Amy Julia Becker's Blog, page 54

The Infinite Became Finite

I read an essay about math (of all things!) in the New Yorker a few months ago that made me all the more grateful for what happened at Christmas. Let me explain.

So there’s the moment Christians call the incarnation. The moment that God becomes a baby. Here’s what mathematics has to do with that moment. So, Alec Wilkinson writes about the way mathematics has changed his view of the cosmos and pointed him towards the possibility of a divine being. 

Wilkinson explains: 

“Among certain mathematicians, some of the great ones historically and presently, there is the belief that, at its highest ranges, mathematics seems to converge toward a unity and that this unity is God. The German mathematician Georg Cantor . . . wrote that what surpasses all, the infinite set, was “the single, completely individual unity in which everything is included, which includes ‘the Absolute,’ incomprehensible to the human understanding. This is the ‘Actus Purissimus,’ which by many is called ‘God.’”

Wilkinson goes on:

“Human beings have only finite means for approaching God, and, since God is unknowable and absolute, it made sense to Cantor that any finite system would collapse into paradox as one comes near to the divine.”

What it made me think about is that we have finite means for approaching God, but God has infinite means for approaching us. The miracle of Christmas centers around the idea not that we recognized God but that God recognized us. Not that we climbed our way, searched our way, earned our way to an understanding of God’s character, but that God revealed God to us. 

In the conception of Jesus, the infinite became finite. The eternal became temporal. The ephemeral became knowable. The inconceivable became vulnerable. God became a baby. Because God didn’t want to be inaccessible, invincible, unapproachable. God wanted to be God with us, Emmanuel. 

essay in The New Yorker: How Mathematics Changed Me

More with Amy Julia:

What Math Can Teach Us About the DivineS6 E5 | The Healing Work of Rest with Ruth Haley BartonAm I Willing to Be Interrupted by God’s Work of Love in the World?

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

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December Introductions

It is time for another introduction! If you are new around here, welcome, and please know that I love getting to know who you are through comments and messages. If you have been here for a while, here’s another chance to learn quirky facts about my life and maybe share some of your own in return!

As always, there are the basics: I’m a writer and speaker about personal and social healing. I have three kids, and our oldest daughter Penny has Down syndrome, so I write about our experience with disability a fair amount as well. I love thinking and reading and engaging with people about faith and spirituality. 

In addition to the basics, a few quirky points of potential interest about me:

I no longer pretend to be domestic or artistic or interested in gardening. And every year I dread the invitation to a local holiday wreath making. And then I go and make the wreath. And I feel happy about how it turned out and it hangs on our back door for months—the most crafty thing I do in any given year is making one wreath!

I often don’t notice things (or people) that are right in front of me. For example, I once took communion in front of former President George W. Bush and his entire family and never noticed they were there.I live in the town that inspired the show Gilmore Girls. I have only watched one episode, but Marilee has watched it in its entirety three times. We have various shops with lots of references to Stars Hollow, and our house sits one house away from the local soda shop and a big white Congregational church on the green. Quintessential small-town New England.
One of my biggest insecurities in life is clothing. I feel like I never know what to wear, and I would like to show up to every event in jeans and a sweater. When I find something I like, I tend to buy three, in different colors.

I wrote my thesis in seminary on Flannery O’Connor’s theology of disability. She helped me begin to think through the ways disability can reveal our common humanity.

How about you? Do enjoy crafts? What’s something unique about the place you live? Have you watched Gilmore Girls? What’s one of your insecurities? Have you read Flannery O’Connor?

More with Amy Julia:

AboutBooksSpeaking

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

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What People Are Saying About To Be Made Well Groups

One of the great gifts of being a writer whose words go out to places near and far is hearing from the people in those places. This fall, groups of women and men across the country read To Be Made Well in small and large group gatherings, and here’s what they had to say about it: “Many group members found a new way to connect their bodies to their soul, by mindful prayer practices and prayerful listening…The book and supplemental videos, weekly discussion and practices were so good for our group; it is an easy entry for a small group or Bible study and each week there are many practical applications and spiritual lessons.” – Holli (California)  “Reading this book in community made all the difference! At Kaleid’s To Be Made Well book club, we bore witness to one another’s stories of ache and healing…we gained a bigger vision for how Jesus is with us offering life and hope even in the darkest part of our stories!” – Karen (Georgia)  “To Be Made Well was experienced as transformative within our Yale community. People left our time of gathering with hope and healing.” – Tamara F. Ravelo, Yale Divinity School Student Government President (Connecticut)  “Reading [To Be Made Well] together has exposed me to different kinds of healing that I never would have thought of. It also has shown me that Jesus meets us where we are to heal what we need.” – Shelley (Colorado)  “This book has ignited lively discussion in class around what we mean when we use the word well in conjunction with healing. This is the Jesus we were meant to see…It has been an absolute delight to share inside and outside the class this beautifully enhanced revelation of the depth of Jesus’ compassion andhealing encounters.” – Mary (Virginia)  For resources and more about To Be Made Well…

More with Amy Julia:

Book: To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope

To Be Made Well Video Series More Reviews for To Be Made Well

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

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Am I Willing to Be Interrupted by God’s Work of Love in the World?

Jesus’ birth was only noticed by the outsiders.

The Magi, non-Israelite foreigners who worshiped a distant god, nevertheless paid attention to the star in the east and came to find him.

The shepherds, the men who slept and worked outside and were marked as “sinners” and excluded from polite society, paid attention to the heavenly host and came to find him.

These two groups were very different—rich and poor, regal and lowly. But they both were paying attention. And they let the news of Jesus’ birth disrupt their lives. They welcomed the inconvenient interruption of their plans. They ran and rejoiced to see the little baby. 

The religious people didn’t notice. The powerful people didn’t notice. The respectable people in Bethlehem missed it too. 

As we come once again to this celebration of Jesus’ birth, I am wondering whether I am willing to be disrupted by grace, interrupted by glory, inconvenienced by humility, and welcomed into joy?

More with Amy Julia:

Advent Devotional: Prepare Him Room What Is God Saying to You this Christmas?When Christmas (and Life) Is Unexpectedly Disappointing

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

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Why I Am Neither Conservative Nor Progressive

Conservatism in one sphere can lead to progressivism in another.

To be more specific, theological conservatism can lead to social and political progressivism. 

Last week, Curtis Chang and David French talked about the problems of the labels “conservative” and “progressive” on their Good Faith podcast.

By Chang’s definition, I am a theological conservative. I understand the Bible as the authoritative word of God that points us to Jesus and invites us to participate in God’s loving action in the world. 

I used to think that this theological conservatism led directly to political conservatism. But over time, my theological convictions have led me to many views that are labeled socially or politically progressive. (For example, my theological convictions that all humans are created in the image of God leads me to support social protections and provisions for people who are vulnerable and marginalized in our culture and around the globe.)

It brings to mind Bono’s words about the “radical center.” He writes about living and acting from a space that is on neither side of the political aisle. His fellow celebrities saw him as pandering to the political powers by advocating alongside the Bush White House. His fellow Christians saw him as too much “in the world.” And from that space, in the midst of all the criticism, he was able to marshall forces to provide billions of dollars of aid for hurting people. 

I want to inhabit that radical center. Not a wishy-washy moderate position in which I try to appease all the people. Not a space where I am unwilling to fight for what I believe. But a liminal space in which Love is the label that matters.

More with Amy Julia:

People to Follow Across the Political DividesFor Those of Us Who Feel Politically HomelessS3 E18 | American Politics, Power, and Human Flourishing with Andy Crouch

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

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God’s Boundless Love

Wider than my arms can reach.

Those are the words I used to say to our kids to describe how big our love was for them. Expansive. Abundant. Never-ending and never-giving-up.

And I have heard people talk about God’s love in the same terms. Sally Lloyd Jones’ Jesus Storybook Bible (which I love) describes it this way, God’s “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.”

And I kind of knew all of that was from the Bible, but then I was reading Psalm 103 the other morning, and I came across these words:

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God’s love…” (v 11)

In other words, God’s love is larger than space.

And then,

“from everlasting to everlasting is the Lord’s love…” (v 17)

God’s love is longer than time.

Larger than space and longer than time. Abundant, expansive, beyond our wildest hopes and never-ending. This is the God who created us and sees us and knows us and comes to live among us and always, everywhere, loves and loves and loves us again.

More with Amy Julia:

We All Need to Know We Are BelovedWhen the Love Goes Deeper Than the Wounds | Ann Voskamp’s BlogThe Center of Healing is Belovedness

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

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Two-Word Family Check-In

Lately, I’ve been sending a text once each week to our whole family to check in on how everyone is doing. I used to just ask a generic, “How is everyone doing today?” and I didn’t get much response. But recently I’ve been asking them to use two words to describe how they are doing, and they all respond every time.

We get words like grateful, excited, tired, exhausted (lots of variations on tired!). It’s both low-stakes and highly personal. This little window into our kids’ worlds gives me a sense of how I can pray for them and connect with them and love them well. It gives me a springboard for conversation. It gives me a chance to reflect on my own state of mind and being. It helps me recognize the “and” of our lives. It also gives us a chance to giggle at Peter. His response was so long (not at all two words) that I can’t even include it in the screenshot below.

I also used this prompt as a dinner table question with a group of high school students this week when I asked them for two words to describe their fall so far. I heard things like stressful, fun, new, and exciting. 

So if you’re looking for a little way to connect—with your kids or your friends or other family members or even yourself—maybe start small. Two words can say a lot.

More with Amy Julia:

Slowing Down in Our Family’s Fast-Paced WorldPrayer: Mad About, Sad About, Glad About

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

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3 Things to Watch This Weekend

Here are 3 things to watch this weekend. We had an unexpected family movie weekend, where we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding and then Wakanda Forever (in the theater).

MBFGW had our kids howling on the floor (I mean, Windex, chin hair, and true love is all really funny even twenty years later).

Wakanda Forever had all of us in awe of the visuals and costumes and strength, and we were enraptured by the storytelling. Both were fun and good in different ways.

Peter and I have been watching Occupied, a Norweigan drama (yes, subtitles) from 2019 in which Russia begins to occupy Norway. If I had watched it when it came out, I might have thought it was outlandish. Now, it feels like a helpful way to stay engaged with the fight for democracy and questions about whether freedom is worth dying for. We are well into season Two and highly recommend it.

More with Amy Julia:

Amy Julia RecommendsWhy You Should Watch CODAThe Deep Truth Within Encanto

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

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I Have a Gift for You: Movements of Healing Guide

DOWNLOAD FREE GUIDE

Honesty, humility, and hope. These are the three movements of healing we see again and again in the gospel stories of healing. These are the movements we see in our own lives and in our communities. 

They all emerge from and lead back to the love that holds us all together. As we heal, we learn to receive our belovedness even as that love heals us. And as we receive our belovedness and live in love, we are also prompted to create spaces of belonging where others can also know the healing love of God.

After sharing thoughts on how we can move towards healing with women from many generations and diverse backgrounds up and down the east coast, I decided to create a short pdf to share with you all and give you an introduction to these movements towards healing. (You can find it here.)

Honesty, humility, and hope—movements that lead you ever more towards the healing love of God.

DOWNLOAD FREE GUIDE

More with Amy Julia:

FREE GUIDE: Movements of HealingWe All Need to Know We Are BelovedHealing: Spiraling Upward?

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

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Big News for the Becker Family

Big news for the Becker family today!

Many of you have watched and read and listened as our family has grown up over the years, first at The Lawrenceville School (the setting of A Good and Perfect Gift), and then at The Frederick Gunn School here in Washington, CT (the setting of much of Small Talk, White Picket Fences, and To Be Made Well). 

I’m writing today to share the news that this will be our final school year at Frederick Gunn. Next year, my husband Peter will become the Head of School at Taft, our alma mater. Peter and I met at Taft when we were both sixteen (see photo below—can you believe how young we look?!?). We dated throughout my senior year, and we sat and talked every morning on a particular bench in the main hall of the school (again, see photo, with our kids at Peter’s 20th reunion on that same bench!). Taft formed and shaped us both—through years of coming to faith and learning how to write and connecting with lifelong friends and life-changing teachers and struggling with identity and all the beautiful and harrowing realities of being a teenager. (As a bonus, see the last shot of Penny in her Taft hat reading Ramona at my 20th reunion nearly ten years ago!)

We are focused on finishing this school year well, with gratitude for the tremendous gifts The Frederick Gunn School and the town of Washington have been to us and our family. (For those of you who don’t know who Frederick Gunn is, he was an ardent abolitionist, founder of recreational camping in America, and an ahead-of-his-time educator who understood kids. We’ve loved learning from the example he set nearly two centuries ago.) And, of course, I’m also all of a sudden waking up in the middle of the night thinking about packing and moving and the ridiculous number of things we need to throw away and give away and sort through. 

But for today, I am raising a glass to Peter for his love for family and students, to The Frederick Gunn School for taking a risk on a young teacher and his family eleven years ago, and to Taft for welcoming us back. We are grateful for the past and excited for what lies ahead.

More with Amy Julia:

Sabbatical Announcement and Learning to RestS6 E2 | A Curious Faith with Lore Ferguson WilbertWhat Energizes Me? Anxiety or Love?

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

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