It's funny how sometimes you can try so hard at something without effect, and other times you can barely try and success will come. This is a pattern, and it is an interesting one, but it certainly no guarantee--that's sort of what I've been reading about in Chesterton tonight. Chapter 4: The Ethics of Elfland. David F. told me yesterday that this is his favorite chapter.

The something I refer to above is my personal review of Orthodoxy. I picked up my book journal this morning intending to make notes on "What I am Reading Now" and all of the books I want to be reading as well. Inspired by the movie Luther, which Michael and I saw with my sister over the weekend, I picked up The Cost of Descipleship by Deitreich Bonhoffer to review what he says about the activities of Luther's followers after his death. The first chapter is probably the only part the book I have ever read, and I got no further than the index this time before being called away to something else. What I wound up writing in my journal was all Chesterton, my history with the book, why I decided to finally read the book now at this specific time, and what I understood from Chapter 3: The Suicide of Thought.

If I approach the George MacDonald text, The Truth in Jesus, in such a less intentional way as I approached my book journal this morning would I get so satisfactory a result? Probably not. Reading that particular text aloud may be more helpful, but it contains an aweful lot of language to be read out loud to a baby. And no pictures. At 14 mos., I don't think Parker would tolerate it.