I Don't Know (Friday Devotional)

“For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.”

- Psalm 139:13-16

“Hey babe, I’m free for lunch. Where do you want to go?”

“Hmm…you pick.”

“Come on, I picked the last three times. It’s your turn.”
“But I’m drawing a complete blank. Why don’t you just pick?”
“We could do American food, Italian, Mexican, Mediterranean. Pizza, burgers, sandwiches, salad, barbecue…what sounds good?”

“I don’t know…”

“Seriously? You don’t want any of those??”

“I don’t know. That all sounds good. And also all kind of sounds bad. I don’t know what I want!”

Some variation of that conversation happens, I suspect, every single day in the United States. And as much as we sympathize with the frustration in this conversation, surely we also empathize with the indecision. After all, what they said is true: sometimes we don’t know we want!

This seems preposterous on its face—if anyone should know what you want at a given moment, surely it’s you. But there is a lot more uncertainty tied up with self-awareness than we acknowledge. Sometimes you know exactly what you want, where you’re going, and who you are. But sometimes you don’t.

What a relief then to know that there is someone who knows you better than you know yourself. When you were still trying to decide whether you wanted to be an astronaut, a firefighter, or a racecar driver when you grew up, God already knew which vocation suited you best—and which you would choose. When you were agonizing over your high school dating life, God already knew what kind of partner complemented you best—not just then, but as 20-year old and a 40-year old and a 60-year old. When you’ve questioned your abilities, doubted your instincts, and feared for your future, God has always been a refuge of certainty, fully aware of your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth…even when you weren’t.

The amazing truth is that God has known you and loved you since the moment He created you, when you were but “unformed substance.” There may be times when you feel like you’re still not fully formed—you don’t always have the answers, you don’t always know what’s next, and you don’t always even know what you want. Until the day when you “know fully, even as [you] have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12), your life will always be full of such uncertainties. But of this much you can be certain: even when you don’t know, the Creator of the universe—and of you—surely does.

Ready for the Cold (Friday Devotional)

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

- Ephesians 6:13-17

It’s been unusually important this past week, as temperatures have plunged below freezing and the wind chill has settled into the single digits, to dress appropriately. Coats, gloves, hats—all the winter wear that spends 50 weeks of the year stored in a corner of your closet made a triumphant return this week. The weather demanded that you be properly attired just to step outside.

I learned that lesson the hard way on Wednesday morning. Realizing I needed something from my car, I thought about what I was wearing—a T-shirt, gym shorts, and nothing on my feet—and did a quick cost-benefit analysis regarding whether or not to change clothes. On the one hand, it was 25 degrees outside, and I was dressed for a day at the beach. On the other, changing clothes would take me longer than the actual act of retrieving what I needed from my car. I chose the lazy way and rushed outside without changing. When I rushed back in a minute later, shivering and looking for socks to put on my freezing feet, it was obvious I’d made the wrong choice. I may have thought I’d be fine without winter clothes, but I’d underestimated just how vulnerable I was without it.

In his letter to the Ephesian church, Paul describes a different kind of clothing, the metaphorical “armor of God,” the spiritual raiment we need to withstand the trials of this world. He encourages believers to clothe themselves in truth, righteousness, salvation, and whatever will equip them to proclaim the gospel; he urges them to be armed with faith and the Word of God. All of these together, he says, will help you stand against the darkness of the world.

The trouble comes when we start making the same mistake I did Wednesday—wearing the spiritual armor we find most comfortable while leaving other parts behind in the name of ease, convenience, or downright laziness. It’s tempting to gird ourselves with faith but leave the demands of righteousness behind, to charge forward ready to proclaim the gospel but do so without having spent time in God’s Word. When you do that, you find yourself realizing exactly what I did on Wednesday: the world is a colder place that you thought.

Paul’s word to the church is to take up the “whole armor of God,” not just the parts that come easiest to you. Spiritual raiment isn’t about what fits best or looks most attractive, but about protection from sin, darkness, and hopelessness. As you go out into the world, may you arm yourself with all God has to offer, fully equipped to face what comes.

The Pastor and MLK Day

By the time I was born, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had already been dead for twenty-one years; his birthday had been a federal holiday for six. By the time I learned his name, he was already a national saint, his flaws forgotten in martyrdom, his controversial opinions papered over by his more benign quotes. In the American pantheon, perhaps only Abraham Lincoln is as universally respected, admired, and beloved.

But we all remember Dr. King for something different. A preacher, activist, civil rights leader, first class orator...he contained multitudes. Some like the sepia-toned Dr. King of the Montgomery Bus Boycott best, the young civil rights leader able to organize an entire community to stand up for their rights. Others prefer him at his most Christ-like, enduring his beating on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma with grace, refusing to fight back. Your more politically-minded friends may be partial to the Dr. King who spoke out against the Vietnam War at great cost to his reputation and popularity. But more than likely, when you think of Martin Luther King, Jr., you think of the day when he stood before a crowd on the National Mall and told them about his dream, a vision of equality that then became their dream too and that, in our best moments, remains our dream today.

When I think about Dr. King, I think of all those angles, but there is another that affects me more. Every MLK Day since college, I've read my copy of the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King's epistle to white moderate preachers who were declaring his methods and indeed his movement to be too much too soon. And every time I read this letter, I feel its wisdom, its sting, but most of all its grace.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a modern prophet, not in the sense of predicting the future (although he had his moments), but in the sense of declaring the Word of the Lord boldly to the powers of this world. So on this MLK Day, some look to his example and declare that our obligation to his memory is to be equally prophetic. Especially during the Age of Trump (it always seems to come back to the president these days, doesn't it?), when the most powerful man in the world publicly defends neo-Nazis in Charlottesville and calls African nations shitholes unworthy of our compassion, some say we must honor Dr. King's legacy by loudly standing up to bigotry and refusing to shy away from controversy. We must use our public platforms to speak truth to power, standing up for the most vulnerable in society even when it costs us. There must be no fear of calling evil by its name and opposing unjust words, actions, laws, and people. That, some say, is the essence of Dr. King's prophetic witness.

But there is another element to Dr. King's legacy that sets him apart from the other activists in American history, from Susan B. Anthony to Malcolm X to Ta-Nehisi Coates. Dr. King was a prophet, but he was also a pastor. He stood up for justice, but he also preached love and brotherhood. He loved the Old Testament prophets, but he loved the gospel of Jesus Christ even more.

Everything about his movement and his ministry, from the bus boycott to the March on Washington to his opposition of the Vietnam War, was done with one eye on justice and the other on grace. When a race war was feasible, Dr. King opted for nonviolent protest; when jailed and beaten, Dr. King called for forgiveness and perseverance; when anger was easier, Dr. King preached love. He had the vision and the courage to evoke and adopt not only Christ's mission, but his means. Turning the other cheek means getting hit twice, but Dr. King decided that, in the spirit of Christ, he would rather suffer in the name of love than fight back in the name of self-defense.

The Letter from Birmingham Jail reminds me that preachers have an obligation to be both prophets and pastors. We must point out injustice where we see it and we must call it out; we must be the voice in the wilderness crying out for repentance even when those words fall on deaf ears. But pointing at the bad is not enough; we must also point toward the good, toward the dream, toward the cross. When evil rears its ugly head, whether as prejudice or sexual assault or systemic injustice, preachers have an obligation to speak out, but also to offer an alternative vision. We must speak out against the excesses of the emperor's kingdom, but then we must point to the kingdom of God.

Your Facebook news feed, like mine, probably has a lot more political and social commentary on it (or, for the lazy, political and social memes) than you care to read. There is so much injustice in the world and so much access to information and so many means of disseminating opinions that this should come as no surprise. As best I can tell, you have three options in the face of this influx of activist energy. One, you can ignore it all, hoping it goes away soon, disguising cowardice as peacekeeping. That's what the white moderates of Dr. King's day did, and history does not remember them fondly. Two, you can pick a side, dig in, and shrilly attempt to shout down your opponents. That was the way of both the Southern racist and the leftist radical in the 1950s and 1960s, and history ultimately remembers both as little more than faceless bodies in a mob.

But this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I am inspired to choose a third way. I am inspired to do my best to be prophet and pastor, to point away from the worst of the earth toward the best of heaven, to boldly declare that if God is with us then we must be with God. I am inspired not only to recoil from the emperor's kingdom, but to march toward the Lord's. I am inspired not only to decry the nightmare, but to extol the dream.

The church of Jesus Christ serves the same Lord that Dr. King did. My prayer this Martin Luther King Jr. Day is that we would serve Him with the same spirit of power, courage, and grace...as both prophets and pastors.

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“The early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.”

- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

- Luke 4:18-19

Feeling Forgotten (Friday Devotional)

“So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.””

- Genesis 21:14-17

Sometimes it feels like everyone is being blessed but you. You look at your friends and coworkers and neighbors, and you see nothing but their abundance and your deficiencies: Terry from college is headed to Hawaii for 2 weeks on the company dime while you save up for a weekend in San Antonio; Greg has a brand new Cadillac parked in his driveway while your 1996 Saturn is creeping toward its 300,000^th mile; Cindy from accounting is having her fourth baby in six years even as you’re dropping thousands of dollars on fertility treatments. Everyone, it seems, is enjoying life’s rewards—maybe even God’s favor—except for you. You start to wonder if God has forgotten you.

If anyone in Scripture had a right to feel that way, it was Hagar, an Egyptian slave of Abraham the patriarch. We are introduced to her in Genesis 16, when she is the object of a plan devised by Abraham’s wife, Sarah. Having been promised by God that she will bear a child in her old age, Sarah gets impatient and takes matters into her own hands, telling Abraham that he should sleep with Hagar and produce a son through her, just in case God doesn’t come through on His promise. Abraham goes along with the plan and Hagar gives birth to a son, Ishmael.

The conflict comes when God, faithful to His covenant with Abraham, gives him and Sarah a son of their own, Isaac. Through Isaac and his descendants, God promises, will come a great people that will bless all the nations of the world. But Isaac’s birth makes Hagar and Ishmael expendable in Sarah’s eyes—after all, now that God has given them their promised son, they have no need of this spare. Sarah demands that Hagar be cast out of Abraham’s household, and the patriarch complies, sending Hagar and Ishmael on their way.

I cannot imagine Hagar’s grief, anger, and hopelessness at this point. So far she has had no agency in her story—she did not ask to bear Abraham’s son; that was a choice made for her. She did not ask for him to be replaced by Isaac; that was a choice made by God. She did not ask to be cast out of the family; that was a choice made by Sarah and Abraham. Now she finds herself alone in the wilderness with her son, finally free to make her own decisions, but devoid of any security, direction, or hope.

Hagar must have felt like she and Ishmael were immaterial to God’s plans, like He saw them as nothing more than the slaves they had been in Abraham’s household. There was no evidence in her life thus far that God cared about her or her son. Abraham was the patriarch, Sarah the wife, Isaac the promised child, but Hagar was just the slave girl; Ishmael just the backup plan. So, presuming that she and her son were destined for deaths as ignominious as their lives had been, Hagar set him beneath a bush and retreated a good distance away, not wanting to have to watch him die.

It was then that something happened which gave Hagar her first glimmer of hope, hope that still speaks to those who feel forgotten today. Through an angel from heaven, God told Hagar that He had “heard the boy where he is.” In her darkest hour, when her only experience had been oppression and abandonment, God assured Hagar that He was with her and her son.

If you are feeling forgotten, draw encouragement from the story of Hagar and Ishmael. Even for those whose lives are not marked by victory after victory, God is present. He loves the Isaacs, but He also loves the Ishmaels. He loves the Sarahs, but He also loves the Hagars. When you feel alone, forgotten, and abandoned, like God is blessing everyone but you, know this: no matter what path life puts you on, God walks it with you.

A Year of Change (hopefully)

New Year's resolutions are weirdly polarizing, I've learned. Some people make them every year and stick to them seriously, many others make them and subsequently break them, and still others refuse to make any resolutions at all, convinced that it's a stupid, useless tradition. In my life, I've already managed to run the full gamut, starting with a teenager's cynicism about the practice, moving to a young adult's desire to change things (accompanied by a young adult's lack of commitment to that goal), and now finding myself, as a *slightly* more mature adult, wanting to get serious.

In December of 2017 I started making a list of things I wanted to begin, end, or change in my life in 2017. It ended up being a pretty long list, with some goals that are extremely ambitious and others that should be no problem. So for the sake of accountability, fun, and my millenial tendency to overshare, here's a look at what I'm wanting to change in 2018, which I've started calling, tongue firmly in cheek, the Year of Daniel.

1. Blog once per week

Hey look, I did it this week! Writing is something I enjoy but rarely make time for outside of my ministry responsibilities. So in 2018 my goal will be to get something up here (outside of the Friday devotionals) on a weekly basis. 

2. Talk to every member of my family once a week

I'm notoriously bad at keeping up with the people I love if I'm not seeing them in person (ask my mom how often I called home when I was in college. On second thought, please don't.) So even if all I'm doing is sending a funny meme from the Internet or a "thinking about you today!" text, I want to be sure my family knows they're on my mind every week.

3. Read the Bible in a year

My daily devotional time last year was spent in three devotional books, with mixed results (see December's reading log.) For 2018, i want to go back to the basics and just read a few chapters of Scripture each day, with the end result being that I've gone from Genesis through Revelation by the end of the year. I've done this a couple of times, and I'm looking forward to doing it again. This year's wrinkle: I'm going to make a concerted effort to read the Bible instead of analyzing it like it's under a microscope, trickier than it sounds when exegesis is literally your life's work. Reading from The Message, which is designed for exactly that purpose, ought to help.

4. Drink more water

I'm bad about this, always have been. So 6 glasses per day is my goal.

5. Complete the Navy SEAL workout (minus the swimming portion)

I'm skinny, but I'm out of shape. The Navy SEAL workout, based on the physical test all SEAL candidates must pass to even qualify, is an ambitious but not unrealistic path to fixing that problem. Bonus: by excising the  swimming part of the workout, I don't need a gym to do any of the exercises.

6. Give half my entertainment money to charity

This was an idea I had around Thanksgiving, and I've committed to do it for the next year. Every month, our budget allots each of us $100 to spend on whatever we want, along with $150 that we spend together. My entertainment money usually get spent on eating out and comic books. So this year, $50 of that will go to 5 charities/non-profits, $10 for each. I'm still deciding which to give to, but I have decided to do it with Matthew 25 as my outline, i.e. one charity devoted to the poor, one devoted to the sick, one devoted to prisoners, etc. Suggestions are welcome.

7. Learn sabermetric terms better

For baseball fans, Moneyball changed everything. If you want to be a knowledgeable fan these days, you've got to understand the new stats. And while I can fake it pretty well, my understanding of OPS, ERA+, UZR, and the like is pretty surface-level. So by 2019 I want to be more conversant in those stats.

8. Construct the perfect scorecard

One of life's simple joys is keeping score with pencil and paper at a baseball game. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a scorecard that provides a great template for this--they're either too basic, where you can't really tell the story of the game based on the information there's space for, or far too detailed, where you start to miss the actual game because your're too busy filling in your scorecard. So in 2018, graph paper in hand, I'm going to make my own.

9. Learn to cook 50 meals

I've given up on the idea that I'm ever going to be a great cook--I don't like it enough, I'm not confident enough in my abilities, and I don't love food enough. Nevertheless, I don't want to be the stereotypical 50-year old husband who doesn't know how to make a sandwich for himself. So once per week this year, I'm going to learn and cook a new recipe. This week's offering: Greek pizza. It was ok.

10. Finish all my comic books/graphic novels

I keep a handwritten list of every book I own, scratching them out as I read them. I do the same thing with all my graphic novels and collections of comic books. Both lists, needless to say, have a lot of titles on there that aren't scratched out. While some quick math told me that finishing the first list in 2018 was an unrealistic goal, finishing the second is manageable. So prepare for a steady stream of graphic novel reviews in the reading log.

11. Write a book

Aaaand now we're getting to the crazy ambitious part of the list. What am I going to write about? I don't know, probably Bible stuff. How long will it be? I don't know, I'll probably shoot for 250 pages or so. Do I want it published? You know, only if it's good. When should I figure all this stuff out? Oh, 6 months ago. Nevertheless, I'm not taking this goal off the list. Aim high and all that.

12. Learn biblical Greek, biblical Hebrew, Latin, and German

My seminary will, in the next few years, be introducing a PhD in Preaching. I very much want to be in its inaugural class when that program debuts. Unfortunately, they don't just give PhDs away, and part of getting one in a theological concentration is being proficient in the theological languages. So in 2018 I'm going to start that homework. Needless to say, this is the most ridiculous goal on my list, but it's also one of the more important. So we'll see!

13. Learn Spanish

In the past year I've become convicted that any Texas pastor who isn't at least trying to learn Spanish isn't thinking ahead. So in 2018 I want to polish the skills I still have from high school and college (that should take roughly two weeks) and get to where, by the end of the year, I can at least awkwardly fumble my way through a conversation in Spanish.


So there you have it, my lengthy list of personal resolutions for the Year of Daniel (I left off ministry resolutions and family resolutions, since those aren't necessarily mine to share). Am I going to pull all these off? Of course not. But it'll be fun to give it a shot. I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy New Year!

You're In Charge (Friday Devotional)

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

- Genesis 1:26-27

“You’re in charge while I’m gone.”

The first time a preteen child hears those words, typically in the context of watching their younger sibling for a few minutes, they know what a big deal it is. After all, there aren’t many times you’re in charge as a 9 or 10-year old, and there certainly aren’t many times when a grown-up gives you that kind of authority. Almost instantly, the child’s chest swells with pride, even as their mind starts to run wild. Will they run things just like their parents in order to prove how responsible they are? Or will they use their newfound autonomy to explore some things which are normally off-limits?

This choice between using authority responsibly or selfishly is one we face more often the older we get. In the Bible’s account of creation, we are told that humans were made “in the image of God,” a glorious mystery with far-reaching implications. Part of what it means to be made in His image and according to His likeness, God says, is that we have dominion over the rest of creation, from the fish to the birds to the plants. Even as God is authority over all, He has given us some measure of authority too.

But with authority comes responsibility. “Dominion” doesn’t mean we can or should run roughshod over what God has given us. Even as God takes care of the things over which He has authority, we are expected to do the same. God doesn’t entrust us with authority just so we can look after ourselves, but so that we can use, enjoy, and replenish what He has given us. We are masters, but more than that we are stewards.

There are undoubtedly other areas of life in which you have authority—in your home, your workplace, your social circle, or your church perhaps. Do you use your authority like a weapon or a tool, forcefully or graciously? Are you more concerned with what you get out of your authority or what you give? God made clear from the beginning that having authority is part of what it means to be human—so how do you operate when you’re in charge?

December Reading Log

Between church work, a busy Christmas break, and life with an increasingly active toddler, there was less time for reading this month, but I managed to read through 4 books and finish a year of daily readings from 3 devotional books. It's been a productive year whittling down my list of owned-but-unread books, and I look forward to continuing that progress in 2018. Enjoy this month's reviews, and happy reading!

5 Articles I Like This Month

"Is Trump a Blessing or Curse for Religious Conservatives?" by Ross Douthat, David French, and John Zmirak, The New York Times. 12 minutes.

A conversation between a pro-Trump conservative Catholic and an anti-Trump evangelical, moderated by the New York Times's conservative Catholic (and generally anti-Trump) columnist Ross Douthat. The article's title is its central question, and I defy you to read the debate without at least questioning your own perspective. This is a national conversation that has been going for at least 2 years and will continue for much longer, but rarely will you find the discussion to be as intelligent and civil as in this piece.

"SI's 2017 Sportsperson of the Year: José Altuve Defied Odds to Bring Houston Hope...and a Title" by Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated. 18 minutes.

A glowing profile of the American League MVP, World Champion, and toast of the state.  Even a Rangers fan has to like José Altuve, especially after the way he and his teammates lifted the spirits of a city that was still grappling with the immediate devastation of Hurricane Harvey this past fall. Tom Verducci is one of the best baseball writers out there, and even if you are familiar with Altuve's story, this article is worth a read.

"'We'll Deal with the Consequences Later': The Cajun Navy and the Vigilante Future of Disaster Relief" by Miriam Markowitz, GQ. 20 minutes.

A look at Harvey relief efforts through the eyes of a reporter who embedded with the volunteer Cajun Navy. Most interesting are the comparisons between institutional disaster relief (FEMA, the Red Cross, and the National Guard) and the vigilante efforts of groups like the Cajun Navy, and the questions those comparison raise about who people can really count on (and who they should be able to count on) when the next disaster hits.

"How the Sandwich Consumed Britain" by Sam Knight, The Guardian. 27 minutes.

Sometimes a completely inconsequential yet completely fascinating article sucks me in for half an hour. Such was the case with this history of the prepackaged sandwich, a lunchtime staple in the U.K.  Anglophiles and sandwich lovers alike will find something of interest in this fascinating piece.

"The Two Americans" by Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times. 29 minutes.

A powerful, real-life story of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. You may remember hearing on the new about a mosque being vandalized with swastikas in Fort Smith, AR in October 2016. If so, you probably drew your own conclusions, about both the vandals and victims, conclusions based on your own worldview. But as is usually the case, there's more to the real story than our assumptions. If you only read one longform story this month, make it this one. Powerful stuff.

A YEAR OF BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD: HOW A LIBERATED WOMAN FOUND HERSELF SITTING ON HER ROOF, COVERING HER HEAD, AND CALLING HER HUSBAND "MASTER" by Rachel Held Evans

Rachel Held Evans is one of the most popular and most gifted evangelical bloggers out there (though she has all but cast aside that label since the 2016 election), so when I found this book on clearance at my local used bookstore, I couldn't resist giving it a shot. The book's premise: having spent her entire life listening to everyone from preachers to church ladies talk about what the Bible calls women to, she decided to explore for herself what "biblical womanhood" was by obeying every command addressed to women in Scripture.

Part stunt, part sincere journey, each chapter represents a month of her year of biblical womanhood. Every month she tackled a different set of challenges, whether by submitting to her husband's authority in all decisions, renting a robotic baby so she could practice mothering, or spending a day in total silence. As such, some months are hilarious and others enlightening, but all make for quality reading. At the end of each chapter she also briefly profiles a biblical woman, from the famous (Ruth, Mary, etc.) to those deserving of more attention (Tamar and Dorcas).

If you've read Rachel Held Evans, little of what she decides upon the way will surprise you. Her approach, by design, makes a mockery of the most stringently conservative interpretations of the Bible, which is entertaining but predictable. And her conclusions about biblical womanhood are, for the most part, probably pretty darn similar to what she would have said before undertaking her yearlong experiment. Nevertheless, if you haven't done a lot of thinking about what the Bible calls women to (hint: you should), then this book makes for a breezy, entertaining primer. I doubt this book will change your life, but it'll make you laugh and think.

TELL IT SLANT: A CONVERSATION ON THE LANGUAGE OF JESUS IN HIS STORIES AND PRAYERS by Eugene Peterson

Whether you love or hate Eugene Peterson (I'm firmly in the former category), there can be no denying his love for language and skill with it. In Tell It Slant, the fourth book in his five-part series on spiritual theology, he looks at the way Jesus used language to impart truth, and what fellow lovers of language can learn about God...not only from the truths Jesus arrives at, but the language he uses to get there.

Separated into two sections, one on Jesus's parables from the Gospel of Luke and another on Jesus's prayers, this book continues the theme found in the previous three books: that we shouldn't just care about Jesus's ends, but also his means. Each chapter generally ends up working on three different levels: 1) as a paraphrase and elaboration of the story or prayer, in the spirit of The Message, Peterson's masterful paraphrase of Scripture); 2) as a commentary on what we can learn from said parable or prayer; and 3) what those words of Jesus show about how he chooses to communicate.

For a professional communicator like myself, this book was catnip, easily my favorite in a series where the books seems to get progressively better as the series goes on. Some chapters are better than others, but taken as a whole this is a valuable resource and a reminder that, in addition to being the Christ, Jesus was a pretty darn good teacher. Propelled by the strength of its message and buoyed by Peterson's language, this book is a must-have for anyone entrusted with teaching the Bible.



THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by Junot Díaz

I don't typically listen to audiobooks, particularly with literature, because the format forces me to go at its speed instead of my own--if there's a well-crafted sentence I was to savor or a complicated one I want to go back and reread, well, there's no time, full speed ahead. Nevertheless, when I found out that Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda served as one of the narrators of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao's audiobook, that was all it took for me to give the format another try. I'm so glad I did.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, one of the most lauded books of the last decade, is a coming-of-age story about a Dominican American family told from the perspective of the titular character, his sister, his mother, and his best friend. Featuring everything from Oscar's nerdy obsessions to his mother's romance with a gangster to the trials of living in the Dominican Republic under the monstrous dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, this book contains multitudes. Running throughout is the motif of a fuku, a family curse, that seems destined to ensure that Oscar's life and that of his family will know be beset by tragedies.

Truthfully, this is not the kind of book I would normally have picked up, but its reputation prompted me to buy it when I found it at a used bookstore (and subsequently borrow the audiobook from the library). I cannot stress enough how glad I am to have tried it. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is unquestionably the best work of fiction I read in 2017, the rare piece of literature in which the plot, characters, and writing are equally excellent. Accessible but deep, thematic but grounded, anyone from a teenager to a literature professor could read this and get something out of it, and the primary thing they would get is entertainment.

As for the audiobook specifically, Lin-Manuel Miranda continues his streak of turning everything he touches to gold, though in this case it probably had more to do with the source material than his abilities. Narrating an audiobook is harder than it sounds, since the narrator has to find an appropriate balance between straight reading and acting, and Miranda strikes that balance expertly. My only warning is that The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao makes regular use of tangential footnotes in its text, which can make the audiobook's narration momentarily confusing.

If you haven't taken in this book, whether by reading it or listening to it, do yourself a favor and give it a try. I can't imagine anyone regretting it.



WILSON by A. Scott Berg

Woodrow Wilson has not aged well in history's eyes. Beloved in his time as an idealistic champion for democracy, his legacy has come under fire more recently, particularly due to his racist feelings and policies toward African-Americans, which, even accounting for his era, were repulsive. There can be no denying Wilson's importance to the history of the nation and the world--but after reading A. Scott Berg's biography, I am pretty comfortable saying I don't like our 28th president very much.

Berg portrays Wilson as a political scientist with ambitions, ideals, and gifts that lifted him above his contemporaries, a man who somehow rarely flew too close to the sun despite a messiah complex that would make even the most ambitious politician blush. Wilson seemed to believe himself capable of singlehandedly saving the world--and, as president of the United States during World War I, actually kind of did. His greatest ambition in this regard, however, would become his greatest failure, as he managed to convince the heads of Europe of the importance of a League of Nations but failed to convince his own nation's Senate, resulting in the United States's refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and therefore to join the League.

Most interesting to me was not Wilson himself, but his second wife Edith. Wilson, whose first wife died during the second year of his first term, met and married Edith while in office, something unfathomable today. Even more unbelievable, after Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke in 1919, Edith not only cared for her husband but secretly handled many of the nation's affairs on his behalf. Her time as surrogate president, and the willingness of the president's advisors to go along with this scheme, stands as perhaps the greatest conspiracy in the history of the U.S. government.

As for the book, Berg does a good job showing Wilson's strengths and his weaknesses, but despite its 742 pages, I left feeling like he had only scratched the surface of some parts of Wilson's life. I would certainly recommend the book (most reviewers say it is far and away the best popular biography of its subject), but I may have to find some supplementary Wilson reading on down the road to fill in the gaps.

THE BUSINESS OF HEAVEN: DAILY READINGS FROM C.S. LEWIS by C.S. Lewis

MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST by Oswald Chambers

A YEAR WITH GOD: DAILY READINGS, MEDITATIONS, AND SPIRITUAL EXERCISES by Richard J. Foster and Julia L. Roller

All three of these books offered short, daily readings, so I made them part of my morning devotional time in 2017.

I've been up front that I think C.S. Lewis's nonfiction is overrated. That being said, The Business of Heaven is, for my money, the best way to read his thoughts on faith. Lewis is famously quippy, and those memorable quotes are given a chance to stand out in this format. This didn't make for the best devotional reading (Lewis has a tendency to stray from biblical theology to Christian philosophy), but I enjoyed it nevertheless. A topical index at the back ensures that I will return to this book frequently in my sermon preparation when looking for a good line from Lewis.

Speaking of overrated, My Utmost for His Highest is one of the most lauded devotional books of all time and, sorry folks, I just don't get it. Some days contained grains of brilliance and exegetical insight, but more often than not I found my eyes glazing over because of Chambers's dry writing style. Also, the verse his message draws from each day sometimes seemed to have little to nothing to do with what he was saying, a no-no for this exegetical preacher. I'm glad My Utmost for His Highest has been helpful to so many people since its initial publication, but I don't imagine I'll be picking it back up any time soon.

A Year with God was typically my favorite reading out of the three each day. Organized by the spiritual disciplines as listed by Richard Foster, editor of this book and author of Celebration of Discipline, each day offered a biblical text, a paragraph of commentary, and either a quote or a challenge at the end. While some of the disciplines seemed to drag on for more days than was necessary, in large part this was a good daily primer on the spiritual disciplines and made for a good way to start the morning.