The Flog – The Fabry Log

I can't help but think of my grandfather on Sunday mornings like this. He died when I was a boy, but I still remember him staying with us at our home, in one of the back bedrooms. He had pared his life down to only a few possessions, clothes, his tobacco pipe, and a black and white TV.

He watched Walter Cronkite on that TV and while my brothers watched "The Invaders" and other spooky shows, I would go into his room and watch Red Skelton.

My grandfather had a farm with chickens and apple trees and pigs and rows of sweet corn and other vegetables. What I remember most about that house is two rooms: the kitchen and the sun room at the front. The sun room had a checker board and other games and I spent time there playing with things and taking in the aged smells of old trunks. I imagined they were filled with letters from famous dead people or maybe gold. There were pictures of my grandmother, long gone, and other relatives who were distant memories.

In the kitchen was his iron skillet. It seemed to fill the room. He would cook on a gas stove and get the skillet scalding hot, then cook eggs and onions. Though I can't remember much interaction with him, I imagine him telling me to sit down and eat. He had a heavy German accent. My brother was skinny and had to jump around in the shower to get wet. My grandfather would say, "Eat! Eat! You vill dry up and blow avay!"

He cooked a lot of eggs in that skillet. And this morning, when I put the butter in the pan and smelled the onions, I thought of him again.

As heard on the program 6/8/2012, here is a list of books recommended by guests, callers, emailers, and some on Facebook. Also, at the bottom, is a list of classic non-fiction books provided by Dr. Rosalie DeRosset of the faculty at Moody Bible Institute. Happy Reading!!!

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Mark Buchanan, Your God is Too Safe, Your Church is Too Safe
Thomas Watson, All Things Work Together for Good
Martin Lloyd Jones, The Sermon on the Mount
Richard Sibbs, The Bruised Reed
Surprised by Oxford, Carolyn Weber
Prayers for Today, Kurt Bjorklund
Mark, The Gospel of Passion, Michael Card
Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, Amazing Grace
Dynamics of Spiritual Life, Richard Lovelace
All Is Grace, Brennan Manning
Beautiful Outlaw, John Eldredge
Kendra Smiley, Do Your Kids A Favor, Love Your Spouse, The Journey of a Strong-Willed Child (Live FREE coming this summer!)
Dwelling with Philippians: A Conversation with Scripture through Image and Word
by Elizabeth Steele Halstead, Paul Detterman, Joyce Borger and John D. Witvliet

Philip Yancey, Finding God in Unexpected Places
Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
Foolproofing Your Life – Jan Silvious
Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young
Radical and Radical Together by David Platt
I Never Thought I'd See the Day by David Jeremiah
The Meaning of Marriage - Tim and Kathy Keller

Mercy Rising, Amber Robinson
The Truth About the Lordship of Christ by John MacArthur
Mere Churchianity by Michael Spencer
Forgotten God by Francis Chan
Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman
I Really Want to Change...So Help Me God by James MacDonald
Life without Limits by Nick Vujicic
The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions by Arthur G. Bennett
Ravi Zacharias, Deliver Us from Evil
Alistair Begg, Pathway to Freedom
Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom
Resolution for Women - Priscilla Shirer
Indivisible - James Robison and J.W. Richards
Driven by Eternity - John Bevere
The 5th Diamond - Irene Weisberg Zisblatt and Gail Ann Webb
Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick
Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend
C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
The Emancipation of Robert Sadler by Robert Sadler with Marie Chapian

OTHER BOOKS FROM FACEBOOK AND NOT MENTIONED ON AIR
Bold Spirit: Helga Estby by Linda L. Hunt
House Calls and Hitching Posts by Dorcas Hoover
The Pink Pagoda by Dr. James Garrow
Jack Burbridge, From Crime to Christ
Unplugging from Religion: Connection with God by Greg Albrecht
Being God's Friend by Oswald Chambers
Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk and Melanie D. Lewis
Jen Hatmaker, "7"
Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose
Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper.
Slave - John MacArthur
The Lord Our Righteousness by Obadiah Grew
The Everlasting Righteousness by Horatius Bonar
Like a Mighty Wind by Mel Tari
66 Love Letters, Larry Crabb
A Path Through Suffering, Elisabeth Elliot
Choosing Gratitude, Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Heaven Proclaims His Glory: A Spectacular View of Creation Through the Lens of the NASA Hubble
Bringing Up Girls, James Dobson
Called To Controversy, Ruth Rosen
Secondhand Jesus, Glen Packiam
Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit, Charles Swindoll

Here is a list of some of the books that were mentioned on the air on June 1 during Chris Fabry Live!

Our guests were:

  Julie Cantrell, author of Into The Free

  Tina Ann Forkner, author of Rose House and Ruby Among Us

  Gina Holmes, author of Crossing Oceans, Dry as Rain


From Facebook: The Mark of the Lion Series by Francine Rivers, anything by Robin Jones Gunn

Dannah Gresh mentioned Donna VanLiere's The Good Dream on her blog

Tina mentioned: The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton

Julie mentioned: books by Barbara Kingsolver

Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle In Time

Temptation, Travis Thrasher (Solitary Series)
    also, the 7 Hour Series, Teardrop

Blue Moon Bay, Lisa Wingate

Almost Heaven, Not In The Heart, Chris Fabry

Harriet Beamer Takes the Bus, Joyce Magnum

Stardust, Carla Stewart

Embrace Me, Lisa Samson

Chasing Mona Lisa, Tricia Goyer

A Sweet Haven Summer, Courtney Walsh -- Suggested by Deborah Raney, author of After All: A Hanover Falls Novel

Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls

Peace Like a River, Leif Enger

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers

Bonnie Calhoun, Cooking the Books

Historical fiction by Tamera Alexander and Kim Vogel Sawyer

Illusion, Frank Peretti

Loving, Karen Kingsbury

Sheep Tales, Ken Davis

Bathsheba, Jill Eileen Smith

The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas

Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis

Chasing Sunsets, Eva Marie Everson
(suggested by author Pam Meyers)

Pam also suggested going online to find a database of books by genre, author, or title. The site is: http://www.fictionfinder.com/

Chosen: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther by Ginger Garrett

Madman by Tracy Groot

The Last Disciple series by Sigmund Brouwer and Hank Hanegraaff

One Tuesday Morning series by Karen Kingsbury

Charles Martin, The Dead Don't Dance, Thunder and Rain

Lee Strobel, The Ambition

Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, David Gregory

I walked into the garage after taking Tebow on his morning excursion and heard the sound. The garage door had been left open, something I don't recommend in the desert. You never know what will crawl in there and make itself at home.

I headed for the laundry door and saw it by the refrigerator. The still, lifeless body of a bird. Tebow wanted to attack. I guided him into the house and took a closer look.

I'm not a bird enthusiast—I can't tell you what species it was, but I can tell you to my untrained eye it was stone cold dead. Expired. This was a late bird.

Not a sparrow falls and all that stuff. God cares for you more than birds. All that went through my head and out again. It takes faith to believe that and I had work to do, I didn't have time for faith.

I've heard you shouldn't touch dead animals, so I went inside to get a plastic bag to move its form from the concrete.

When I returned something had changed. Legs twitched, eyes fluttered. The head moved back and forth. But the poor thing was on its back and a wing dangled. There was really no hope.

I picked it up with the bag, as gently but firmly as I could, and passed by the trash cans and other garage accoutrement. Outside I put it on the ground in the yard which is nothing but gravel. The poor thing at least deserved some grass, but grass have I none.

I left him there, on his back, his legs wiggling, eyes darting, head moving. He was easy prey. But there was no hope. He was flat on his back and couldn't get up on his feet. And if he did get on his feet, that damaged wing would keep him from flight.

Behind me, on the garage roof, the same type of bird chirped and called. Maybe it was a Zig Ziglar type, calling encouragement and positive statements. Perhaps it was one of Job's friends. Or maybe the bird was chirping, "Curse God and die! More worms for me!"

The bird flew away and I moved into the open door to watch. It was almost as if I were looking at my own life, my own journey. Somehow the bird had gotten into the garage and had smacked the wall or a car and was now on its back, ready for the plastic bag. No hope. Just waiting for the predator to carry it away.

Then something happened. Not with the twitching bird, it was still on its back, still helpless and flailing. No, something wonderful. It was another bird—the same type, perhaps the one from the garage, perhaps another, and it flew near the injured bird. I wanted my camera. But I was frozen. You'll have to trust me on this.

This second bird came near the injured one, but not too close. And then it turned and walked away, toward the road. Almost as if it were ignoring the injured bird. Almost as if it were saying, "If you're going to stay there, I'm out of here." How cruel. Insensitive.

And then it turned. I swear to you, it turned. Or maybe this is a fiction writer's view of the story. Maybe I'm making this up to fit the template of what I wanted to happen. But all I can do is describe it.

The injured bird tried to get up. It skittered and flailed with its legs and attempted to right itself, but it couldn't. I thought about helping it, putting it on its belly instead of its back, then I thought better of it. Perhaps this is the mother bird in me. My inner sparrow.

The bird on the road was further away now. The bird on the ground flailed, jostled, and with a wing movement flapped itself onto its belly. Then the legs moved and it stood and walked across the rocks, the damaged wing dangling. And it caught up with the bigger bird on the other side of the road, and then the form changed—the wing was brought back to the body so that the two, other than the size of them, looked the same.

The two birds moved into the cactus and mesquite and scrub, up a little hill, around a cholla, and disappeared.

I didn't witness the flyover. I don't have independent knowledge of the bird's return to the air.

Somehow, I don't need it.