Amy Julia Becker's Blog, page 109

AJB Recommends: Podcasts Processing the Election

On election day, I felt as if a band of pain had stretched itself above my eyes and across my forehead. It wouldn’t go away. I drank water. Ate potato chips in case I needed some salt. Took Advil. I took a nap for an hour at 3:30 that afternoon, which happens about once every two years. Finally, at 5:00 that evening, as I swam through the post-nap fog, I stumbled upon an Instagram invitation to pray. I joined in “midday” prayer a few hours late, and I was both comforted and convicted by the Psalm for the day as I was processing the election. 

From Psalm 62:1-2

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

My soul was not waiting for God alone, nor was it waiting in silence. I had forgotten, yet again, that God alone is my rock and my salvation. Not our country. Not our political process. Not a particular candidate. 

After that time of prayer, my headache lifted. My energy returned. I watched the election returns that night and throughout the next week, but not with the same level of angst. 

I’ve also listened to a number of podcasts this past week that have helped me in processing the election:

For a helpful guide in thinking about this election from the perspective of Black Christians, here’s Jemar Tisby and Tyler Burns on Pass the Mic.

For an analytical guide to what the polls got wrong, here’s Nate Cohn on The Daily.

For a helpful reminder to look for truth and beauty in the midst of uncertainty and doubt, here’s Christian Wiman talking about the poetry of home with Miroslav Volf.

Read more with Amy Julia as you’re processing the election:

More AJB Recommends
Election Aftermath
S3 E19 | Loving Our Enemies in a Nation Divided with David Bailey

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can  subscribe to my Love is Stronger Than Fear podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

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Inviting God Into My Constraints

Marilee was not sad to have a day of distance learning from bed!

This is a season of constraints. Remote learning at home. Social distancing. Celebrating holidays during a pandemic. Navigating a contentious election.

This week, our kids were home for three days due to a few Covid cases at school, which meant a return to distance learning (which Marilee really enjoyed experiencing from bed) and a renewed commitment to limit our in-person interaction with friends.  I’ve been reading Suffer Strong by Jay and Katherine Wolf as I prepare to interview Katherine soon for the next season of the podcast. I was so struck by her words:

The kingdom of God is rarely more alive than when we invite God into the place of our deepest constraints.

I feel constrained by time, by my role as a mother, by my needy body, by my bad decisions about food and drink, by what I consider the bad decisions of other people…What if I asked God to enter into all those constraints and come alive?

Background image by William




{Speaking of constraints, my interview with Katherine was postponed because she fell on Sunday and tore multiple ligaments in her knee. Here’s what she says after her fall: “Our hearts don’t have to get smaller and more self-protecting after heartbreak. They can actually be put back together to be softer, bigger, and more open to others than before. And if that kind of heart could result from suffering, then I’m willing to wake up tomorrow to persevere through more of it. And you should too.”} If you haven’t already, follow Hope Heals.

Continue reading with Amy Julia:

Uncertainty, Control, and the Election
Faith Is Trusting in the End of the Story
Human Suffering Is Not the Only Point of Connection

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can subscribe to my  Love is Stronger Than Fear  podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

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Advent Reflections: Prepare Him Room (and a giveaway!)

Request Advent E-Book: Prepare Him Room

(And be entered in the giveaway contest—keep reading for details)

I’m excited to let you know that the revised edition of my e-book Prepare Him Room: Advent Reflections on What Happens When God Shows Up is now available! PLUS I have a giveaway for you of  Trillia Newbell’s beautiful, hardcover children’s book—God’s Very Good Idea (Keep reading for details!)

Preparing to Welcome Jesus

I am in denial that Christmas is coming up pretty soon. I use a weekly planner, and I have found myself transferring a set of items from one week to the next: Christmas shopping, Christmas giving, Christmas cards, Christmas plans. I just can’t seem to summon the energy to get organized or motivated. Yet. 

But the truth is that Christmas is coming. And the season of Advent is coming in just a few short weeks. For those of you who haven’t observed Advent before, it’s the period during the church year when Christians get ready for Christmas. It’s a period of reflection, a period of expressing our longing for those things God has promised which have “not yet” been realized. It is a time of preparation to welcome Jesus into our lives, our communities, our world, once again.

Free Advent Reflections E-Book and Audiobook

I’ve written a lot about Advent and Christmas over the years, and I’ve compiled these reflections in a free Advent e-book and audiobook. Christmas can be about stress and parties and consumption. But it can also be about love and peace. It can be about waiting with longing for all to be well. It can be about waiting with eager expectation for joy. 

This e-book of Advent reflections will take 5-10 minutes each day to listen to or read. It will walk you through all the Biblical stories about Jesus’ birth and connect those stories to our own hopes and fears, doubts and dreams. If you would like a chance to walk through the Christmas season with opportunities for reflection on all these things and more, request your copy!

Giveaway

In addition to sending you my free Advent e-book, I want to enter you in a giveaway contest to receive a beautiful, hardcover children’s book by Trillia Newbell—God’s Very Good Idea.  This gorgeous book, illustrated by Catalina Echeverri, celebrates diversity and will help children see how people from all ethnic and social backgrounds are valuable to God—and it will make a wonderful Christmas gift for a child on your list!

To be entered in the giveaway contest, just tap the “Request Advent E-Book: Prepare Him Room” button, fill out the form, tap Send, and you will be entered in the giveaway! The contest will end at 11:59 p.m. on November 21, 2020. For continental U.S. residents only.

Request Advent E-Book: Prepare Him Room

(And be entered in the giveaway contest for God’s Very Good Idea!)

Continue reading with Amy Julia:

AJB Recommends: Books, Podcasts, and Films About Racism and PrivilegeAnnouncing Missing Out on Beautiful, Part Two (free e-book of essays about a child with Down syndrome growing up)Announcing Head, Heart, Hands (free e-book about healing the wounds of privilege)

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can subscribe to my  Love is Stronger Than Fear  podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

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S3 E19 | Loving Our Enemies in a Nation Divided with David Bailey

The presidential election does not change the church’s assignment. David Bailey, the executive director of Arrabon, talks with Amy Julia about the practices of reconciling communities, the divisions that result from misplaced hope in political power, and the foretaste of God’s kingdom that comes through loving our enemies.

TRANSCRIPT

SHOW NOTES:

David Bailey is the executive director of Arrabon, a ministry that helps churches become reconciling communities. Arrabon also includes Urban Doxology, which is a ministry that writes the soundtrack of reconciliation in the racially diverse and gentrifying neighborhood of Church Hill, Richmond, VA. Connect online:

Websites: arrabon.com; urbandoxology.com
Instagram: @davidmbailey; @wearearrabon; @urbandoxology
Facebook: @thedavidmbailey; @wearearrabon; @urbandoxology
Twitter: @davidmbailey; @wearearrabon; @UrbanDoxology

On the Podcast:

“[In Acts] the church was birthed within a multiethnic, socioeconomically diverse space. The miracle of that day and time was the fact that they were experiencing unity and diversity instead of unity through assimilation.”

“We live in a day and time where we treat one another as enemies…We talk to each other violently. We listen to each other in ways to pounce on one another. And as Christians, we’re called to love God. We’re called to love our neighbor. We’re called to love our enemy. Not in a theoretical sense. Our invitation is to engage in sacrificial love for our enemy.”

“A reconciling community is a group of people linked by a common purpose and a rhythm of life together that acknowledges the depths of brokenness in the world in our world and actively receives the invitation from God to heal the brokenness of our world holistically from the inside out.”

“The world gets the church, and we are to be a foretaste of the kingdom that is to come.”

Sign up for Arrabon’s newsletter
Podcast’s 1st episode with David Bailey
Urban Doxology: Rest for the Weary
Scripture: Acts 2; Genesis 1:26; Micah 6:8; Ephesians 1:13-14
Books by Robert P. Jones: The End of White Christian America and White Too Long
Books by Carl Ellis Jr: Free at Last?: The Gospel in the African-American Experience and Going Global
Frederick Douglass

Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.

White Picket Fences, Season 3 of Love is Stronger Than Fear, is based on my book White Picket Fences, and today we are talking about chapter 13. Check out free RESOURCES—action guide, discussion guides—that are designed to help you respond. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

To learn more with Amy Julia in thinking about politics, power, and loving our enemies, here are some additional podcast episodes and reflections:

Love is Stronger Than Fear | Season 3—White Picket Fences
S3 E18 | American Politics, Power, and Human Flourishing with Andy Crouch
Election Aftermath

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can  subscribe to my Love is Stronger Than Fear podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

The post S3 E19 | Loving Our Enemies in a Nation Divided with David Bailey appeared first on Amy Julia Becker.

I’m Scheduling Speaking Engagements for 2021!

A class of high school students studying bioethics. A small group of church members. A smattering of writers from across the nation. A spiritual book club from North Carolina. An alumni gathering for my own high school. The staff members of a parachurch ministry.⁠ What do they all hold in common? I’ve had a chance to meet with them—via Zoom—to talk about the harm of privilege and the ways we can participate in healing.⁠ I love these speaking engagements!

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I just learned that the Festival of Faith and Writing, which was originally scheduled for April 2020 and then postponed until April 2021, has now been again postponed until March of 2022. My on-the-road speaking gigs will not resume any time soon.⁠

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I miss that personal interaction with individuals and with groups. BUT I also love the chance to connect, and Zoom makes those connections possible.⁠

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I am starting to schedule webinars and discussions for 2021. I would love to join with your school or church or organization, your book club or small group, to talk more about healing our personal and social divisions. You can find a list of potential topics as well as suggested honorariums here. Or reach out to me with questions on my contact page here on my website!

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I hope to “see” you—even if through a screen—in 2021!⁠

To read more about Amy Julia’s speaking engagements, keep reading:

Speaking: Topics, Honorariums, etc
Postponed Speaking Events, Grief, and Gratitude
Writing for Your Life Conference
A Model for Race and Justice Events

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can  subscribe to my Love is Stronger Than Fear podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

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AJB Recommends: Three Things That Have Brought Me Peace This Week

Are you looking for some healthy stress relief? Ways to turn your mind, heart, and attention away from discord and division and towards something more lasting, more beautiful, more true? I’ve found solace in a few places lately, so in today’s AJB Recommends, I wanted to share one book, one film, and one podcast that have brought sustaining peace.  

Fiction: Jack

In the fiction category, I loved Marilynne Robinson’s Jack. (I will say, the long, opening, cemetery scene seemed interminable to me. If you get through that, though, it’s golden.) Jack is the fourth in a series of books about the fictional town of Gilead (though this one doesn’t take place in Gilead) and its inhabitants. And while I did love Gilead and Home, the first two books, Lila (the third) and Jack are even more compelling. The first two are written from the perspectives of the ones who stayed home and did everything “right.” These last two are about the misfits. 

I’ve read reviews of Jack in The Atlantic and The New Yorker, and they see this as a book about predestination in which Jack is destined for hell. I’m not so sure. The book is about predestination—as Robinson herself talks about in this wonderful conversation with Ezra Klein—but I am inclined to think it isn’t about Jack’s irredeemable soul. 

Yes, this atheist pastor’s kid who bumbles around in a cloud of bewildering misbehavior and sincere love holds his lack of belief front and center. But “sweet Jesus” is also always on his lips. It’s a turn of phrase that he grew up with. But I have a suspicion it is also Robinson’s way of hinting to the reader that Jesus is as close as the air we breathe and the words we utter, that no one is beyond redemption. And it is a relief to enter a world in which the possibility for redemption, the reality of grace, holds everything together. 

Film: My Octopus Teacher

Last weekend, Peter and I watched My Octopus Teacher, a Netflix original documentary. We loved it so much we had our kids watch it with us two days later. It’s the story of a filmmaker who lives on the coast of South Africa. He’s burnt out, so he decides that he will go snorkeling every day, and eventually he decides to film an octopus every day for a year. He learns things about the octopus that no one has ever known before, which is cool in and of itself, but the most profound aspect of this film comes in the relationship that develops between him and this creature. At its heart, this is a film about the relationship between attention and love.

Podcast: The Bible Project

Finally, I’ve needed pretty much constant reminders of the love of God this week as we walk through Covid and this election and all the rest. This podcast is a reflection on the Hebrew word that is translated “loving kindness” or “loyal love” or “steadfast love.” It’s a word that combines affection and action, and it describes the way God treats us. If you need that reminder too, take some time to listen. 

What books, films, podcasts, or something else is bringing you sustaining peace right now?

Read more with Amy Julia:

More AJB Recommends
How Beauty Brings Peace, How Peace Brings Beauty
Anxiety and the Peace of God

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can  subscribe to my Love is Stronger Than Fear podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

The post AJB Recommends: Three Things That Have Brought Me Peace This Week appeared first on Amy Julia Becker.

Three Things That Have Brought Me Peace This Week

Are you looking for some healthy stress relief? Ways to turn your mind, heart, and attention away from discord and division and towards something more lasting, more beautiful, more true? I’ve found solace in a few places lately, so in today’s AJB Recommends, I wanted to share one book, one film, and one podcast that have brought sustaining peace.  

Fiction: Jack

In the fiction category, I loved Marilynne Robinson’s Jack. (I will say, the long, opening, cemetery scene seemed interminable to me. If you get through that, though, it’s golden.) Jack is the fourth in a series of books about the fictional town of Gilead (though this one doesn’t take place in Gilead) and its inhabitants. And while I did love Gilead and Home, the first two books, Lila (the third) and Jack are even more compelling. The first two are written from the perspectives of the ones who stayed home and did everything “right.” These last two are about the misfits. 

I’ve read reviews of Jack in The Atlantic and The New Yorker, and they see this as a book about predestination in which Jack is destined for hell. I’m not so sure. The book is about predestination—as Robinson herself talks about in this wonderful conversation with Ezra Klein—but I am inclined to think it isn’t about Jack’s irredeemable soul. 

Yes, this atheist pastor’s kid who bumbles around in a cloud of bewildering misbehavior and sincere love holds his lack of belief front and center. But “sweet Jesus” is also always on his lips. It’s a turn of phrase that he grew up with. But I have a suspicion it is also Robinson’s way of hinting to the reader that Jesus is as close as the air we breathe and the words we utter, that no one is beyond redemption. And it is a relief to enter a world in which the possibility for redemption, the reality of grace, holds everything together. 

Film: My Octopus Teacher

Last weekend, Peter and I watched My Octopus Teacher, a Netflix original documentary. We loved it so much we had our kids watch it with us two days later. It’s the story of a filmmaker who lives on the coast of South Africa. He’s burnt out, so he decides that he will go snorkeling every day, and eventually he decides to film an octopus every day for a year. He learns things about the octopus that no one has ever known before, which is cool in and of itself, but the most profound aspect of this film comes in the relationship that develops between him and this creature. At its heart, this is a film about the relationship between attention and love.

Podcast: The Bible Project

Finally, I’ve needed pretty much constant reminders of the love of God this week as we walk through Covid and this election and all the rest. This podcast is a reflection on the Hebrew word that is translated “loving kindness” or “loyal love” or “steadfast love.” It’s a word that combines affection and action, and it describes the way God treats us. If you need that reminder too, take some time to listen. 

What books, films, podcasts, or something else is bringing you sustaining peace right now?

Read more with Amy Julia:

More AJB Recommends
How Beauty Brings Peace, How Peace Brings Beauty
Anxiety and the Peace of God

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can  subscribe to my Love is Stronger Than Fear podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

The post Three Things That Have Brought Me Peace This Week appeared first on Amy Julia Becker.

Election Aftermath

It’s been a stressful week for most Americans when it comes to the state of our nation in the election aftermath. Even without a final verdict on who will be our next President, we know that our country is still quite divided when it comes to partisan politics. Our worst fears have not come to pass, but we haven’t exactly come together singing kum-ba-yah either.⁠

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On Tuesday afternoon, I had such a strong headache that I went to bed for an hour. I haven’t done that in years. It was as if I just couldn’t think about the discord and turmoil and distrust and disdain that was oozing from both sides of the political map any longer. I climbed under the covers and slept.⁠

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But I also went to the polls on Tuesday. I stood in line with Penny and walked her through what it looks like to vote for a President and various other representatives. In four years, she will be 18, and she will vote in her first election. If there is anything this election has shown us, it is that every vote does count.

It’s that people who were previously disenfranchised—including people with disabilities—can make their voices heard.

It’s that “we the people” continues to become a phrase that is more and more accurate in describing who comes to the voting booths and casts their ballot.

In the midst of the uncertainty of this election, in the midst of the divisions within our nation, that’s a reason to get out of bed.⁠

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That said, faith in our democracy will only carry me so far. In the election aftermath, I do celebrate the expanding participation and access to voting that we’ve seen in this election. But I have also been reminded this week to put my faith in a God who works in and through our political systems and who is also far greater than our political realm. I have been reminded to place my hope, not in the power of man, but in the love of God, a love that remains and sustains all things.

If you’re also caught up in the election aftermath, consider reading:

Uncertainty, Control, and the Election
S3 E18 | American Politics, Power, and Human Flourishing with Andy Crouch
Thought on the Election of Donald Trump: Trust Your Love Instead of Your Fear

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can  subscribe to my Love is Stronger Than Fear podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

The post Election Aftermath appeared first on Amy Julia Becker.

Uncertainty, Control, and the Election

We awoke to uncertainty, and I find myself wrestling with uncertainty, control, and the election.

There is a part of me that wants to say, “God is in control,” as if I can assure myself that nothing bad will happen in our nation, or that this is all happening exactly the way God wants. 

But then I find myself returning to the simple statement that God is love, and as powerful as love is, and as much as I believe God is sovereign over time and space and even Presidential elections, I remind myself again that control and love are not the same.

I wrote about this dynamic—the desire to reassure myself with statements like “God is in control” and the call to instead remind myself that God is love—for Breaking Ground this week in an essay about uncertainty, control, love, and this election: 

Christians across the political divide will pray for God to appoint the leader who will carry out God’s way of justice and mercy. It will be tempting for those whose candidate wins to feel that their prayers have been answered. But as we enter into the uncertainty of this next week and perhaps months, we need to comfort ourselves not with a simplistic understanding of God’s control over human events but rather with a willingness to participate in the holy mystery of God’s steadfast love.

That’s my question, and my prayer this morning: how can I continue to participate in the holy mystery of God’s steadfast love no matter what happens? 

Continue reading the essay here.

(Andy Crouch and I also had a chance to talk about the difference between God’s love and our desire for God to be “in control” in our podcast conversation yesterday. You can find that here.)

If you’re also wrestling with uncertainty, control, and the election, continue reading:

Faith Is Trusting in the End of the Story
Anxiety and the Peace of God
How Love Brings Power in the Midst of Powerlessness {Ep 109}

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can  subscribe to my Love is Stronger Than Fear podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

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S3 E18 | American Politics, Power, and Human Flourishing with Andy Crouch

Image courtesy of Andy Crouch

As Americans vote in the 2020 national and local elections, is there hope for power, politics, and privilege to foster human flourishing? Andy Crouch, the author of Strong and Weak, talks with Amy Julia about the paradox of authority and vulnerability, how political leaders can use power and risk for the good of humanity, the distinction between blessing and privilege, and pragmatic ways to contribute to human flourishing.

TRANSCRIPT

SHOW NOTES

Andy Crouch is partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organization that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship. His two most recent books—2017’s The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place and 2016’s Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing—build on the vision of faith, culture, and the image of God.

Follow Andy online:

Website: andy-crouch.com
Twitter: @ahc

Andy Crouch on politics and power, privilege and blessing:

“Authority is the capacity for meaningful action. Vulnerability is the exposure to meaningful risk.”

“Most of the benefits we enjoy come from a tangled legacy of past exercises of power, some of which were highly creative and beneficial and beautiful, and others of which were forceful, coercive, and violent.”

“Things that are called blessing in the Bible often happen at a moment of tremendous vulnerability. Blessing happens in the midst of vulnerability and unto vulnerability.”

“The ultimate risk is love.”

ON THE PODCAST:

Andy’s books:  The Tech-Wise Family ,  Strong and Weak ,  Playing God , and  Culture Making
Praxis podcast
Strong and Weak quadrant
Bible passages: Luke 12:13-21; Genesis 49; Genesis 27; Genesis 32:22-32; Matthew 4:18-20; Matthew 5:1-12
Podcast interview with Sara Hendren
My Tech-Wise Life: Growing Up and Making Choices in a World of Devices by Amy Crouch and Andy Crouch
Breaking Ground article (coming soon)

Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.

White Picket Fences, Season 3 of Love is Stronger Than Fear, is based on my book White Picket Fences, and today we are talking about chapter 12. Check out free RESOURCES—action guide, discussion guides—that are designed to help you respond. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

If you’ve enjoyed listening to Andy Crouch on politics and power, privilege and blessing, learn more with Amy Julia in thinking about the church and public education reform:

Love is Stronger Than Fear | Season 3—White Picket Fences
Thought on the Election of Donald Trump: Trust Your Love Instead of Your Fear
Three Harms of Privilege

If you haven’t already, please  subscribe  to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter,  and you can  subscribe to my Love is Stronger Than Fear podcast on your favorite podcast platforms.

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