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Worth Your Time (March 2024)

On March 27, 2024

In Book Recommendations, Worth Your Time

Hey readers,

Here’s my recent round-up of books and articles to read. If you do, let me know what you think!

Keep Complaining to God. Just Don’t Ignore Him by Drew Dyck

“What explains why some leave while others stay? Sometimes the only difference I could see is what they did with their trials. The first group ran away from God while the second ran toward him. Instead of letting doubt and disappointment fester in darkness, they dragged it into the light. They joined the great biblical tradition of prophets who expressed their grievances to God, often in harsh and accusatory language.”

Make Your Life Count: 12 Rules for Teens by John Piper

7 Parenting Errors That Can Influence Adult Children to Leave the Faith by Q. O. Helet

“I can easily identify many things we did—or did not do—that may have contributed to our sons’ departure from the faith. I hope to see others avoid such an outcome. In that light, here are seven parenting errors that can influence adult children to turn their back on Christ.”

The State of the Culture, 2024: Or a glimpse into post-entertainment society (it’s not pretty) by Ted Gioia

Whoa, this is fascinating and scary and super important: “The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction. Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity. The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.

It’s a huge business, and will soon be larger than arts and entertainment combined. Everything is getting turned into TikTok—an aptly named platform for a business based on stimuli that must be repeated after only a few ticks of the clock.”

Who Would I Be If I Was Happy? By Trevin Wax

“We live in a time of self-creation. The traditional markers of identity that once came from outside ourselves—from our family or friends or community or past—are viewed as subpar, even repressive. We’re supposed to chart our own course, to look deep inside to discover our desires and define ourselves as we determine.

This way of life sounds exhilarating at first, but the result is fragility. What happens when we adopt the therapeutic assumptions of our age, when we look into our hearts and find only failures and frailty? Many of us begin to define ourselves by our maladies, to base our identities in suffering.”

Books:

What White Adoptive Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption by Melissa Guida-Richards

This was such a helpful, insightful book–it really is a must-read for anyone who has adopted transracially (or is thinking about it).

Being Elisabeth Elliot: Elisabeth’s Later Years by Ellen Vaughn

I wrote about Part 1 of this biography a couple of years ago here at A Life Overseas. Part 2 did not disappoint. What a fascinating look into what was going on in Elisabeth’s life during the time she wrote the books that influenced me so much.

My garden has started blooming. Happy Spring to you all!

Worth Your Time (December 2023)

By Amy Medina

On December 28, 2023

In Book Recommendations, Worth Your Time

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Below are some articles and books I’ve recently collected. I would be happy to hear your thoughts on them.

Articles:

Blessed Are the Thrifty? by Susan Mettes
As a very thrifty person, this one was so thought-provoking for me. I read it a month ago and keep thinking about it.

“As Christians around the world live through a period of discomfort—or worse—in their household budgets, even thrift can bring them dangerously close to the errors often attributed to greed. Any perspective that filters reality through money distorts our ideas of worth. And isn’t seeing worth as God sees it an enormous part of discipleship?”

There’s another Christian movement that’s changing our politics. It has nothing to do with whiteness or nationalism By John Blake
“The victory not only reinvigorated an emboldened labor movement in the US, it also marked the revival of another movement in America: the Social Gospel. Fain’s sermonette was remarkable because labor leaders don’t typically cite the Bible in such detail to justify a strike. But they once did. Fain’s decision to blend scripture with a strike is straight out of the Social Gospel playbook.”

The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health: A Summary of the 2023 US Surgeon Report
We have got to pay attention to this: “95% of youth ages 13-17 use social media with many using it “almost constantly.”

Why I Am Now a Christian by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“Unlike Islam, Christianity outgrew its dogmatic stage. It became increasingly clear that Christ’s teaching implied not only a circumscribed role for religion as something separate from politics. It also implied compassion for the sinner and humility for the believer.

Yet I would not be truthful if I attributed my embrace of Christianity solely to the realisation that atheism is too weak and divisive a doctrine to fortify us against our menacing foes. I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive. Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?”

Why I No Longer Support the Death Penalty by Matthew T. Martens
I came to this conclusion myself after reading Just Mercy. This article sums up my thoughts as well.

Books:

The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes by Nancy Pearcey
Nancy Pearcey has yet to disappoint me with anything she writes. In the past several years, I’ve read a number of books on Christian gender roles, trying to wrap my head around the current debate in light of Scripture. This one made a lot of things so much clearer for me. Pearcey does a dive into American history and shows convincingly how the Church has been influenced by culture — and not in positive ways.

Here’s a taste: “Compared to secular men, devout Christian family men who attend church regularly are more loving husbands and more engaged fathers. They have the lowest rates of divorce. And astonishingly, they have the lowest rate of domestic violence of any major group in America… [In contrast], The numbers are staggering: They tell us that men who claim the Christian label often exhibit worse behavior than men who are outright secular. Nominal men skew the statistics, creating the false impression that evangelical men as a group are abusive and domineering.”

Dangerous Territory: An Inquiry into Everything I Thought I Knew about Faith, Love, and Saving the World by Amy Peterson
This is a page-turning memoir about the idealism of missions and learning God’s sovereignty the hard way.

The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World by Rosaria Butterfield
The Butterfields do hospitality so well that it was hard not to be totally overwhelmed by what I’m not doing. But as I read on, I was encouraged. Rosaria is quick to show her family’s own mistakes and failures and how they grew into an ability to love their neighbors well. I finished the book feeling inspired.

Video:
Christmas is over but it’s not too late to listen to this wonderful rendition of Joy to the World from Uganda!

Medina Family Life:

Gil’s extended family plays Wiffle Ball every time we are together!

Worth Your Time (October 2023)

By Amy Medina

On October 29, 2023

In Worth Your Time

I’m currently in Minnesota for ReachGlobal training and interviews, and I’m enjoying the gorgeous fall colors that can’t be matched in Southern California.

Here are some articles and books from the last month that I recommend:

Why Americans May Spend $12 Billion on Halloween in 2023

“This spending is largely recession resistant, and continues during tough economic, political and social climates. Wood says spending on ritual artifacts, such as costumes, is “fairly price insensitive”; consumers will continue to shop, even if times are bad.”

Addressing the Housing Shortage: A California law could make it easier for churches to build low-income housing

“If Newsom signs the YIGBY bill into law, churches wouldn’t have to go through this drawn-out process. The law gives churches the right to build low-income housing…’It clears a pathway for churches to know, with certainty, that they can build housing on their property.'”

Playing to Win: Why Africa is the new prize in the struggle for global power

Most people don’t realize that colonialism in Africa is still happening — but in this century, from China and Russia. We saw this firsthand in Tanzania.

“Beijing has become Africa’s largest creditor with total borrowing at around $160 billion. The terms of these loans are not publicly available, but some analysts believe Beijing will insist on being paid in full. That’s not good for Africa, and it might not be good for global democratic interests if China uses that debt as a bargaining chip.”

How Joni Eareckson Tada Blessed Me (Forty Years Ago)

This is such a cool story! “All the way back in the early 1980s, Joni ministered to my grandmother after the loss of her daughter. Forty years later, she ministered to me after the loss of my son.”

Retirement: The New Afterlife? (https://gentlereformation.com/2023/10/17/retirement-the-new-afterlife/)

“The fastest growing metro area in the United States is called The Villages. It’s a retirement community that takes up eighty square miles of central Florida and is home to one hundred and forty thousand people. It contains nine state-of-the-art hospitals, a dozen sprawling shopping centres, over one hundred bars and restaurants, and more than fifty golf courses.

Retirement is certainly big business. The US has a total GDP of twenty-three trillion dollars, but the assets of all American pension funds are nearly fifty percent larger, making them easily the biggest players in the financial markets. In the words of journalist Sam Kriss, ‘mass consumer pensions have turned our entire adulthood into a preamble to old age. You work for three, four, five decades—all so you can enjoy those few, brief, useless years between retirement and death’. He goes as far as to say that ‘the entire global economy is now a machine for producing satisfied retirees’.

The Villages attempts to sell people the thing they have been working for all their lives – perfect leisure before they die. Sounds ideal? Kriss visited the Villages and says that it’s the worst place he’s ever been to.”

I referenced You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and How That’s Good News by Kelly Kapic in my previous post. His book not only challenged my perfectionism, but also my desire for independence. I also really appreciated what he had to say about identity — especially since I’m trying hard to help my transracially adopted kids figure this out. It’s an excellent, thought-provoking book on a subject I’ve never heard explored before.

And pictures from this month…

Gil took Grace’s senior pictures this month. Here’s a couple fun ones of my wonderful girl!

Worth Your Time (September 2023)

By Amy Medina

On October 2, 2023

In Book Recommendations, Worth Your Time

Articles:

Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Sank First and Fastest by Jon Haidt

This article isn’t about politics; it’s about the power of ideas.

“Many young people had suddenly—around 2013—embraced three great untruths:

They came to believe that they were fragile and would be harmed by books, speakers, and words, which they learned were forms of violence (Great Untruth #1).

They came to believe that their emotions—especially their anxieties—were reliable guides to reality (Great Untruth #2).

They came to see society as comprised of victims and oppressors—good people and bad people (Great Untruth #3).”

Do Christians Really Suffer in America? by John Piper

“So, we don’t just wait for others to persecute us and take away our pleasures and privileges and securities. Instead, we voluntarily make choices that deny ourselves some of these things freely, willingly, joyfully in order to serve others.”

Our Missions Approach is Too Western by Elliot Clark

“There’s a double mistake here. First, missionaries of a bygone era weren’t as complicit in colonialism as many think. Second, for all our anthropological acumen, we may not be as culturally savvy as we suppose. I’m convinced current missiological strategies can still be deeply Western in potentially harmful ways.”

Books:

Walking with Grace: Embracing God’s Goodness in Trauma Grace Utomo’s story is extraordinary. She was a newly married 23-year-old and a rising violin star when she was hit by a car in a crosswalk. The ensuing trauma to her body and mind equals a depth that few of us will ever experience, yet through it all she continues to keep her focus and hope fixed on Christ. Her story is sobering and inspiring.

Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl Trueman

If you are bewildered or just curious about where our current cultural perspectives came from, this is an excellent place to start. Think of it this way: If you were going to live in India, you would want to research Hinduism so that you could understand the way people think. If you live in America or Europe, this book is that equivalent.

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery in America by Clint Smith

The longer I live, the more I am astonished at what was left out of my 80’s/90’s American education regarding slavery. If we want to find any hope for lasting racial reconciliation in our country, it’s got to start with reckoning with our history.

We rejoice that our Grace (age 17 ) chose to be baptized in September!

Worth Your Time (August 2023)

By Amy Medina

On August 29, 2023

In Book Recommendations, Worth Your Time

Social Media and Youth Mental Health Even the Surgeon General is sounding the alarm about social media for kids and teens. Our kids aren’t happy about how we regulate them on this, but we aren’t budging. Too much is at stake.

Social Media is Causing Our Children to Suffer “The nature of community is greatly affected by social media. While these platforms offer a way to connect with others, they promote shallow, fleeting interactions over meaningful, deep relationships. This can impair the development of critical social skills such as empathy and conflict resolution.”

Which connects to my next topic….

What Social Science Tells Us About How to Escape Poverty This is totally fascinating. Hint: It has everything to do with community and nothing to do with donating food, clothes, or even money.

Good Genes are Nice, But Joy is Better (You’ll sense a pattern in these articles!) “Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study revealed. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.”

If you’re a parent of teens, you’ll appreciate these thoughts by Gretchen Ronnevik. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I have nearly 4 teens now, and I’ve learned a lot the hard way, and see other parents around me with less kids who are just getting to that stage make the same mistakes I made, so I want to share what I’ve learned.”

Books (Amazon links….but remember to buy used!)

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. A beautifully written short novel about the power of redemption.

When We Called Myanmar Home by Julie Jean Francis. Third Culture Kids and their parents will relate to this bittersweet book about loving a country that’s not your own.

Fostered: One Woman’s Powerful Story of Finding Faith and Family Through Foster Care by Tori Hope Petersen. Though there were some parts of Tori’s story that I think she’ll see differently when she’s older, I really enjoyed this memoir of growing up in foster care. These kinds of stories always give me insights into my own kids.

This reunion with kids they’ve known their whole lives was truly special.

Gil and his brother took the boys on a camping trip.