what I’m into [may – july 2019]

Summer is such a time of transition and with back-to-back weeks of people visiting followed by me immediately jetting off to Atlanta for the Emerging Apologists Program and now Toronto for a research conference, I’ve been feeling the lack of routine.

But, routine or not, writing needs to happen. So I’m holed up in the last row of a Marriott conference room, pretending I’m taking notes on Dr. Ali Khaledhosseini’s talk while actually writing this post.

Don’t judge – conference talks this week are going to be the only way I’m going to get any writing done.

This “what I’m into” is going to be a bit longer than usual – I guess I’ll just call it the summer edition since the next one will probably not come out until I’m in France in September!

Books

Faith

The cross of Christ by John Stott – 4

I read this while preparing for the Explaining Faith session I was leading on “Jesus – why the cross?” It’s something we take for granted, but reading Stott’s classic on the cross was so helpful in articulating the need for the cross in a powerful and beautiful way.

A war of loves by David Bennett – 4

Recommended by my pastor, this is a story of a former gay activist journeying past sexuality to what it means to love God with ALL of himself. This was really helpful in understanding sexuality issues with the larger lens of what sacrificial love looks like in the Christian worldview

Is God anti-gay? By Sam Alberry – 4

Sam Alberry is another helpful voice out there if you’re working through views on homosexuality and reconciling that with a Christian worldview. This book was short and to-the-point.

The Bible tells me so by Peter Enns – 4

I’ve been thinking a lot about a right method of biblical interpretation, especially with regards to issues of women and sexuality. Stumbled upon some of Peter Enns work, who has challenged my views of the Bible in a good and healthy way. Can’t say I agree with everything, but it has sparked questions that I think are worth pursuing.

The sin of certainty by Peter Enns – 4.5

So that got me on the rabbit trail of reading more by Enns. Here’s a quote that pretty much sums up what this book is about:

We think true faith is dependent on maintaining a particular ‘knowledge set’ and keeping a firm grasp on tightly woven network of nonnegotiable beliefs, guarding each one vigilantly , making sure they all stay above the water line no matter how hard the struggle – because if what we ‘know’ sinks, faith sinks right down with it.

The problem is trusting our beliefs rather than trusting God. The preoccupation with holding on to correct thinking with a tightly closed fist is not a sign of strong faith. It hinders the life of faith, because we are simply acting on a deep unnamed human fear of losing the sense of familiarity and predictability that our thoughts about God give us.

Answering the contemplative call by Carl McColman – 5

Very seldom do we talk about the mystical side of Christianity – and I feel like I almost don’t have appropriate language to articulate what it means to “experience God”. This book both describes what that can be like, as well as incites a deeper longing in me to seek God beyond what my mind can comprehend – in the solitude, silence and secret longings of the human heart.

Holy Envy – finding God in the faith of others – Barbara Brown Taylor – 4.5

BBT has always been one of my favorite authors (I’ve read all of her others and would highly, highly recommend all of them!!), so when I heard that she had released a new book, I immediately borrowed it from the library.

This one is written from her perspective as a professor teaching a course in world religions, and talks about what she has learned from other religions in the process. It definitely is challenging, given the exclusivist claims of Christianity that she doesn’t deal with head-on, but for someone who engages in inter-faith dialogue often, it was helpful (and beautiful) to see the ways God shows common grace through other religions.

Women in ministry – by Shannon Nicole Smythe – 3.5

So, along with my exploration of women and sexuality, I came across this book which gives a very solid theological basis on why women should be allowed to preach in the church if you take the verses of 1 Cor 11 and 1 Tim 2 in light of a wider Scriptural context.

I have yet to read the other side but plan to very soon (if you have any suggestions on solid books supporting the complementarian position, please hit me up!)

A doubters’ guide to Jesus – John Dickson – 5

This was originally intended for my friend Chris, but when he thoroughly enjoyed it, it got me intrigued and I decided to read it too. It’s an overview of who Jesus is for someone who has absolutely no background, but so refreshing and easy to understand in a way that makes me fall in love with the person of Jesus all over again. Highly recommend.

Saving Truth – Abdu Murray – 4.5

Being a participant of the Emerging Apologists Program, we got a huge discount at the RZIM library and I picked out this one by Abdu Murray (another one of my fav authors/speakers) on the state of truth in modern society. How we have gone from a post-modern society to one of post-truth – and how the church is to reclaim truth. Fascinating.

Science

Gulp by Mary Roach – 4

Apparently, Mary Roach writes a lot in the popular science category, from topics ranging from how sex works to the digestive tract. I decided to start with the digestion one – light, interesting read, although a bit gross at times 😛

Why religion is natural and science is not by Robert McCauley – 3

I borrowed this while I was thinking through my “How can a real scientist believe in God?” talk that I gave at EAP. ”

It’s pretty heavy-academic, but the premise is built on cognitive psychology, arguing why it is actually in fact more cognitively dissonant/unintuitive to do science than religion.

Relationships

Frentimacy by Shasta Nelson – 4.5

The art of female friendships – this book breaks it down and as someone who analyzes relationships anyways, I LOVED IT. Amazing book to read if you’re looking into how to develop deeper female friendships.

The art of gathering by Priya Parker – 4

My sis is really into hosting, and so recommended this book to me. It suggests creative ways of hosting people and going past the small talk into deeper conversation. Really interesting insights into how we gather as people.

The book of joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu – 3.5

This one is a log of a meeting by two of the world’s religious leaders as they chat on common topics such as joy, the good life. It was amusing to see the banter and interaction between the two, but often I found that it tended towards soft platitudes that could apply to any religion instead of hard, good truth (which I am a sucker for :D).

Articles

Faith:

Peter Enns – We are all agnostic

The Gospel Coalition: Is our visual age making us blind?

An Interview with Barbara Brown Taylor (read this if you want to know more about one of my fav authors!!)

Science:

The diminishing returns of science – super interesting article where some of my inspiration for my “never productive enough” post came from!

On research debt – super insightful meta-science article (credit to my sis) on how the progress of science is inherently limited due to the massive amounts of information scientists need to understand before they can build upon them, thus the need for distilling hard scientific concepts into easier ones for the faster progress of science

Then, just a funny graphic on being in a relationship with an engineer (thanks Chris for sharing – this is too true except for me it’s something like – my nanoparticles aren’t stable and I don’t know why):

Academia:

Why we need to stop the avalanche of low quality research

Whether you should leave academia as a post-doc

The vicious cycle of a PhD – sadly, very true.

A post I wrote for Next Scientist!! 5 Ways Resilient PhDs deal with failure in grad school 

Culture:

NY Times: Failure to Lunch – how we don’t eat lunch with our co-workers anymore

Another take on the Enneagram

Huff Post: We are the generation that doesn’t want relationships

Vanity Fair: Tinder and the dawn of the dating apocalypse

Pocket: What great listeners actually do – great tips for how to listen better!

Wendell Berry: why I am not going to get a computer

Harpers Bazaar: Men have no friends and women bear the burden

Videos:

Currently watching Nabeel Qureshi’s vlogs leading up to his death, which is challenging my theology on healing but also increasing my respect for this man who really wrestled through this all the way to the end of life

Ravi’s talk on “Trending Questions”: “Where do our Values come from?” – I was actually there in person for this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfQ_HJl9l0g

And on the lighter side, I went through a phase of exploring cultural identity (when I was concurrently writing my cultural pieces) where I watched quite a few WongFu films and stumbled on these gems:

7 signs she’s not into you

Are we on a date?

In between

Music:

I’ve recently really been jamming out to either live-acoustic worship sets (I found the Phil Wickham Sing-a-long which I LOVE) or R&B lo-fi slow soul jam kind of stuff.

Isla Vista was Jenny when the beats came on after our last worship song and we were tearing down the equipment and was like “JENNY WHAT IS THAT SONG YOU’RE PLAYING”

Conrad Sewell was Rafaela when it came on her Spotify playlist as we were out enjoying the summer grass and eating watermelon.

Stumbled on Kallitechnis when Ben and I went out to the Montreal Jazz Fest and jammed to those beats.

Phil Wickham – Tethered

814 – Isla Vista Worship

Love me anyway – Conrad Sewell

I don’t – Kallitechnis

Tyler Shaw – With You

Other updates on life:

In other news, I finally moved this month.

Moving makes you feel like you never want to do it again – with all the trips to IKEA and Canadian Tire for screws of various sizes and endlessly trying to fit in the pieces of furniture, washer/dryer, curtains, Internet into my schedule – and unfortunately dropping the ball on the Internet so making my family and my guests over this past month survive without WiFi at home. Oops.

Summer means farms and strawberry-picking!

Me and Natsnet, my Eritrean refugee friend, and her beautiful baby on a tractor out to the strawberry farms (unfortunately, no strawberries that time…)

Friends and family visited!

After my family helped me move, my sis stayed for another few days, and we made it out to Cirque do Soleil’s Allegria. What a treat!

Ben came for July 4th, and Erin/Nahrie the very next weekend. What a lovely reunion!

Emerging Apologists Program

Had the privilege of going to the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries base in Atlanta, Georgia and receiving intensive training in answering some of the most difficult questions about faith and God.

Stepped onto the famous RZIM stage as part of the Q&A panel for the first time!! #milestones(although I totally botched the question – ask me the full story)

Strasbourg in the fall

And the big update that I alluded to in the beginning is that I ended up receiving the funding to go to Strasbourg for part of my PhD!

Super grateful, and the past month or so has been a harried frenzy of trying to get my visa documents in order, finding a place to rent for the four months and trying not to forget anything logistically important.

I plan to also do some travelling around Europe while I’m there since I will be close to Germany/Switzerland/Belgium, so if you have any recommendations, please do send me an email! I haven’t put much thought into travel planning at all, but will get there at some point.

Also if you are going to be in Europe at all Sept – Dec 2019 or have friends that you could connect me with, that would be absolutely amazing. I’m always down to meet new, interesting people and simply get immersed in culture.

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about my #micah6.8 project – it’s just been on hold for a bit. And I do envision getting around to some of that writing during the breaks around conference talks.

As my friend Peter pointed out from my Enneagram analysis, I’m healthiest when I move towards the 4, which is my artistic side – so I need to pay more attention to engaging in artistic endeavours.