Post-Scholastic Life?
When you are in school there is always the thought that one day, one sweet day, all our studies will be done. It is especially tempting during the last few years of school to let that glorious day of graduation be the day of 'arrival,' of having 'made it,' of being 'done' with learning. We have certainly felt tempted by those thoughts and have even given into them at times, but now that we have moved our tassels and received our hoods we are beginning to feel just how wrong we were. The surprise for us has not so much been that there is still more to learn, but rather how much we miss being pushed to learn it.
So what do we do? Well, we are learning that we are just going to have to sit our butts down dive back into books again. There are no more book lists, nor more required readings, and not even any more particularized fields of study that we are restricted to. Linds and I were talking about it this morning, and we decided that we need to constantly anchor ourselves in thoughts that will stretch us, grow us, and mature us, and so to begin this we are going to go back to some of the books that laid the foundation for what we believe is true and right about God, Man, Creation, and the relationships between them all. The photo below depicts some of books that have formed or are currently forming us, and that we are thinking through and reflecting on.
So what do we do? Well, we are learning that we are just going to have to sit our butts down dive back into books again. There are no more book lists, nor more required readings, and not even any more particularized fields of study that we are restricted to. Linds and I were talking about it this morning, and we decided that we need to constantly anchor ourselves in thoughts that will stretch us, grow us, and mature us, and so to begin this we are going to go back to some of the books that laid the foundation for what we believe is true and right about God, Man, Creation, and the relationships between them all. The photo below depicts some of books that have formed or are currently forming us, and that we are thinking through and reflecting on.They are:
- Michael Williams, Far As the Curse is Found
- Dan Allender, The Wounded Heart
- Vigen Guroian, Tending the Heart of Virtue
- James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small
- Christopher Wright, The Mission of the People of God
- Kathryn Stockett, The Help
- J. K. Rowlings, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
(The chair in the above is an Ekornes chair, and if you have
never sat in one then your butt has never truly rested)
What books and thoughts have helped to form you and your approach towards life? How do you find yourself living out of these ideas in the everyday?
We are excited to revisit our past literary loves and future discoveries as we go along, and we'd love to interact with you about yours as well!
- Drew
How true that learning never ends! Learning should be a life-style rather than a life-stage, and even as I approach the end of my PhD, I only realize how much more I don't know and understand.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many books that have formed me, including The Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis, The Pleasures of God by Piper, all of Eugene Peteron's books, but especially his books on pastoral ministry like Under the Unpredictable Plant, Walking with the Poor by Bryant Myers, and The Drama of Doctrine by Kevin Vanhoozer. The number one novel would probably be Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days.
I have also appreciated the biblical imagination of Walter Brueggemann, the historical and exegetical insight of Tom Wright, and the literary wit of G. K. Chesterton. Oh, and recently I was incredibly impressed with Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre: a must read.
I'm sure I would be reading even more if I had an Ekornes!
Just ordered the Unpredictable Plant - It seems to hit on many of the things that Linds and I are in the midst of right now.
ReplyDeleteRight now I'm slowly drifting through All Creatures, and it is delightful to be able to appreciate the nuances of animal life through the reflections of a trained eye. There are so many things that his thoughts reveal about the created world that I would never encounter on my own! I am loving this book because it helps to remind me that my world and my mind are too small to appreciate all that is available, and as such it is important to enlist the thoughts of others.
I have such a long list of books I've been meaning to read, and no hope of getting to them in the next 3 years, so hopefully I'll have no trouble continuing to learn when all this schoolin' is done. It would be nice to get to chose what I'm going to read again.
ReplyDeleteShadow of the Almighty - Elisabeth Elliot
The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Four Loves - C.S. Lewis
The Reason for God - Tim Keller
The Same Kind of Different as Me - Ron Hall and Denver Moore
As far as books that have shaped me, the first two are definitely the big ones. I certainly wouldn't be where I am today without those. The first 3rd of "Cost of Discipleship" seriously just hit me like a truck.
As far as fiction goes, a few favorites:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince -J.K. Rowling (the best book in the series)
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Dune - Frank Herbert
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (probably played an integral part in forming my sense of humor)
On a different note, I'm long overdue for owing you an email, so that's coming soon. Be on the lookout :).