Andrew’s thoughts & observations
A stream of thoughts and ideas, messy & unclean
The work of growing in Christ (what theologians call sanctification) does not mean we don’t go back to the past as we press ahead to what God has for us. It actually demands we go back in order to break free from unhealthy and destructive patterns that prevent us from loving ourselves and others as God designed.
p.28
If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
“The heart of our disconnection with ourselves is: Shame”
“What right do we have to flaunt who we are?”
How we create our legacy:
Stop answering difficult questions with easy answers.
Take time to know yourself deeply. A lot of time.
Stop putting arbitrary deadlines on undiscovered territory.
Find a way to break yourself so that you can rebuild how you like.
Let yourself be lost, and let that feel terrible.
Quotes from Brooke Shaden with her ‘Promoting Passion Tour’ when she came to Melbourne.
“It is noteworthy that Paul uses the word “sin” in chapter three of Romans but not before then. In Rom 1-2 he speaks only of injustice.” p178
“What is needed to be free from this sin is a radical transformation of patriarchal, racist and sexist society.” p180
“Women reject the notion of sacrificial love and self-abnegation because these values are imposed upon them by the ideology of the dominant society. These duties are laws from which women seek liberation without any feelings of guilt. Therefore, to speak to them of the grace of God is a liberating message for women.” p185
McGinn, Sheila E. and Robert Jewett. Celebrating Romans: Template for Pauline Theology : Essays in Honor of Robert Jewett. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2004.
“To paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, parts of the Christian church have become enamored with cheap justification. Cheap justification is justification without justice, faith without love, declaration without transformation.” p41
“So what is justification for Paul? For Pual, I would contend, justification means the establishment or restoration of right covenant relations, both “verticial” or theological (toward God) and also, inseparably, “horizontal” or social (toward others) – what Paul most frequently calls “pistis” and “agape” – with the certain hope of ultimate vindication and glory, all understood in light of, and experienced through, Christ and the Spirit.” p52-3
“Justification for Paul may be defined as follows: the establishment or restoration of right covenantal relations – fidelity to God and love for neighbour – with the certain hope of acquittal/vindication on the day of judgement.” p53
Gorman, Michael J. Inhabiting the Cruciform God : Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2009.
“We all wear colored glasses – most wear glasses colored by tradition; some wear glasses colored by anti-tradition; and some wear glasses colored by our emerging, new reconstruction of reality. Which of these ways of seeing the world is more seductive, I don’t know. Since they exist in differing degrees, from one time to the next, probably any of them can be overpowering at a given moment.” p17
Piper, John. The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008.
(I didn’t read this entire book cover to cover, I read it alongside of N.T Wright’s Justification)
I’ve come to this belief that, if you show me a woman who can sit with a man in real vulnerability, in deep fear, and be with him in it, I will show you a woman who, A, has done her work and, B, does not derive her power from that man. And if you show me a man who can sit with a woman in deep struggle and vulnerability and not try to fix it, but just hear her and be with her and hold space for it, I’ll show you a guy who’s done his work and a man who doesn’t derive his power from controlling and fixing everything. Brené Brown
I stumbled upon Anne Lamott one morning thanks to Brené Brown and her blog post on being sober. The quote that Brené used of Anne made me sit up and listen:
“Help is the sunny side of control. Stop helping so much. Don’t get your help and goodness all over everybody.”
12 truths I learned from life and writing
Check out Anne’s TED talk: 12 truths I learned from life and writing
“Conditioned and regulated man needs his nightly whodunit on television. There he vicariously experiences adventure which has long since vanished from his monotonous world. In the Western here, the average man in house slippers can see himself once more as an image of virile strength. Tourism supplements a world deprived of experiences with “the sights and sounds of faraway places.” Colorful posters promise encounters with strange lands and strange customs, but at the camping places and beaches we do in fact meet people exactly like ourselves, and hardly ever does anyone escape his own circles”.
p8
Moltmann, Jurgen, Robert E. Neale, David L. Miller, and Sam Keen. Theology of Play. (1st ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.)
“we are inclined to forget that the arts – even when they are decorative, entertaining or self-expressive – can be vehicles of discovery, not just of ourselves, but of other people and indeed of virtually anything with which we engage from day to day, from physical objects to grand ideas.” p1
Sounding the Depths, Theology Through the Arts. Jeremy Begbie
scm press