Reading Material & Resolutions

Just like most people, I love reading material that captivates me in that can't-put-it-down-ever kind of way. This summer I read some great books and re-read some old favorites. I often alternate between the old and the new, the old more often than not being children's novels I read when I was younger.  One particular series I read every few years is Enid Blyton's Malory Towers (I'm currently on book four of six).

While I'm in the hospital this week, I'm also looking forward to tucking into The Heart of Simple Living by Wanda Urbanska. My hope is that it will inspire me to continue my journey towards well, living simply. I also keep hearing about this e-book on various blogs and since its only $5 (and has gotten so much praise) I think I might just have to invest.

One of my goals for 2012 is also to read a book of the Bible I have yet to read in completion. I haven't decided which yet, but I'm leaning towards something from the Old Testament since I'm more familiar with (and tend to favor) the New. Speaking of that list of goals, I've re-worked and paired down my original list to something more realistic and attainable:

{1} Intentionally build into someone else's life (outside of family) on a practical as well as spiritual level  - i.e. invest time, thought and care into the relationship through communication and acts of kindness.

{2} Get back in shape after having baby (i.e. dust off the elliptical).

{3} Read one book of the Bible I have never read in completion.

{4} Make time for creative projects (photography, drawing, painting... something) 

at least once a month, if not more.

{5} Continue to work towards having "nothing in my house that I do not know to be useful, 

or believe to be beautiful" (as inspired by this).

There are other things I hope for this year, like doing my best to maintain a tidy house or being better about cooking well balanced meals, but I hate to put those things down as "must" do's since they are already daily givens - things I hope to achieve on a regular basis rather something to work towards in the long run. They are also things I know I'll fail at sometimes often, in the wake of adjusting to raising two children under the age of two. So for now, I will keep my list to this simple list of five goals that I hope will enrich the year.

The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing

A few months back I mentioned that I was about to begin reading The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine by A.W. Tozer. Admittedly, as with most non-fiction stories, I was very enthusiastic about it to begin with until something shiny came along and I became distracted.

Wanting to keep to my goal of spending more time in the Word and to reading in general, I picked the book back up and started at the chapter where I had left off entitled, "The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing." Tozer has certainly touched on a profound Truth when he discusses the issue of "things" (i.e. things of this world/possessions) dethroning God from the center of our lives:

(parts in bold are my own)

"Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and things were allowed to enter. Within the human heart things have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk, stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.

This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble. There is within the human heart a tough, fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets things with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns my and mine look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant.

The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God's gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution."

The Hunger Games.

There's nothing quite like loving a book series right up until the end and then having the author completely destroy your sense of satisfaction with a disappointing conclusion. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been fully absorbed in The Hunger Games trilogy. It's the kind of reading material that you just.can't.put.down. I finished the final book of the series last night and it left me feeling..... like I just wasted two weeks of my life invested in characters whose conclusion I had much, much higher hopes for. I've never spent so much time reading a book series and felt this let down at the end of it - particularly because it had so much potential to go out on a fabulous note. Seriously Suzanne Collins - you and your terrible conclusion are the bane of my existence at the moment. Ok, perhaps that's a bit unfair and over dramatic. But... I WANT MY HAPPY ENDING.

(I'd also like the 20+ hours back that I put into reading your books.)

To counter the effects of swallowing such a bitter literary pill, I'm indulging in the stories that leave me smiling and feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. To kick things off, I popped in You've Got Mail - a film I hated the first time I saw it, but now sits proudly at the top of my Top 10 list. (Click here and skip ahead to the 1:20 mark to see one of my favorite scenes.) Follow up will be the reading of another book, Pride and Prejudice, because it's a timeless classic that I know I can trust to remove the bad taste left in my mouth by The Hunger Games as well as restore my faith that in the end...

.....love makes all things new.