{"id":19188,"date":"2018-10-11T12:21:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T19:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=19188"},"modified":"2018-10-11T12:41:28","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T19:41:28","slug":"offertory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/offertory\/","title":{"rendered":"Offertory Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in my previous post in response to How to Read a Book<\/em>, my reading and study habits are being challenged. How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read<\/em> takes it to another level. I attempted to practice what I have been learning and did my best skimming yet!<\/p>\n

You would think skimming would be second nature but I have recently noticed my tendency to get lost among the \u2018trees\u2019 and then struggle to see the \u2018forest\u2019 of a book. My reading of The Modern History of Hong Kong<\/em> is case in point. There seemed to be thousands of trees in that book and I waded into them as usual page by page. But given the time constraints, my reading was stopped short in order to finish the assignment and I had not yet gotten to the middle of the trees. I had difficulty grasping the \u2018forest\u2019 of that book. Being able to skim a book and talk about it is a skill I will continue to develop. And Bayard\u2019s book gives permission to engage now and not in some distant future when I am smart enough or skilled enough in this.<\/p>\n

What I appreciate most about Bayard is his candidness. He speaks to how overwhelming the earth\u2019s library is and gives us tools to not be crushed by it. He acknowledges that there will always be more to read than there will ever be time for. We will forget most of what we read. This is extremely frustrating and yet unavoidable. And our own personal experience and inner library are critical elements to bring to bear on how we talk about and use books. They should not be checked at the door of academic endeavors.<\/p>\n

I found this book to be quite encouraging and inspiring. And he reminded me of two other examples of this kind of encouragement experienced recently.<\/p>\n

Jason Clark shared a thought in his debrief session at the end of our time in Hong Kong that is still working on me. He said that our work will always be incomplete. We will not solve a problem in its entirety for the world during this program. And we should not despair of this. Instead we must and should contribute what we can to the solution. We should attempt to make things a little better. We must be temperate, moderate and careful in these attempts but should offer them nonetheless.<\/p>\n

This reminds me of the opening sentences in the Gospel of Luke. Luke says something incredible in his greeting that I missed for many years. I certainly would still be missing it if a dear mentor had not brought it to my attention. His opening to Theophilus in Luke 1:1-4 is insightful:<\/p>\n

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2\u00a0<\/sup>just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3\u00a0<\/sup>it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4\u00a0<\/sup>that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Luke admits he isn\u2019t the first or the only or the best to write an account of Jesus\u2019 time on earth. He says that many others have already done something similar to what he is attempting.<\/p>\n

We live in a world that values superlatives \u2013 the greatest, the best, the most unique and on and on. I have often bowed to the idol of uniqueness and believed that if I could not be the only or the best or the first to say something or do something it was not worth offering.<\/p>\n

It is a lie.<\/p>\n

And I love what Luke gives as a justification for his letter \u2013 \u2018it seemed good to me also\u2019 to add my own account. \u00a0And then he moves on to record his perspective of God\u2019s Son come to earth and the incredible events that transpired. So simple and humble. And I would say this is revolutionary for our culture today. It is at least for me.<\/p>\n

Luke does not ask for approval or seek validation from others. He does not launch a marketing campaign (that I know of) to assert and convince of his expertise on the subject. He does not insist on the need to be unique or carve out his ministry niche. And Luke does not disparage any other previous accounts. He resists the age old \u2018blow your candle out to make mine burn brighter\u2019 trick move. He just offers his account. Luke joined the conversation.<\/p>\n

Thank you to Pierre Bayard, Jason Clark and Luke the Physician for the invitation to add my voice to the conversation and attempt to make things in my world a little better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>English Standard Version<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in my previous post in response to How to Read a Book, my reading and study habits are being challenged. How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read takes it to another level. I attempted to practice what I have been learning and did my best skimming yet! You would think skimming would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[477],"class_list":["post-19188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bayard","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19188"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19192,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19188\/revisions\/19192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}