Weekend Top 10: Winter morning light edition
A curated list of what I've been up to lately: places, people, books, podcasts, music, links & more for your weekend downtime with thanks to the creators and cultivators filling the internet with truth, goodness, and beauty.
First, a photo from this week!
I love winter morning light.
Here’s what I published this week!
On Patreon:
Epiphany Daybook +2: Revealed - As we contemplate John the Baptist pointing the way toward Jesus this week, I encouraged us to look for opportunities God gives in our everyday lives to simply point to Jesus. We don't need to defend Jesus against scoffers or persuade the unbelieving. That's Jesus' responsibility. We are called to follow Jesus and to repeat his invitation "Come and see."
Cultivating A Rule of Life, part 2 - We enjoyed our second conversation around the practice of cultivating a Rule of Life. Thanks to those of you who were able to join us live and to those of you who are watching it on replay. There’s still time to join us! All you need to do is head to my Patreon page and subscribe as a Daybook patron (that’s the $5 a month level). Join before Tuesday to join in the live conversation or just anytime in January to be able to view the recorded sessions at your convenience.
Now for more online truth, goodness, and beauty I’ve enjoyed this week…
My Top 10
1. Creators & Cultivators
The Great Winter Warm-Up via MCC (Mennonite Central Community) - I follow MCC on Instagram and noticed an uptick in their posts last Saturday. Intrigued, I watched the day’s stories unfold highlighting Mennonite communities around the U.S. and Canada hosting what looked to me like quilting bees in church fellowship halls (#greatwinterwarmup). What a beautiful way to preserve the timeless tradition of turning scraps of colorful cloth into warm, beautiful, hospitable keepsakes. Gorgeous work for a global cause. A perfect example of how God uses our callings as creators and cultivators for shalom. (By the way, they exceeded their goal of completing 6,500 handmade comforters in one day!)
2. In Season
For Martin Luther King Day, I listened to this fantastic interview with Bryan Stevenson on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. If you haven’t yet read Stevenson’s Just Mercy (or seen the film based on the book just released this month), this interview is a good place to start - 'Just Mercy' Attorney Asks U.S. To Reckon With Its Racist Past And Present
During the interview, Terry and Bryan talk about the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL. I wrote briefly about and shared some photos from our visit this summer to the museum and memorial created by Stevenson’s organization EJI.
3. Justice, Reconciliation, and Social Critique
A beautiful story of reconciliation this week…
4. People & Place
Hey, Lagrange! with Earl Gordon Barnett - A somewhat weekly interview podcast featuring the most fascinating people and stories of LaGrange, Georgia. My friend Earl (“Located in LaGrange, GA. Ex-high school teacher, higher-ed instructor, amateur photographer, brain cancer survivor and pro-wrestling aficionado”) started this new project that I love! Find out more on Earl’s Instagram or Patreon page
5. Reading & Writing
During Epiphany, our church’s reading group is reading Annie Dillard’s classic essays found in Teaching A Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters. I first read these essays in 2010 and the scope of both transcendant beauty and earthy pith pasted these insights about life, nature, and worship into the pages of my memory. Reading again, I keep exclaiming over the same parts “This is so good!”
6. Spiritual Direction & Disciplines
How are you feeling about your pace of life right now? Have the goals you’ve imagined for 2020 been a place of joy? Frustration? Apathy? I mentioned above the four-part series on the spiritual practice of cultivating a Rule of LIfe I’ve been teaching at my Patreon page. If you’d like a bit more information but not sure you want to join the Patreon community, I posted snippets of the live video from our first session at my Instagram page. The video clip is archived in the Rule of Life highlight on my Instagram profile page. Click here to see for yourself!
7. Watching & Listening
Episode #760 of Filmspotting podcast: Best Scenes of 2019 / Oscar Nominations / Golden Brick Winner - It's tradition here on Filmspotting to devote the first episode of the new year to all the stuff we loved about last year. It's the annual Wrap Party, with Adam and Josh sharing their picks for the best opening scene, the funniest and most moving scene, the best music moment and scene of the year.
There were a few films mentioned for best scenes that I probably won’t ever watch, but after listening to Josh and Adam’s frequent mentions, I immediately watched this devastating yet beautifully written, directed, and performed story. It’s worth the watch for so many reasons but this scene is (as described by Josh) unbelievably moving.
8. Wholeness & Healing
This week I had the privilege of teaching an important gathering of folks seeking relational, emotional, and sexual healing about how shame impacts our ability to acknowledge our God-given need for love and belonging.
Sometime in the future, I’ll try to share that talk in some format (probably within our Patreon community), but for now I’d like to point you to one of the resources I referenced: “Something’s Wrong With Me”: Effectively Engaging a Culture of Shame by Sally Breedlove via The Telos Collective
9. Work & Callings
Work and the Bible via The Village Church on Vimeo - This video takes a deep look at God’s original intent for work, the ways the fall has muddied that vision and how a biblical, eternal view of work might change our day-to-day lives.
10. Worship, Liturgy, & Church
Oh my, I love this so much: Priest feeds infant while proclaiming Gospel at baptism service
‘What surprised us, however, was the moment when, after the baptism itself, at the proclamation of the Gospel, the priest took the child in one hand and the bottle in the other hand and did not hesitate to feed the newly-Christened baby girl while reading from the sacred texts.’
