Book Review - The Vertical Self by Mark Sayers

I find it difficult to write a meaningful review of this book because it says a lot of good things and yet it took too long to say it... and its not even 200 pages. As the author bio describes on the back cover, "Mark Sayers is a highly sought-after speaker, commentator, and thinker in the areas of faith and culture." Although I had never heard of him until reading this book, I can believe the bio is accurate. Sayers presents both a good analysis of how identities are being created in various ways in the 21st century as well as a solid biblical theology of personal identity within community.



Unfortunately, he spends so long - eight chapters or 77 pages - describing the various ways in which individuals present themself, some of which becomes overly repititious, that you cannot wait for the solution to be presented. In and of itself, that is not necessarily a problem, though when the solution is covered in two chapters (admittedly 90 pages in total) it seems to be a combination of not enough detail and too much broad stroke theology. Again, there's nothing signficantly wrong theologically or in terms of argumentation, the writing style (at least to me) just doesn't seem to fit the initial "analysis" provided in the opening chapters.



An intereseting book with good things to say, though it really seemed to this reader to be an awkward read.



This book was provided for review by Thomas Nelson publishers.

NHL Playoff Predictions - Round 3

Not that my picks in round 2 were very good (50%), but here's my picks for the conference finals. In the Western Conference, its #1 San Jose vs #2 Chicago. This is probably going to be a magnificent series and I think it will be Sharks in 7. In the Eastern Confererence, I'll pick Montreal to beat Philly in six games.

Jesus Makes Beautiful

After awaking this morning and getting all ready to head to work, I checked back to our bedroom one more time and my dear wife caught my eye. Our precious Rachel was making some happy sounds from her bed and so I went to her room and talked with her for a minute before bringing her in to Sarah. Meanwhile, our big boy Caleb also awoke, having come into our bed about 7:00 pm and now rolled over to see mommy, Rachel and daddy. And for me it was just (another) one of those moments where I realized how blessed I am. God has lavished His grace and kindness on me and I'm in awe. The words of this song (I remember Keith Green singing it) probably say it best.

Beautiful (by Dennis Cleveland)
Beautiful, beautiful, Jesus is beautiful, And Jesus makes beautiful things of my life.
Carefully touching me, Causing my eyes to see, Jesus makes beautiful things of my life.
(c) 1982 Maranatha! Music CCCM Music (Admin. by Maranatha! Music)

I proudly confess that I have often substituted Rachel's name into all but the last "Jesus" in the past few weeks as I sing it to our daughter. Nonetheless, I trust that when I'm beaming with pride over the family God has given me, Sarah, Caleb and Rachel that "all eyes see that Jesus really does makes beautiful things of our lives."

A couple pics of Caleb

These two pictures of Caleb provided courtesy of Auntie Beckie (Rebecca Nicolson).