December 21, 2007
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The hardest part of packing
I’ve been sitting on the floor for the last hour or so with a bunch of books spread before me, picking up one and then another and another, trying to decide which one to take along with me on our trip. See, what happened was that just as the fall quarter was winding down at seminary, I realized suddenly that I have a library card to a large library of Christian books!!! So as soon as I turned in my last final, I went to the library and got a ‘few’ books. I know I should be studying my Greek (should I lug that heavy textbook with me?), but I’m so hungry to read about other things. So which one do I take?
-Who was Adam? A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man (by Fazale Rana with Hugh Ross)
-The Truths that Free Us (by Ruth Haley Barton)
-Invitation to Solitude and Silence (by Ruth Haley Barton)
-Sacred Rhythms (by Ruth Haley Barton)
-Gender & Grace: Love, Work & Parenting in a Changing World (by Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen)
-Does Christianity Teach Male Headship? The Equal-Regard Marriage and Its Critics (Eds. Blankenhorn, Browning, Van Leeuwen)All of them are so interesting to me!
Today I picked up a book called “Nice Girls Don’t Change the World” (Lynne Hybels) — I finished the short book in one sitting and really enjoyed it. Lynne talks about how she had grown up believing that being a polite, passive girl who always pleased others would be most pleasing God. She lived for others to the point where she would give up whatever tasks, ministry, hobbies, etc, that seemed to inconvenience her husband (Bill Hybels) or children. And then she writes, “I thought that was the right thing to do. I thought denying my gifts and passions was part of what it meant to ‘die to self,’ as Scripture requires. I didn’t realize there was a difference between dying to self-will and dying to the self God created me to be.”
I thought this was such a remarkable insight. God doesn’t want us to squish, smash, hide or bury those beautiful parts of ourselves that He created to be used for His glory and for the enrichment of others nor the personality He’s given us to enjoy all that He created in the name of ‘sacrificial discipleship’. What an incredible reality. Her many beautiful words convicted and inspired me to pray a prayer of surrender to God – Lord, help me to stop running away scared from the calling with which you have given me…
Comments (3)
good thoughts
Which one should you take?? you should take at least two!! That way you have options! That’s why you got a ‘few’ books from the library in the first place, isn’t it?
Purely based on the titles, I would have picked sacred rhythms and gender and grace, but which one(s) did you end up picking?
I know! Two would’ve been the best but I was limited to one because it would be way too heavy for me to carry more than one along with the rest of my carry-ons. I ended up taking Sacred Rhythms (nice prediction!) — but I ended up reading Sam’s book the whole trip — “Growing Strong Daughters”.