Jesus Land

Well if you read my last post you know that I have rediscovered the joy of reading of the past several months. After the Narnia series the next on the list was a memoir recommended to me by my good friend Christina. We have always enjoyed a relationship of deep thought and discussions. Although we do not always agree, she challenges my in my thinking and I really appreciate her for it. I read "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver on her recommendation several years ago (actually now that I think about it it was almost a decade ago - wow I am feeling old) and I really chewed on it for a long time. "Jesusland" by Julia Scheeres has proved to be the same. I actually had to put it down a couple of times because it was too much for me to handle. It made me so angry and sad and disgusted all at the same time. I think one of the hardest parts for me was knowing that the story was true and the author and her brother actually had to endure the things that made me physically ill. It all still haunts my mind. I was going to summarize to book here, but I figure that you can read it for yourself if you're interested. Instead I will try to tell you what I've learned from it.

1) Christianity is so much more than words. It is who you are, both in public and private. We need to strive to be examples of Christ's love in our homes first and foremost.

2) I never want to waste an opportunity to tell my children that I love them and shower them with kisses and hugs. Just reading about the distance between Julia and her mom and knowing that Julia never felt loved and appreciated by her mom makes me strive to never give my children cause to feel that way.

3) Discipline that does not strive to change the heart does not work. I already knew this one, but this book really made it hit home. When Julia and her brother were sent to the reform school they learned behavior modification very quickly. They learned to act the way that their superiors told them to act in order to make life more tolerable (if that word could describe anything at La Escuela Caribe). It did not make their hearts more open to the ways of the Lord. It anything just the opposite happened. Because of the demeaning and demoralizing punishment they were forced to endure, they actually became more antagonistic to the Lord. Discipline should always be done from true love.

4) "God is who HE says He is not who these people say He is." This is a quote taken from the website that contains people's stories about their time at one or more of New Horizon Youth Ministries reform schools (where Julia and her brother were sent). We need to hold to the truths of the Bible, not to what other people tell us or want to "shove down our throats."

5) People can do some really awful things in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm sure that some of the people who worked at these reform schools had good intentions, but their actions were not representative of what Jesus would want them to do. It is really sad to read about what was done to these children.

6) We can never assume that we know what is going on in someone else's home. Even the most wonderful looking Christian homes can hide the most horrible abuse. We should always be sensitive to the needs of children - no matter how wonderful their home life appears.

7) Racism is a sick horrible thing. Again, I already knew this one, but the book really made me take a more activist stand. We should not only strive to be accepting of all races, but work to make others more so as well.

I know that this is just a small sampling of what I have learned from this book. If you enjoying an engrossing & challenging read, please pick it up. It sure will make you think.

Narnia

So with the writer's strike that happened this winter and TV being a "reality" wasteland, I have returned to an old favorite pastime of mine: reading. What a pleasure it has been to pick up a book and allow my imagination to go to work instead of having all the colors and shapes dictated to me by my television. Always being a "read the book before you see the movie" kind of person my first quest was to read the Chronicles of Narnia series by CS Lewis. I know that it is crazy that here I am 30 years old having never read these wonderful books. Thanks to the CLEVNET inter-library loan system I finished them all over the course of a month. I really enjoyed them, although I told my husband that I wished that I had not known about the allegory (Aslan = Jesus) before reading them. I would have loved to discover that for myself and pick it apart in my brain. I found the last book the most interesting as I think that it has the most parallels to the Bible and some of Lewis' statements really made me wrestle with my ideas of eschatology, mythology, and even theology.
Last week my husband and I watched the movie about the second book "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" that Disney made a few years ago. I found it to be pretty true to the book. The scene where Aslan is killed by the White Witch is well done and moved me like no human rendering of the crucifixion ever has. I am excited to see "Prince Caspian," which is based on book four, soon (we were unable to get a babysitter this weekend). Friends that have seen it have said that it is very good. I know that they are making book five, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," to be released in 2010. That should be good too. I hope that they will go on and make the rest of the series, but only if they stick to the books. "The Silver Chair " (book 6) is a really good story about the power of evil to enslave us and of course "The Last Battle" (book 7) is awesome and beautiful. It had me in tears more times that I can remember. What a thought-provoking experience it was. So thank you Hollywood writers for helping me rediscover the joy of a good book!

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