Here comes the sun. Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh. Here comes the sun…
It is finally spring around here. Spring of the outside and spring of the inside. Things are growing and coming back to life. In April my husband was home THE ENTIRE TIME. I had a birthday, with a lot of cake. I did some traveling. I saw some people I love. I gardened a little. I stepped into a less angry place with the church. And I signed with a literary agent.
It’s alright, duh-nuh-nuh-nuh, nuh-nuh-nuh, nuh-nuh-nuh, nuuh-nuuh…
I guest posted for Karissa Knox Sorrel (Wednesday Wrestling), and A Deeper Story. And I participated in a book club discussion on Walter Brueggeman. #TransitLounge, with Kelley Johnson Nikondeha. My post for that is here.
The Spirit of the Poor link-up is still going! Month 4, hosted by Luke Harms, is on the subject “resist.” I haven’t posted for it yet, though, because even with all this new life and butterflies and opportunities and stuff I still totally choked.
It’s alright. It’s alright. It’s alright.
Anyway, here’s the good stuff.
WHAT I’M INTO – BOOKS
Tamára Lunardo: What a Woman Is Worth – I hit up this essay/story collection hard for two reasons. One, it’s spring. My serious reading needs to be in the form of four to six page essays. (Right?) But also, there’s something brilliant about addressing feminist issues with a large pool of perspectives. Each of thirty writers told a story about themselves. Many of them were quite touching. Some I skimmed. Some were precisely my experience. Many were not. But I was able to recognize that all of them are HUMAN experience. The resonance here functions like a kind of choir.
Mihee Kim-Kort: Streams Run Uphill – The subtitle here is “Conversations With Young Clergywomen of Color.” But here’s the thing about Mihee, and it’s why I was into her first book, too. She’s doing theology. Theology is her thing. That’s what fascinates her. Which means you might want to ignore that word “conversations,” because this is not Saturday talk show material. This is God speaking from the margins, God outside of the dominant paradigm, God who is not owned or necessarily even known by dominant culture. I found it occasionally threatening (depends on where you read from, right?), but consistently helpful.
Micha Boyett: Found: A Story of Questions, Grace and Everyday Prayer – This is the Christian bookstore book I’ll never write. experiences both jealousy and relief I don’t really know Micha (it seems like her name would be pronounced Mee-sha, but actually it’s My-cah, like the rock) but our paths do cross in social networking now and then. She has career experience in church ministry, so she totally talks the talk. Which wouldn’t mean anything to me at all, except that this is her tale of spiritual awakening beyond those borders. This is her reconnection to both prayer and parenting as she filters her entire life through the lens of Benedictine (monastic) spirituality. Which is MY THING. Shake in her consistently gentle and easy writing style and the result is a book that I am into.
WHAT I’M INTO – BLOGS
Jamie the Very Worst Missionary. Jamie Wright is a very funny and very smart Christian writer with a huge following. I’m actually not as into her as I think a lot of other people are. But I am interested what she’s doing right now with her work regarding sex trafficking. I am quick to judge Christian do-gooder missions, and rightfully so. But if a bunch of people really read what she’s talking about here? I mean, really read it? It could help us to crack open some of these deep issues, root causes and all. (Or maybe it won’t help at all. But I sure would be glad to know that we actually tried.) 700 Words.
Abby Norman, Scarcity Hunter. My good friend Abby has a newsletter! It’s all about fighting scarcity, and replacing a philosophy of competition and fear with a philosophy of faith and faith in abundance. And THAT is what I am into, April of this year, and all year, and all the time. Scarcity Hunter
Seth Haines. If you’re curious who all to thank for having my churchy posts shift gradually out of a place of anger back into my more usual language of reconciliation? Well, thank Jesus, usually. But also thank the writer Seth Haines. He isn’t entirely like me. But dialogue with him has been so encouraging, so helpful, even, dare I say, restful? On the Economies of Church (Us Being Us While They are Them)
And, finally, in my neighborhood…
My most popular post of the month was my BIG Announcement. But right behind it was this one that I really loved…Why I’m Done With Letting Critics Tell Me Who I Am.
And here’s a really special comment. I don’t usually pull out comments, but this one, by Kathy U. on my post Why I Will Not Leave the Evangelical Church Today, was helpful to me. It reminded me of what I hope for.
Blogs like yours, and Registered Runaway, make me search myself and give me courage to step outside my evangelical beliefs to figure out how I view and treat people, whether consciously or unconsciously. RR has one post in which he describes himself as “despised” and that cut to the heart. No one should ever consider themselves despised by Christians. Thank you for your honesty.
Thank YOU for your honesty, Kathy!!
And happy May to all of you. My FB writer’s page is here. I’m here on Twitter, as always. Here are my big kids, goofy as can be.
And here’s my baby.
Now what are you into?
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