A Praying Life

Paul Miller

This is one of the best books on prayer that I have read.  I have quite a few in my library and the big important works covering the topic systematically would include the books by Timothy Keller, Philip Yancey and Richard Foster – all three valuable works.  But in some ways this is the most practical book on prayer that I’ve read.  I want to say that it is more practical than profound, but on the other hand, Miller can be very insightful.  He has certainly reflected deeply on prayer.

The book is peppered with stories, mostly from his own family life, with his wife and six children, especially including his autistic daughter, Kimberly.  He is honest, vulnerable and real.

In some ways I think this will change the way I approach intercession for people – more real, and more honest with God about challenges and needs.

Highly recommended.

Into the Silence

Wade Davis

This is an epic book on the attempts of George Mallory and a team of British explorers to conquer Mt. Everest.  They made three attempts – in 1921, a year later in 1922, and two years later in 1924.  As far as we know, none succeeded.

It is a thrilling tale, backed by ten years of research by a gifted writer, Wade Davis.

Davis sets this adventure tale against the backdrop of the devastation of World War I.  Though Britain was on the winning side, no participating country actually won.  The losses and suffering were catastrophic for all the countries, including Britain.  Davis holds that this was an attempt by Britain to reclaim its national glory, that this was ultimately about national redemption.  If Britain could be the first country to conquer Everest, then that would restore the glory of Great Britain and the British Empire. They spared no effort and the entire country followed the thrilling saga.

The teams were carefully selected.  Money was raised.  Plans were prepared, and the team was sent off.  The team was comprised of a number of skilled climbers, most of whom had fought in World War I.  The team of course included Britain’s finest climber, the graceful and agile graduate of Oxford, George Mallory.

The teams would sail and travel by train to northern India, to Darjeeling.  Then they would begin the long trek north into Tibet, and then across southern Tibet to the foothills of Everest.  On the first expedition they surveyed and explored so much of the territory around Everest and then they made their climb, with primitive clothing and equipment by today’s standards.  The climbs themselves were full of fierce winds, bitter cold, altitude sickness, and at times, death.  The Brits were indefatigable in their attempts to reach the summit.

One night they were high on the side of the mountain, with their little tent anchored down on a flat ledge and the wind was so fierce that it sounded like machine gun fire flapping against the tent.  Sleep was impossible in those circumstances because of the noise and because of the concern that the entire team would be blown off the side of the mountain.

On the third expedition, George Mallory and the young Sandy Irvine, another Oxford graduate, left one morning from a camp high on the mountain, never to return.  A case could be made that they reached the summit and died on their way down, but perhaps it is more likely that they died on the ascent not the descent.  When Mallory died he was a national hero and he left behind a loving wife and three young children.  He was only 37.

Wade Davis does a superb job with this book.  Though not as riveting throughout as Jon Krakauer’s class tale “Into Thin Air,” Wade Davis’ book is more thoroughly researched and crafted.  An amazing saga.

Just As I Am

Billy Graham

It has been almost 20 years since Billy Graham published his autobiography entitled Just As I Am.  At that time he was in his late 70s.  Billy Graham is a remarkable man who has lived a remarkable life.  (Incidentally, he is still alive in his late 90s, although I understand suffering quite a bit from Parkinson’s.)

He was raised on a farm in North Carolina, from a Christian family, and when he is 18 years old he commits his life to Christ, attending Florida Bible Institute and later Wheaton College.  There he meets Ruth Bell, who had been raised by missionaries in China.  Soon they will marry and begin a long, strong marriage until her death many years later.

Billy Graham serves for a time as a pastor and with a youth ministry and as a college president of a small Bible college in Minneapolis.  Pretty soon he gives himself wholly to his life’s calling, that of evangelism. 

The watershed tour happened in 1949 when Billy Graham was only 31 years old.  The crowds packed in, the crusade was extended by many weeks, and Billy Graham became a household name in our country.  After that, Billy Graham and his team never looked back, doing crusades across the United States, and then, beginning in 1954 with a crusade in London, on other continents around the world.  He took cities and he took countries by storm.  Or rather, the Spirit of God fell upon him and his preaching and God used it incredibly.

Most of the book was underwhelming in that it became a bit tedious, talking about crusade after crusade – and by no means did he cover every one of the crusades in the book.  But still, it grew tedious and I began to wonder when is he going to share his heart, his life, his soul, his family.  He would drip tidbits here and there, but it was overall a bit superficial until the end, when he includes four chapters of reflections.  He talks about the close teammates that he worked with, many of whom were with him the entire time! 

He also talks about friendship that he had shared across the years.  And then the best chapter yet, on his home and family and heart.

The long autobiography finished well, just as he did in his ministry.

The impact of Billy Graham’s ministry is phenomenal.  They way God used this man.  The thousands upon thousands who came to Christ and made decisions for Christ.  The millions upon millions who heard the gospel through him.  Clearly, God’s hand was upon him in an unmistakable way.  Sovereign grace.  I think this is the most significant fact about him and his ministry, the way God’s hand was upon him.

At the same time, Billy Graham is a deeply godly man, with a deep heart for God.  He is a man of profound and genuine humility.  He is a man of the Scriptures who is faithful to the Word of God.  He is a man of prayer, something that I did not really understand until I read this autobiography.  His crusades were bathed in prayer and he personally was a man of prayer.

Clearly, Billy and Ruth Graham had a wonderful marriage, which is somewhat surprising considering Billy traveled so much.  How he did travel!  Whenever he could he would coax Ruth into joining him on one of his extended trips.  But they also had five children and it was limited how much she could travel with him.  He would be gone for weeks and weeks, and even months and months at a time while his children were small.  He expressed some regrets about being away too much, but when he was home it seems like he was a fully engaged father and loved by his kids.  Two of the five kids, the two boys, had periods of rebellion, but all five became devoted followers of Jesus and the two boys devoted their lives to full-time Christian service.

I was also struck that Billy Graham was not just a great preacher but he was a great leader.  He was an innovator with evangelism and crusades.  He was always behind some innovative step.  He was also a team builder.  It is remarkable the close team that he built and maintained around him.

One of the most surprising things in the book was his relationship with president after president, beginning with Harry Truman and running at least through George W. Bush.  By the time President Obama was in office his Parkinson’s had deteriorated too badly.  But he knew, quite well, most of these presidents.  And he was good friends with some of these presidents – Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, the first President Bush.  Most of these presidents treated him as their pastor.

In addition, it seems like in every country he would go to for a crusade he would at some point meet with the country’s leader.  For example, he probably met over the years with Queen Elizabeth a dozen times.  God raised him up and used him in an unusual way.

Thank God for Billy Graham

Praying Hyde

Basil Miller

John Hyde was a missionary in India from 1892 to 1911.  He was such a man of prayer that he became known during his lifetime and in church history as Praying Hyde.  He had great fruitfulness doing evangelism work in villages in northern India, in what was then called Punjab.  But what he really became known for was his heart for prayer.

The man prayed!  He would pray all night and not that infrequently, and then carry on the next day.  He would get on his knees and pray throughout the day.  He would walk and pray.  When there were important events or services being held, he would not attend them but go to the prayer room next door and seek God in fervent intercession.  He would rather do the work of intercession than the work of preaching.

Hyde had remarkable impact on people in his life.  He understood that prayer was not only the greatest privilege, but prayer was where the power was.

This brief biography will inspire you with the power of prayer.

Younger Next Year

Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge, M.D.

If you are between 50 and 80 years old you can be younger next year in all the ways that matter.

That is the claim of this book, co-written by a professor at Columbia Medical School in New York City and a retired attorney, who is living the message of the book.  Apparently in the last decade there has been much new information about the science of aging.  The authors make the cogent case that you can keep the same general level of fitness and physical capacity between 50 and 80 and even beyond 80.  Chris Crowley, the retired attorney, supplies the motivation.  Though he can be a bit foul-mouthed, he is also hilarious.  Henry Lodge, professor at Columbia Medical School, provides the science.

Here is a summary of the book.  There are three essential things to becoming functionally younger:  exercise, nutrition and commitment (by commitment they mean engage meaningfully with people and with a purpose or a cause).

“The biggest one – and the biggest change for most people – is exercise.  It is the secret to great health.  You should exercise hard almost every day of your life – say, six days a week.  And do strength training.  Lift weights, two of those six days.  Exercise is the great key to aging” (p. 14).

Elsewhere Dr. Lodge summarizes some of the key findings about the science of aging:

“Some 70 percent of premature death and aging is lifestyle-related.  Heart attacks, strokes, the common cancers, diabetes, most falls, fractures and serious injuries, and many more illnesses are primarily caused by the way we live.  If we had the will to do it, we could eliminate more than half of all disease in men and women over fifty.  Not delay it, eliminate it.  That is a readily attainable goal, but we are not moving toward it.  Instead, we have made these problems invisible by making them part of the ‘normal’ landscape of aging.  As in ‘Oh, that’s a normal part of growing older’” (p. 29).

The authors distinguish between aging and decay.  Aging is inevitable.  But what really matters is decay, physical decay, which is optional not inevitable.  That means that functional aging is optional also.  We keep ourselves from decaying by changing the signals that we send to our bodies through daily exercise, emotional commitment and reasonable nutrition.

The key is exercise, six days a week for the rest of your life.  No negotiations.  Think of it like a job.  “In 20 years, failure to exercise six days a week will seem as self-destructive as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.”  Join a gym.  Try an exercise class.  Pick a regular time each day to work out.  Tap into an athletic passion if at all possible.  But unfailingly, exercise six days a week.  At least 45 minutes.  Four days a week, do cardio work.  Two days a week do strength training.

They do not have stringent rules about eating, but they do insist on a reasonable diet, which includes to stop eating junk.  (This one will be the challenge for me.)  They insist that you should never go on a diet again, but you should avoid the worst foods and you should eat less of everything.

They provide some impressive research on the dangers of isolation and purposeless living.  Lots of studies support the truth that living in community, having emotional bonds with people, having meaningful work or volunteer activities, are all critical to your physical health.

Some of the science is tedious, especially the evolution stuff, but most of the book is a fast and fun read.  But more importantly, it could really make a difference in physical health.