Here are a few things to check out and get involved with. Instead of a separate write-up for the following book, album, movie, blog, and events, I decided to just toss everything into a quick list. Enjoy!

Book to Read

“Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters” by Timothy Keller. I’ve been challenged by Keller in his writings lately (including “The Reason For God” dealing with skepticism, and I’m looking forward to picking up “The Prodigal God”), but I’m just surprised by how clearly someone can explain the simple truth behind things we’re seeing in our American culture. Pick up the book and give it a chance to change you. If I could suggest reading one new book this year, this would be the one. Last year it was “Crazy Love” from Francis Chan, and I ended up buying a bunch of them as gifts for different friends (Chan actually gave me his classic “No way!” laugh with the eye brows up when I had a chance to thank him and mention the one given to solo artist Andrea Hamilton was passed on to a radio DJ in Japan!). Anyway here’s the one from Tim Keller:  Counterfeit Gods, on Amazon.

Music Album to Hear

“Hello Hurricane,” the new one from Switchfoot, has a fresh sound that is big enough to blow your roof off… or at least unashamedly test the full capacity of your car stereo. The quality of musicianship is apparent, the creativity is intriguing, and the lyrics are solid. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen these guys in concert (actually was on a plane flight with them to Cornerstone Festival), but they’ve come a long way since my high school days (opening for The Supertones on the Loud and Clear Tour with Relient K), and I believe they’ve really matured in ways that challenge their listeners to do the same. One of the recurring themes you may pick up in the album is what I’d call a confession that life’s most serious dilemma is that the problem is inside me, rather than around me. It’s a convicting commentary on man’s state before God using the biblical idea of man’s depravity (Mark 7:21-23, John 3:19, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Titus 3:3, etc) with lyrics like: “I am my own affliction / I am my own disease / There ain´t no drug that they could sell… The sickness is myself” on Mess of Me. Directly relating to the Christian faith, it’s not until you realize how serious the bad news is that you come to seriously appreciate the good news of salvation. And Switchfoot’s album, rightly so, has such a beautiful hope contained within the lyrics: “Come set me free / Down on my knees / I still believe you can / Save me from me” (Free). This is coming from a band that has gathered a considerable following, with their new album currently debuting at #13 on the Billboard Top 200.  Hello Hurricane, from Amazon.

Film to See

No Greater Love. Filmed here in Santa Clarita and being released directly to DVD on January 19th, 2010 from Coram Deo Studios, Lionsgate Studios, Thomas Nelson Publishing, and Carmel Entertainment. I have a friend working with these guys, and the film has received good reviews. Also, I recognized the pastor in the movie, Chris Johnson of Grace Chapel in Lancaster, after hearing him speak at The Master’s College. I’m always skeptical of films that are made by and marketed to Christians for a couple big reasons, but I think as with the music industry, a higher standard of talent is finally starting to come out. Check out the movie trailer online:  www.nogreaterlovethemovie.com

Blog to Bookmark

I met Robby in college. He left the States and moved to India. http://afacelikeflint.blogspot.com

Music Tour to Experience

My buddy Chris is a great guy, an excellent drummer that has inspired me over the years, and been kind enough to show me a few things on the drum kit when we hung out. He was invited to play for the San Diego band Future of Forestry on their Advent Christmas Tour, and I’d say if you can make it to a show near you, you won’t regret it. The guys from FOF are creative and experienced musicians, plus they’ve actually done justice to some old Christmas songs that will sound amazing live. Also as an added bonus, Josiah James will be opening for them on the tour; a nice guy I had the privilege of meeting here in Santa Clarita for a small show at Antioch. I’m planning to catch the tour at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley on December 5th, otherwise the Bakersfield show on the 4th is not far away. More info here with shows in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Nevada: www.myspace.com/futureofforestry

Video Clip to Watch

John Piper on twitter mentioned this clip of the Vietnamese police raiding a house church. And if you have a minute to browse around the Persecution.com website, you’ll find a very different picture of the global church than what we see in comfortable America. But I think that in locations where resistance to true Christianity is normal, we generally find more faithful followers who “count the cost” (Luke 14:25-35). Or as Charles Spurgeon pointed out, “That religion which costs a man nothing is usually worth nothing.” Here’s the video from Persecution.com.

Photograph to Remember

This is a sad one from Three Angels Relief, along with an excerpt from an Amnesty International press release.  http://www.threeangelsrelief.org/child-slavery-in-haiti/

Quote to Dwell On

“Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.” – CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain, pg. 200.

Cause to Donate To

Last winter some friends and I took up a collection of blankets, and delivered them to the homeless on Skid Row (downtown Los Angeles). We’re doing it again on December 6th, so if you live nearby and want to contribute, we’ll accept your used or new blankets. I’ll probably pick up a couple cases of water bottles to hand out as well, and maybe even hot chocolate to serve as we did before. Clothes are a little complicated for us to hand out, unless its a warm hat or scarf. One of my coworkers mentioned that she wanted to join us in handing these out, and she actually has an organization called Solemate Collective, which accepts your donated single socks from the sock drawer, pairs them with a mate, and gives them out to someone in need. So if you want to help with the blankets talk to me in person, or contact me through the blog.

Event to Help With

The Children’s Hunger Fund is having a “Holiday Pak Day” on December 5th, where we’re packing and wrapping presents for children in need. If you live near Chatsworth CA, Homewood IL, or San Antonio TX, then they’d love to have you join (sign up required). Link to CHF.

Hope you were able to get SOMETHING out of that list. That’s all for now…

I feel so unqualified to comment on it all, being such a sudden, tragic, life-changing event. Maybe the thing I can identify with most is just how hard it is for those closest to Kevin, because I watched my dad break his back in a jet skiing accident years ago, and saw my brother break his back and leg in a downhill snow skiing crash (both of them recovered, miraculously I might add). On the subject of sympathy for people, Charles Spurgeon pointed out something of value:

“There is no learning sympathy except by suffering. It cannot be studied in a book, it must be written on the heart. You must go through the fire if you would have sympathy with others who tread the glowing coals. You must yourself bear the cross if you would feel for those whose life is a burden to them.”

I’m sure he didn’t mean that you have to endure that specific situation, but merely that in order to care about someone who is hurting, to some degree you need to know what it’s like to be hurting. Another statement from Spurgeon, “Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties,” can be seen in a very hopeful light if you consider that what results from the suffering can be very beneficial in the end. That might be a greater resolve and strengthened character that the “victim” would not have developed without the circumstances they were put through. Three words pretty much sum it up for the Christian: God is good.

Amidst tragedy is often when you find out what you really believe. You might even find out that what you believed was true. Those are two related but different things. By finding out what you believe, I mean that you can look back on your initial reactions to a situation and have a pretty good guess about what concerned you most in the situation and what it was you did in order to get through that situation. As a Christian, I would either discover that I had little-to-no deep-seated trust in the God I claimed to believe in if my reaction was to completely panic, or I might discover that my trust in that God was there under the surface ready to swing into action in this situation that hit me. That second part that might happen, finding truth after finding out what I believed, is where the good stuff is at. Certainly you can’t stop at just having what you personally believe, because that doesn’t always match up with the truth (take for example people like George Sodini and his gym class massacre last night in Pennsylvania that ended in suicide; he may have known his view on women but he didn’t have the truth about the value of each life he wrongly took).  I can’t help but suggest that truth comes back around in some way to truth about God. I can say that in those few occasions where I do get to later look back on an extended, rough circumstance and see meaning, it’s both comforting and indescribably exciting.