It is hard to believe that we are already into March. Add a young child to your house and days give way to nights before you have finished brushing your teeth.
Happy Sophie from david on Vimeo.
Yes, I have fallen in love with this girl. Fighting it would have been hopeless.
Nick Fiedler traveled the world, and all he got was this lousy epistemology. Kidding. He did however end up with an honest memoir
As an aside, the books being published by IVP’s Likewise imprint over the last three years have been some of the most important and challenging books on the religion book shelves. I’ve read a handful of them and have been impressed with the immediacy of their content. None have been overly spiritualized or have offered quick fix Christian solutions to find you a better life. They have documented struggle and heartache, faith and doubt, and a beautiful way to live in a real world. Big-time recommendation here.
So back to the latest kick-ass Likewise title. Nick invites as along with him as he sorts through the pieces of his Christian faith and determines what to throw away, what to put into storage, and what to take with him on his journey ahead. These mental exercises are mirrored by his real life preparation and experience of a trip around the globe to see what he hasn’t been able to see growing up deep in the Bible Belt of the USA. Nick gets instant credibility by taking actual steps to live out his developing outlook.
Since I’ve been keen on learning from the emerging and missional christian community I had heard pretty much all of his positions and references before (many via his self-titled “The Nick and Josh Podcast“). There wasn’t any new territory covered. But there were a few points where Nick’s straightforward speech refreshed and energized my thoughts. I wish I had the book with me at the moment so I could quote a couple spots.
Nick apologizes at the beginning of the book for anything he might say that might anger some people. His insists that nothing he writes is intended to be critical for sake of being angry and rebellious. I was ready for a firestorm to follow, but it wasn’t there. There really is way more Hopeful than Skeptical here, and Nick is very careful to be civil and respectful throughout. Or at least that’s how I read it. Other people may be raging right now, I don’t know. (I just edited this paragraph in. I’m writing this at work so I am rushing and forgetting things I originally wanted to say. Any further edits will be in a follow-up post. Actually, there will definitely be a follow-up post tonight when I get home. I really want to share a couple specific spots that I enjoyed.)
My big question for Nick is, “why didn’t you tell us more about your travels?” We were given brief glimpses and stories, but Nick almost seemed apologetic when he started telling too many stories and quickly switched back into preaching mode 
Nick and Leslie went on this marvelous trip all over the globe, but the majority of the book is about preparation and reflection. I wanted so much more dusty roads and footsteps. I guess I’ll just need to do my own traveling.
My one critique is more technical that topical. I think more stringent editorial work would have helped the message be much more powerful.
Oh, and the last chapter is worth the price of the book alone. Great writing there.
Great book, Nick.
Tomorrow morning I need to get up early and head to Rawdon Street to finish preparing to lead the reflecting and worshiping of our church community.
Tonight I’m outside smoking a cigar and drinking cider and beer. And I’m reflecting on the decade that has lead me here.
And at the beginning of 2000 I was taking a course on Psalms at Heritage Bible College and playing on the college basketball team (2000 Champions!). I was preparing a portfolio presentation for my application to go to Sheridan College for Illustration.
Reaching further back, I had grown up in the church. I attended a Christian private elementary school from Kindergarten to Grade Eight. After highschool I spent two years at the Bible College. I cemented my faith with certainty and arguments to prove myself against the unbelievers I would surely meet in art school.
In 2001 those two planes crashed into New York. My certainty and argumentativeness rose to a fever pitch. I believed that America needed to blow up Islam in order to save Jesus. In class I debated evolution. I became a young earth sciences scholar of the first degree.
Then one of my dearest friends told me a story about a wonderful woman who had died. She loved others and treated them as she would have them treat her. Her son was devasted by the loss of his loving mother so early in her life. And my sure, certain, and rocky foundation crumbled and sifted down into sand.
I used my influence to encourage our campus Christian group to engage issues that we could invite everyone to converse about – not just other Christians. Our topics included God Hates War, What Is Love? and What Is Religion?. We invited an Iraqi ex-pat to come and tell us what was really going on in the lives of people in former-Mesopotamia. And it worked. We were able to engage with atheists and muslims on these topics without worrying about protecting our own message too tightly.
I left art college and went back home. I became clear to me how much I had moved. I no longer was living in the rocky shore of certainty where my parents lived. I was living fully in the river. After a few months living in this frustrating mixture of truth cultures I moved to Toronto to live as I felt I needed to live. Five months later I was broke and broken (the good kind of broken). I moved home again, only to find that I was no longer at home. I was an adult, and needed to move out again.
Two jobs and one cross-country-roadtrip later I found myself out of the house, working a career graphic design job and involved in a relationship that would become a marriage.
Through my job (in Christian publishing) I found things. Postmodernism, Emergence, Conversations, Brian D. McLaren, tall and skinny Kiwis, Simple Ways, and a whole community of deeply committed spiritual folk who I never could have dreamed to have existed.
I discovered a love of God that didn’t revolved around a need that every brick in my truth wall be perfectly fitted. I could engage with people that believed differently than me and not feel threatened that my faith would be fragmented, nor that my own views would necessarily unjustly impact them.
I’ve talked with these people, I’ve read more books than is healthy, and I’ve begun to find ways to live what I believe again. Not everything is as it should be, but love is there. Hope is there. The Kingdom of God is here (and to come).
And now I need to get to sleep so that I can adequately serve our church community tomorrow.
Thanks to Jon and Mindy Hirst (and Dr. Paul Heibert). This wasn’t really a review of their lovely book
(I’m seriously devastated that I have cut a decade of my life down to a few paragraphs. There is so much I wanted to say, but I also wanted you to read this. Much love.)
My soul is greatly dismayed that I have neglected this place for so long. But no time for a fresh start than right now.
I hope you have all had (are having) a wonderful Christmas (or what have you).This is our first with the wee one and it has been lovely. The poor girl is quite exhausted today after a long day of family Christmas. Unfortunately for her there is just as much excitement happening today. Poor Sophia doesn’t get to dive in to the turkey and stuffing and chocolate and wine like we do. Well, I guess indirectly she does.
Anyway, I have a long list of books that I will be interacting with here in the next weeks. Here is the rundown.
The Justice Project
Editors Brian McLaren, Elisa Padilla, Ashley Bunting Seeber
Through the River
Jon Hirst, Mindy Hirst, with Dr. Paul Hiebert
The Hopeful Skeptic
Nick Fiedler
Christianity, Climate Change, and Sustainable Living
Nick Spencer, Robert S. White, Virginia Vroblesky
The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida
John Caputo
Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle
Kent Annan
Regurgitating what I read always seems like the best way to really get nourishment from it. I guess I read like a cow eats. Word.
Faith moves.
It seeks out new places where it can become faithful.
Faith means going out the door,
not waiting inside for something to happen.
Faith breathes.
Inhaling deeply of the air that contains it.
It welcomes the truth that floats on the wind,
that lives in the song of a child in the playground.
Faith is fearless.
It searches for the dark places so it can share the light of its faithfulness,
only to find that light in the most unexpected place.
The dark places aren’t quite so dark where faith is found.
Faith stretches.
It crosses chasms,
it does crazy things that shouldn’t be tried.
Faith doesn’t care about boundaries or common practice.
