The Gospel According to Horton

It sometimes amazes me what lessons can be learned from simple children's stories.

Recently I came across a short 1970 cartoon based off of Dr. Seuss's book "Horton Hears a Who!"  In which an elephant named Horton hears a cry for help from a speck of dust and comes to the realization that this speck is home to a city called Whoville occupied by microscopic people called Whos.

There are scoffers from both worlds.  All the other jungle animals think that Horton has "cracked", and the Whos down in Whoville think that the doctor with whom Horton communicates is well, is more than a little bit crazy.  Long story short, both worlds end up becoming fully aware of each other and the lesson learned is, "even though you can’t see or hear them at all, a person’s a person, no matter how small."

The gospel implications are pretty clear.  Everybody is valuable regardless of their status.  So often when we think about doing evangelism, we think primarily about talking with people who are very much like us.  If we as Christians were to break out of our usual circle of friends and talk to somebody with whom we wouldn't usually talk, we would probably be surprised as how much we would grow as individuals and how much we would grow as a church.

Something New, A Book Review (Roger Crowley's "1453")

I've decided to add a regular feature to this blog, and if you read the rhyming portion of the title, you've figured out what the feature is going to be.

A little over a month ago I stopped by a local bookstore in search of a book.  I was finally finishing up a book I was reading on the Spartans.  I say "finally" because it took me about 3 years to finish it (I had used the receipt as a bookmark).  I decided to search for another history book, but there were so many history books I had to narrow my search somewhat.  I wanted to read about something I had no significant knowledge about, which meant that U.S. history was out, and that narrowed my search quite a bit.  To make a long story short, I decided to purchase Roger Crowley's book 1453.  Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

One of the signs of a good story teller is the ability to to keep the listener/reader engaged in the story even when they already know how the story is going to end. One of the reviews on the back of the book said that the book "reads more like lively fiction" and that is definitely the case.  I read the book primarily at night, and I often had to force myself to put it down and go to sleep, which may not sound too unusual, but you have to remember that this is a history book.

So if you like reading, but find yourself a bit reluctant to pick up a history book that is not a novel.  Go to your local bookstore or follow the above link and pick up 1453.  I'm pretty sure that you will not be disappointed.

Comments on Complaining

The subject of complaining is less black and white than I originally thought.

A little more than I month ago I set out to write a blog post on the subject of complaining.  I was going to entitle it "Stop Complaining!" and it was going to talk about the evils of complaining, that we shouldn't do it, and how doing it is a sign of an unconverted heart.  More recently I have come to have a somewhat different view of the subject.  I had been thinking a lot about religious liberty thanks in part to an excellent program on the subject from PBS entitled "God in America".  I saw that how throughout the history of the United States that the existence of religious liberty is in a large part due to quite a bit of complaining.  In fact, most, if not all of the rights citizens and visitors enjoy exist because of complaining.  Here are a few examples.

If nobody had complained . . .

• We would all be a member of one state church.
• We would still have slavery.
• Women would not be able to vote.
• School, buses, etc. would still be segregated.

And most importantly . . .

• We would still be part of the British Empire.

This is by no means an exhaustive commentary about complaining, but if you have the same views that I used to have, I hope this helps you start thinking about things in a different way.