Chris​Hubbs​.com

There is a particular class of inspirational book these days that you can identify on the shelf without even looking at the content. First is the book’s size - usually no larger than 5 by 8 inches. Second is the cover art - typically a scenic vista or natural landscape, meant to soothe and inspire. I didn’t get a look at the cover art before I agreed to accept a free copy of The Echo Within from Waterbrook Press and review it on my blog, but as soon as I pulled it out of the envelope, I started to wonder. Is this gonna be another one of those fluffy inspirational books?

Robert Benson is the author of over a dozen books, all of which he describes on his website as being about one thing: “paying attention”. Says Benson:

I write about paying attention for the things that can point us to the Sacred in our lives. About the longings that we have for home and community and a sense of belonging. About practice and ritual and work and contemplation and the way that such things can be constant reminders of who we are and who we are to become.

And in this little volume, as you might guess from its title, Benson urges us to listen to “the echo within” - the little voice within ourselves that gives us some inclination of choices we should make, directions we should take, things we should believe. In the first chapter he describes it this way:

I am coming to believe that the small voice within me is an echo of the Voice that is still speaking the incarnate word that I am here to become, an echo of the Voice that spoke us all into being, an echo of the Voice that spoke all that is alive.

Sometimes we are hesitant to trust that small voice within us because we think it is just ourselves doing the talking… because we have heard a similar voice inside us say things that are hurtful and angry and hateful, to ourselves and about others.

We must learn to listen deeper and deeper, seeking out the true voice within us that echoes the Voice of the One Who made us…

The fact that the Voice that calls to us often sounds like our own is not something to be mistrusted or feared. It is a sign of how close God is to us.

Benson has some good insights in The Echo Within about recognizing the talents, inclinations, and desires that God has built into us - sometimes we do tend to make this whole “God’s leading” thing more difficult than it needs to be - but on the whole Benson strays just a little too far in the “listen to your inner voice” direction, with no balance of recognizing the Truth that is revealed to us in Scripture.

For the person running weary and needing some quiet encouragement, The Echo Within might be a nice little volume to pick up. Read and consider it with discernment, though. That inner voice might be God, but then again, it might not be.

[The Echo Within can be purchased from Amazon.com.]

I finished reading Richard Adams’ Watership Down last night and, when adding it to my reading list, found it rather difficult to describe. Figuring that few of you ever look at my reading list, (which is fine,) and knowing that my attempt amused me, I thought I’d post the description here, too.

This is a hard novel to describe, not because it’s nondescript, but because short descriptions would leave out so much. It’s a story about rabbits. Let’s try this on for size: if Tolkien were to have written a story the length of one of the LotR books, and set it in modern day, and narrowed the scope from “save the world” to “find a new place to live” and written it about rabbits instead of hobbits, you might get something like Watership Down. I enjoyed it.

I stopped at the library yesterday afternoon to pick up a book I had reserved. (Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, yes, Heather, I’m finally getting around to reading it.) And of course, even with my book backlog, I couldn’t stop with just that one book - I had to pick up two more while I was at it. My book pile next to my bed has gotten large. Very large. From memory, here’s what’s sitting there waiting to be read:

• This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel Levitin - a fascinating book about how our brains deal with and remember music. I’m about 2/3 done with this one.
• Submarines: A History - I forget the author. I started this one before I bought the previous title. It’s in progress as well.
• Traitor - Stephen Coonts - I enjoy Coonts, this appears to be his latest.
• Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell - Just picked it up. This will be the next one I start.
• The Ragtime Club? - some random novel I picked up yesterday, deals with Scott Joplin and the ragtime music scene. Looks mildly interesting.
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - Doris Kearns Goodwin - my mom recommended this one. Should be interesting.
• The Republic - Plato - picked this one up with a Christmas gift card.
• The Everlasting Man - G. K. Chesterton - This one is in progress as well - good stuff, but slow going.
• Beyond All Earthly Powers - David Wells - a freebie for attending the Desiring God 2006 conference.
• Lectures to my Students - Spurgeon - Bought at the DG2006 conference, read the first few chapters, it’s still sitting there.
• Looking Unto Jesus - Isaac Ambrose - my dad gave me this one a couple of years ago - I have started on it several times and never finished. Slow going, but good stuff.

There may be a few others, that’s just all I can think of for now.

[Checked tonight when I got home - found I’d missed a couple: What I Saw At The Revolution by Peggy Noonan and Case Closed by Gerald Posner. I guess I’ve got even *more* reading to do. :sigh:

On to a book recommended by Nate Downey: Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead, which is book one of five books in Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle.

I read Taliesin over Christmas break. My first surprise was when I looked at the publisher’s page in the front of the book and saw it was published by CrossWay Books, which is a Christian publishing house. “UhOh”, I thought… “I hope this isn’t going to be some silly Christian novel trying to masquerade as fantasy.” But I had faith in Nate’s selection, so I read on. And I was not let down.

The Pendragon Cycle deals with the Arthurian legend, trying to flesh out the story and put faces on the people. Taliesin is a great deal of back story; it follows the lives of a young lord in England and a princess of Atlantis who end up marrying; they have a child named Merlin who ends up being, well, that Merlin. Along the way there is a typical amount of fantasy-type plot: we see Atlantis’ destruction, intrigue, rivalry, and warfare between the various clans, and the introduction of some early Christian missionaries.

It was that last bit that started to get me worried. The missionaries are introduced about two-thirds of the way through the book, and while on one hand I know that the Arthurian legend needs to have a Christian component (he does seek the Holy Grail, after all), I was worried that it might turn from a decent novel into an evangelistic enterprise quicker than you can say Pendragon. But the author handles it well; he allows the characters to become Christians and wrestle with Christian ideas while avoiding the trap of having them give long speeches about how everyone should come to Jesus and the like.

I really enjoyed Taliesin - thanks, Nate! I will now have to reserve book two from the library when I get a chance.

Those of you who know me know that I am a voracious reader. (Those of you who don’t know me just found out.) Every night for many years I have spent my last waking hour in bed reading some book or another. (If the book is too interesting, I spend a few of my last waking hours in bed… and often end up short on sleep as a result.) I enjoy many genres, but find myself most drawn to history, theology, science fiction (but not the fantasy branch of sci-fi so much), and then military/adventure novels. I was big into Tom Clancy as a kid, and branched out to similar authors when Clancy’s pen dried up.

I average 1 or 2 books per week, depending on how busy my week is. Lately, though, I have become weary of my regular diet of mindless adventure. Much of it is tired retreads. I feel like I’m wasting my time. Back at the DG2006 conference I bought G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man and I’m enjoying it quite a lot. But it, too, will soon join the ranks of books I’ve already read, and I’ll be looking for something else.

So here’s the deal. Do you have any books to recommend that I read? They could be fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Just something you think I’d enjoy or benefit from. Leave a comment with the name and author of the book. In return, I will find them at the local library, read them, and then post my thoughts about the book. Sound like a plan?

I haven’t been a fan of everything Orson Scott Card has ever written (sorry, Keith), but my love for Ender’s Game and even greater affection for Speaker for the Dead drew me to read the next book in the series, Xenocide.

Xenocide picks up Ender and company pretty much where Speaker for the Dead left them. It introduces us to a few new characters along the way, but wrestles with the dilemma of being on a planet where saving the humans there will cause the death of the indigenous species. Card pulls off this drama in his usual thoughtful fashion, asking questions about the nature of life and consciousness.

I don’t know that this one was quite as good as Speaker. I got a bit lost at the end once they start doing faster-than-light travel. It just got weird there for the last chapter or so. But still, if you’ve enjoyed Ender and Speaker, I can definitely recommend that you continue on and read Xenocide.