Tag: recent reading

January 13, 2015

52 Novels: (2) The Great Gatsby

The past drives Christians.

In Scripture, past deliverance and grace drives us to present obedience and future hope. We are called to remember what, and who, we once were. We are called to remember what Christ has done for us. We are called to remember the mighty deeds of God. We are called to remember the saints of old who set an example of perseverance and faith. We are called to remember the history of the church.

We are also called to forget the past: Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13-14).

The past drives everyone. It can drive us in positive ways and negative ways.

It’s said the Michael Jordan not making the varsity basketball team as an underclassmen spurred him on to greatness. How many stories have you heard of someone being driven to greatness by the ‘You can’t do it’ comments of the past?

How many men and women have forever been emotionally and romantically ruined because of lost love? Because of the inability to move on? Because of inability to move beyond the hurt and find healing? Cat Stevens said ‘the first cut is the deepest.’ All cuts hurt and take time to heal. Someone has said that there is a presence in what is missing. That’s what we see in the life of Gatsby. He is a haunted man. The presence of what is missing dominates his life, and ultimately destroys his life.

Gatsby is a man who is haunted by the past. He is a man consumed by the past. He is consumed by the idea of a woman he once knew and loved. It drives him to greatness financially, as he strives to amass a fortune that will impress his lost love. It drives him to ruin in every other way.

I wonder how different Gatsby would look in the age of social media. Would he simply anonymously stalk Daisy on Facebook? Would he flaunt his great possessions on Instagram? I wonder if his lust would last if he could see pictures of her young child in an online photo album. I wonder if his lust would have died in an age in which technology takes away the imagination. He wouldn’t have to ask, I wonder what she looks like? I wonder what she’s doing?

I wonder how many men and women are still haunted by past events to the point that those events have a determining impact on their present and future.I wonder how many folks are emotionally and spiritually crippled by memories. I wonder how many men and women hold on to past imaginary ideals instead of living in the now. It’s always easier to love an idea than a person. Ideas don’t argue or contradict the thinker. Ideas aren’t entangled in marriages that must be broken up if we are to achieve our goals.

If nothing else, Nick, Gatsby’s apostolic biographer, warns us that the ghosts of the past can destroy us if we do not exorcise them. Be careful what memories you let dominate you. Those memories may even drive you to greatness is one area or another while causing ultimate spiritual ruin.

You could pick up all sorts of themes in Gatsby. But for me, the inescapable themes involve the crippling effects of idolatry and memory. Exalt something so high, think of it so much, refuse to let it go, and it will end up possessing you, rather than you possessing it. And who knows what it will do with you? Who knows if its hold on you may be crushing?

November 10, 2014

Recent Reading: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have been on a drought in my book choices lately, but the last two have been home runs. My daughter and I decided to read this book together, mostly owing to two things: 1) she had recently memorized a poem by Stevenson and 2) I have wanted to read it for quite some time. We’re all familiar with the ‘idea’ of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But perhaps it helps to take the time to read the book.

I knew nothing of Stevenson, other than his literary works. Then, after reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I read THIS. Stevenson had a Presbyterian pedigree, but he had spurned the covenant of his fathers. That made the book all the more interesting. I won’t try to psychoanalyze the author here, but only offer a few thoughts.

First, if you are familiar with the New Testament, you cannot escape the connection of this book with Romans 7. A quick Google search proved the point by yielding 101,000 results for ‘Romans 7 Dr. Jekyll.’ The inner battle of Dr. Jekyll is eerily reminiscent of the battle of the man of Romans 7. But, in a strange twist, Dr. Jekyll actually desires to be rid of his ‘better self.’ If he could only separate the good man from the bad man then there would be no more battling of the conscience. Through his drugs, the good Dr. become Mr. Hyde, and is wholly free from the tyranny of c0nscience.

Let me make two quick points on the story that I want to jot down for future reference.

First, in regards to the Romans 7 relationship, the ending of the story is quite interesting. Dr. Jekyll essentially ends with ‘O wretched man that I am!’ It holds out no hope. Romans 7, on the other hand, is followed by Romans 8:1-2: ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of Christ has set you free, in Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death.’

I once heard an author I like, N.D. Wilson, describe Flannery O’Connor stories like this: imagine the apostle Paul riding his horse on the way to Damascus. He is then blinded by a great light and knocked off his horse. Thus ends the story. There is no resolution. She doesn’t go on to tell us that he became the great apostle. It is only left for us to infer what happened next. There is a sense in which Dr. Jekyll’s story could have been that. Romans 8:1-2 could have been left hanging following the ‘O wretched man that I am!’ But it’s not… But in my mind it is.

The great hope we have is that we can turn our eyes and our minds away from our wretched selves to the Lord Jesus Christ. The struggle of flesh against Spirit, of the sinful nature against the regenerate heart can be great. It can thoroughly beat you down and make you want to give up. Robert Louis Stevenson captures that psychological element masterfully. But he has no hope to offer in the end. The only way hope could come is if the end would have been left hanging – if Jekyll remained on life support. But he doesn’t.

Second, I want to think for a moment about Dr. Jekyll’s ‘tincture. He is a Dr., and his means of transformation is drugs. I’m sure there are lessons in this. For starters, one recognizes in this story that the line between medicine and magic is very thin. What is a ‘draft’ or a ‘syrup’ for one could be a potion for another. A physiological condition for one could be an enchantment or demon possession for another. It all depends on how the story is told and which view you are inclined to take. The character of Dr. Jekyll alludes to this himself in some ways, calling Mr. Hyde a ‘familiar spirit.’ As one who works in the pharmacy industry, I always try to keep in mind that things aren’t always as mechanical as they seem. You can read another cautionary tale, this time non-fiction, HERE.

The takeaways for me are simple: 1) this story is very instructive for giving insight into parts of Romans 7 (but not Romans 8; we have to get there ourselves), and therefore into the human psyche. 2) It is a cautionary tale for us today about messing with our physiology through chemicals. 3) It is a startling picture of a man left without the grace of God – common (Mr. Hyde) and saving (Dr. Jekyll).

April 18, 2014

Recent Reading: Feeding the Mind, by Lewis Carroll

I was browsing free Kindle books on logic when I came across this little treasure. It was a balm for my soul today.

In this short book, Carroll likens reading to eating and the life of the mind to the life of the body. And so, he gives practical advice for how to properly feed the mind.

His three basic rules are that our mental intake should include the right kind, amount, and variety of reading to support a well-nourished mind.

From there we must (1) be careful to provide the right amount of time between meals (giving the mind an opportunity to rest) and (2) make sure that we properly chew and digest our food (he calls it ‘mastication’ and sums it up with Cranmer’s famous words that we are to ‘read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest‘).

Here are a few of my favorite quotes with a brief introduction to each:

1. You know what foods don’t sit well with your body; shouldn’t you know what kinds of books don’t sit well with your mind?

First, then, we should set ourselves to provide for our mind its proper kind of food. We very soon learn what will, and what will not, agree with the body, and find little difficulty in refusing a piece of the tempting pudding or pie which is associated in our memory with that terrible attack of indigestion, and whose very name irresistibly recalls rhubarb and magnesia; but it takes a great many lessons to convince us how indigestible some of our favourite lines of reading are, and again and again we make a meal of the unwholesome novel, sure to be followed by its usual train of low spirits, unwillingness to work, weariness of existence—in fact, by mental nightmare.

2. Don’t be a mental glutton. Over-reading is probably not a danger for most people today, but I myself went through a period in my life where I experienced it and needed a break.

Then we should be careful to provide this wholesome food in proper amount. Mental gluttony, or over-reading, is a dangerous propensity, tending to weakness of digestive power, and in some cases to loss of appetite…

3. Take short breaks

Having settled the proper kind, amount, and variety of our mental food, it remains that we should be careful to allow proper intervals between meal and meal, and not swallow the food hastily without mastication, so that it may be thoroughly digested; both which rules, for the body, are also applicable at once to the mind. First, as to the intervals: these are as really necessary as they are for the body, with this difference only, that while the body requires three or four hours’ rest before it is ready for another meal, the mind will in many cases do with three or four minutes. I believe that the interval required is much shorter than is generally supposed, and from personal experience, I would recommend anyone, who has to devote several hours together to one subject of thought, to try the effect of such a break, say once an hour, leaving off for five minutes only each time, but taking care to throw the mind absolutely ‘out of gear’ for those five minutes, and to turn it entirely to other subjects. It is astonishing what an amount of impetus and elasticity the mind recovers during those short periods of rest.

4. Chew your food; digest your food. Don’t eat any more until you’ve digested your last meal. This may be the best advice, and the advice I will take most to heart, of this book.

And then, as to the mastication of the food, the mental process answering to this is simply thinking over what we read. This is a very much greater exertion of mind than the mere passive taking in the contents of our Author. So much greater an exertion is it, that, as Coleridge says, the mind often ‘angrily refuses’ to put itself to such trouble—so much greater, that we are far too apt to neglect it altogether, and go on pouring in fresh food on the top of the undigested masses already lying there, till the unfortunate mind is fairly swamped under the flood. But the greater the exertion the more valuable, we may be sure, is the effect. One hour of steady thinking over a subject (a solitary walk is as good an opportunity for the process as any other) is worth two or three of reading only.

All in all it is a book that is as delightful as it is short, serving as a practical guide to get the most out of your reading. You can get the book for free for Kindle HERE, for free on the web HERE, and you can buy a paper copy HERE.