Friday Link List | 18th March 2016

When I first started this blog, I wanted to start practising writing, but I also wanted to point people into the direction of interesting and unusual thinking. For all the ills of the internet age, the ability to listen in on conversations of people of a different nationality, persuasion and opinion is unprecedented. We can learn alot from truly listening to one another, it’s the Jesus skill of a lifetime.


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Here are some things I think are worth listening to, mulling over and possibly even integrating into your life and thought this week;

What I’ve written here

The last time I posted a link list was january, so there was plenty posted in the interim right here on the blog;

Theology

  • I was teaching a class on worship last week and Robert Webber was extremely impactful in how I am beginning to think about worship as ‘storied’. You Pick up some of Webber’s insights from this interview with Trevin Wax from 2007.

  • A second book I spent time in preparing for the teaching on worship, was this excellent resource from Chris Hall – Worshipping with the Church Fathers, read a review of that here.

  • Kenny Borthwick was a church leader and national figure in the renewal movement in scotland during the time I lived there who has recently stepped out of his normal role due to health reasons. He has however picked up a daily blogging rhythm which is rich. I was particularly impacted by his reflections on making friends with time, read more of that here;

Are you finding the passing of time difficult? Perhaps you too have all of a sudden found yourself being carried down a way that you did not choose. It is unfamiliar. I hope you will discover treasures and beauties in God, in life, in the world around you, in your fellow human beings and even in yourself that you would never have discovered had you not found yourself travelling by a different way to a place whose shores you have not walked upon before. Give it time, make a friend of time and that can happen. You may find yourself one day telling others what I am telling you, and using the words of Jacob as though they had been written for you: “Truly God is in this place and I did not know it…. This is the gate of heaven.” As I close, I end with a P.S. which perhaps you will take tonight as a spiritual nightcap: I stored it in my head years back, source unknown. Whoever said it, this is what they said: It is good for us to spend time in the waiting room in the doctor’s surgery. It reminds us we are not in charge. Perhaps that may be the biggest blessing that God may bring for you out of what you are going through at this moment: God really is God.

Productivity

  • Lots of time is spent (and potentially wasted) contriving new ways to be productive. Every one is keen to do meaningful work and not just busy work – it seems like Shawn Blanc’s words on Benjamin Franklin’s schedule get this right. Read more here

  • Online education might not be the type of formation we need. These are important realities to consider when education becomes dis-embodied in the ways the internet offers us;

Rather, education is a matter of being helped to become something—taking on the disciplines, virtues, habits and skills of this craft through a relationship with someone who has lived and breathed this craft for a lifetime.

Technology

Music

Stewart Garry a friend of my brother Josiah’s is releasing a new cinematic fingerstyle album, and it looks great. Check out the trailer below;

  • Here are a couple NPR Desk Concerts you might enjoy!

Kronos Quartet

Oliver Mtukudzi

Miscellany


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