What I’m Reading

It’s been a while since I made one of these, hasn’t it? Not because I haven’t been reading; oh no, never for that reason! I really have no excuse, but here we go with a new episode of W.I.R.!

Right now I’m nomming on one of the most unusual books I have ever read: Konig’s Fire (I have no idea how to do the little dots over the ‘o’). It’s about Nazis in an underground mine/death camp deep in this creepy forest in Romania where all kinds of supernatural things go down.

I’m not the type of person who looks at a book about a Nazi death camp and goes “Hey. That sounds like an enjoyable read!” But this book was published through Marcher Lord Press, which is an awesome publisher of some of my favorite Christian fantasy and sci-fi books, so I thought I’d give it a shot. And you know what? It’s really, really good. It shows us a side of the Nazis you don’t normally think about - their human side. The main characters are not evil (at least, not any more evil than your average human being who tries to be good). They’re just stuck in evil circumstances, and have to decide whether to save their own hide, follow orders as Nazi soldiers, and join in the evil, or do something about it.

It’s a really unique look at humanity, moral choices, good and evil, and the book is 9 months pregnant with theological imagery and incredibly deep Christian symbolism and thought-provoking dialogue that causes you to reflect on your own walk through this life. I didn’t expect all that from a book about Nazis. It says something about the offer that he can take a subject matter I would never normally want to read about, and make it so compelling and enjoyable.

It’s a little freaky though, too. Make sure to keep your lights on when you read this one!

My God is a River!

Currents sweeping me hither

Not knowing where His twists and turns carry

Release the rudder!

Relax!

Enjoy the ferry.

This river has been here far longer than I could ever know

It knows where to flow

And so I let go.

Safely Dying

“Life on Earth
What is this stuff even worth?
Lukewarm and spit out
All this rubbish I can do without
Only one thing
Can capture my heart and make it sing
God above
A treasure of love
Surpassing all the tarnished gold I horde
The only true Lord.
Remove these dragon scales
the countless ways I fail, and
Settle for a comfortable, rich lie.
Too much of this safety, and I will die.”

©2013 Daniel Sellers

Lion’s Grip

Lion’s grip.

Mauled.

Gaping maw.

Prowling.

Sniffing.

Can’t escape this steel trap framed by a tattered, filthy mane.

I have a filthy mane too.

A derelict heart.

Baying with the looming moon’s tidal sweep.

Strides into the mire.

No pride in this creature.

Head lowered.

Slinking now.

Sinking…….

Flash of lightning!

Another lion.

Scenes flicker.

Swap places.

Look at that magnificent mane!

And it is mine, too.

Two lions.

Which do I choose?

Oh, but He is bruised!

Did I do that?

Now who mauled who?

Lion’s grip has me.

Cannot slip.

©2013 Daniel Sellers

Dark Green

Again, again,

I pull the pin

And clamp my teeth around dark green

Explosion fills my mouth and heart

Soft seams rip apart

Gun powder within

I pull the pin again

Throw myself upon the blast

To taste the promised lie at last.

Tasteless again.

Now, scarred by dark green shards,

Hardened by an age-old, empty alabi

I forsake my Friend

Again, again,

I pull the pin

And die.

©2013 Daniel Sellers

Things I Didn’t Say About Reading

“Browsing the dim back corner
Of a musty antique shop
Opened an old book of poetry
Angels flew out from the pages
I caught the whiff of a soul
The ink seemed fresh as today
Was that voices whispering?
The tree of the paper still grows.”
~Terri Guillemets

“Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life.”
~Jesse Lee Bennett

“There are books so alive that you’re always afraid that while you weren’t reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too, and like a river moved on and moved away.  No one has stepped twice into the same river.  But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?”
~Marina Tsvetaeva

O for a Booke and a shadie nooke, eyther in-a-doore or out;
With the grene leaves whisp’ring overhede, or the Streete cryes all about.
Where I maie Reade all at my ease, both of the Newe and Olde;
For a jollie goode Booke whereon to looke is better to me than Golde.
~ John Wilson

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. 
~Anna Quindlen

“If you have never said “Excuse me” to a parking meter or bashed your shins on a fireplug, you are probably wasting too much valuable reading time.” 
~Sherri Chasin Calvo

“My imagination doesn’t require anything more of the book than to provide a framework within which it can wander.”
~Alphonse Daudet

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
~ George R. R. Martin

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”
~ Madeleine L’Engle

O Christ of the Peacemakers
Who are these dreaming dreams
     carrying torches
     building bridges?
They walk in peace
     out where the wild things are.
They pitch their tents
     in fields of violence
And all of this
     because they are at peace
     within themselves.
O Christ of the Peacemakers
Create in me a peaceful heart
     that cannot stay at home.

- from The Prayer of the Beatitudes byMacrina Wiederkehr

Christmas Shopping - Macrina Wiederkehr

Jesus, I think I hear you coming
I think I hear a sound that says
you’ve cared your way into my life again.

I think I see a light more lasting
than the ones we hang on trees
I think I see a world
that’s splashed with God again
so gospelled with his presence
so covered with his love
yet, lonely still …

O shoppers, dear shoppers
put your carts away.
Please put your carts away
and search deep down within your hearts
for gifts that will not rust or fade
For where your treasure is
there is your heart. (Matthew 6:19-21)
O look into your God-splashed, gospelled hearts
and see! See Christmas standing there
waiting to be,  not bought
but given free.

We are Christmas shoppers, Lord
We are shopping for a way
to make your coming last
O take the blind in us and hold it close
O teach us how to see
Decorate our lives with your vision
For Christmas, let us see!

O shoppers, dear shoppers
hang lights in your hearts
instead of on your trees
For the One we’ve hung our hopes on
has come, and now we’re free
but only if we see.

Jesus, we long for Christmas-eyes.
Please heal the blind in us
For Christmas, eyes that see!

— Macrina Wiederkehr