Today I happened to drop in to the Coles bookstore at Limeridge Mall on the Hamilton mountain. Spent a few moments looking at the Biography section. Was amazed--though I shoudn't be!--that most of the bios were of movie stars, rock stars, some royalty, and some sports heroes. Is this honestly what people are reading when it comes to biographies?
I spent a few minutes looking at one, that of Tatum O'Neal. I remembered her starring with her Dad in Paper Moon, a movie that sticks in my mind because I took my wife to it on our first date. What a sad, sad story she's lived. I don't expect most of the others of this genre--movie star bios--are much different. There is a place for such bios, if only to show how sad life is when the Lord Jesus is not in it.
What a contrast, then, was a recent biograpphy that I read, cover to cover--Peter Gentry and Paul Taylor, Bold as a lion: The Life of John Cennick (1718-1755), Moravian Evangelist (2007)--when I flew back from Wales in June. Here was a biography that was truly uplifting and strengthening to the soul, both challenging and inspiring to the heart. And in good biblical fashion, the book ended with a challenge to the present-day from Cennick's life and theology.