I've been so much in survival mode this last while, spending so much time just trying to make it through from one day to the next that I've stopped reading anything that challenges me to think. I've been reading almost exclusively novels (which I love, and which have often challenged me as well). But I've been reading novels as a way to escape reality.
And now, now I'm ready to challenge myself again. I'd like to read stuff that will make me see the world from a variety of angles. I want to challenge the way I think about things, and get as much information as possible on the things that fascinate me and are deeply important to me.
My best friend and I went to a local Christian bookstore that's closing at the end of the month tonight. Time to shop the sales.
I came home with the following stack of books:
Through Painted Deserts (audio) Donald Miller
Grown (Kendall Payne) - a favorite artist of mine
Dark Night of the Soul (St. John of the Cross)
The Voice Revealed - The True Story of the Last Eyewitness (Chris Seay)
Toward Jerusalem (Amy Carmichael)
A Quarter After Tuesday (Jo Kadlecek - a novel)
Healing Stones (Nancy Rue & Stephen Arteburn - a novel)
Eat this Book (Eugene H. Peterson)
Discipleship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
The Prophetic Imagination (Walter Brueggemann)
Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices (Brian McLaren)
Making Peace With a Dangerous God: Wrestling With What We Don't Understand (Linda Clare & Kristen Johnson Ingram)
Whoohoo! Here's to many hours to come curled up in my favorite chair, reading!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Repetition
I’m thinking today about repetition.
About how, sometimes, I need to hear and see and do something over and over and over again for it to become real – for it to sink into the depths of my being and make a home there.
When a song or an album catches my heart, I will play it over and over and over again, until even I’m sick of it, but the messages that so grabbed me have begun to sink in.
There are books like this too. If you look in the sidebar at the list of books I’ve read this year, you’ll notice that there are two or three that I have indicated that I have read multiple times through. That’s not because the stories were particularly stunning (though they were well-crafted). It’s because something in the message of the book spoke to the depths of my heart, to the questions and the concerns, and the desires, and I needed to repeat the experience of reading it, and let it sink in.
I have a dear friend who lives in another part of the country, with whom I talk via email, online chats, or the phone, nearly every day. In the darkest moments, when nothing can penetrate, we talk. She speaks truth. And it usually takes a while for it to get through to my heart, to encourage me and pull me out of the heavy spots. But generally, by the time we finish talking (and sometimes praying) together, the truth in her words has begun to sink in, and I am able to regroup.
I’m thinking about repetition, and how glad I am that it’s an option.
How deeply needed it is.
About how, sometimes, I need to hear and see and do something over and over and over again for it to become real – for it to sink into the depths of my being and make a home there.
When a song or an album catches my heart, I will play it over and over and over again, until even I’m sick of it, but the messages that so grabbed me have begun to sink in.
There are books like this too. If you look in the sidebar at the list of books I’ve read this year, you’ll notice that there are two or three that I have indicated that I have read multiple times through. That’s not because the stories were particularly stunning (though they were well-crafted). It’s because something in the message of the book spoke to the depths of my heart, to the questions and the concerns, and the desires, and I needed to repeat the experience of reading it, and let it sink in.
I have a dear friend who lives in another part of the country, with whom I talk via email, online chats, or the phone, nearly every day. In the darkest moments, when nothing can penetrate, we talk. She speaks truth. And it usually takes a while for it to get through to my heart, to encourage me and pull me out of the heavy spots. But generally, by the time we finish talking (and sometimes praying) together, the truth in her words has begun to sink in, and I am able to regroup.
I’m thinking about repetition, and how glad I am that it’s an option.
How deeply needed it is.
Another "Foot' Article
Another article on the feet that seem to be washing ashore on Canada's west coast.
Vindicated
Okay, so I'm feeling just a little bit catty, and a lot vindicated just at the moment.
I arrived at the office to find a voicemail from my troublesome colleague. She's out sick today, but wanted to let me know what had happened with the package that starred in yesterday's rant. It would seem that I was correct. That there was a problem with the address, and that we had to pay for the package to be returned to us. That Canada Post charges return shipping to the sender if an address is incorrect. She wanted to let me know that the package and the receipt for yesterday's payment was safe, and she would return them to the office when she returns.
Can I point out again that I WAS RIGHT?
And, that if she'd just trusted that, and let me handle the situation, instead of the package sitting in her car or her house today, I could be re-addressing and re-posting it, and getting it on it's way.
It would seem that when my boss returns from her business trip next week, we will be having another conversation about this coworker. I've had this conversation on a nearly weekly basis for the last two months. "(said person) has sought to undermine me, again." Nothing changes. Not sure anymore if that's bad management, or simply that this woman is unwilling to hear and change.
Either way, I am increasingly convinced that I am going to need to leave a job that I have greatly enjoyed, a job where I love being with 99% of the coworkers, in favor of something that won't require me to have these sorts of weekly conversations, that won't irk me so deeply.
I arrived at the office to find a voicemail from my troublesome colleague. She's out sick today, but wanted to let me know what had happened with the package that starred in yesterday's rant. It would seem that I was correct. That there was a problem with the address, and that we had to pay for the package to be returned to us. That Canada Post charges return shipping to the sender if an address is incorrect. She wanted to let me know that the package and the receipt for yesterday's payment was safe, and she would return them to the office when she returns.
Can I point out again that I WAS RIGHT?
And, that if she'd just trusted that, and let me handle the situation, instead of the package sitting in her car or her house today, I could be re-addressing and re-posting it, and getting it on it's way.
It would seem that when my boss returns from her business trip next week, we will be having another conversation about this coworker. I've had this conversation on a nearly weekly basis for the last two months. "(said person) has sought to undermine me, again." Nothing changes. Not sure anymore if that's bad management, or simply that this woman is unwilling to hear and change.
Either way, I am increasingly convinced that I am going to need to leave a job that I have greatly enjoyed, a job where I love being with 99% of the coworkers, in favor of something that won't require me to have these sorts of weekly conversations, that won't irk me so deeply.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
