There has been a lot of posts about what will happen to print material over the next several years with the introduction of the iPad and other already existing devices like the Kindle and Nook. Although my mother clings dearly to them, I know for me, it’s probably been a good six or seven years since I last opened an actual dictionary to find a definition.

Encyclopedias? I don’t think I stayed in school long enough to really grow accustomed to using them. The internet seems to do the trick nicely.

Well, today, as I was browsing the net, I came across this image on thereifixedit.com. It seems to serve as what might be a pretty accurate omen to the future of most print material.

The Encyclopedia Britannica, conveniently modified into a broom to brush away debris on the floor.

Having little higher education, and not having read too much up until about four years ago, I personally have no attachment to the printed medium of literature. Well, other than the fact that I don’t really want to sit in front of my computer screen to read. But, with the advent of a versatile digital media device like the iPad, I can foresee a time when I don’t have a single book shelf in my home and all of my books are consolidated into one little digital media portal. Not unlike the way we’ve ditched shelves and shelves of DVD and CD cases.

I have friends who decry this attitude of mine. Clinging to the nostalgic feeling of several hundred pages bound together to tell a story or communicate an idea.

But a post of Craig Mod’s blog seems to sum things up pretty nicely. Well, for the immediate future, at least.

He argues that a huge amount of our familiarity with the written word will be challenged. Nothing is necessarily sacred. Just because we have lived for hundreds of years interacting with books on a page-by-page basis, doesn’t mean we will continue to. In fact, a digital medium will explode the formatting potential of our literature. Hopefully, in a good way.

As someone with no attachment to the analog methods we’ve used for centuries, I say bring it on!

Meditating on God’s word is an ancient command and tradition. Joshua 1:8:

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Of course, not everyone during Joshua’s time, or even Christ’s time would have access to their own personal copies of the scripture. The idea was that they would know it and remember it. It would be a constant reminder to them.

Today, we have the same need and command to remember God’s word. And our memory hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, with the instant nature of the internet and entertainment, it’s probably gotten worse.

This is why, even though actually reading the bible every day is not exactly a biblical command, we should do it daily. With our plethora of resources, it’s likely the best way we can fulfill the commands to remember God’s word.

There’s just no good excuse not to.

A woman in Massachusetts is being charged on murder and manslaughter claims of two children. Both were stabbed to death. That’s pretty hard to read. It’s pretty hard to write too.

Well, today was the annual March for Life in Washington DC where prolife supporters from all over the country come and show their disgust for the brutal legislation.

What does that have to do with a murderous mother of two deceased children? One of those children wasn’t even born yet!

What kind of a ridiculous double standard is this? A woman can walk into a doctors office and have her child dismembered and vacuumed out of her body. In a lot of places, your tax dollars will even help her do it. But, if she walked into her bathroom and plunged a blade through her abdomen into the child, she’d be convicted as a murderer.

Is there a reason our country doesn’t see the double standard? Ridiculous.

I’m not a fiction reader. When it comes to fiction, I prefer strong TV or a smart movie. But Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist lives up to its hype and praise. I loved it.

The book is about Santiago (although his name only appears once), a shepherd boy who has a kind of spiritual revelation which sends him on a dangerous journey across the desert in search of his treasure at the Egyptian Pyramids.

The book is literally packed with new-age sounding spiritual jargon about the Soul of the World, the Oneness of everything, Personal Legends and the Universe’s benevolent prerogative. Frankly, read in a vacuum, it sounds kind of silly. Like the stuff you might make fun of hippies for. But lucky for me, I can’t read it in a vacuum and I was drawing my own correlations left and right.

The book is extremely simple. Finishing up just around 150 pages and no chapter breaks, it’s easy to sit down and not get up until you realize you’ve almost read the whole book… Or that you really need to visit the bathroom.

The story itself is simple as well. There are no complex character twists. Just a simple story of a boy going after his dream. Although Coelho’s way of introducing new characters tripped me up at first, I still blame myself for not being much of a novel reader. It was easy to get used to and in the end, I appreciated it.

Coelho also has this interesting way of tying stories from various religions into Santiago’s journey. Such as Melkizedek the priest or the centurion who pleaded with Jesus for his servant’s life.

The characters are clearly designed so that they can be related to. But nevertheless, the story, I believe, resonates so closely with our own desires that I found myself feeling as if Coelho was writing just for me. I’m certain most people will share this feeling.

The book was inspirational. It really does instill a sense of courage to go ahead with what you love and see it through to the end.

I’m sure you’ll love this book and think you should read it ASAP before the movie comes out in 2011 and inevitably fails to do the book justice. Plus, wouldn’t you love to get on the inside track now so that you can be that guy who says, “The book was better” so condescendingly and without being a poser? Yeah, me too.

Just read it.

I’m reading (and loving) Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. The story centers on a shepherd who has reason to believe that a treasure awaits him at the Egyptian Pyramids. He sets out on a journey for his treasure.

While making his way through the desert, the caravan he is traveling with stops at an oasis and makes camp while a battle is being waged between warring tribes up ahead. At the oasis, he meets, and falls in love with, a girl. But since he must continue toward the pyramids, he stops to tell her that he loves her. He also wishes to explain why.

In response, the girl says something remarkable.

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”

I have often struggled with the question of why God would love his creatures. If his love is unconditional and not based on our performance as his children, then his love would seem arbitrary.

Well, perhaps there is a reason God loves us; I could ramble off a few ideas the bible seems to support. But maybe it’s not needed. Maybe no reason is needed for loving.

I’m currently reading Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods with a friend. After reading the introduction, I can’t help but feel like the book comes at a time when my spirit is soft enough for the words to cut through.

In the first chapter, Keller write:

“The most painful times in our lives are when our… idols are being threatened or taken away.”

When I read this, something resounded in me. A sense of illumination was splashed on so many of these noted painful times. In virtually every instance my memory presents, I can see there was something underneath the discomfort or pain. Although still not something I’m able to fully understand.

Nevertheless, I’m convinced that Keller is correct in his assertion that there were idols present there. My emotional response was to the prospect of losing them. And, while most of those things which were ‘threatened’ were eventually lost, I have the sinking suspicion that whatever idol was present is still reigning quietly.

At the same time, however, I’m encouraged that God would deal patiently and graciously, working to remove destructive idols that stand to inhibit my satisfaction that could, and should, be had in Him.

I’ve just begun reading Tim Keller’s new book Counterfeit Gods. Literally, the second page of the introduction and I’m already floored with introspection and personal reassessment.

I will share a brief excerpt from Keller’s introduction, though I’m sure there will be quite the slew of quotations in the forthcoming weeks as I creep through the book.

Keller writes:

“There is a difference between sorrow and despair. Sorrow is pain for which there are sources of consolation. Sorrow comes from losing one good thing among others, so that, if you experience a career reversal, you can find comfort in your family to get you through it. Despair, however, is inconsolable, because  it comes from losing an ultimate thing. When you lose the ultimate source of your meaning or hope, there are no alternative sources to turn to. It breaks your spirit.”

This resonated with me in some ambiguous way. See, for me, I often struggle with emotions that are difficult to describe in any other way that despair.  The trouble is, I’m uncertain what was “lost” that was so deeply important that it continually produces this posture in my spirit.

Keller continues in his introduction to convincingly explain that we experience despair when we have some ‘counterfeit god’ as a foundation for our hope and joy.

If then, I believe myself to be experiencing despair, it would it would follow that perhaps I have set up something less than God as a god. This is deeply troubling, yet simultaneously telling and stimulating. I can only pray that as I explore this these ideas that the Spirit would speak and reveal truth.

I have only read the introduction, but I already feel like this is a book that many of us should be reading. It’s very reasonably priced. You can buy it here.