dream-awakener

chronicles of narnia - the world of fiction and non-fiction

chronicles of narnia fans
Originally uploaded by dream awakener.

before coming a christ follower, i focused more on my social life, and found reading to be less interesting than living. but after coming to christ, not only was my spirit awakened more, but my mind was awaken to learn as well. a new passion for reading developed, reading that could help me to experience life fully.

those who know me would probably find it hard to conceptualize me without a book, considering the library at my apartment and the number of books that i tend to digest in a given year. but by far, most all of my reading up to this point, has been non-fiction. there has been a longing in my heart to read the classic fictions, and so i have picked up a few and have really been enjoying reading fiction, for there is a certain power and shaping that comes from reading fiction that is profound. even learning how many fiction books were written to influence the non-fiction world is fascinating to me.

in preparing for the first release of the chronicles of narnia - the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, i just started reading the chronicles of narnia over vacation (when the boat was docked), though i was familiar with parts of the lion, witch and wardrobe, i haven't had a chance to read the series as of yet.

i think in time that my reading of fiction will grow stronger, for it seems that fiction books tend to shape the world of non-fiction often times better than non-fiction books. for as richard hayes once said, "stories form our values and moral sensibilities in more indirect and complex ways, teaching us how to see the world, what to fear, and what to hope for; stories offer us nuanced models of behavior both wise and foolish, courageous and cowardly, faithful and faithless." no wonder amos wilder remarked, “the road to moral judgment is by way of the imagination.” no wonder jesus told many stories and parables.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 1:17 PM 0 comments

the lion, the witch and the wardrobe

chronicles of narnia lion and kids
Originally uploaded by dream awakener.

so the big movie is coming out this christmas. if you haven't had the chance to see the preview yet, you can download it here, in either quicktime, real player or windows media.

i ran into a friend i haven't seen in a while - john- in pasedena and he had just watched some type of preview, giving some thoughts from a pastors perspective. of course he said, it was a time to advertize for the film, which he didn't mind at all, if it meant that films of this nature would be made. i think that this film has a great potential to do very well at the box office and in time get people to think about ultimate things.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 1:00 PM 0 comments

peacemakers

my faith has been stirred as i have been studying the life of jesus through the eyes of mark. this past sunday i did a talk entitled "traveling to the other side" which you can download for free from our kairos los angeles website. i shared some challenging thoughts when it comes to peacemaking. one quote that i came across recently that has really caused me to think is by daniel berrigan in his book "no bars to manhood". see if this quote doesn't rock your world.

“We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want the peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course continues, because the waging of war, by its very nature, it total – but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial. So a whole will and a whole heart and a whole national life bent toward war prevail over the velleities of peace… “Of course, let us have the peace,” we cry, “but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stay intact, let us know neither prison not ill repute nor disruption of ties…” There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war – at least as exigent, as least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.”

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 2:43 PM 2 comments

crazy days

this month has been a crazy one for me. i have had to be in orlando on a couple of occassions to help with our national organization, i had a week vacation, and then when i am in la i have so many things i am doing. it is all i can do right now to catch up with my life. this morning i had 1,000 unanswered e-mails, and a phone bank that was full and an agenda that is long. these are crazy days, and i thought that the summer was supposed to be more mellow.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 3:31 PM 2 comments

river boat

river boat
Originally uploaded by dream awakener.

so here is the boat that my family and i took down the mississippi. it was a great trip. check out some of the pictures from my trip.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 7:24 AM 0 comments

driving boat

driving boat
Originally uploaded by dream awakener.

the crazy thing about my "vacation" is that as soon as i connected with my parents, they volunteered me to be the captain of the boat. which meant after getting to my folks house at 3 a.m. and getting up at 6 a.m. i was handed a 30 page paper on how to captain the boat. then i received a couple hours of training by a guy who ran our boat right into a gas tank at the pier and i thought, "man, if my trainer can't run this boat, how in the heck am i going to be able to do this?" there were many times when i was in situations where i had no idea what i was doing. i was sweating, felt a lot of responsibility and had an audience watching my every move. i had to rely on God.

i told my mom after she wanted me to be captain that i wasn't sure that it would be a vacation for me, but i told her after reflection it was, and while there were tense and adventurous times, and when we docked the boat, some restful times. in all, it was a great time taking the river boat down the mississippi.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 7:19 AM 4 comments

willie with cap

willie with cap
Originally uploaded by dream awakener.

this is one of my nephew's named willie. he is quite a character. it was cool to hang out with some of my extended family.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 6:57 AM 0 comments

sunset

sunset
Originally uploaded by dream awakener.

one evening when we docked in winnona, minn, we viewed an amazing sunset. this picture captures some of what we saw.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 6:55 AM 4 comments

a whole lot of shaking going on

so while i was gone, we had an earthquake on sunday morning, a 5.2 in riverside county, then i heard about the one in northern california, the larger 7.0 earthquake out in the ocean that struck on tuesday, and then today on my day off, while i was on the internet, i felt a small rubbling that eventually turned into a larger rubbling and a gift the bishop gave me in kenya, a wooden giraffe fell off my bookshelf. this was like the fourth earthquake i felt since i've been here, but definetly one that i felt the most, and the only one that actually shook something off the shelf. the one today was centered in Yucaipa, CA and had a preliminary rating of a 5.3, and later was recognized as a 4.9. i guess i should be reading about what to do when the big one hits.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 2:52 PM 2 comments

floating down the mississippi

so tomorrow i will be flying to detroit, then taking a car with my family to minnesota to get a house boat and cruise down the mississippi. about 15 family members and i will be on this house boat for about five days, stopping at different river towns on the way. a couple of us will take some lessons so we can take the boat down the river ourselves.

i look forward to connecting with my folks, my brother and his wife, some of my nephews and nieces as well as uncles and aunts. after the taking the house boat down the river, i get the chance to visit the house my parents bought just recently. their retirement house. it is by a river with some woods and a desent amount of acres in the country side of northwest ohio.

i'm sure i will be taking a few pictures on the trip, some of which i will post when i return. so i will probably will not be blogging for this next week due to my trip.. be sure to take a break sometime this year. my next break will probably be in august, with just myself and maybe one other person. a trip where i can get a little more time alone. but this next we should be great.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 10:42 PM 3 comments