Mark 8 verses 34 and 35, then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said,

whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

So a couple of years ago I was moving across the country of the Pacific Northwest

and I set out to read a few novels that were set in this area to cultivate an appetite.

I started with The Night Always Comes, which is a novel by William Blotten set right here in Portland, and it was fine.

And then I moved on to the overstory and, oh man, has anyone read the overstory?

It's so beautiful and weird.

It's exactly like Portland, which was perfect.

My favorite, though, by far was David James Duncan's The Brother's K, which is an American retelling of Dustoy F's.

There's a few big fans in here, great.

Classic. It's Sutton, Canvas, Washington.

And there's just one scene that I don't think I'll ever forget.

Where the father, who's a washed up minor league baseball player, he's bitter at the hand that life's delt him.

He's working at this paper mill and he gets off work at this job that he hates that represents the life that he resents.

And on this particular day, one of his sons is riding home with him.

And already in a foul mood, the father is pretty put off when the son starts defending his wife, the son's mother.

Their marriage is on the rocks and the dad's just kind of saying that like he means it, even to his son.

He starts pointing out all the mother's flaws, her personality quirks and her coping mechanisms and her outright dysfunction that the whole family just has to live in the environment of.

...