I try, oh how I try, to do a lot of reading, mainly because I really love it.  But I have a few problems.  One, I just get too consumed in stuff—in the busyness of our culture.  That’s a bad reason not to read though, because I end up running on fumes.  Two, I’ve got a pretty bad habit of falling asleep as soon as I begin reading—doesn’t matter how exciting the book is.  And three, all too often, I kind of cop out during my leisure time and just watch a movie or television show instead.  Not that T.V. is all bad.  Sometimes, I think I really do just need to be entertained.  But books are so much more consistently edifying and fulfilling.  Well, anyway, here are the five best books that I read last year (not counting the Bible, which was, in all honesty, the best book I read).

1. Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence (by David A. Livermore)

     Short-term missions (STM) is such a huge phenomenon that few followers of Jesus even have the opportunity to ignore it.  For me, as a pro-missionary of sorts, it’s a really big issue.  I lead a team that hosts several volunteer mission teams each year and as I read this book, I found Livermore saying a lot of things that I had been thinking.  He’s also got great research, anecdotes, and instruction to go along with the much-needed criticisms of the drive-by missions movement.  Now I make this book required reading for all the teams that come in.  If you have been involved with STM in the past or are considering it in the future, you really owe it to yourself and to those you serve amongst to read this book carefully.

2. The Spiritual Life (by Evelyn Underhill)
     Underhill is kind of a famous Christian mystic/devotional writer who’s written a bunch of stuff, but this was my first time reading her.  I have to say that it was a very, very important book for me in my walk with Jesus last year.  In fact, there were  a couple chapters I went back and read 2-3 times just so that I could further reflect on her important insights.  Her writing reminded me of A.W. Tozer, rich, profound, Christ-centered – a great book to read very slowly.

3. The Meal Jesus Gave Us (by Tom Wright)
     This was a re-read for me.  I first picked it up because of a sense of dissatisfaction over the rather negligible role the Lord’s Supper (Communion / Eucharist) had played in my spiritual life.  The book made a huge impact on me the first time I read it, and so, last year I read it again with the church that meets in my house each week.  I mean, it’s not inerrant or anything, but it definitely seems to be the best little book on the Lord’s Supper out there.  And it really lends itself well to group reading and discussion.

4. The Chicago Story (by Ira Morris)
     I don’t read a lot of novels, maybe two or three a year.  This was the best of a strong class last year.  I picked it up because of the title and really enjoyed it—seems that is a key to good fiction, right?  I’m not sure if you could say that it’s really the Chicago story, but maybe.  There are some powerful themes of ethnic tension, classism, corruption, individualism, the value of hard work and ingenuity, intergenerational conflict, immigration—all nicely set against the backdrop of Chicago’s development during the 20^th century.  So, it’s good stuff and since I care deeply for Chicagoland, it’s gotta be on my top 5.

5. Something Beautiful for God (by Malcolm Muggeridge)
     This is a book about Mother Theresa.  I’ve been really interested in her for a while and got a lot out of reading Muggeridge’s short book/interview with her—my first time reading a book about her.  The cool thing about this book is that Muggeridge is quite reflexive in his writing.  This isn’t just a biography about Theresa.  It is more of a journal of how Muggeridge’s encounters with her changed his life and reawakened his faith in Jesus Christ.  I’m going to read more about Mother Theresa, she just really intrigues me.