The 123 book meme

February 15th, 2008 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (4) |

Scott from Transformatum has tagged me in the popular “123″ or “closest book” meme, which has been around for a really long time (I remember seeing it on Marko’s blog in ‘06), even though it’s been spreading like wildfire as of late [UPDATE: Looks like I was tagged by Jeremy a couple weeks ago... whoops]. Anyway, here’s how it works.

(1) Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating! (2) Turn to page 123. (3) Find the first 5 sentences. (4) Post the next 3 sentences. (5) Tag 5 people.

Here goes:

I will revisit the pain of my mother’s forgiveness in chapter 6. My father never talked about how it felt forgiving a person who killed his boy; he never talked much about how anything felt, though he was a deeply sensitive man. But that forgiveness must have cost him a great deal too, possibly no less that it cost my mother.

The passage is from the book Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, by Croatian-American theologian Miroslav Volf, which was sitting on my bed (right behind me). Those three sentences actually provide a lot of insight into how Volf does theology – often through anecdotes and achingly honest personal narrative.

I tag b.mick, Bruce, Jonathan, Matt, and Jim. You’re it.