A Good Book

I'm reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok. It is about two young Jewish boys from different sects of Judaism who become friends. It takes place during the 1940's and shows their reactions to the events of World War II. It is enjoyable to read, and also informative about Jewish life and thought.

The story is told through Reuven Malter's eyes. He is Orthodox, with an aptitude for mathematics and a desire to become a rabbi. His father is a kind and gentle scholar. Danny Saunders is Hasidic, in line to take his father's place as a tzaddik, but instead he would rather study psychology.

So far my favorite character has been Reuven's father. I love the relationship that Reuven and his father share. They talk about everything, and whenever Reuven is confused about anything he knows that he can consult his dad. This is in stark contrast to Danny and his father, who only talk to each other when they are discussing Talmud. They are incapable of talking to each other about anything else. I just read this paragraph spoken by Danny about his relationship with his father:

"You want to know how I feel about my father? I admire him. I don't know what he's trying to do to me with this weird silence that he's established between us, but I admire him. I think he's a great man. I respect him and trust him completely, which is why I think I can live with his silence. I don't know why I trust him, but I do. And I pity him, too. Intellectually, he's trapped. He was born trapped. I don't ever want to be trapped the way he's trapped. I want to be able to breathe, to think what I want to think, to say the things I want to say."

I just think it's interesting, the relationship of father and child, and how we percieve our fathers. I wonder why it is that even when someone has a distant relationship with their father that they can still have utmost respect for them.

I also liked what Reuven's father said in response to the news of the holocaust, after it came out: "The Jewish world is changed. A madman has destroyed our treasures. If we do not rebuild Jewry in America, we will die as a people." Reading this book is good insight into how Jews in America responded to the holocaust.

So, this is my random book review. I'm not finished with it yet, but these are some things that I like about it so far.

Lessons in Faith

I've had this experience before, having to rely on God for the next steps of my life, but it's been a while. I guess I thought I had learned the lesson. I always counseled people, “There have been times when I had no idea what to do, but God always showed me in His timing, not mine.” Well, as we know about lessons learned, they always come back, but each time the heat gets turned up a little. The purpose is to strengthen our faith. The choice for me right now is not to decide where I want to go or what I want to do. The choice is to believe that God is GOD, that His character is secure, and to act upon the truth of Who He is. To cower back in fear is to dishonor His Name. It makes everything we do into a spiritual act if we do it out of the knowledge of who God is.

Many unrelated people keep telling me the same things: “Don't think about it too much. You're over-analyzing. You'll drive yourself crazy.” They are right. It all comes back to God and who He is. All the thinking and over-analyzing makes me want to run away screaming. It gives me absolutely no desire to live the kind of life I want to live. (Right now I am listening to Nichole Nordeman singing, “You make me want to live/You came to shake us and to wake us up to something more than we'd always settled for.”)

As my roommate said last night, “Just visiting a school is not a commitment to go there. You might visit and decide to do something different, but unless you try you will never know.”

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
(Psa 131:1-2)

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.
(Psa 62:5-8)

My soul, do not lose hope. Hope in God.