It’s been a long time since I’ve done a “Book Report” maybe since 6th grade. The difference between then and now, is that now I’m actually reading the books…and I don’t have to. So I’ll cover a few topics that I think are important or maybe unimportatant in the book. OK, here goes Book Report #1.
Title: I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith through an Atheist’s Eye
Author: Hemut Mehta. Which for some reason always came together in my head as Helmet Meat. But I have no room to talk, D’Art can be confusing as well. So as a side note I know that when I write my first book I need to include a little section on my name.
Theme: An Atheist decides he should go to church, so he figures why not have some fun with it, and he made his church going experience a matter of an ebay auction.
Struggle: An Atheist goes to church.
Tension: While reading the book, I kept saying to myself, “you don’t know what you are talking about, because you are looking through critical lenses.” But after all that is the purpose of the book. A tough read if you aren’t ready for it.
Resolve: Hemant is still an Atheist after all is said and done. He had solid reviews on churches and what that meant to him.
Takeaway: It’s good to get a different perspective on reaching out and the impact we are making as a church in general. Will I try to implement everything that Hemant says we as Christians should do? No. I’m still going to raise my hands when I worship, even if it is a bit distracting. But I’ll try to see things though eyes I haven’t seen before. All in all, a decent book. I read the whole thing, so that says something positive.
D’Art’s Final Score: 3.5 darts out of 5 darts.
Unexpected child actions, take one. My middle child Kadison, ran up to me with her fingers stuck together and drooling crying about something I couldn’t understand. “It’s Stuck” she said. My thought process went something like this:
What is she talking about? Why are her fingers…? What did she get into? Is she going to drool on the carpet? Is that superglue in your mouth? Are they going to arrest me? Where did she find superglue? Are you kidding me? Your mother isn’t home, that means I’m going to have to haul all three of you to the ER tonight by myself, and ahh, I don’t want to do that, I just want to play some Maden, that’s what I’ve been looking forward too after your bed time! How does superglue taste? What do I do? Warm water, toothbrush. NOW!
After a few minutes of brushing, removing the superglue from her lips, and washing her hands, I calmed down a bit. She stopped crying, so I pulled the lasagna out of the oven, and searched the internet for what to do when one gets superglue in their mouth. Surely my child wasn’t the first. Actually I found an answer on the official superglue website.
Lips
If lips are accidentally stuck together, apply a generous amount of warm water and encourage maximum wetting and pressure from saliva from inside the mouth. Peel or roll (do not pull) lips apart. It is almost impossible to swallow the adhesive as a liquid. The adhesive solidifies upon contact with saliva (moisture) and could adhere to the inside of the mouth. Saliva will lift the adhesive in 1-2 days, avoid swallowing the adhesive after detachment.
Upon further investiagion, margarine will also help to remove superglue from the mouth. And that has been my adventure in unexpected child actions.
Can I talk a minute to my 0-8 Miami Dolphins? Guys, I am with you, when no one else is, I am here. If I may give a few suggestions, who knows, they might actually help. We all know it couldn’t hurt, so here it goes.
The other day I got a DVD in the mail with my name on it. It wasn’t Transformers or any other blockbuster hit, it was a DVD promoting what seems to be the best Summer Camp out there for High School Students, Bigstuf. Now, I’ve known about Bigstuf for a couple of years now, and I hope to take some students this year, what I didn’t expect was to be rocked by the sample message that was on there, a simple message by Andy Stanley. Once again, I’ve listened a lot to Andy and enjoy what he brings. In fact at Catalyst this year he posed a question that my hyperactive brain still remembers: What do you do when it dawns on you, that you are the most important person in the room? And the answer was simple, leverage your influence for others, not yourself. Great stuff. But what I heard on this DVD just the other day, I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. Here was the thought:
Direction, not intention, determines destination.
A lot of us have intentions of doing great things. I intend to do this, or to do that, and hope that one day I’ll get to where God wants me to be, my destination. But if you aren’t headed in that direction, you won’t ever get there, no matter how good your intentions were. It Rocked me. And I still can’t get it out of my head.
