Reset: Living a Grace-Paced Life in a Burnout Culture by David Murray (Book Review)

Reset: Living a Grace-Paced Life in a Burnout Culture by David Murray is an excellent treatment of the problems men (especially pastors) face in midlife and the need for intentional rest, renewal, and restoration. 

Murray relates how his own experience of burnout and resulting health problems in his forties led to serious changes in his lifestyle. 

This book is, in many ways, like Wayne Cordeiro's Leading on Empty (a book Murray seems unaware of, or at least never quotes). In some respects, it is even better. Cordeiro writes as a mainstream evangelical megachurch pastor. While his advice is often good, his theology is sometimes sloppy and his applications out of reach for ordinary people with limited resources. Murray is more grounded, both in theology (writing from a Reformed perspective) and in real life. 

Murray covers almost all the bases (sleep, recreation, exercise, diet, life purpose, goal setting, time management, personal relationships, and one's relationship to the gracious God of the gospel throughout) and includes lots of helpful statistics, insightful quotes, personal stories, and practical application. 

I read the book in less than twenty-four hours and will probably read through again more slowly. 

Highly recommended. 

Best of 2015: Books

Lists are a staple in the diet of any blogger. Lists of books, albums, and films make regular appearances, especially around New Years. I'm late to the game this year, with most people's lists already read and probably forgotten. 

And, honestly, I had to pause, after reading Mark Jones' challenge regarding the motivation and value in writing such lists for others to see. He heads his post with the words of Bertrand Russell, "There are only two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it," and then helpfully reminds us that the only book we must read is the Bible. I agree. 

Let it furthermore be said that there is no virtue in the reading of many books -- especially from someone like myself, an introvert who loves to read books the way some people love to eat chocolate. I have always been a reader. Before I became a Christian, I consumed books. And if I had never become a Christian, I would still be devouring books. In other words, reading is, for me at least, more the result of nature than grace. Grace, thankfully, has shaped many of my reading choices. And only God's grace can make spiritual reading truly beneficial to my life and the lives of others. But my penchant for reading is not in itself any indication of grace, virtue, or holiness. 

Nevertheless, I love books and I love book lists. And for my fellow bibliophiles, I happily share mine. These, of course, are just my personal favorites. They are not necessarily the best books out there, nor were they all published in 2015. 

Christian doctrine

I'm always on the lookout for books on Christian doctrine that are orthodox, clear, winsome, fresh, and written for the person in the pew, rather than the academy. Donald Macleod's books, A Faith to Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine and Christ Crucified: Understanding the Atonement ably fill this theological bill, providing accessible instruction with that rare but beautiful combination of evangelical fervor and irenic tone. 

The Puritans

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love the Puritans, and especially John Owen. These "Redwoods" of Christian history (as J. I. Packer called them) tower over all extra biblical authors in their capacity to shepherd my soul and point me to the Savior. One of the best Puritan books I read last year was Walter Marshall's The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification. Another one (also using the word "gospel" as an adjective) was John Owen's Gospel Grounds and Evidences for the Faith of God's Elect, which is bound in Volume 5 of Owen's Works. I read this book multiple times, and even had the privilege of editing and modernizing it for republication as part of Reformation Heritage Book's series Puritan Treasures for Today. This new edition will be released in April, and is retitled Gospel Evidences of Saving Faith. I hope many of my readers will purchase it and benefit from it as much as I did. 

For those who prefer to read these older theologians with a guide, you should check out one of my favorite new series, Crossway's Theologians of the Christian Life. I read four books from this series last year - the entries on Warfield, Calvin, Newton, and Owen. All of them are excellent, but of the four, my favorite was Michael Horton's Calvin on the Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever. 

For preachers 

Fellow-preachers shouldn't miss Tim Keller's new book Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism, which stands alongside the classic books on preaching by John Stott, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Bryan Chappell and others not as a replacement, but as a supplement. 

As a preacher and pastor, I also spend a lot of time in commentaries, usually working through commentaries of whatever book of the Bible I happen to be preaching on. Last year, that book was 1 Peter. I consulted many commentaries, but read two all the way through: Karen Jobes' 1 Peter in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament and Ed Clowney's The Message of 1 Peter in The Bible Speaks Today. I found these two commentaries wonderfully complimentary. Jobes provides scholarship that is sensitive to both the original cultural context of the letter and the very different social situation of our own day. Clowney, on the other hand, is almost poetic in his eloquent exposition of the biblical-theological dimensions of the text, while also remaining practical in his pastoral applications. 

On homosexuality 

A number of new books on homosexuality were published this year, including Kevin DeYoung's What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? and Ed Shaw's Same Sex Attraction and the Church. DeYoung persuasively holds the traditional evangelical position and is must-reading for any Christian seriously engaged in this issue. I haven't finished Shaw's book yet, but my friend Dave Dunham included it in his top five list, and it promises to be one of the most sensitive, nuanced, and practical books on the subject. I also read Wesley Hill's 2010 book Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality, a book that is both beautiful and moving. While it's not the only book one should read on this topic, it is one that could go a long way towards helping the church adopt a posture of understanding, love, and compassion towards people with same-sex orientation.

My two favorites 

I think my favorite two books of the year were Gerrit Scott Dawson's Jesus Ascended: The Meaning of Christ's Continuing Incarnation and Scott Manetsch's Calvin's Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536-1609. Dawson explores the ascension of Christ, an often neglected aspect of Christology, with biblical clarity, theological acumen, historical awareness, and pastoral practicality. Manetsch, on the other hand, mines both primary and secondary sources to sketch a fascinating account of Calvin and Beza's pastoral vision and leadership -- and faults, foibles, and failures - in sixteenth century Geneva. What struck me most about this historical study was the centrality of the public ministry of the word in the Reformation. Calvin and his company were incessantly preaching, teaching, and catechizing (albeit, sometimes to the chagrin of their people!). There are both things to emulate and things to avoid in their example, but oh for such hunger for, confidence in, and devotion to God's word in the hearts of church leaders today! 

My #1 recommendation

Though I especially loved the aforementioned books, my #1 recommendation (along with Aaron Armstrong) is probably Donald Whitney's new book Praying the Bible. I can't imagine that any believer could fail to benefit from reading and applying this simple little book. If your prayer life needs the equivalent of a blood-transfusion, take it and read. 

For fun

Finally, and just for fun: my favorite novel of the year was Marilynne Robinson's Home (I still haven't read Lila). And my favorite graphic novel was Batman: Earth One, Vol. 2 by Geoff Johns. 

And, for the three people who may be interested, here are my reading lists from past years: 

2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008

Four Books I'd Like to Write

Today I'm going to try a little experiment. 

This post is about books I'd like to write. As someone who has been teaching and preaching for over twenty years, I've accumulated thousands of pages of content and lots of ideas for books. I always have a list of books I'd like to write, along with raw material filling up Word docs and Evernote. Some of these books will eventually be written, and hopefully published, while others will never see the light of day. 

So, I'm writing about some of my book ideas, and am doing so with two goals in mind: 

First, I'm interested in the response of readers. Several thousand people cycle through this blog every month, but only a few leave comments. I would like to hear from you. In particular, I'd like to know which (if any) of the ideas below grab your attention. 

Second, I'm curious to see if an acquisition editor somewhere might respond to one or more of these ideas. Having published several books now and knowing a little bit about the filtering process, I don't have high expectations. But who knows? The digital age has changed a lot of things. (I have a friend who married someone they met through Twitter!) So maybe there is a publisher out there somewhere who is looking to pick up a new author, but one who already has some published books to their name. And maybe one of these ideas will spark enough interest to generate a conversation. 

So here are some of the projects I have in mind. For each one I am writing a one-sentence description of the book idea, one or more potential titles, a brief synopsis, and why I want to write it. 

1. Idea: A book on the biblical metaphors of thirst, fountains, rivers, and water. 

Potential title: Thirst; or Spiritual Thirst

Synopsis: This book would show that God is the fountain of living waters, and therefore the only true satisfaction for our soul's thirst. Here is a rundown of the chapters. I would cover: man's longing for God (chapter 1); how the Triune God is himself the source of life and satisfaction (chapter 2); how we have turned from God to idols (chapter 3); the fatal consequences of that choice (chapter 4); how Christ has born the consequences of our idolatry on the cross (chapters 5-6) and now invites us to come to him for salvation (chapter 7) and the gift of his Spirit (chapter 8); and finally, how God satisfies our souls even as we journey through "the valley of tears" (chapter 9), but promises that someday we will be thirsty no more (chapter 10). 

Here are the chapter titles: 

1 | Thirsty 

2 | The Fountain

3 | Broken Cisterns

4 | The Flaming Sword

5 | “I Thirst” 

6 | The Fountain Opened

7 | The Invitation

8 | Springs of Living Water

9 | The Valley of Tears

10 | Thirsty No More

Why I want to write it: When I was a kid, I began to experience longings and desires that were bigger than any experience in this world could satisfy. I didn't know how to categorize these desires until I started reading C. S. Lewis, and later John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, and Saint Augustine. From Lewis I learned about sehnsucht, the inconsolable longing, while Piper gave me the categories of Christian Hedonism and set me on a life-long study of Jonathan Edwards who spoke of God as a fountain. As the years have passed, I have noticed how often the Scriptures use the rich imagery of thirst for water as a picture of our longing for God. See, for example, David's soul thirst in Psalm 63, or Jesus's conversation with the woman at the well in John 4, or his promise of the Holy Spirit in John 7. This book would be my attempt to explore that biblical imagery in a semi-autobiographical way, weaving in the insights I've learned from Lewis, Piper, Edwards, Augustine and others, along with the echoes of this inconsolable longing in many of our films, songs, and stories. 

2. Idea: A manual for spiritual warfare and Christian living based on Paul's description of the armor of God in Ephesians 6. 

Potential titles: Put on the Gospel Armor; or Armed and Dangerous: Standing Strong in the Armor of God. 

Synopsis: This book would be a biblical and practical study of the realities of spiritual warfare in the everyday life of Christians. Based on a careful study of Paul’s most extensive treatment of spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10-18), this book would be written with the two-fold conviction that we have a real and dangerous adversary, and that Christ our brother, captain, and king has given us everything we need for standing in triumph against the powers that assail us. I would devote a full chapter to each piece of armor, weaving in both research from current scholarship on Ephesians and many of the rich insights on the armor from the Puritans and their heirs (especially Richard Rogers, John Bunyan, and William Gurnall).

Why I want to write it: I've always been intrigued by Paul's description of the Christian's armor. My interest has only grown over time, especially as I've come to see how the seventeenth-century Puritans used the armor to provide pastoral instruction for the whole of Christian living. William Gurnall alone wrote over 1200 double-columned pages of fine print! I think a fresh treatment of the armor of God for 21st century Christians would be useful, especially if it makes the insights from the Puritans more accessible, while still addressing modern pastoral needs and concerns.  

3. Idea: A pastoral and theological treatment of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Potential titles: Spirit of the Living God; or The Breath of God: Life in the Spirit 

Synopsis: This would be a full-scale treatment of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, written for the person in the pew. It would cover everything from the Spirit's deity and personhood to his unique ministry to believers in the new covenant, including chapters on Jesus' promise of the Spirit, the meaning of Pentecost, the nature and necessity of regeneration, the Spirit's role in sanctification, what it means to be filled by the Spirit, how spiritual gifts function the church, the Spirit's role in revival, and more. I would be writing from an Evangelical Reformed position, with Cessationist leanings - though not without sympathy for those who believe all the gifts of the Spirit continue today. 

Why I want to write it: One reason is because most books on the Holy Spirit written from my theological perspective are either too academic for the average reader or very old. Books written on a popular level are often more inspirational than theological. What is needed (in the tradition of J. I. Packer's excellent book Keep In Step with the Spirit) is a fresh theological study, written with ordinary Christians in mind. I also want to write this book as something of a sequel to my first book Christ Formed in You: The Power of the Gospel for Personal Change, which was an attempt to present a comprehensive and gospel-centered approach to spiritual formation in the Reformed tradition. There is a lot about the Holy Spirit in Christ Formed in You, but not a systematic treatment. A third reason I'm interested in writing this book is that I'd like to synthesize the insights of John Calvin, John Owen, and Jonathan Edwards with the insights of more contemporary Reformed theologians such as Richard Lovelace, Richard Gaffin, Sinclair Ferguson, and Graham Cole - but in a way that ordinary people will enjoy reading. 

4. Idea: An examination of spiritual formation and the practice of spiritual disciplines in the writings of John Owen.

Potential title: Renewed in the Image of God: Learning from the Spirituality of John Owen 

Synopsis: This book would present a careful study of the themes of spiritual renewal and the Imago Dei (image of God) in Owen's writings, along with a detailed exposition of Owen's practical instruction on the exercise of faith in and through the means of grace and what we now call spiritual disciplines. 

Why I want to write it: Some very good books have been written on John Owen, including Sinclair Ferguson's classic John Owen on the Christian Life, and more recently, Owen on the Christian Life: Living for the Glory of God in Christ by Michael A. G. Haykin and Matthew Barnett. Both of these are excellent additions to the growing corpus of Owen scholarship. But with twenty-four thick volumes to Owen's credit, no single book can cover everything. In my own study of Owen, two things I've noticed are; first, how frequently Owen discusses the renovation (or renewal) of God's image in believers (this shows up, for example, in both Owen's Christological treatises in volume 1, as well as his books dealing with sanctification in volumes 3 and 6); and second, how many of Owen's theological works include chapters full of rich, practical, pastoral instruction on spiritual practices such as watchfulness, meditation, prayer, and confession of sin. I think there are rich veins of theological and pastoral gold to be mined in Owen's Works. One more reason why I want to write this book is that I want to research it. 

Well, there you have it. If you read all the way to the end, do me a favor and vote in the comments:  which book are you most interested in reading and why? 

Top 12 Books of 2014

Every December, bloggers list off their favorite books of the year. I relish these posts and usually buy a few books as a result. Here are my top twelve picks for the year. Keep in mind, of course, these are my favorites of the books I read this year, not books published this year. Happy reading! 

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Home, Work, and School by John Medina. Fascinating study by a molecular biologist on the human brain and it's complex relationship to exercise, gender, attention, memory and more. Brilliant writing with engaging stories and illustrations, only somewhat marred by naturalistic presuppositions.

Calvin’s Doctrine of the Christian Life by Ronald S. Wallace. An older, but excellent overview of Calvin’s theology that quotes generously from not only the Institutes, but also the commentaries and sermons. Wallace shows how the doctrine of union with Christ shapes all of Calvin’s thinking about the Christian life. Very, very good and well worth prolonged study and repeated readings.

Johnny Cash: The Life by Robert Hilburn. Though I took most of the year to read this 600-plus page biography of the man in black, it was a riveting look at one of the most interesting icons in American music. Cash was a bundle of contradictions: addict/Christian; womanizer/family man; entertainer/artist; broken/redeemed. Hilburn’s biography is ruthlessly honest, but that just makes Cash all the more compelling.

Words of Life: Scripture as the Living and Active Word of God by Timothy Ward. This is an excellent treatment of the doctrine of Scripture, rooted in Trinitarian orthodoxy that utilizes speech-act theory to give a fresh articulation of the classic Reformed Evangelical position. Doesn’t say everything, but what it does say is very good indeed.

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Timothy Keller. One of the best books on prayer I’ve ever read, Keller’s approach wonderfully combines theological reflections on prayer with very helpful practical suggestions for cultivating a strong prayer life. Keller draws heavily on Augustine, Calvin, Owen, and Luther, making this book all the more interesting and valuable.

Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God by Brian S. Rosner. Another scintillating addition to the New Studies in Biblical Theology series, this new book on the law in Pauline theology was both clear and convincing, charting a thoughtful course through this complex territory in theology and ethics. Rosner articulates a three-fold approach to understanding Paul’s use of the law, helpfully summarized with three words: repudiation, replacement, and reappropriation. The value of this book is that it patiently surveys all the data and proposes an interpretative grid that makes sense of it all. Though I’m not sure I agreed with his interpretation of a couple of texts, the book as a whole is invaluable.

The Trinitarian Devotion of John Owen by Sinclair Ferguson. My favorite living theologian on my favorite dead theologian. ‘Nough said.

The Stories We Tell: How TV and Movies Long for and Echo the Truth by Mike Cosper. Excellent study on the intersection between the stories embedded in television / movies and the ultimate story of creation, fall, and redemption. A must read for every Christian who enjoys the media of film and television.

God the Peacemaker: How Atonement brings Shalom by Graham Cole. Another entry in the NSBT series, published in 2009. And it is simply excellent. Every page is stimulating and suggestive. A wonderful blend of thoughtful exegesis, theological reflection, and scholarly dialogue. Easily one of my favorite reads of the year!

Help! For Writers: 210 Solutions to the Problems Every Writer Faces by Roy Peter Clark. This compact little book is bursting at the seams with a veteran author’s practical insights on the craft of writing. Clark isolates seven steps in writing (Getting Started, Getting Your Act Together, Finding Focus, Looking for Language, Building a Draft, Assessing Your Progress, Making It Better) and zooms in on three common problems in each step. Then he presents 10 possible solutions for each problem. Humorous, engaging, helpful: an excellent model of writing, written with writers and wannabe writers in mind. 

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. In contrast to Clark’s book listed above, Pressfield’s War of Art is lean, mean, and focused on one basic thing: overcoming the inner resistance that keeps writers from actually getting words on the page. I’ve never read an author who better understands the thought-world of a creative. I read this almost daily during my writing leave this year. Very, very helpful (though it gets kinda weird and mystical in part 3).

On the Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalence of Indwelling Sin in Believers by John Owen. I read at least something by Owen almost every year and usually walk away wondering why I ever read anything else. This was probably my fourth or fifth time through Indwelling Sin, the third in Owen’s famous trilogy found in volume 6 of his works. The value of this particular volume is its profound insight into the power and deceit of sin in the human heart. Owen was a skilled soul surgeon who effectively applied the gospel to the heart. This is the book that an old Scottish Hebrew professor (John Duncan) recommended to his students with the warning, “But prepare for the knife!”

Update: Here are my lists from previous years:
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008

Reflections on Reading a Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.

Several years ago, prior to Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, I decided to preach on racial reconciliation. I knew I needed to enter into the issue emotionally. I grew up in the South as middle-class Anglo-American. I had not had very many friendships with people of other races. And I felt sure that my background had placed severe limitations on my ability to really empathize with minority races who have lived much of their lives in a context of discrimination or hostility. And so, I spent much of the week reading a biography on Martin Luther King Jr. I wanted to walk in the shoes of an African American.

I wanted to understand and re-live the turbulence of the Civil Rights Movement. I wanted to challenge my own assumptions about what happened in that decade preceding my birth – a decade that many of my friends and family members remember, perhaps with still bitter memories. And so I read. And was helped.

Growing Up Black in White America

I was helped by asking with young “M. L.” (as his parents called him) “why do they (the whites) have things and we don’t?” I was helped in understanding this man by standing there with him as his papa got cheated at the plantation commissary, and as he saw white people beat black people, and even hang one, and he as boy was struck by a white man for refusing to bring him a pail of water.[1] I was helped by trying to understand what this young boy must have felt when he was told that he could no longer play with his white friend across the street because he was colored, and how he received a painful education about what it mean to be black in white America – not being able to order a Coke or hamburger from the downtown stores, having to drink from a “colored” water fountain, and sit in the balcony of the downtown theater.[2] Or when in the eleventh grade, he was sitting in a crowded bus that was boarded by whites. When no seats were to be had, the white bus driver ordered him to surrender his seat.[3]

Hostility and Inequity

I was shocked to read of the inequitable treatment of blacks and whites in the deep South, where fourteen-year old Emmett Till, a young African-American from Chicago who was spending the summer with his relatives in Greenwood, Mississippi, was flung into the Tallahatchie River with a seventy-pound cotton gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire – all because it was rumored that he had whistled at a white girl. While in contrast, in numerous episodes of white men raping or abusing black women, and one even murdering a black woman, the perpetrators were never even arrested and brought to trial.[4]

I hurt with King, when as a young pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, he was receiving 30-40 hate letters a week, and as many as 25 obscene phone-calls a day, and often threats on his life.[5] And I hurt with him as with stammering speech he tried to explain to his six-year-old daughter, Yoki, that the public invitation to the amusement park, Funtown, was not for her, because she was a colored girl.[6]

Non-Violent Activism

I was impressed with King’s generosity, as he gave away most of the $230,000 he received a year in royalties for his speaking engagements.[7] I was touched by the example of his peaceful and non-violent activism, where time and again, despite being deeply provoked by the injustices he and his people suffered, he exhorted his followers to love their enemies and pursue peace rather than retaliation.[8]

Consider, for example, these words, spoken in the wake of the fire-hoses and police dogs being leashed on black children marching in Birmingham: “We must say to our white brothers all over the South who try to keep us down: We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you . . . Do to us what you will. Threaten our children and we will still love you . . . . Say that we’re too low, that we’re too degraded, yet we will still love you. Bomb our homes and go by our churches early and bomb them if you please, and we will still love you. We will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. In winning the victory, we will not only win our freedom. We will so appeal to your heart and your conscience that we will win you in the process.”[9]

And I admired his courage in leading peaceful, nonviolent demonstrations in the quest for desegregation and equal rights, even though it often meant that he would spend time in jail (he was jailed over thirty times), and even put his life at risk.

The Birmingham Letter

I felt compassion when I read his famous open letter to fellow clergymen written from a jail in Birmingham in April of 1963, as he explained African Americans could wait no longer for the end of segregation and discrimination: 

“We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait.’ But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: ‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?’; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading ‘white’ and ‘colored’; when your first name becomes ‘nigger,’ your middle name becomes ‘boy’ (however old you are) and your last name becomes ‘John,’ and your wife and mother are never given the respected title ‘Mrs.’; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’ then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”[10]

And I felt some of the triumph and joy that King felt when he stood in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 and gave his famous “I have a dream today” speech.[11]

“Bloody Sunday” and the Assassination

I also felt just a taste of the grief he must have felt as I read about “bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama on March 7,1965, where a nonviolent demonstration protesting the denial of voting rights ended when state troopers, with a rebel yell, charged the blacks with bullwhips and rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire, attacking men and women alike.[12]

And I was saddened in reading the tragic and violent end of his life when at 6:00 PM on April 4, 1968, he stood outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee and James Earl Ray shot him in the head with a .30-06 caliber rifle, blowing away the right side of his face. He died an hour and five minutes later. He was 39 years old. An FBI agent in Atlanta, after hearing the news, joyfully said, “They finally got the s.o.b!” Students at the University of Texas in Arlington cheered, and riots flared in 110 cities.[13]

Reading about these events was one of the most moving reading experiences I've had. The impact on me was tremendous. No, Martin Luther King wasn’t perfect. He had his flaws and less than admirable traits. His theology was quite different than mine. But he was a great man, nonetheless. And his impact on our country has been great. A lot has changed, for which we should thank the Lord. But we still have a long ways to go.

[This post was originally written and published in 2010.] 

Notes

[1] See Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 1994) 5. I have found this to be an engaging and well-documented biography which sympathetically, yet honestly, seeks to understand the character and contributions of King.

[2] Oates, 10.

[3] Oates, 16.

[4] Oates, 62-63.

[5] Oates, 87.

[6] Oates, 182.

[7] Oates, 189.

[8] Oates, 71.

[9] Quoted in Oates, 236. Consider also his summons to “serve in our nonviolent army,” “a special army, with no supplies but its sincerity, no uniform but its determination, no arsenal except its faith, no currency but its conscience. It was an army that would sing but not slay. It was an army to storm bastions of hatred, to lay siege to the fortress of segregation, to surround symbols of discrimination” (218).

[10] See Oates, 223-230. Also available online at: http://www.epm.org/articles/mlkletter.html

[11] See Oates, 256-264

[12] Oates, 348.

[13] Oates, 490-494.