Don’t Mess With The Books…
There are plenty of items you can mess with in my life and it will not bother me.
One of the few items you don’t mess with me though is books.
I will admit it. It’s bad. I take my books a little too serious. For example, If someone on our staff wants to borrow one of my books, I have a check-out system in addition to a policy where they can’t take it away from the premises. I have a late fee policy still in the works. One of the most cringe worthy questions you can ask me is “Can I borrow a book?”
It destroys me.
I know…I have a long way to go in being open-handed with my books.
I can even do you one better. One of the top five greatest upsets in my marriage has to do with books. While we were in the process of staging our house to sell, my wife (understandably) moved some of my books around to different rooms to stage the house.
When I came home to find that they had been color coded and removed from their original home, you would’ve thought she sold our best alpaca. I was distraught for days on end. (I have an organization system of where I put my books that only makes sense to me).
Why such devastation, depression, and distrust?
Because books aren’t just books. They are friends. I know this feels like a Finding Nemo line, but it’s true. They are voices. They are conversational partners. And they are moments of insight, revelation, and discovery.
One of the lanes in this podcast we discuss is relationships (we call it “their thing”). Today I want to share three voices who I’ve shared unique moments with this past year. Yes, in a way this is my “best books of 2021 post. But I don’t see them as good reads as much as I do meaningful conversations that I think would be valuable for anyone navigating from the first third to second third of life.
So, without further ado, in no particular order, here are my three recommendations if you were to ask me, “What’s the best thing you’ve read over the past year?” (I’ll even include a quote from each)
Three Friends To Talk To…
(1) Think Again by Adam Grant. This books is written by an expert in organizational psychology talking about the art of thinking and rethinking. It’s no wonder it held a place in Amazon’s top 100 reads for a while. Think Again is this beautiful collage of stats, stories, and strategies that doesn’t challenge us as much as it reveals to us our thought patterns. I found it helpful as I’m attempting to sharpen my skills in processing new information and dialoguing about core beliefs in my life.
The book breakdown is phenomenal because the first third is about how you can evaluate your own thought process. The middle portion of the book is all about how to open other people’s minds to rethinking a decision, idea, or perception. And the final third of the book is all about how to create communities of critical thinkers.
Here is a quote for you: “Attachment. That’s what keeps us from recognizing when our options are off the mark and rethinking them. To unlock the joy of being wrong, we need to detach. I’ve learned that two kinds of detachments are especially useful: detaching your present from your past and detaching your opinions from your identity.”1
(2) Confronting Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlin. This book is a knock out for anyone who honestly doesn’t know what to think of Christianity anymore after numerous nauseating conversations about what Christians have or haven’t done to the world.
This book is a refresher on the roots of Christian faith. It is an orienting conversation amongst the disorienting topics around the Christian faith. Instead of a quote, I’m going to give you the chapter titles. That’s worth the price of admission alone:
Aren’t We Better Off Without Religion?
Doesn’t Christianity Crush Diversity?
How Can You Say There’s Only One True Faith?
Doesn’t Religion Hinder Morality?
Doesn’t Religion Cause Violence?
How Can You Take the Bible Literally?
Hasn’t Science Disproved Christianity?
Doesn’t Christianity Denigrate Women?
Isn’t Christianity Homophobic?
Doesn’t the Bible Condone Slavery?
How Could A Loving God Allow So Much Suffering?
How Could A Loving God Send People To Hell?2
As always, just because I recommend the book, doesn’t mean I endorse every idea or claim of the writer. But let’s stay focused on the point. For anyone enamored with Twitter conversations, debates, and one liners about deconstruction, this book is the healing balm for Christians.
(3) Tish Warren’s Article: The Devi’s In The Details of Deconstruction. If you’re paying close attention to this third recommendation, you probably caught that this is an article instead of a book. I know, I’m a rebel. But I need to tell you about Tish. She has become one of my, and many others, all time writers on spirituality. I think this article is a sample of her best work and writing.
The article is in November’s issue of Christainity Today. It’s a brief five hundred word reminder about deconstruction. Her point is simple. What many call deconstruction in the Christian faith is actually simply reformation. If you could take Taylor Swift’s line, “you need to calm down” and put it in article form about your doubts, this would be it.
Here is a quote to give you a taste: “To call something to reform (as opposed to simply destroying it) is to simply recognize the integrity of its original design. As an example, I am often dismayed by the misogyny I see in the church. But I also recognize the notion of women’s intrinsic dignity is given to me by the church itself.”3
It’s a winsome article reminding us that we can renovate the house without moving out of the beliefs that were passed down to us from older generations of Christains. We always want to reach for demolition. What we really need is simply reformation.
These are the three friends I find worthy of anyone looking for a couple of things to read this year. Even though I haven’t met them all in person, I still like to think of them as my friends. And my hope for you is that they become your friends too.
And if you’re wondering, no you can’t borrow my copy. Thanks for asking though….
References:
1Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know (Penguin Random House: New York, 2021) 62.
2Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion (Crossway: Wheaton, 2019).
3Tish Warren, “The Devil’s in the Details of Deconstruction” Christianity Today November 2021, 32.