Kruse's Keys: Read "Rumors of Another World" To Abide With the One Who Made You

Looking for book ideas? Check out our 2024,  2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 reading lists!

"Rumors of Another World: What On Earth Are We Missing?” is a weighty book and not one you can breeze through quickly but rather calls the reader towards a meditative examination of how society models and sells life today is the antithesis of the contemplative path God intended.  

The book seeks to answer three basic questions: 

1. What does the current world tell us about heaven?

2. Why is the world so bad then?

3. Where are the natural + supernatural intersections - and what’s their effect on our daily life?

Author Philip Yancey seeks to remind us that the world we live in can not just be fully natural or supernatural–it’s not an either/or choice.  Rather our everyday interactions bleed over into the supernatural world. When we act kindly and selflessly, he calls this ‘hallowing’--describing the term as releasing the holy sparks present in God's creation.

Ultimately he calls us to an upside down world view that is others focused and which seeks to emulate Jesus’ life.  He gives some “easy” examples that call us to serve those and seeks situations that we get nothing out. Specifically: seek those whose egos need stroking (as opposed to those who stroke yours), find people with few resources and give them yours, look for the weak and the sick–and love them. 

One of the authors’s most powerful (and surprising) observations was his comparison of romantic love to that of God’s love for us.  This one stuck with me and is a riff off of C.S. Lewis colleague Charles Williams’ “romantic theology”.  If we think of how we felt when we were first falling in love and we had “the ability to see the best in one other person, to ignore & forgive flaws, to bask in endess fascination"-well, that  is how God views us and how in heaven we will view everyone else there.”  That’s a wild thought–this idea that just how we can’t get the person we’re falling in love with out of our head, the way they permeate every thought–that’s how God thinks about us–but all the time.  That should serve as both encouragement and a reminder of our value to him–the creator of the universe can’t get us out of his mind.  

Key Quotes and Notes

10

- what does the current world tell us about heaven?

- Why is the world so bad then?

- Natural + supernatural intersections - and the effect on our daily life.

18

What do we miss on a daily basis due to our own lack of faith?

Encounter > reduction

You can't quantify God's creation- the beauty of it.

31

"A society that denies the supernatural usually ends up elevating the natural to supernatural status."

33

Today what was called idolatry is now masked as addictions

38

The prayer-> God, take my many longings and show me them at the Holy source that is their origin and which only God can order.

41

George Orwell quote-o we have cut away our souls by our disconnection with the hallowed.

43

"We forget that what is to us an extension of sight is to the rest of the world a peculiar and arrogant blindness." Flannery O' Connor

44

Nature humbles us to God's power and might and how frail we are.

51

Idea of "hallowing" → releasing the holy sparks present in God's creation.

56

Mystics/saints understand the secret is to live one moment at a time

57

Why meditate/contemplate? To see this life as a unity of both worlds-as God sees it combo of practiced repetition and rare revelation.

Author makes a very interesting parallel between the idea of romantic love and that this is the way God thinks of us. Where he can't get us out of his mind. This feeling we experience is one of those echoes-those rumors of the heavenly.

62

[Christianity] applies a dose of realism to the chaos of human longings... promises an ordering of life...

68

Marriage as God's great tool to form our character.

Every relationship is a tool to build our character

70

Ordinary acts of faith turn us from self- obsession so that our lives become reflections of Jesus-so while they may sometimes feel rote-PRESS ON, GET THE REPS.

CH. 5 DESIGNER SEX

81

By desecralizing sex-the Church steals away a powerful pointer towards the CREATOR.

89

Romance-particulary the initial bloom of it gives us "the ability to see the best in one other person, to ignore & forgive flaws, to bask in endess fascination" > This is how God views us!!! And how in the 'Kingdom to come' we will view everyone else there. -from Ciates" Williams"

93

Sex (the idea of it, the desire of it) brings into marriage where it instead teaches us about sacrificial love.

103

God put restlessness in us for a purpose to beckon us to him but also aware of its danger

105-6

In U.s. today the 7 deadly sins have become-have been distorted into virtues:

Pride - idolizing the proud

Envy - advertising is centry to creating it

Anger - Public outrage is all the rage

Greed- Hustle, prepare for retirement"

Sloth- Retire early

Gluttony- Big gulp trend-'more is more'

Lust - scantily clad women has become the norm. .

108

QUOTE: "There are two ways to get enough, one is to continue to accumulate more & more. The other is to desire less."

110

Greed (as is all sin) is rooted in disorder.

116

Original sin must be acknowledged and balanced w/ original grace!

132-3

One of greatest health hazards? DIVORCE.

Increases of early death from stroke, heart disease, hypertension, cancer...

Double the suicide rates

Divorced non-smoker = same health risks as married person who smokes a pack a day.

143

Sin is like a force field we can't explain or resist.

144-5

Natural condition is sin.

Like having a 3 - story mansion but livin in the dank cellar (Kierkegaard, Suren)

145

Quote: "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." Twain

The cycle: sin → pain → guilt → repentance → consequences > restoration.

REF: Psalm 51 & AA

157

Ex. of mom who 'loved' cleaning up her son - or so he thought. In fact, the cleaning was an excuse to hold him.

Mess (sin) is just part of getting close to him this is what it is like w/ God.

166

Quote: "Without God, everything is permitted." Dostoyevsk

Stalin era practice of having school children pray to Stalm for candy (and then giving them the candy).

173

To watch: "To End All Wars" on the life of Ernest Gordon in WWII (2001 film)

184

A supernatural, spiritual world is the only is the only rationale to explain so much madness in the world: children starving, snipers, homeless pop Hn in a rich country like v. 5. A- etc...

187

The point of the book: the world is not "either/or "→ i. e., not just natural or supernatural. Our everyday actions have supernatural consequences-even things like loving the sick and needy.

200

Seeing both worlds should force us to look at humanity in its seeming imperfection differently-to go beyond the surface w/ ppl. (e. g. Elephant Man Ex.)

MONEY, HARDSHIP, DEATH

202

Our objective: world upside ↓ view

Seek those whose egos need stroking

Find people with few resources

Look for the week, the sick

in these things we are emulating Jesus *

210

Giving should not be uptight-worried about every tax deduction.

No, we are called to hilarious, cheerful giving

Giving freely w/ no recognition

215

"When 2.5M ppl. die in Africa each year from AIDS, that's not a cause, that's an emergency"' Bono

224

"Evil is overcome by good only if the injured party absorbs it, refusing to allow it to go any further." YANCEY

237

Maybe the world is counterculture and the Kingdon of God is the culture.

Jesus' normal pattern of life couldn't be accepted

Follow God's faintest whisper requires solitude and total obedience.

239

Jesus' call to us to lose our life for his sake in order to find our life seems paradoxical but is really about every day acts of obedience.

It also means discomfort

ecstasy- greek-ek stasis-to stand apart from-to get outside our bodily desires

Kruse's Keys: Read "How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told" to Be Astounded

Looking for book ideas? Check out our 2024,  2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 reading lists!

This is a laugh out loud, wincingly raw, weepily sad, grind your teeth TMI memoir by a husband and father whose life is torn apart one day when his wife informs him that she wants a divorce and has been cheating on him with their neighbor for the last three years.  To add insult to injury the neighbor is a man who “wears cargo shorts, on purpose."  The book is rife with this brand of biting humor.  But the book's power comes from Key's eventual introspection and self-evaluation as he grapples with where this Christian church going couple's marriage went wrong. 

The author's journey toward self awareness is one that is equal parts humorous and horrific.  As a Christian reader the best parts come from him seeking wisdom through reading through the Bible--it's hilarious in its irreverence and realness--such as this review of some of the Old Testament: “Exodus read like Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope and the book of Joshua now felt more like Return of the Jedi, with the addition of extensive real estate transactions.”  The horror comes from the way he and his wife talk to one another (apparently to be funny) with the husband  most at fault in these verbal clashes.  

After numerous ups and downs, the reader will no doubt begin to wonder if the book's title is tongue in cheek or a red herring.  Luckily hope begins to emerge as both Harrison and his wife decide to do the excavation necessary to cut back the callouses of their hearts.  This comes through a combination of therapy and a real Jesus loving church.

On therapy: 

"You pay pros to clean your teeth and replace your brake shoes. Why won’t you pay someone to give your marriage a little more mileage, too?"

On their church:

They hug us. They feed us. We feed them. They feed our children and we feed theirs and they feed Gary when we’re out of town and when they’re out of town, we feed their cats. All we’re doing is feeding each other, basically, with hymns and prayers and sermons thrown in there to remind us why.

Two of the author's observations at the memoir's end perfectly frame the talent and gleaned wisdom of the author:

“Compatibility is an accomplishment of marriage, not a prerequisite.”

“We won’t be traumatizing our children with our divorce. We’ll traumatize them with our marriage, as God intended.”

Caveat:  This is not (was not for me at least) an actual how-to book, I disagreed with many of the takeaways (and language) on the church and marriage but it did serve as a wakeup to never let my wife's and my heart reach the point of needing excavation.  Date nights are important, listening is important, serious introspection is HUGE.  You can see in the memoir that both parties neglected each others "bids" beginning early on after their wedding ceremony.  You can read more about 'bids' in this Atlantic Monthly article "Master's of Love" that is so foot-stompingly good that it is on my yearly re-reading list.  

Kruse's Keys: Read "Blessed Child" to Grapple With Miracles and Sorrow

I
I'd forgotten about the author Ted Dekker. Some time 10 years ago or so I'd read through 4 or 5 of his books in a row--he's a great suspense/thriller Christian writer admittedly a narrow, strange niche.

"Blessed Child" was in a pile of books that my sister gave us during our evacuation to pass the time while in quarantine. Turns out its partially set in Ethiopia!

The premise is that an American baby named Caleb is given to an Ethiopian monastery after his mother is murdered by invading Eritrean forces. 10 years later his life is in jeopardy and a Peace Corps worker and Red Cross nurse rescue him and take him to the U.S. In the United States, we discover that Caleb can heal people and that senior politicians want him dead. This political thriller unfolds as the central characters grapple with the idea of miracles in the modern age and what is more important: healed hands or healed hearts?

Dekker does a good job in unpacking some difficult questions that many skeptics (and believers) have such as why do some people get healed and other die? Why is there evil if God is all powerful? There's no easy answers to any of this genre of questions but the author provides a solid framework by which we can consider them.

See our 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.

Key Quotes:

Whoever said that a straightened hand was more dramatic than a healed heart anyway?

“Remember, Caleb, words are weak instruments of love. They can do many things, but they do not carry the truth like your hands do. People need to be shown, not told.”