Worth Your Time (April 2024)

It’s that time of year when school is at its craziest! Maybe you’ve got a moment or two to read some good stuff. Here are my recommendations from this month.

Articles:

Why Do You Do What You Do? (And Not Something Else)?  By Tim Challies

I love asking people good questions, and this is one I hadn’t thought of before. “When I ask others why they do what they do, I’m often blessed to hear them describe their love for things I’ve never considered lovable: crafting beautiful smiles from misaligned teeth, bringing order from numerical chaos, instructing children in the basic skills of life. As I listen and ask follow-up questions, I learn—I learn to appreciate what I have often never considered before and even what doesn’t especially enthuse me.”

Human Adoption is Like and Unlike God’s Adoption by Duke Dillard

I used to be an enthusiastic teacher of how human adoption mirrors God’s adoption of us. As I’ve raised my children and come to know the complexity of their experience, I am much more careful to say this. This article by an adoptee explains it well. “We look at the Bible’s picture of God adopting us and are grateful. Adoption as a theological truth is glorious. But we ought to be careful to not overplay the parallel with human adoption. There are important, inglorious differences that hinge on the experience of the adoptee.”

Gretchen Ronnevik with more wise advise to parenting teens: “Your teen is mad at something they can’t even put words to yet. And you know what? You actually weren’t a perfect parent. Forgiven in Christ, you are free to admit that.”

The Pain of Being Single; the Love that Holds Me Fast by Olivia Davis. This is beautiful and heart-wrenching and may help us who are married to see into the hearts of our single friends.

Are you WEIRDER? 68 question by Nicholas McDonald

This book was already on my list to read, but after reading this article, it’s moved higher on the list!

“After the test was finished, most of these students agreed that they’d checked over 90% of the above statements.

Then I unveiled the big shocker (spoiler ahead!) from Wilson’s chapter: every single one of these statements would NOT have been true for almost everyone before 1776.

So, I told them, “You’re WEIRDER. You’re Western, Educated, Industrialized, Democratic, Ex-Christian and Romantic. And that means your thoughts, assumptions, values and experiences are far more culturally specific than you realize.”

A Book:

The Gospel Comes with a Housekey by Rosaria Butterfield

I wish this wasn’t as radical as it feels in America, because really, radical hospitality is the way we were created to live. This engaging book left me encouraged and inspired.