Monthly Archives: May 2022

REMBRANDT IS IN THE WIND

BOOK OF THE YEAR TIE!

I am blessed to receive many amazing books from publishers.

Now almost five months into 2022, Russ Ramsey’s Rembrandt is in the Wind and Robert Gross’s, The Transcendentalists and Their World are my favorite reads of the year.

As I get older (64 now), I get more selective, yet I am happy to say that remarkable books continue to be published. If you are looking for beautiful reflections on art and the Christian life, this book is for you. Ramsey is a pastor, so he knows firsthand the troubles of a terribly broken world. He also faced his own death just shy of his fortieth birthday.

So yes, Ramsey well knows about pain and suffering. He reflects on it beautifully in this book, but he is hardly a cynic. Ramsey’s anchor is firmly placed in the truths of Scripture.

If you are looking for a careful curator of both soul and art, this book is highly recommended. I recommend it with great gusto!

 

WHY I HATE LOL AND OTHER MODERN ABBREVIATIONS

I’m sure most of us know that LOL stands for Laugh Out Load. When this abbreviation was first being used a friend used it in an email to me. I thought it meant Love O’ Lots!

There are now many of these abbreviations like TMI, Too Much Information or IDNK, I Did Not Know. 

I hate all of them.

They remind me of the pathetic and phrenetic world we now inhabit. Speed and the attendant loss of attention spans is now the accepted, even lauded norm.

We have lost much by such verbal shortcuts.

Christians should joyfully stand against the dismantling of language.

IMO, of course!

How and How Not to be Happy

How and How Not to be Happy brilliantly makes the case that happiness is found in a relationship with God. It makes the case incrementally by offering a number of alternatives to happiness and then showing their inadequacy. Since it slowly builds its case for the Christian faith, skeptics will be more likely to give the author the attention he deserves.