THE SPCSHP //

Being a Christian who pursues the Lord as an ongoing theme of life brings with it some difficult obstacles. Pretty quickly, you’ll come to the end of yourself and one of two things will happen: 

1. You’ll stop.
2. You’ll continue.

Coming to the end of yourself means you’ve extended yourself in your pursuit of God as far as you ever have before. In high school, this point was a lot more obvious, because everything was exaggerated back then. Now its a little harder to pinpoint.

Either way though, you’d do one of those two things. Stop (making whatever connection you had with God more of a “camp high” than the beginning of a real lifetime pursuit). Or continue. Continuing is difficult. Here’s why it’s still difficult for me:

I’m set in my ways. We all are. Whoever you are, whatever you do, you’ve got certain things that you hold onto with a pretty tight grip. It doesn’t matter what these things are, it just matters that they exist, and that we acknowledge them. 

We are a boulder. Our lives are a boulder. Inside our boulder is everything. Our families, kids, friends, jobs, health, attitude, interests, etc. That boulder sits there until you move it. You are the only person that can move it.

So here’s where the problem comes in:

A fruitful lifetime of pursuing the Lord means that boulder has to move. 

We don’t like moving our boulders. It’s hard. And awkward. And too much trouble. We’re too busy to worry with it. We’ve got other things to do. Dancing with the Stars is on. 

But God doesn’t seem to care about my interests nearly as much as I do. No matter what they are, God seems to be constantly drawing me away from all my interests - not because they are unworthy pursuits, but it seems like God just wants to see what he can talk me into giving up, simply for the sake of pursuing him instead. 

God doesn’t seem to be nearly as interested in what I’m doing instead of pursuing him, just that there’s something else I’m choosing over him. 

So that’s the difficulty. 

I have things I want to do, and God wants me to clear my entire schedule for him, pretty much everyday. 

I’m not necessarily talking about those things you have to do - like going to work, and feeding your cat - although I wouldn’t put it past God to try to talk you out of those things too. 

Either way, I’m learning that as I take each step further away from myself, from pursuing my own interests, I find God to be that much more fulfilling, and exciting, and ravishing. This makes me want to get more and more creative in slashing my schedule and dropping interests and pursuing him even more. You see, it’s not just that God wants you to give things up, its that he knows that you will be happier and more fulfilled in life if you spend more time with him - thinking about him, talking about him, walking around with him. 

So as you begin to learn these things, you’ll start to trust God more and more. You’ll start to have no regard for television, or Facebook, or video games - which (let’s be honest) is a good thing.

And pretty soon you’ll be free. Totally free from all those things that used to take up all your time. Then it gets challenging again. Then you have to start fixing other odd things in your life. You’ll start drinking less Cokes. You’ll start setting your alarm clock earlier. You’ll start getting outside more. You’ll stop smoking. You’ll drink less alcohol. You’ll start finding creative ways to get alone - riding your bike, taking a long drive in the country, working in the yard - anything just to get some uninterrupted time with Jesus. Praying. Singing. Writing. Thinking. Talking. 

The boulder is moving. Things are changing. 

But now that I’ve gotten a taste, and everything else has become some pale in comparison to God, I’m finding that I’m running out of things to give up. So what happens next?

We will see. 

I just hope I keep choosing to continue when I hit a wall. That’s the other hard part.

I read a few new books, and I added one at the beginning that I had originally left out. 

1. Maus, by Art Spiegelman is a two volume graphic novel (biography) about the author/illustrator’s father’s experience as a Jew in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. It is incredible. I didn’t originally include it in this list because it is a graphic novel, but the books were amazing and so I am adding it in as the official first book I ever read. I’m counting them as one book.

40: The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton, by Joe Klein. Since I basically work for Bill Clinton as the Clinton School’s chief photographer, and because I see him several times a year, I thought I should learn a little about who he was as a President. This book is very well written and surprisingly (to me) quite entertaining. I couldn’t put it down. Like him or not, Clinton was a game changer. 

41. Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, by John Berendt. Honestly, this was one of the worst books I’ve ever finished, which isn’t entirely a bad thing. I’ve never finished a bad book. I generally get bored and give up if I’m not wildly entertained, so everything on this list gets my approval and recommendation to anyone out there looking for something to read. It just so happens that this book falls squarely at the end of the list of books I enjoyed the most. I’m surprised I trudged through the end of it at all, actually. It’s slow, and pointless, and has very little action. The main character of the book is undoubtedly the town of Savannah, Georgia, which is interesting, but serves as a poor protagonist. If you like books from/about the south though, you might like this one. I didn’t.

42. Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History, by Ben Mezrich. Once again, Mezrich serves up a gripping narrative of a smart kid doing something crazy. This book is about a kid who landed a gig at NASA and then proceeded to steal a safe full of moon rocks to try to sell to a buyer in Belgium. Crazy. Couldn’t put it down. 

43. Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Billions, by Ben Mezrich. Since I was back on a Mezrich kick after Sex on the Moon, I decided to read the only other non-fiction book by him I hadn’t yet read. This one was the worst. Which, again, isn’t all that bad. The story was just a little slow and I got the feeling he was reaching for something to fill the pages with. As I was reading I kept wondering why anyone found this story interesting enough to write a book about. It’s more of a magazine article I think. Regardless, the book was decent. I finished it.

44. We Die Alone: A World War II Epic of Escape and Endurance, by David Howarth. Folks: This is the best book I’ve ever read. Hands down. No contest. Game over. This book chronicles in amazing vivid detail the story of Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian secret operative fighting for the British army during WWII. Right from the start, Baalsrud’s plans are foiled and he spends the rest of the book on the run from the Nazi’s in northern Norway, trying to make it to the Swedish border before the snow melts. It completely blew my mind. I read it in about 10 hours over two days. If you like true stories of survival, this is the best one ever. Insane. 

Anyway, that should bring us up to speed. I’ve now read 44 books in my life. Here, again, is the complete list (with links to Amazon).

All the books I’ve ever read in my life:

1. Maus - Art Spiegelman
2. Superman: Doomsday & Beyond - Louise Simonson
3. The Illustrated Man – Ray Bradbury
4. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
5. Wild at Heart – John Eldredge
6. Waking the Dead – John Eldredge
7. Dangerous Wonder – Michael Yacconelli
8. Messy Spirituality – Michael Yacconelli
9. Run Like an Antelope: On The Road With Phish – Sean Gibbon
10. The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
11. Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
12. Blue Like Jazz – Donald Miller
13. Through Painted Deserts – Donald Miller
14. Searching For God Knows What – Donald Miller
15. Velvet Elvis – Rob Bell
16. Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kyosaki
17. What Jesus Meant – Gary Wills
18. No Shortcuts to the Top – Ed Viesturs
19. Into The Wild – Jon Krakauer
20. To Own a Dragon – Donald Miller
21. No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green – Melody Green
22. Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men & Mountains – Jon Krakauer
23. Under The Banner of Heaven – Jon Krakauer
24. Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome
25. Born on a Blue Day – Daniel Tammet
26. The Survivors Club – Ben Sherwood
27. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
28. Bringing Down The House – Ben Mezrich
29. Rigged – Ben Mezrich
30. Busting Vegas – Ben Mezrich
31. The Accidental Billionaires – Ben Mezrich
32. Where Men Win Glory - Jon Krakauer
33. A Million Miles In A Thousand Years - Donald Miller
34. Zeitoun - Dave Eggers
35. Love Wins - Rob Bell
36. Three Cups of Deceit - Jon Krakauer
37. Prophet’s Prey - Sam Brower
38. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis
39. No Angel - Jay Dobyns
40. The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton - Joe Klein
41. Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil - John Berendt
42. Sex on the Moon - Ben Mezrich
43. Ugly Americans - Ben Mezrich
44. We Die Alone - David Howarth

So I was talking with my Dad the other day about building out a bed and gear storage in my truck bed for camping and I couldn’t stop thinking about it - so I did it. Here’s what I did: