As a teacher, I find it hard to accept that the new year begins in January. It's still winter and cold and snowy (at least in my part of the world). For me, the new year begins in September, with the start of the new school year. This actually caused some confusion once with the elders at the church. I said, late one fall, that we might need to start a new Sunday School class "next year". They thought I wanted to start it in January. I wondered why they thought I would want to change things part way through the year. Really, they should understand that "next year" in a Sunday School context is the next school year.
I don't have any New Year's resolutions this year. They always seem so pointless to me: this year I'm going to change everything and be wonderful and do everything perfectly! No I'm not. I'm going to be the same person I already am. Of course I'll change; we all do, and usually it's good. I'm just not going to set up some unrealistic expectations and then feel guilty when I don't live up to them.
On that note: I'm also not doing a "read through the Bible in a year" plan. I find it very stressful and either I rush some days or I get behind and then read all of Revelation in the last three days of the year just so I finished on time. This year I found a "read through the Bible in 3 years" plan. It works for me. Each day you're supposed to read 1 chapter (and on occasion 2 short chapters). Now I just follow the reading plan (it alternates between Old and New Testaments), and read how ever many chapters I want to that day, taking time to think about what I'm reading rather than just reading to get it done for the day. If I read more than one chapter (and I've been doing 2 most days so far, but it's only the 6th), that's fine. If I have a busy day and don't read (by which I mean "Tuesdays" when I work 9-5, and have Bible Study in the evening, and often don't get home until 11), it's not the end of the world. I'm also doing my reading in the evenings instead of mornings. I don't like to feel rushed in the mornings, and I need something to focus my thoughts in the evenings rather than spending all evening on the computer.
I do have a goal for 2015: the 2015 Reading Challenge. It looks like a fun way to decide what to read and maybe try something new. I've already finished one book (The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde) and I've started 3 others. I'll see how it goes.
I'd also like to write more this year. No promises there, though!
Tuesday, 6 January 2015
Thursday, 1 January 2015
Books of 2014, Part 2: Non-fiction
You know, I was a bit worried about what would happen to my reading habits once I finished school. For years, a lot of what I read was school-related. I figured, without the required reading, I'd sink into fiction and never read anything deep again. So far that hasn't been a problem! Here are my favourites from last year:
1. Jerry Bridges: Growing Your Faith. So far I like everything Jerry Bridges has written. I've already started another one (we're doing it for my ladies' group).
2. Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert: When Helping Hurts. This was a school requirement but I'd recommend it to anyone interested in missions, helping the poor, etc. It gave me some good perspective on how to help and how not to help (and balanced out the "go and do stuff now or you're a bad Christian" attitude of some books).
3. Greg Harris: The Cup and the Glory. Dr. Harris was my professor for Worship and Wisdom (my favourite class). He writes well, pulls things from the Bible together well, and keeps his readers thinking.
4. Moreau, Carwin, and McGee: Introducing World Missions. This was another school book, and very interesting. The authors traced world missions from the Old Testament to the modern times. They looked at the good and the bad. It's also set up to work for a classroom or Bible study type situation.
5. Tara Kelen Barthel and Judy Dabler: Peace Making Women. This one I read for the women's discipleship class at the church. The authors give principles for being a peace maker in different situations, showing the most likely problems that we may face and how to deal with them biblically.
6. Kevin DeYoung: Crazy Busy and The Hole in Our Holiness. Both of these are short books, but still deep. I like that the author doesn't try to heap condemnation on people; rather, he gives both practical and biblical advice on overcoming in both books (and he points out that we aren't called to do everything).
7. John Piper: The Swans are Not Silent series: The Roots of Endurance, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy, and The Hidden Smile of God. These are biographies of famous Christian men. Each book looks at three men, their struggles, their joys, and their legacies. I started them because one had William Wilberforce, and he's one of my heroes.
8. Sharon James: My Heart in His Hands. This is a biography of Ann Judson, and it makes use of her journals and letters. Ann Judson and her husband were among the first American missionaries and the first missionaries to Burma.
9. William Varner: Jacob's Dozen. This is a short book that looks Jacob's final blessing to his sons and how that blessing has been realized through the rest of the Bible.
10. Carl Honore: In Praise of Slowness. I like the idea of slowing down. The idea, as I understand it, is not that everything must be done slowly, but that everything should be done at its own pace, and that faster is not always better.
11. Malcolm Gladwell: David and Goliath. I stumbled upon Malcolm Gladwell's writings several years ago and have enjoyed everything I have read of his. This one looks at why the little guy can (and often does) win, and the advantages of things that look like disadvantages.
12. Richard Feynman: Perfectly Reasonable Deviations and "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman". Richard Feynman was a Noble-winning physicist. Neither of these books has anything to do with physics (or I wouldn't understand them). The first one is a compilation of letters he wrote over his lifetime. The second (which was actually a re-read; it's how I was first introduced to Feynman some 15 or so years ago) is autobiographical, and relates various of the more interesting (and/or odd) incidents from his life.
Those are the best of my non-fiction reading this year. There were others, of course, but these 16 were the most interesting and/or enjoyable. Between the fiction list and this one, you have about half of what I read last year.
1. Jerry Bridges: Growing Your Faith. So far I like everything Jerry Bridges has written. I've already started another one (we're doing it for my ladies' group).
2. Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert: When Helping Hurts. This was a school requirement but I'd recommend it to anyone interested in missions, helping the poor, etc. It gave me some good perspective on how to help and how not to help (and balanced out the "go and do stuff now or you're a bad Christian" attitude of some books).
3. Greg Harris: The Cup and the Glory. Dr. Harris was my professor for Worship and Wisdom (my favourite class). He writes well, pulls things from the Bible together well, and keeps his readers thinking.
4. Moreau, Carwin, and McGee: Introducing World Missions. This was another school book, and very interesting. The authors traced world missions from the Old Testament to the modern times. They looked at the good and the bad. It's also set up to work for a classroom or Bible study type situation.
5. Tara Kelen Barthel and Judy Dabler: Peace Making Women. This one I read for the women's discipleship class at the church. The authors give principles for being a peace maker in different situations, showing the most likely problems that we may face and how to deal with them biblically.
6. Kevin DeYoung: Crazy Busy and The Hole in Our Holiness. Both of these are short books, but still deep. I like that the author doesn't try to heap condemnation on people; rather, he gives both practical and biblical advice on overcoming in both books (and he points out that we aren't called to do everything).
7. John Piper: The Swans are Not Silent series: The Roots of Endurance, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy, and The Hidden Smile of God. These are biographies of famous Christian men. Each book looks at three men, their struggles, their joys, and their legacies. I started them because one had William Wilberforce, and he's one of my heroes.
8. Sharon James: My Heart in His Hands. This is a biography of Ann Judson, and it makes use of her journals and letters. Ann Judson and her husband were among the first American missionaries and the first missionaries to Burma.
9. William Varner: Jacob's Dozen. This is a short book that looks Jacob's final blessing to his sons and how that blessing has been realized through the rest of the Bible.
10. Carl Honore: In Praise of Slowness. I like the idea of slowing down. The idea, as I understand it, is not that everything must be done slowly, but that everything should be done at its own pace, and that faster is not always better.
11. Malcolm Gladwell: David and Goliath. I stumbled upon Malcolm Gladwell's writings several years ago and have enjoyed everything I have read of his. This one looks at why the little guy can (and often does) win, and the advantages of things that look like disadvantages.
12. Richard Feynman: Perfectly Reasonable Deviations and "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman". Richard Feynman was a Noble-winning physicist. Neither of these books has anything to do with physics (or I wouldn't understand them). The first one is a compilation of letters he wrote over his lifetime. The second (which was actually a re-read; it's how I was first introduced to Feynman some 15 or so years ago) is autobiographical, and relates various of the more interesting (and/or odd) incidents from his life.
Those are the best of my non-fiction reading this year. There were others, of course, but these 16 were the most interesting and/or enjoyable. Between the fiction list and this one, you have about half of what I read last year.
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