The Great Escape and several good books
Monday, May 25th, 2009
I recently read the book The Trouble With Paris by Australian author and speaker Mark Sayers. Sayers is like a handy kid with a screwdriver, taking apart Western culture’s consumer-driven longings, addictions, and expectations and spinning the gears to see what makes us tick. In the process he invites his readers to think deeply about which reality we will choose to pursue—-will we try to live in the world’s hyper-reality, or in God’s reality?
The book got me thinking about escapism, our regular attempts at using possessions, activities, people, etc. to numb ourselves, achieve a buzz, or escape from whatever reality in which we think we’re stuck. If we pay attention, we’ll notice that this drive to escape has become part of the very soul of our suburban culture (just pay attention to how many people are watching Desperate Housewives, and how many more are living the show!).
Anyway, I spoke about the topic at church last Sunday using Elijah’s escape from Jezebel and encounter with God on Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19) as a text. You can listen if you want by clicking the play button below, or you can download the MP3 directly by clicking here.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The audio at the beginning is a video clip we showed from the Trouble /w Paris DVD study, which you can preview or purchase from the TTWP website.
By the way, this message is part of our church’s current message series is called “The ‘Burbs: Finding God in a Plastic World”. The series was inspired by David Goetz’s excellent book Death by Suburb (which is a must-read for anyone living/ministering in the suburbs).
I recently read the book The Trouble With Paris by Australian author and speaker Mark Sayers. Sayers is like a handy kid with a screwdriver, taking apart Western culture’s consumer-driven longings, addictions, and expectations and spinning the gears to see what makes us tick. In the process he invites his readers to think deeply about which reality we will choose to pursue—-will we try to live in the world’s hyper-reality, or in God’s reality?
The book got me thinking about escapism, our regular attempts at using possessions, activities, people, etc. to numb ourselves, achieve a buzz, or escape from whatever reality in which we think we’re stuck. If we pay attention, we’ll notice that this drive to escape has become part of the very soul of our suburban culture (just pay attention to how many people are watching Desperate Housewives, and how many more are living the show!).
Anyway, I spoke about the topic at church last Sunday using Elijah’s escape from Jezebel and encounter with God on Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19) as a text. You can listen if you want by clicking the play button below, or you can download the MP3 directly by clicking here.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The audio at the beginning is a video clip we showed from the Trouble /w Paris DVD study, which you can preview or purchase from the TTWP website.
By the way, this message is part of our church’s current message series is called “The ‘Burbs: Finding God in a Plastic World”. The series was inspired by David Goetz’s excellent book Death by Suburb (which is a must-read for anyone living/ministering in the suburbs).
