This is a picture of “faith in its lived-in condition,” valuable for believers who tend towards either overconfidence or despair, and every messy point in between.
All in Media Reviews
When a magazine is full grown, it sometimes blossoms into a beautiful book.
The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for An Age of Distraction
A review of The Common Rule by Justin Whitmel Earley.
Learning to Love and Loving to Learn: "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego"
The show is infectiously curious, positive, and educational — it’s everything TV for kids should be, while still managing to be great fun.
The Gateway Chronicles & The Demands of Friendship
We create a very particular vision of the full life we want, missing out on the fullness that’s there.
I appreciated how the book avoids reductionism and honestly acknowledges the messy state of reality. The gospel is not the answer to a question, it’s the good news about a good God who enters into pain and suffering, not to pull me out of it but to walk through it with me.
I read a lot of books in 2017.
These were a few of my favourites.
Review: Recapturing the Wonder by Mike Cosper
Recapturing the Wonder is a 5-star read because it’s timely and practical without ascribing undue value to either of those adjectives; it’s cosmic in scope while remaining deeply human. It’s quite literally wonderful.
Review: Leaf by Niggle | J.R.R. Tolkien
My hope is Niggle’s hope, and Tolkien’s of course, whose theory of sub-creation reassures me, with or without commercial success, that my “leaf” is worthwhile. It’s true, many efforts will feel wasted, incomplete, or far from perfect. But there’s nothing than can’t ultimately be redeemed.