Ruined for Life

front doormailboxentrywayliving roomdining roomkitchenbedroombathroomgarageoffice

Office

The office is specifically a place of study. Here you'll find book reviews, academic papers, and any interesting updates on my progress with a Masters Degree in Business Adminstration.

Currently Reading

So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore
by Jake Colsen
(not yet rated)

The author of this book, Jake Colsen, is actually a pen-name that is drawn from the names of the two men who co-authored this book: Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman... "What would you do if you met someone you thought just might be one of Jesus' original disciplies still living in the 21st century? That's Jake's dilemma as he meets a man who talks of Jesus as if he had known him, and whose way of living challenges everything Jake had previously known... "

On The Bookshelf

Inside Out
by Dr. Larry Crabb

Either Larry Crabb does it for you, or he doesn't. I happen to really appreciate his writing and insights, and I think a lot of this book is dead-on. I also like the fact that, unlike many of his other books, he refrains from wrapping it all up at the end with some simple 10-step program for effective change. Solid stuff- worth my time and yours.

"The necessary foundation for any relationship with God is a recognition that God is God and we are not. We therefore have no business demanding anything of anyone, no matter how ferverently our should longs for relief from pain. It is wrong to internally demand that your loved one become a Christian or your spouse stop drinking or your biopsy be negative or your rebellious child straighten up. Desire much, pray for much, but demand nothing. To trust God means to demand no thing..."

"So much in our everyday living is designed to disguise the horror of living apart from God. Unbelievers often get along quite well. Nominal Christians seem every bit as happy (often far more) than the deeply committed. It seems there is no real point in absolutely surrendering to God...The real key to life, we seem to think, is to keep things pleasant while we pursue God with a good bit of our heart, soul, mind, and strength...The Cross becomes the means by which God delivers us from something not really too terrible, and the Coming is reduced to an opportunity for a merely improved quality of life..."

River Town
by Peter Hessler

This book is not only exquisitely written, but it finds a way to communicate volumes about the Chinese and some of the issues that foreigners visiting or living in China are bound to experience. Peter Hessler was a Peace Corps volunteer in China for two years; this book covers his journey in learning Mandarin, teaching English in a Chinese university, and navigating the complexity of Chinese customs and relationships in the city of Fuling. If you're wanting an interesting, moving, and wonderfully written book about a foreigner's experience in China, this is a great place to start.

"There are no bicycles in Fuling. Otherwise it is similar to any other small Chinese city -- loud, busy, dirty, crowded; the traffic twisted, the pedestrians jostling each other; shops overstaffed and full of goods, streets covered with propaganda signs; no traffic lights, drivers honking constantly; televisions blaring, people bickering over prices; and along the main streets rows of frightened-looking trees, their leaves gray with coal dust, the same gray dust that covers everything in the city..."

"I asked them to write a story about what would happen if Robin Hood came to today's China. A few followed the Party line...but most of them kept Robin Hood busy stealing from corrupt cadres and greedy businessmen. Often they put him in the booming costal regions, in Shenzhen and Guangzhou and Xiamen, where reforms had freed the economy and materialism was king. In their stories, Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the peasants, and almost invariably he ended up in prison. Sometimes he was executed. One student had him successfully reeducated over a fifteen-ear prison term (upon his release he became a detective). But almost always Robin Hood was caught; there were no illusions about the idealized green world of Sherwood Forest. There are few trees in China and the police always get their man..."