When I had lunch with Dawn in November of 2003, she recommended “Girl Meets God” by Lauren F. Winner to me as a book that I might find interesting. I put it on my “to read” list and it unfortunately got postponed indefinitely due to my local library system not having it. (Technically, I could have gotten it from Concordia College on I.L.L. but I didn’t know that until today.) When I was in Sioux Falls last weekend, I finally got a copy at Barnes & Noble.

My thoughts: as a convert to Christianity who came to faith as an Episcopalian, I could sooooooo identify with what Lauren had to say. I found myself saying “that is exactly how I would have said that” when she was talking about a lot of her experiences in the church and it was actually comforting to know that my conversion experience was not the weirdest one in the world. Having also studied Judaism as a Religious Studies major, I also could appreciate the aspects of Orthodox Judaism that she spoke about.

I got on Amazon.Com and got Lauren’s next two books. I don’t usually buy books (since I can find almost everything I want within my library system) but I felt like I’d use both of them in my ministry life (when I actually am [God willing] ordained) and I didn’t really want to have to explain to my local librarian why I was checking out the third one (Real Sex: A Naked Look at Chastity — there are just some things I don’t want to explain to everyone in the small town where I live).

When my friend Crystal interviewed me on LJ, she asked me the following question:

4. What are the top five books that have most influenced your life?

I decided to take my answers to that question in the interview and expand on it.

[+] The Bible: I’m Christian so this should be a natural answer. I’ve been asked before what my favorite book is (Psalms) and what book I hate most. My answer to the latter part of the question is that I don’t hate any of the books of the Bible. While that sounds all happy-clappy, it’s the truth — there are parts that mess me up inwardly and I would be worried if they didn’t. As I grow in my relationship with Christ, things that were difficult for me to understand become clearer and as I mold my will to be like that of Christ’s, those things that caused me conflict get reconciled and resolved. As one of my seminary professors said, “the Gospel is life-changing — the only problem is that it means that our lives have to change.”

[+] What’s So Amazing About Grace?: Another book that completely messes me up inside. I think that every Christian should be required to read this book. It is an amazing treatment of what grace_ is and what it would look like if the world showed grace_ to people in the same way that Jesus did. I read it yearly and I get something new out of it each time.

[+] The Jesus I Never Knew: This one didn’t move me as much as as What’s So Amazing About Grace? did; but it still has the capacity to cause me inner discomfort. I’ve read it twice now (it’s one of those “read yearly” books for me) and each time, I’ve been drawn to something new in the character of Jesus Christ.

[+] The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Prayer: This book is the BEST book on prayer that is on the market. It’s exclusively on Christian prayer but it does an amazing job of explaining what prayer is, why we pray, some ways of praying, dealing with problems in prayer, and even giving some sample prayers. I don’t think anyone is too advanced in the practice of prayer to read it.

[+] The Chronicles of Narnia: I constantly see examples from these books in my life. I’m starting to read them yearly as I get some pretty interesting insights about my faith from them. I also found that my professors used examples from them in my seminary classes.