize that my dad’s story, like Nick’s, is not at all as hopeless as you might think. What defines “hopeless?” Nick says, “If you say you are without hope, that means you think there is a zero chance of anything good happening in your life ever again. Zero? That’s pretty extreme, don’t you think?” Nick can say it like no one else - God can be all the missing pieces we need.

Some thoughts I want to remember (in no particular order):

Give!

Don’t be limited by fear.

Listen to good counsel, and be willing to take risks.

It doesn’t have to make sense now, just trust.

Whatever it is, it’s not the end of the world.

Choose a positive outlook.

Your pain can become someone else’s miracle.

Your pain can glorify God.

Attitude is altitude!

Master your strengths.

Hugs help.

The only thing I missed in this book was Nick’s Aussie accent. The rest was wonderful – a great way to kick off the year!

Abraham Lincoln

• Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, 1861
• I've been intrigued with Lincoln lately, and have enjoyed looking back to the history of his time. Especially considering the point in history we're at today in the wake of another historical inauguration. First, an excellent article about his speeches: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/man-of-his-words.html). Secondly, his autobiographies: http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htm. Lastly, a book I got for Christmas. I love coffee-table books, and this one is about the same size as our coffee table. "Looking for Lincoln: The Making of an American Icon," by Philip B. Kunhardt III. Thank you, Rachel!
• Lincoln's upringing was rough, backwoods, and maybe...Redneck? The article I linked above illustrates Lincoln's innate talent for language, so I was shocked to find out his education was informal, delayed, often interrupted and incomplete. He said of himself, "He regrets his want of education, and does what he can to supply the want." In contrast to our modern politicians with their speechwriters and teleprompters, Lincoln's speeches were his of his own composition. He may have used other people's ideas, but the enduring speeches, the ones carved in stone, are of his own design. His talent with language was like a diamond that emerged roughly and became surprisingly brilliant.
• Lincoln wrote three autobiographies upon request. "After he was twenty-three and had separated from his father, he studied English grammar--imperfectly, of course, but so as to speak and write as well as he now does." Those are the his words, speaking of himself in the third person. One of the autobiographies is fragmented and contains just 47 words. The other two are a bit longer, and add up to less than 4,000 words--shorter than a basic essay; you can read all three works in about ten minutes. Lincoln's tone is factual, humble and understated. He doesn't victimize himself, even though his father was awful man, and the family was dirt poor. If Lincoln's story had happened during the current memoir-saturated book market, he could have easily produced a cheesy bestseller.

• A while ago, they published the before & after pictures of George W. Bush, illustrating how dramatically he's aged during these years of war. Lincoln faced the same stresses as our leaders do today. Besides the dark years of the war, his past and his family situation was not too cheerful. A loveless father raised him, and a self-centered woman married him; their firstborn son died too young. Lincoln's story wasn't balanced out by tons of love and personal support. In fact, considering the positive changes he made in the world, the entire story rings a discord, as if it wasn't really meant to be over when he was shot.
• I'm impressed that Lincoln ending one of his writings by dismissing the details of his personal story: "What I have done since then is pretty well known." Maybe he knew that his life was so important that the details didn't matter, and that hundreds of others would write and re-write (and even blog about) his story.

The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Mark Twain

I found this ratty paperback for $1.50 at a bookstore on the way home from school--as if I needed a new distraction right then. I enjoy Mark Twain's witty character as it shows through in his short stories and essays, and I envy his creativity. This book is stories of the real characters and adventures that inspired Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. There are some politically incorrect moments, but they are in no way offensive unless you are too stiffminded to appreciate the world as it was back then. This book captures that world, at least from Twain's perspective. His way with words is almost as amazing as his adventures -- I laugh out loud. He paints pictures. Not just of his life and his family, but of his whole society. He alternates from serious topics like death, poverty, slavery, to his mischievous pranks, and the funniest things that happened to him, just for the sake of a laugh. (He once tricked a friend into climbing onto an icy, second-story roof, all the time hoping the poor guy would fall into an outdoor party in progress below and cause a commotion. He did and it did.) Mark Twain was the kind of kid that when he got smacked for something he didn't do, his mother said he deserved it for something she didn't know about. Less interesting men have written much about themselves, but Twain is one man who owed the world at least one autobiography.

Endurance, Alfred Lansing

• Subtitled, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage...First off, there are a lot of books about the Shackleton expedition, and this is the only one I've read and can recommend. It has a forward by James Dobson, and is recommended as an inspirational story and a "metaphor of the Christian experience." Shackleton and other members of the expedition have their own books published. This book is a mixture of journals and other research woven together. It is as suspenseful as the best novel you've ever read.

• Ernest Shackleton was an explorer who took a crew of men and dogs from England to the Antarctic with the goal of reaching the south pole, I believe. The goal doesn't matter because they shipwreck so far away from their mark that the rest of the story is of their struggle to survive the worst possible place on earth to be shipwrecked. Many times, you wonder how you can be reading the story because surely these men didn't live to tell the tale. It's hard not to pity them for surviving. It is amazing and sobering how much suffering the human body can endure, and how strong the will is to live, even when the only option is living miserably.

• I don't know if this story is a metaphor, but it is surely an example of the impossible coming to pass. If you've ever hoped for something that seemed impossible, or prayed a prayer that seemed to much to ask, this story will remind you that anything, is possible. My advice is to read this story during the dead of winter to maximize the effects of the freezing wind, barking sled dogs, the noise of a ship crashing through antarctic ice, and the rocking sensation of camping out on an ice floe. Reading this book made me cold, but the ending is really, really good.

Spycraft, Wallace & Melton

The subtitle is "The secret history of the CIA's spytechs from Communism to Al-Aqaeda." I found this book on accident, and I kept reading it on accident when I was supposed to be doing other things. The whole book is anecdotal so you can always pick it up and put it down (only to pick it up again). These are entertaining stories from back when technology was big and clunky. They actually tried surgically implanting a listening device into a cat. Only to realize after "humanely" testing the procedure, that the cat could not be told what to do. It kept wandering away from the target. I guess those agents weren't cat owners. Other stories show the real genius and guts it takes to be an agent. This is a really fun book if you like spy stories from the good old days.

Lost in the Amazon, Stephen Kirkpatrick

Stephen Kirkpatrick is a career wildlife photographer - a mix of adventure, danger, misery, and big-time rewards if you succeed.

In this story, Stephen optimistically makes a poorly planned, highly adventerous trek into the Peruvian Amazon jungle to get some once-in-a-lifetime photos that will hopefully be that big break in his career. He has a team of guides, and they have maps. He is thrilled to encounter unknown species and uncharted territory, but somehow they walk right off the map into a seemingly inescapable place called "lost."

He describes the feeling of separation from the entire world so that you understand what he went through mentally. It's scary, even for a moment, to glance around and realize you've lost your bearings. He has that feeling for miles and miles, plus being a million miles away from civilization and his young sons.

He also brings you to feel the misery of the invasive heat and constant moisture. The humidity seems to seep out of the book and smother the reader. And he is babysitting hi-tech camera equipment in a place where,"If the heat, the bugs, and the starvation didn't kill you out-right, the mold would do it, one inch at a time." It's ironic that a place so lush and dense with life is a killer if you aren't prepared to be in it. Somewhere along the line, he realizes that "Christians die just like everyone else," and he is forced to rely on God to help them get out. At times, you just have to hang on to the fact that he wrote the book, so he must have survived.

Two images stick with me. 1. The team walking for hours, chest deep in a smelly, murky bog, carrying equipment over their heads. That is my fear of water on steroids! I would have died and decomposed sooner than go knee-deep... 2. Forcing himself to drink straight from a wild stream. Parasites aren't funny.

What makes this story a keeper for me is Stephen's passion for God's creation. I witnessed the edges of the jungle in Panama, and it's 'something fierce' but also awe-inspiring. Being inside it would be overwhelming. When I hear the Newsboys line "So much wonder/shaded by ancient trees..." I can't help but visualize this type of scene: massive vine-covered trees with sunlight filtering down in thin strands. Stephen describes the experience of the darkness, the lights, colors, sounds, strange animals and exotic flowers, and even lets you visualize some of his awesome photos that never made it home. With words, he has packaged up an extreme experience for people like me to enjoy - people who would rather curl up with a latte and read all about it.

After reading Lost in the Amazon, I've been following his website http://www.kirkpatrickwildlife.com/. I haven't bought into his photography (yet), but Romancing the Rain is one of those books I keep meaning to buy. His photography is truly excellent - 100% full of awesome pictures I could never hope to take. I hope he'll recieve all the recognition he deserves in his field of work.

The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis

I got this book for my birthday... in 2007, Thanks, M. I thought about reading it for 9 months, but never picked it up. Four days before Christmas (2007), a 26-year-old from my work was killed in a horrible accident. This book seemed relevant all of a sudden. I read with the attitude that if there was an answer to 'the question', I wanted it right then because I was contemplating a tragedy that seemed absolutely senseless. The next week my Dad was hospitalized. While he was stabalizing, I got serious bad news from a friend. I kept picking up this book, and every time it was getting more and more relevant.

Lewis (and I love him for it) never really answers the questions I thought he would, but he offers insight that shifts my thinking. He says, "I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine of being made 'perfect through suffering' is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond my design."

From the title on, he treats pain as a problem and not a question. He tells us that pain is only unjust to our self-centered universe. But, "man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake."

Ouch.

The argument that a good God wouldn't allow suffering is a moot point. God is love, but love does not imply an absence of pain. In fact, for Him, it brought on more suffering than anyone else has ever known. Goodness is not to be confused with pleasure. His goodness and His love are greater than we can comprehend. Paraphrasing what I understand Lewis saying: The mess we've made of the world doesn't change the quality of God's love or the purity of His goodness.

For me, the 'centre' of this book was that if pain brings us to repentance, it cannot be unjust. It is only the love of God that would allow us to suffer because "love is more sensitive than hatred itself to every blemish in the beloved." If God were indifferent He would let us self-destroy.

"When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy." This struck a chord with me, because God has dealt with me, as He does with us all, about what I want versus what He wants. I think I know, but He really knows. Cutting edge psychology is confirming that we don't know intuitively what will make us truly happy or fulfilled. How frustrating. And yes, I already knew that. When we follow what we thought was right it's always a painful path.

If we suffer, and we trust God completely, there is a little part of our intellect that can accept the suffering as somehow, even if in an unknown way, giving us a chance to become what we are meant to be. We think that if we were free of pain, we would be more perfectly happy. Lewis says no, that is not the answer at all. In Heaven maybe, but not on on the Earth, not under the Curse. Joy and happiness can only be found in God, and we are born kicking and screaming into a world that has turned it's back on God.

This book encouraged me more than I thought it would. Partly because it's a good book, and partly because I needed the message. I wish the author were alive for me to write fan mail.

Through Gates of Splendor, Elisabeth Elliot

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Did you know those words were written while Jim Elliot was still a college student? It was long before his mission to the Aucas, and long before his life became an example of what that statement means. The subtitle of this book is "The martyrdom of five American missionaries in the Ecuador jungle," but it's not really accurate, because the book isn't about death. The first two-thirds is about the lives of the missionaries, and all the intensive planning that went into the encounter with the Aucas. Their dedication is stunning and humbling. They were determined to fulfill the prophecy that every tribe would be represented in Heaven. They wouldn't rest until the Aucas had at least heard of Jesus. The five men were well aware of the moment when they were possibly writing their last words and singing their last hymn.

The word martyr has an obvious negative connotation, but after reading this, you can't see the men as victims . We like to put the verse "God loveth a cheerful giver" with the idea giving a money offering, but after reading this, I think that verse must mean more than giving money. These men and their wives experienced the peace of God as they faced life-threatening danger, and they truly gave without holding back. Nate Saint wrote a letter explaing thier motives, just nights before leaving home for the last time: "Would that we could comprehend the lot of these stone-age people who live in mortal fear...those who think all men in all the world are killers like themselves. If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts;"

This book was published in the 1950s, just after the martys died, and so the epilogue leaves us with no more knowledge than that Rachel Saint and Elisabeth Elliot were going to try and continue reaching the Aucas, but had not seen results yet. (See my notes on End of the Spear.) It took years and years to see any local good come from this event, although the immediate spiritual impact was worldwide. The Aucas did stop killing, and the mission hasn't ended to this day.

If you haven't read this, or if you just think you've read it, READ IT. It's an awesome reminder of where our treasure should lie.

End of the Spear, Steve Saint

I don't live the most adventurous life, but I compensate by reading books like this one. Steve Saint moved his wife and four children into the deep Ecuadorian jungle to live with the Waodani tribe. Good excuse to write a book, eh? If you've read Through Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliott, then you already know the beginning of this story. Steve's father, Nate Saint was one of the missionaries speared to death by men from this very tribe, back when Steve was five years old. The rest of the story is that Steve has practically adopted Mincaye, the man who killed his father, as a second father. They share a friendship you would never think possible. If you've ever had to forgive someone and found it difficult, you'll be amazed at the miracle of this story. While the elements of the story itself are fascinating (a wild pig for a pet; monkey meat for dinner...) I was also impressed with the quality writing. You really get a taste for the language and customs of the Waodani, the distance and isolation of the world they live in. Their mindset is so far removed from ours. The Waodani thought white people, being so pale, must live inside trees. When Steve brought Mincaye to the States, his culture shock was more severe than an American in the jungle. Mincaye told his people back home that we don't use money - everything is free in America! You just show a little plastic card... More sobering was that they'd never heard of war as we know it. Men who used to kill with spears and had the highest mortality rate of any known population were horrified that our people sometimes kill total strangers en masse with bombs and guns. The Saints' ministry is not what we think of as typical missionary work. They had to re-interpret the Bible just to get basic concepts of Christianity across. Following God became "walking Waegongi's (God's) Trail." Stephen Curtis Chapman is a character in this story, and he was even instrumental in shedding light on an old, unknown miracle. [Listen to the song "No Greater Love" on the album DECLARATION and you'll hear Mincaye chanting at the end.] The ending of this story lets you know that in the middle of that long past tragedy, God was watching over the missionaries that died, over their families, and especially over five-year-old Steve Saint.

The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis

When I open a book with C.S. Lewis on the cover, I'm always expecting something grand. But Lewis never tries to sound grand. He wraps his ideas in the commonest words. Chapter 1 of this book begins, "Most of my generation were reproved as children for saying that we "loved" strawberries..." If you avoid this type of reading because it looks boring, take it from my attention span and I that this book is as interesting as it is important. It's a masterful explanation of all those things we call "love" in English. He's not just finishing the sentence "Love is___." Rather, he discusses all those things we call love, their similarities, and the differences. Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity are the Four. There are many quotes, but here are a couple: "In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out." "True friendship is the least jealous of loves." "The Vicar says Mrs. Fidget is now at rest. Let us hope she is. What's quite certain is that her family are." You can't read this without examining yourself and how you love. One passage that spoke out loud to me was about charity. He says, "Of all the arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as "Careful! This might lead you to suffering." (I wish I'd written that!) He goes on, "When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ...There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken...lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket...it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." Well, as much as I'd love to post the whole book on my blog, I hope that's enough to bait a few of you into reading it for yourselves.

Miracle in the Andes, Nando Parrado

• After reading "Alive," I looked up Nando's story, written 30 years after the disaster. I was surprised by the impact of this book because I had just read the factual account, "Alive". But there was no feeling of repetition. If you've ever felt true panic, that is what Nando experienced nearly every moment for 72 days. This book places the reader "inside Nando's skull" and "in his rugby shoes, on the frozen slopes he was certain would be his grave." The emotions and philisophical questions raised here are profound.
• Nando doesn't believe in the 'conventional' idea of God, although he remains Catholic to this day. He was one of the strongest heroes because he summited a mountain and walked 45 miles through the Andes without climbing gear. He decided a million times over to suffer a little longer through the cold "as painful as fire." He got a rescue team, but he degrades his own courage saying because he was so overtaken by fear at the time. He was more afraid of dying at the crash site, so he left to get help, and became convinved that he would die trying. He likened it to jumping out of a burning building - choosing one death over another. He doesn't accept that prayers helped him get out of the mountains either, although he calls it a miracle.
• On his trek out, he summited the 17,000 ft. mountain and was devestated to see no farmers' fields, but just miles upon miles of more mountains. He writes, "In that moment all my dreams, assumptions, and expectations of life evaporated into the thin Andean air. I had always thought that life was the actual thing, the natural thing, and that death was simply the end of living. Now, in this lifeless place, I saw with a terrible clarity that death was the constant, death was the base, and life was only a short, fragile dream. I was dead already. I had been born dead, and what I thought was my life was just a game death let me play as it waited to take me."
• He ends his story by bringing it current, to his loving wife and family, and also gives a brief update on all the other survivors. The sixteen have a lifelong bond and many are close friends. They occasionally visit the graves at the crash site, and even keep up with the Chilean peasant who was their first outside contact. With all those memories to deal with, Nando's father counseled him just days after the rescue that he not let the plane crash be the most important thing that ever happened to him. In one way, Nando is gifted to know how just how fragile and special life is. He ends with a strong message to savor every moment of this precious gift: "Live every moment. Do not waste a breath."

Alive, Piers Paul Read

My boss recommended this book to me, and I confess that I read it because it sounded sensational. The story is a Uruguayan rugby team who charters a flight over the Andes mountains into Chile. They crash in Argentina at 12,000 feet. Most of the 40+ passengers die of injuries and infections. Sixteen live to the end of the book; all of them were forced to eat the flesh of their dead friends. Incidentally, I started reading this on a bad (horrible, no good...) day, and it momentarily helped me keep my problems in perspective. The book is developed from extensive interviews taken within a year of the rescue. There are some areas of TMI, and yes, it gets gory. If you have a "morbid fascination" you'll be okay. If you get grossed out, skip it. Since the media arrived almost before the rescuers did, this book needed to be written to tell the story with respect for what these men suffered, and not just to take advantage of a media sensation. This book is a reality check - the "heroes" were scared to death. They didn't conquer the mountain or cheat death. They fought and cursed each other at times, but moments later would apologize. This book held my attention on every page, but I read it so quickly that I couldn't keep track of all those names. I missed some of the continuity of individual people's stories, but I got a good feel for the big picture. Now, go read my entry about "Miracle in the Andes" By Nando Parrado, a survivor who told the story in his own words.

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

I promise I'll get to some fun books, but Mere Christianity is a book that I think every Christian should read. It presents a framework for the Christian worldview. Although the doctrines are not always what I believe, it's written so I glean much more than I leave. The thing I love about Lewis is that he takes grand ideas and tells them to you in his perfectly understandable, British, grandfatherly voice. This book has an excellent chapter on morality. And Lewis is one of my favorite metaphor people. Here he uses a fleet of ships to illustrates our responsibility to ourselves, to each other, God, and our destination. He makes abstract ideas so clear to understand. This book is a gem! Here is one of my favorite quotes, mainly because I hear a lot of "patronising nonsense" at my crazy university. "Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."