Benjamin
Great read! Dr. Paul Farmer's life is one that is unusual I think in this day and age in more ways than one. His dedication is amazing, his huge dreams and clear passion and care for others is inspiring. Will likely read again someday because it was just an amazing insight into a life that has a lot to learn from.
A fantastic book at giving the insight into the author, Paul Miller, and his own prayer life, both the hardships, the wins, and the lessons learned. I was very challenged by this book and feel as though I will read it again in the future just to continue to get reminders of what prayer is at the basis, and why the importance of prayer is so great. Paul also poses challenging questions around things such as why “God permits difficult situations in our lives” or how laments in the biblical sense can actually be something that draw us closer to God.
Some quotes that stuck out to me and challenged me among many others are
“You don't create intimacy; you make room for it.” ... no matter who you're talking about, friends or God, “You need space to be together. Efficiency, multitasking, and busyness all kill intimacy. In short, you can't get to know God on the fly. If Jesus has to pull away from people and noise in order to pray, then it makes sense that we need to as well.”
“When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problems to bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worry to watching. You watch God weave his patterns in the story of your life. Instead of trying to be out front, designing your life, you realize you are inside God's drama. As you wait, you begin to see him work, and your life begins to sparkle with wonder. You are learning to trust again.”
Not a new plot in terms of a world is going to end soon and so human race is trying to populate a new planet storyline. I thought it was a bit of a slow and sad read, a story of how Samantha, one of the last people on earth, is cataloging plant samples to take on the Ark before a life-ending asteroid, Finis, hits earth to follow the rest of mankind who has already taken to spaceships to another planet.
The story almost turns into a story of nostalgia for Samantha as she reminisces upon her Mom and talking to Hagen, the memories of orchids to both of them and really just sad nostalgia for what beauty and how special earth really is and what it has, as well as thinking about how much more there is left to discover, as we see with Samantha discovering a new flower in such a short time before the end of the earth.
Thoughts:
What is it like when you live your whole life knowing that the end of the world is coming?
What is it like to be the last people on earth, all without family members, and all (but not as defining of a detail) doing the same work and with similar degrees.
Part of Amazon's Forward Collection:
-Randomize by Andy Weir ★★★☆☆
Interesting discussion on the effects of quantum computing, which isn't necessarily a too far away possibility, and how this may affect existing logical computer systems and encryption processes that are widespread currently. Plot is kind of dull, as well as the characters, but I found that thinking about the effect of quantum computing on day to day computer infrastructure and the security threats that they could potentially pose was pretty interesting.
From more of the techie side, I think there might be ways to generate essentially ‘truly' random numbers with current systems such as having a seed that changes constantly that is based off of something that is truly random such as live images of lava lamps (Details here) vs a static seed that could be eventually determined. This approach to including true randomness (vs pseudo randomness) I think helps make existing systems more secure.
There are interesting technological discussion on entanglement, how technology can both be beneficial and potentially cause some problems in the future, etc.
Overall, actually enjoyed this short story and made for interesting discussions.
While this book is clearly intended to change the way you live as a married person, I think it speaks well to every relationship in your life. Thomas writes with emphasis of the importance of learning God's design for marriage and one's role in marriage, and the role of marriage in God's design. As the subtitle states, God puts relationships in your life not to make you happy, but to make you holy. This is essential as this truth isn't just true for your love life but every relationship in your life, from your friendships to ministry to your spouse, that God can use people around us to reveal things within our lives and allow us to look more like Christ.
It is an important read I think for young adults as the way you date and marry will affect so many parts of your life, and if you can harness the truth behind being pruned for Christ's glory throughout your life, in relationships and friendships, it can set you up to allow your marriage to be a God-glorifying force for His kingdom.
An easy read but convicting book nonetheless. The layout and flow of the three parts/prayers(search me, break me, and send me) based off of three biblical verses make sense in their progression and they work beautifully together. It is a quick read with sharp, succinct points and at times some repetitive thoughts/themes, but also there is practical and implementable thoughts and advice from start to finish. Throughout, Groeschel opens up about hardships and experiences from his own life, pointing out how through choosing the difficult prayer path that he lays out in this book, you may experience God-glorifying satisfaction and growth in Christ, letting go of your own desires and fears and trusting God in a real, open, and honest way; inviting God to really be Lord of your life on a daily basis. He begins with the Search Me prayer where he invites you to ask God to show you what you fear the most and where you have shortcomings so you are able to move from fear to faith and are driven to depend on Christ and not yourself. Sounds simple enough, but is an essential practice to grow in a humility that allows you to hear from God about anything in you that He wants to change to look more like Him. Groeschel then talks about the Break Me prayer, potentially the most difficult one of the three to pray in my own life, but also probably one of the most essential to grow in dependence on God. Inviting God to break us sounds scary because we are (at least I am) afraid of the consequences that might come from this, but Groeschel beautifully illustrates the freedom that can actually come from this process of ‘breaking us', and how it can lead to a reliance on God, and actually experience God's greatest blessing, giving up fears we are tempted to hold onto otherwise. I think the quote referenced from [a:A.W. Tozer 1082290 A.W. Tozer https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1251928254p2/1082290.jpg] [b:The Root of the Righteous 697657 The Root of the Righteous A.W. Tozer https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347261043l/697657.SY75.jpg 683975] challenges me well; “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” Groeschel challenges us that it isn't actually in our strength that we may experience the most from Christ but in our weakness, for God to break us of things that we don't even know we needed to have removed and has to be done through surrendering to Christ where our dependence upon Him grows and freedom from having to carry our own salvation or ‘good works' is found. Lastly, the Send Me prayer, is an outflow to submit to God daily, to not ask what God can do for me, but to ask ‘God, what can I do for you?'. Over time it will shift our prayers from self-focused requests into gospel-powered, God-glorifying prayers. Instead of asking for God to do this for me, to bless or help me, but to ask God to allow me to be a voice of encouragement today, to help someone in need, show your love to someone hurting, anything to help someone, that God, here I am, send me.Thought provoking book, that makes me think about a question Groeschel poses, “if we get bored praying, then I wonder if we're really praying” as I reflect upon my own prayer life.
Great book, that isn't just a self-help book but a book that provides helpful tips and tricks that have been proven helpful by science (watching what we think, say, and do, and how this affects how we feel) with a great combination of biblical truth that helps to combat real world problems in an area that is seemingly growing problem we are facing in our culture when it comes to mental health. Levi is both transparent with his own struggle with thoughts and feelings of his own mind and also provides practical advice to begin to combat anxiety and other thoughts to help point you towards your God given identity.
Great account into Lysa's own feelings and difficulty walking in the process of forgiveness after trying and difficult events in her own life. She describes beautifully of how forgiveness is both a decision and a process and furthermore, how God can be faithful even in our pain and hurt, growing us (Romans 5:3-5), and revealing ways that things in our past affects the way we view and understand the world today, the belief system that has been forming inside of us since being a kid.
A fresh reminder that the process of fixing the damaged emotions from an event following the decision to forgive takes time, and time is okay as we walk in obedience to what God calls us to (Ephesians 4:32). While forgiveness seems at times impossible or that it is not working because all the emotions don't disappear right away, God will take them and shift them from hurt to compassion over time. And while time itself won't heal all wounds, time spent well will heal and that means bringing all of our feelings (good, bad, ugly, hurt) before God who understands and wants us to experience peace.
Good book for a book club, easy to do a chapter a week.
Great short book from Bonhoeffer that bring a greater understanding to the nature and purpose of Christian discipleship and community. Bonhoeffer is a great author to write about this topic as this book was written after he lived for 25 years in Christian community. This book illuminates how Bonhoeffer is not a optimist or theorist but was a realist, being someone who has actually lived it and done it, and implemented everything he talked about and was dedicated to practical reality at all times and he gives practical implementable ideas.
Bonhoeffer continually describes how community (both with other Christians and not) is essential in the life of a Christian and how it is meant to be real and raw, not just fun, but allows for growth in difficult times or in conflict how to love others because Christ so loved us. Throughout the book, it is thought-provoking writing.
Throughout the story the characters are changed dramatically through the events that they experience in the Congo; the cause for this change is different in some way for all of the characters, but they all experience change. This experience that Adah has illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole as it describes a major part of the events that took place in the Congo, especially when they related to Adah. The experiences Adah had in the Congo really defined the hardships and struggles that the family had and the struggles in the book as a whole, and also the rifts that were created in the family.
Humans place their intelligence and ability to reason above the instinct of wild animals who live to satisfy their own needs, the ability to reason is the factor that transforms mere animals into people living together in a working society. But the author, Richard Connell, flips the idea that reason remains separate from instinct by reducing the gentleman Rainsford down to a mere “animal” of prey in General Zaroff's ruthless game. Rainsford soon came to understand that all living things depend on their instinct to endure and to evade pain and death. However, during the entire game, Rainsford remains calm in spite of his fear and continues to work carefully to postpone and prevent death. Throughout the hunt, both Rainsford's and Zaroff's methodical response and crafty devious plans bolsters the case that each man acts according to instinct, one to survive and the other to kill. There were many cases where the reaction speed of their instincts kept them alive, but also when reason played its part, in deciding what the next move would be and what impact that would have on each person/subject. The deciding factor between life and death was instinct and reason working hand in hand.