Out with the New in with the Old

2010 is coming to a close and 2011 will be here before we know it.  Is it just me or does each year seem to pass more quickly than the year before?  Maybe it's because I'm getting older! Granted, I am getting older and that has to be part of it, but I also think that we live in a day that values fast and is always looking forward to the newest thing.

One generation ago the microwave was invented to make things fast.  I still remember getting our first microwave (in fact, my parents still use the same one twenty-some years later).  Now, our generation stands in front of our microwaves wishing they would hurry up.  Google just came out with "instant search".  I've been using it - definitely helpful.  Google claims that it will save people between 2 and 5 seconds a search.  I still remember doing research for my high school term papers.  No google and no internet.  Just a handful of books from the libary and a few magazines.  The first internet searches saved us days and weeks of research, now google is shaving off seconds.

Technology is progressing more quickly today than ever before.  We are always looking for the newest toy and tweeking the latest invention.  Xbox just released Kinect - an attachment that reads your body movements and in essence makes the person the control.  We got to see one in action on display at Old Navy.  Kaylee jumped right into the dance game.  I have to admit it was pretty cool.  No sooner did Microsoft release Kinect than someone hacked it so that it could be used as a Windows controler.  Check out this video:

using kinect to control windows

"Fast and new" describes our generation, but sometimes the very thing that we need is to slow down and hear from a perspective outside of our own.  A year ago I made it a goal to read a few more books from Christians outside of our generation.  We have a lot to learn from the people who have lived before us.  It's good for us to dip our feet into Christian streams of thought that were flowing long before we lived.  After all if Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever than I think that we may have something to learn from these Saints.  Here are the older Christian books that I read this last year and I am recommending them to you in order.

Hind's Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard
The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Spurgeon - A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore
The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards
The Mortification of Sin by John Owen

Let me know if you have any older Christian book suggestions because I want to continue this throughout next year as well.