The Kings Christmas List by Eldon Johnson

The King's Christmas List, with its beautiful illustrations, tells the fanciful story of a little girl who instinctively followed with her heart even when it cost her something to do so. The message, to me, was to those who had much (a new playhouse, a dog, a toy, a set of parents who was supportive in every way) the biggest thing that they had was a sense of sharing and giving.

It is a wonderful story, especially in the Christmas season, to examine the virtue of why we give and ways that we can instill this in others around us as the primary gift of the season. My favorite line in the book is "It takes a lot of love and courage to share the things that are dear to you. When you stopped to help others on your way to the castle today, you showed them what My love looks like." It is the updated version of the Good Samaritan and a true lesson to a child who is far more interested in getting than in giving!

I also thought that the "Give a Gift to the King" was an added bonus instead of a cagily designed advertisement (as some might take it.) I did have a thought that the parent who reads this book and helps the child give the gift should be most careful in explaining that giving demands each of us to sacrifice what is ours to keep. The book made this act specific and individual.

Outlive your Life by Max Lucado

The book, Outlive your Life, stresses the idea that each one of us can and should make a difference in living out one's pilgrimage. In fact, throughout the book the author, Max Lucado, shows us that we are given opportunities all along the way to make big differences. He says that we suffer from our sense or ordinariness and often don't grasp the significance of the opportunity. I like his statement: "God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called." This was true when Christ called the apostles, simple fishermen mostly, and it is just as true today.

The author is a master at taking a simple statement and making the reader see it for something stabbingly personal. He is also a master at intertwining the gospel personages and passages with the people he has met personally along the road, both singing the same song. For instance, in his statement "he indwells the low-ceilinged world of the poor", he connects the apostles working among the poor with the admonition that God's children will be people of hospitality and ends it with the true statement that "Hospitality opens the door to uncommon community".

I loved the story of Stanley Shipp and the drifter. I also liked the way the author beat himself up on his own misguided response to this situation for compassion is a "movement from within--a kick in the gut". To me this chapter was the finest in the book. It kicked me in the gut...but not bad enough to hurt. It did sting, however.

So did the story of Father Damien on Molokai. This story caused pain as I struggled, in my own mind, to wonder how the Father recognized that this move to Molokai should be his own non-retreating mission of mercy. The book did not settle its focus on the great people who had responded to a spectacular need but, rather, it opened a door, a small ajar, so that each of us would, at least, consider opening the door a bit more in our own mission of mercy.

The Butterfly Effect by Andy Andrews

I would have enjoyed this book more had I not already read "The Boy Who Changed the World" by the same author. Some of the same material and ideas are also conveyed in this book. Nevertheless, the points are well taken in both. The main points diverge into one: Every choice one makes, makes a difference. Every choice you make, makes a difference. You can make a difference.

I found the first part of the book much more interesting because it was new material to me. It is the story of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a Colonel in the Union Army, who insisted that his men stand their ground, despite all the obstacles that should have forced them to run, at the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. He would not allow his troops to allow the obstacles to keep them from standing and defending their position. And the decision changed the course of the War, the status of the country and its later ability to stand united as one country when other outside forces attacked.

The author, in the last part of the book, tells a similar story about the combined efforts of Henry Wallace, Norman Borlaug, and George Washington Carver whose lives were intertwined and each played a major role in discovering new plants and helping to feed the world's hungry. Borlaug is credited, rightly, with developing a hybridized high yield, disease resistant corn and wheat for arid climates. With this discovery, he truly changed the world for many starving people.

Andrews, in both cases, whether it be the Colonel of the Union Army or the intertwined roles of Borlaug, Carver and Wallace, calls the reader to examine his/her own role and responsibility for the experience of life today.