a worker, not the master builder.: my summer bookshelf.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

my summer bookshelf.

"Oh Day of days when we can read! The reader and the book, either without the other is naught." - R. W. Emerson

I love books. This summer I look forward to / hope for a chance to read more: to slow down a bit from my normal routines of rapid school reading and instead to have time to soak in ideas and truly wrestle with them; to get caught up and swept away in a thrilling story.

I am bringing a plethora of books and I know I won't get to all of them in their entirety in my 9 weeks in the dominican (though a couple are re-reads), but I wanted to share them with you and ask:

Have you read any of these? Which ones? What did you think? (but don't give it all away just yet :)) Leave me a comment and let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts and/or recommendations, (and maybe later we can discuss!) Let's make this a conversation.

Without further ado:

In case that the image does not come through clearly (/ and to see the full titles), the books are:

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, N.T. Wright
When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself, Corbett and Flikkert
Moon guide to the DR
Love Wins, Rob Bell
Loves Me, Loves Me Not: the Ethics of Unrequited Love, Laura Smit
Against the Tide: Love in a Time of Petty Dreams and Persisting Enmities, Miroslav Volf
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel
The Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World, Richard Foster
The Illumined Heart: Capture the Vibrant Faith of the Ancient Christians, Frederica Mathewes-Greene

2 comments:

Sarah DeVriesJune 2, 2011 at 2:28 PM
I've read "Freedom of Simplicity" and "Loves Me, Loves Me Not," and I strongly recommend them. Both are gracefully written and have had a pretty profound effect on the way I view life and relationships.
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EmilyJune 2, 2011 at 7:27 PM
Emma!
I'm currently reading "When Helping Hurts."
Just finished "Love Wins."
Read "Freedom of Simplicity" in the last two months.
Just downloaded "Surprised by Hope" on my kindle.

Sounds like we have similar tastes. I'm excited to check out the other books on your list. :)
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Prophets of a Future Not Our Own

It helps now and then to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a small fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant the seeds that will one day grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it well. It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

- Bishop Ken Untener (Detroit)