Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton and Other Saints by James Martin

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Becoming Who You Are cover imageSummary: Brief exploration of seeking after who you were created to be.

I originally read this just over a year ago. James Martin originally put this together as a lecture to honor Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen.

On the second reading, Martin’s insights are still as hard to internalize, but as still important.

God has created each of us as unique individuals. Working toward becoming the self that God created is a lifetime process. And at least part of that process is rejecting the roles that are placed upon you but not a part of you.

The second reading I was struck by how we become who we are, not by focusing on our own selves, but by serving others. This was the theme of a sermon at my church recently so the focus here resonated more.

I mentioned this in the earlier review, but part of what is helpful about this book is that it is focused on people that many consider spiritual giants. Merton, Nouwen, Mother Theresa all were human. They were all broken people that struggled into their spiritual lives.

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The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech by Kirsten Powers

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Kirsten Powers is a liberal Democrat, but she argues forcefully and persuasively that too often the left are anything but liberal–in the classic sense, meaning that they value religious liberty, freedom of speech, and the free exchange of ideas. The “illiberal left,” as she dubs them, instead deal with differing views by going to great … Read more

Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality by Richard Beck

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Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality by Richard Beck cover imageSummary: Moving our psychological revulsion (based around food) to morality, ethics and people, fundamentally distorts our Christianity.

I appreciate Richard Beck’s outsider perspective on theology. Beck is a psychologist who writes theology. While he is not untrained in theology, that training is not formal, and it is not his primary academic area.

Beck approaches practical areas of theology in ways that many academic theologians do not. Previously, I read The Slavery of Death, which is probably the best book I have read about the power of sin and the practical understanding of how sin controls us.

In Unclean, Beck takes his understanding of psychology to help us as Christians understand how our faith becomes distorted when we allow the concept of revulsion (a natural feeling around unclean food) and apply it to people and/or ethics.

This book is full of insights into how we unconsciously avoid doing the work that we (as the church) are called to, by avoiding the messy people that are around us. What this book is not, is a simple prescription on how to change our own perception of those around us. Beck says that this is too personal of a problem for him to proscribe simple steps.

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Simply Tuesday: Small Moment Living in a Fast Moving World by Emily Freeman

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We live in a world touting the maxim “œbigger (or more) is better”; bigger homes, bigger bank accounts, more clothes, bigger status, bigger dreams, more aspirations, etc. Tremendous pressure exists to achieve and produce big things. This mindset is evident in many of our spiritual lives as well. Many blog posts, books and some sermons actively encourage believers to accomplish big things for the Kingdom and for God. Emily Freeman‘s latest release, “œSimply Tuesday“ suggests the opposite.

Freeman suggests real life happens within the small moments of the everyday. An ordinary day, like Tuesday can, and often does, contain the moments worth holding on to. We need to be reminded we weren’t called or made to do it all”¦just our part. “œThe soul and the schedule don’t follow the same rules”.

Freeman’s work runs counter to the current culture we’re experiencing of “œmore”. Consider a sampling of chapter titles from “œSimply Tuesday”: Stairwells & Stages: Learning to Receive the Gift of Obscurity, Community & Competition: Finding Safe Places to Feel Insecure, Children & Grown-Ups: An Invitation to Move Downward with Gladness. The author reminds her audience of the beauty in living small, ordinary lives and illustrates the life of Christ as an example. Ministry happens in the small moments too.

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Letters From a Skeptic by Greg Boyd

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Reposting this 2013 review because the Kindle Edition is free In 1989 Greg Boyd was teaching Christian apologetics at Bethel University. He hadn’t discussed his Christian faith with his father much, if at all, since he’d last tried years before when he was in his late teens and recently converted. So he decided to try … Read more

Crazy Dangerous by Andrew Klavan

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Crazy DangerousSummary: A pastor’s kid is thrust into something bigger than he could imagine.

Andrew Klavan is a big deal in the thriller world.  He has had two books made into movies and written the screen plays for two more.  He has won 4 Edgar Awards (the biggest mystery award) and written more than a total of 28 books.

Over the past couple years he has been transitioning to writing books for a Christian markets, primarily young adult books.

After I read and reviewed the very good Homelanders series, I picked up this book to review.  It was released in May but I just got around to reading it over the weekend.

If you were a fan of the Homelanders series, you will like this.  It has a similar feel.

Sam Hopkins is a pastor’s kid in a small town.  He would like to be known for something other than being his father’s son.  He gets involved with some friends that are clearly criminals before realizing that he has to break away from them.

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