Ada is our beautiful, too-smart, almost six year-old. Dan brought home some of her recent stories after parent/teacher conferences this week. This one is our favorite. I’ll let you try to decode and then give you the translation.
The stars swam quietly
The stars got scared because I made my bad-est face
I apologized and they took me up into the sky
Most of my readers know I’m a big Margaret Feinberg fan. Scouting the Divine is another favorite.
I actually listened to the audio version of the book read by Feinberg, a great touch considering the personal nature of this book. If you follow her on Twitter, you’ll even notice, like I did, when she was fighting that cold because her voice gets deeper. (Stalker material, I know.) This memoir-like journey by Feinberg is captured in her subtitle, “My search for God in wine, wool, and wild honey,” but the sensitivity and gentleness of Feinberg really shines through her voice in the audio version.
Dan bought the audio book for our 6-7 hour drive to Chicago last month for the Story Conference. It was a great way to set up our time there. Not only does Feinberg offer a unique perspective for reading the Bible, she also presents a writing strategy that really works in this format. Scouting the Divine is a pleasant and insightful read (or listen) for almost anyone.
As a writer, I appreciated the way Feinberg approached her topic. The book is basically a memoir of her visits with a shepherdess, a farmer, a bee keeper, and a vintner (wine-maker). Drink tea in their homes, wear your boots into their fields, and encounter divine appointments in the midst of an agricultural life. Feinberg even gives us the background stories about how she connects with each of her “experts.” Some of them are old friends, others are new acquaintances. Feinberg asks each of them, not all of them professed Bible believers, to interpret particular passages according to their knowledge of their profession.
This angle brings new life to familiar Scriptures. Margaret’s narrative brings new life to what could have been a familiar Bible study. One of my favorite ideas comes from the opening section. When Feinberg asks the shepherdess to tell her what she makes of the Nativity story, she says that in middle eastern cultures, the shepherds are often the weakest among the family – the children, women, or elderly. What a beautiful image that God would send his Beloved to be greeted by the “least of these” that would again and again share the spotlight in His earthly story.
This information, of course, means I have to get a shepherd girl for my Fontanini Nativity set this year! But I don’t mind, I love letting God and his story out of the box I put them in. Scouting the Divine would make a great gift this coming season or a wonderful audio gift to yourself if you have a long holiday drive. Check it out!
I’ve been teaching from John Ortberg’s book The Life You’ve Always Wanted for several years. I use it in complement to Gary Thomas’ book The Glorious Pursuit. Between the two of them, I have created an introduction course to Christian spiritual disciplines where our success is measured not by the length of our devotional time but by growth in the practice of the virtues demonstrated in Jesus’ life (humility, love, discernment, etc.). This semester my class includes a number of students still completing their recovery program at our church and it has been a rejuvenating experience for me to learn from them.
Can you imagine how excited I was to get an invitation to a free luncheon at Story where John Ortberg would be the featured speaker? Free food + John Ortberg = PERFECT!
And the experience (hosted by the Monvee group – more on them another day) was all that I hoped it would be. Maybe more, except since we had to eat at the same time I felt a little bit blasphemous letting mayo and tomato juice drip down my hands while Ortberg shared his generous thoughts on spiritual formation. He doesn’t know who I am, but I was embarrassed anyway. I ate as quickly as possible so I could start scribbling down notes.
Here is a great picture taken during this lecture as well as one of my favorite quotes from the luncheon:
“We must aim at the transformation of people’s actual lives, not merely their devotional practices.”
I’ll be thinking about that one for awhile! And I’ll share. I have some ideas. : )
It is always nice to wait a few days after an exciting event and see which elements of the day stick with you, hang onto your thoughts and won’t let go until you’ve visited with them for awhile. One very specific message from Story is definitely doing that for me. In one of the general sessions, pastor Chris Seay introduced the Bible translation called The Voice. Here is a short clip of Seay speaking (it has baseball in it, so consider it my World Series reference even though, really, who cares?) – it doesn’t have anything to do with this Bible version, but it will give you a sense of his style and why I enjoyed his message so much at the Story Conference:
If you like The Message, you’ll enjoy this version as well. Seay and his church’s Ecclesia Bible Society, along with the impressive backing of Thomas Nelson publishing, put together Biblical scholars with modern writers and poets. Their goal was to rediscover the story of the Bible. It is a beautiful attempt. For example, and from the title of this version, they translate “the Word” in John 1 as “the Voice” for very specific reasons. We read “the Word” and automatically think of the physical book sitting on our nightstand as if we are reading it every day. But this team translated it as “the Voice” in agreement with the original Greek meaning that this Logos is alive and active in our world today – not just a bunch of pages glued together and covered with fake leather.
Dan and I have been reading from The Voice since we got home. It is enticingly simple and artistic, but my Bible College “theologians” also agreed with its self-described tag line of “faithful.” My son Jesse liked the way the narratives are written in play form, each speaker clearly identified before his or her lines. From our reading, we’re reminding each other that Jesus is our Liberating King and realizing what a beautiful difference that perspective makes.
Dan bought me a special copy of the New Testament that came with a handmade leather cover from Argentina (a project designed to provide jobs for a fair wage in good working conditions). You’ll have to get your own!
I tweeted this link yesterday. It’s a post on Blaine Hogan’s blog by Ben Arment. Ben is the founder of the Story Conference that I am attending next week. I am beyond excited about this trip. Beyond. Anyway, this 100 Words feature is brilliant, and Ben’s words hit me right in the gut. Like, I can’t stop thinking about the implications of what he said. Go read it, if you haven’t already. Here are the opening lines:
We are motivated by two conflicting fears in life: the fear of failure and the fear of insignificance. What we endeavor to do is determined by which fear is the strongest.
When I think about poverty, pandemics, and orphans, I get overwhelmed. I want to do BIG things, like adopt a baby or build a school, but can’t even manage to send in that little card that says I promise to donate my coffee money for the month. If you are like me, I have a little story for you. I promise. You’ll feel better at the end.
This picture is from Dan’s trip to Brazil two years ago. It was taken during a house church Bible study and Andrea Powell (the one smiling at the camera) was delivering the lesson. Marcondes is the man next to her; he was interpreting her words into Portuguese. Our church supports the University for Life in Brazil and Marc and his wife, Ruth (seated next to him), are some of our favorite people in the world!
Mission trips have the reputation for impacting us in the short-term but not always changing our long-term habits or decisions (there are exceptions to this – share them in comments!). Mrs. Powell is definitely the exception. Maybe it is because she was a missionary to China. Maybe because she comes from New Zealand (Are people nicer there? All the kiwi’s I know are fabulous!). Maybe it is because she fits into that category of Real Christian. I don’t know for sure, but you are going to love the genius of her idea to support missions.
Every week Mrs. Powell bakes banana bread mini loaves. She individually wraps them and puts them at the convenience store counter with a donation can that says: $1 buys a brick for the CBC gymnasium project. I personally contribute to this can at least once a week and use its existence as my excuse for NOT giving up carbs. (Yes, I know I could donate without taking one of those tasty little bricks, but I do not have that kind of will power.)
She’s been doing this for nearly two years. Every week. I figure if she bakes a dozen, and at least ten people pay a dollar each, then she’s making $40-50 a month for this program in Brazil. Amazing. And, really, it doesn’t sound that difficult – except for the consistency part! : )
*This post brought to you by Michael Hyatt’s generosity. I won a copy of A MILLION MILES IN A THOUSAND YEARS from his blog and promised to post a review on the release date. It was truly my pleasure!
Nothing I write here about this book will do justice to how much reading it has made me think, re-evaluate, and even be grateful. BLUE LIKE JAZZ had a similar effect on me. This book, I think, messed me up even more. You want need to read this book!
I kept thinking of Rob Bell’s endorsement of this book while I read; I didn’t read this book, “this book read me.”
The foundation of A MILLION MILES is that Miller was given the divine gift of outside perspective when movie producers worked with him to make a movie of BLUE LIKE JAZZ. That’s a book of memoirs, if you’ve read it, but the producers wanted to fictionalize it – make “Don” into a character that movie goers would like. In the middle of this enlightening and sometimes painful process, Donald Miller realizes he hasn’t been living a good story.
My musician husband Dan has a theory that summarizes the concepts in this book well: “the stage isn’t going to find me while I’m sleeping in my basement.” After reading Miller’s book, we could re-phrase that to say a good story won’t find you while you are napping – you have to find the Story!
For writers, this book is gold. But the real beneficiary of Miller’s study of the elements of story is YOU. You, mom, still wondering what to be when you grow up. You, student, wondering how to get through three more years of finals. You, husband, wondering why life seems to be moving in slow motion. You, parent, wondering why your kids aren’t interested in Jesus. You, nobody, who wants to be somebody. This book is for You.
When Miller assesses his own life, one of the main things he realizes is missing is some of the very things I have in abundance: a family and community of friends, which makes me grateful. He’s honest about the way our stories here on earth don’t always work out like movies, which rings true of my own experiences. He is careful to note that just pursuing any kind of dream will not make the difference; there are qualifications to being a good story. Ultimately, Miller uses the Writer’s advice in Ecclesiastes that says we should:
Write a good story, take somebody with you, and let [God] help.
You are going to laugh out loud. You are probably going to cry.
You are never going to want to watch a parade again – you’ll only want to be in it. You are going to love this book!
Here’s a peek (click on the READ button at the lower right):
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