Expendability

A brief talk by Nate Saint over HCJB radio: 1949.

I've been reading Jungle Pilot, by Russell T. Hitt. It's a great book about Nate Saint, and I thought this small excerpt would be an encouragement to my friends: missionaries, military members, and others in service to the King.

You can get a copy of this book free here.

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A fact that is mixed in a very important way with our work is the thing that became commonly known during the last war as "EXPENDABILITY."

The flying business is full of illustrations of this basic principle. God has seen fit to make a vehicle that is expendable essential to progress. There is always a price that must be paid.

During the last war (WW2) we were taught that, in order to obtain our objective, we had to be willing to be expendable, and many lives were spent paying the price of our redemption from the bonds of political slavery.

This very afternoon thousands of soldiers are known by their serial numbers as men who are expendable. During the last war we saw big bombers on the assembly line, row after row, powerful, costly implements of war! Yet we all knew--we actually KNEW that many of those bombers would not accomplish even five missions over enemy territory. We also knew that young fellows, many of them volunteers, would ride in those airborne machine-gun turrets, and their life expectancy behind those guns was (with the trigger down) only four minutes. Tremendous expendability!

We know that there is only one answer when our country demands that we share in the price of freedom--yet when the Lord Jesus asks us to pay the price for world evangelization, we often answer without a word. We cannot go. We say it costs too much.

God Himself laid down the law when He built the universe. He knew when He made it what the price was going to be. And the Lamb of God was slain in the counsels of God from before the foundation of the world. If God didn't hold back His only Son, but gave Him up to pay the price for our failure and sin, then how can we Christians bold back our lives-- the lives He really owns?

The Lord tells us that "He that loveth his life" -- we might say that "he that is selfish with his life" -- "shall lose it." It's inescapable.

Missionaries constantly face expendability. And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives. They forget that when their lives are spent and the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.

Some might say, isn't it too great a price to pay? When missionaries consider themselves--their lives before God--they consider themselves expendable. And in our personal lives as Christians, isn't the same thing true? Isn't the price small in the light of God's infinite love? Those who know the joy of leading a stranger to Christ and those who have gone to tribes who have never heard the Gospel, gladly count themselves expendable. And they count it all joy.

"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone." The apostle Paul said, "I die daily." "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

And Jesus said, "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the Gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time . . . and in the world to come eternal life."
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A Book Give-Away!

As an insatiable reader, I don't watch much TV, but I do follow numerous blogs. One of my favorite book blogs, Books Ahoy!, is going to be giving away a book this month!
Yes, I said G-I-V-I-N-G... as in free book and free shipping!

There are very few things I like more than a free book (most of those things being "more than one free book"), but this isn't an ordinary run-of-the-mill book that's been sitting, moldering on someone's shelf -- this is brand new and unreleased (until the 26th)! It's titled, "The Survivors Club : The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life" and is put out by Hachette Book Group.

I'm not normally a paranoid person (do have a few paranoid friends tho), but always enjoy soaking up any little bit of information that could keep me alive, safe, or just out of a tough spot. Can hardly wait to see who gets it. If you think you just might be interested, the contest starts today (Tuesday, January 13th) and runs until Friday, the 23rd of January. Head over to Books Ahoy! and check out the book, enter the contest, and browse Lisa's blog; you may find something else you'd enjoy reading.

Book Review: 1,000 Dollars and an Idea

My computer was incapacitated when I received this book, so I wasn't able to review it as quickly as I would have liked.

That being said, this is everything I look for in a great autobiographical (or even biographical) work.

1,000 Dollars and an Idea flows well from beginning to end (almost too well; I couldn't put it down). Wyly is a billionaire, but by no means does his book come across as "elitist." His "humble beginnings" were primitive by any American's standards, yet he didn't gloss over them or excessively flaunt them.

As an entrepreneur myself (as well as being involved in raising and managing capital), it's my opinion that every entrepreneur should read this book. (As should anyone with dreams of becoming a multi-millionaire.) The book isn't written as a "how-to-" book for billionaires, but nearly every chapter contains an idea, tip, or guide to improve one's business- and personal-life.

There was only one aspect of the book that was distasteful: rather than being informative, in 2 areas he resorted to raw advertising. First, I didn't mind reading that he follows "Christian Science" (I do not) but the prominence he gave it (and to its founder) was annoyingly distracting. The second was the entire last chapter (The Good Earth). I won't go into a point-for-point refutation here, I'd just recommend you do your own research. Having done extensive work for environmental businesses, I do have more than rudimentary knowledge of the need for environmental responsibility and can relate to the fact not enough is being done. While Wyly's description of the problems we face does raise some important issues that need to be dealt with, his overall "call for action" seems based less on reality and more on "Henny Penny," which was rather disappointing.

The epilogue returns to the style of writing I enjoyed, and my overall impression of the book is: 1,000 Dollars and an Idea is one of the few books I will be rereading at least yearly.

My first REQUESTED book review

I received a copy of Off the DEEP END: The Probably Insane Idea That I Could Swim My Way Through a Midlife Crisis -- and Qualify for the Olympics by W. Hodding Carter on Thursday just before last month ended. It just so happened that the months of February and March (and now April, too) have been some of the busiest weeks I've lived -- my Pastor of 12 years has died (he's been at this church 34 years, but I've only been here the last 12). It fell to me and another guy in the church to keep all the pieces together and make sure nothing was "broken" before our new pastor was voted in. (The church ran fine before, and I realize the probability of me "ruining it" falls between "slim" and "none," but it was still of great concern to me. We did call a new Pastor to step in on Sunday evening, March 30th.) I knew I needed to read this book and review it (that IS, after all, the reason they SENT it to ME), but I wasn't sure when I'd have the time. Late Friday night (March 29th) I decided to see how the first chapter started.

Picking up Off the DEEP END turned out to have been a bad idea (since I still had a lot of work to do that weekend). The first chapter started a bit slowly, but by the time I'd reached the end, then read the title of the second chapter ("Saggy Old-Man Butt"), I was hooked. It was all I could do to put the book down when I finished the second chapter. In fact, all day Saturday (as I was attempting to finish up my work) all I could think about was finishing Carter's story. Late Saturday night (when I should have been getting ready for bed) I picked up his book once again -- and couldn't put it down until I'd finished it.

I find that I can identify quite well with the author: I'm passing my mid-thirties, but (even though they aren't very large) I haven't enjoyed discovering I'm now growing "love bumps" (which I'm told turn into "love handles" very quickly), that I've had to start purchasing my pants 1 to 2 inches larger in the waist (depending on the brand of course -- I could still squeeze into a 31" waist, but I wouldn't do it on the way to an all-you-can-eat-buffet), and that my lack of endurance is getting worse. It seems life, wife, children, and my own lack of commitment tend to erect numerous hurdles and hindrances to my desire of getting back into shape.

Of course, "my" sport was never swimming (I do love the water though), it was cross-country jogging -- and I was never anywhere near world-class competition levels (I was happy when I wasn't running J.V.), but more often I'm noticing lingering thoughts creeping around in the back of my mind: if I would just commit to the effort... my body would respond to the challenge.

Off the DEEP END offered some reassurance that I'm really not crazy, it renewed my hope in myself, and has instilled a fresh desire to quit sitting around wishing I was in better shape and make time to do it.

I know footnotes and parenthetical statements annoy some people to no end, but that is exactly the way I think (and... in case you missed it... the way I write), so I enjoyed Carter's style of writing immensely. The only thing I didn't like about the book was its length: I found myself wanting to know more -- and to be able to follow his monthly progress (or even weekly).

I was initially disappointed that the last chapter wasn't included -- actually, the very first disappointment was finding a card STAPLED TO THE FRONT COVER!! They defaced a book! But now that I've removed the staple, I've come to the point of looking forward to seeing what else is included when this finally goes to press.

Celebrating Geek-dom

I have decided that "cool-ness" isn't -- at all -- what it's cracked up to be (not that I have extensive experience in that area), and I thoroughly enjoy my eccentricities... so far.

Thursday, when I came home for lunch (I've been enjoying my job for the last few months... especially eating 3 meals a day at home) I found my wife had placed an 8½" x 11" padded yellow envelope under my plate. It seems I'd received it in the mail, but she hadn't opened it (although, let me assure you, she was dying to know what was in there). The upper left corner of the envelope (the "normal" return address address area) was totally blank. However, I did see it had been hand-addressed to me. At first, I didn't even notice the "Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill" sticker on which my name and address were written.

It seems that my membership in LibraryThing.com, and specifically, my involvement in the Early Reviewers Group has finally paid off: I received a FREE book in the mail!!! I'm sure not very many people in the world would do a little happy-dance in their chair when they find out someone sent them a free book, but I did. Of course, "free" did/does have one caveat: I have to read and review the book -- that's easy, I'm a read-a-holic. Not to mention, I always have an opinion (about everything), and finally someone is asking me to give my opinion. To top it all off, this is the first time I've even seen a book with "Advance Reading Copy. Not For Sale." emblazoned across the top of the front cover -- and they sent it to me... on purpose! Now, I just need to find the time to read the book, and write the review.

So, for any of you that bother reading my blog... now you know: I will do a happy-dance anytime someone sends me a free book and asks my opinion on it. (Although, I really can't stand things like romance novels, enviro-nut-jobs, pro-evolutionists, pro-choice (murder), horror, etc.)

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EDIT: I just logged in to write my review, and found this post... NOT published to my blog... oops.

Today is actually Tuesday, April 8th, 2008. I received the W. Hodding Carter's Off the DEEP END on Thursday, March 27th, 2008.