{"id":27605,"date":"2021-09-05T11:23:28","date_gmt":"2021-09-05T18:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=27605"},"modified":"2021-09-05T15:12:55","modified_gmt":"2021-09-05T22:12:55","slug":"a-bag-of-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-bag-of-stones\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bag of Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cDo not be afraid\u201d, the Angels, and well more importantly, Jesus, proclaim over and over.\u00a0 However, I am afraid; I\u2019m afraid of reading too slow, of taking too much time on notes, and writing with an academic voice.\u00a0 I wonder how I have made it this far academically with so many weaknesses. The truth is I didn\u2019t enter into the Doctorate program with an academic mindset.\u00a0 This choice was tethered to a hunger to grow in my abilities to think theologically, because in the past twenty years of ministry I have recognized a regression. I have missed the collegial dialogue that pushes me to think broader and deeper.\u00a0\u00a0 But the first year of this program revealed my naivete of what would be expected of me as a critical thinker and academic writer.\u00a0 Our weeks readings illuminated my fears like a sole spotlight on a dark theatre stage.<\/p>\n

Despite the Goliath sized fears I have I also am tenaciously holding onto the bigger goal of developing more confidence in my reading, writing and thinking.\u00a0 Adler\u2019s book has provided some hand holds\/foot holes to begin climbing the reading mountain with purpose. He writes, \u201cWhether you mange to keep awake or fall asleep depends in large part on your goal of reading.\u201d\u00a0 When I read this I connected it to what I have been preaching a lot about lately\u2026what is our goal in our relationship with God?\u00a0 Do we have a goal of deepening our connection with God? \u00a0I have had a resistant spirit to reading academically.\u00a0 My goal needs to permeate my mindset of reading.\u00a0 Just like I do not want to fall asleep in my relationship with God I must not be so dismissive to what is offered in reading. It will require more thoughtfulness and intention on my part.\u00a0 I surprised myself when I sat with Paul and Elder to hear their offerings in The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking. They wrote about Three Types of Character, and my first thought was, \u201cWOW, this is definitely an issue today. It\u2019s clear these characters are in play today for it seems these types of thinking exacerbates the anxiety state that Freidman talks about.\u201d \u00a0Excitement began. Excitement because I was able to utilize lessons from Adler and put A Failure of Nerve in conversation with the Miniature Guide!<\/p>\n

I will attempt to not be afraid\u2026or at least not completely afraid.\u00a0 According to Paul and Elder, I am a \u201cbeginner thinker\u201d but I am hungry to grow, not only in my theological process but in my critical thinking.\u00a0 And I am now more aware of the importance of reading to curate that space.\u00a0 Writing academically may be more of a challenge, but I am hoping for grace. The Goliath is still big but I feel I have several good stones in my bag.\u00a0 I hope the stones will help me read faster with purpose, to approach note taking with organization, to practice critical thinking with deftness and fairmindedness, and find my own voice in academic writing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDo not be afraid\u201d, the Angels, and well more importantly, Jesus, proclaim over and over.\u00a0 However, I am afraid; I\u2019m afraid of reading too slow, of taking too much time on notes, and writing with an academic voice.\u00a0 I wonder how I have made it this far academically with so many weaknesses. The truth is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"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":[660,177,1992,1993],"class_list":["post-27605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adler","tag-hope","tag-no-more-fear","tag-taking-down-goliath","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27605","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\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27605"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27613,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27605\/revisions\/27613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}