Thought you might like to know what I'm reading these days:
1. I recently finished two books on wilderness adventure. (Suburban Florida offers little in the way of surviving avalanches, grizzlies, and cold, so I thought I'd read about others surviving such things.) Wild Men, Wild Alaska is written by a Christian outfitter-guide living in Alaska. Rocky McElveen dishes out fantastic and unbelievably true stories of Alaskan survival. He's danced with a charging grizzly and woken up to find wolf prints circling his tent.
The second book is called Deep Survival, by Laurence Gonzalez. Though the author doesn't allow for the rescuing hand of God in the stories he chronicles, he does a great job of explaining why some people live and others die in the wilderness or other high-stress situations.
2. I've also found Michael Card's A Sacred Sorrow very helpful. He argues, in contrast to much of the Church's teaching, that it is appropriate to cry out to God in our pain, even to accuse God. Card reflects upon the desperate, and seemingly irreverant cries of Job, David, Jeremiah, and Jesus. He asks us to recover the "language of lament" because in our lament and even accusations against God, a bridge is built from our hearts to his, allowing us to stay connected to him in our pain. Those who refuse to cry against God's seeming indifference and insist upon editing their grief actually are in danger of losing heart. Lament is an act of intimacy and connection.
3. I'm well into John Eldredge's most recent book, The Way of the Wild Heart. As a complimentary book to Wild at Heart, this new book gives men in our culture a path for masculine initiation. How do we help our young sons become men - in a way that they know they are authentic men? More than a description of meaningful ceremonies and initiation events, Eldredge provides a map for each stage of the masculine journey: from Beloved Son, to Cowboy/Ranger, to Lover, to Warrior, to King, and finally, to Sage.
4. I've just started Bill Mckibben's, Deep Economy. Don't let the title fool you: the book is more about genuine and sustainable community than economics. McKibben wisely insists that our western culture of 'more is better' will leave us in ruins, and ultimately won't give us what we most deeply want. He points us in a better direction so that "more" is replaced with better and more meaningful.
5. I'm currently reading God Is Closer Than You Think, by John Ortberg. I respect Ortberg, not because he was a former teaching pastor at Willow Creek, but because he's very well read. He's a great storyteller and sees below the surface of pop Christianity.