I started writing this post in May 2021, but have kept updating it so I've renamed it Winter 2021
Podcasts
You need to listen to...
-
Fight Hustle, End Hurry. Just two episodes in and this is 🔥. If you know me, you know I've been thinking & reading plenty into 'work and faith'.
What counts in life is not reaching 'the most amazing' goals and achievements - Christ has already done that for us and given the Christian a new identity secure in him. Instead, what is emphasised over and over in the Bible is the call to walk in faithfulness and godliness. It's Becoming Who We Are - I always wondered what that Kings Kaleidoscope album title meant!
If you think about it, the same goes for our careers (God seems to care more on how we work over what specific work we do) and marriage (how a marriage can lived out in bringing each other towards godliness etc before God).
I also find it interesting that there are popular 'tech' YouTubers out there who are undergoing this phase of finding themselves after burn out. Well, perhaps some started off as popular..
-
The Payneful Truth. The episode Move right, look left is a good listen: as much as the Christian life is about both moving closer to and being transformed by God, it is also about reaching back into the world with the gospel.
-
Undeceptions with John Dickson.
- Listened to the Big porn episode, which somone also happened to link to in our CG men's catchup (via zoom now that we're in lockdown again). JD explores various evils of the porn industry.
- The episode on Mental Health was also good - I've also been thinking a bit about this topic (Sam Wan guest speaker at youth group; my own lockdown experience from 2020; and having a friend getting medical treatment for mental illness). And how do you support somone who has a mental illness? I especially don't want to come across as insensitive, nor do unhelpful things.
-
The Generation Podcast. Listen to the episode The power of vulnerability, wrestling through brokenness and the redeeming power of God with Summer Bonnici. Summer is absolutely vulnerable in sharing her story - and wow is God good, especially when Christians extend grace to one another!!
-
The Pastor's Heart. The lockdown challenge and emotional wellbeing. Some people who work at Anglicare discuss the challenges of living in the 2021 NSW lockdown. Good questions to be asking each other:
-
How are you going with your routines? Work schedule? Quiet times?
-
Are there things you are thankful for? Good things and changes from covid? e.g. 10 past 6am early morning walk, seeing the sunrise? (Not me 😅!!)
-
How's your physical health? (It's linked with mental health).
-
How connected are you staying? With people... even neighbours perhaps?
-
-
Open Doors. Episode How Do You Respond To Unanswered Prayer?
Books
After a stint of busy months & projects for me, I'm back to to getting some reading in! It is a bit of an effort to just clear some space to sit down and focus (!).
-
Not Yet Married - The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness and Dating by Marshall Segal. Lots of great & helpful stuff to be thinking through so far!! What's good about this book (compared to others as I'm told) is how it brings all these issues back to the Bible - with the core message of living life for God as #1 priority in every season of life.
-
Revolutionary Work by William Talyor. I think its stuff I pretty much already know by now, but helpful in having some theological thinking on the topic of work. Doesn't make work any easier or better 'now', but I think it will help in decision making of 'work' related matters. (Also available as sermons online)
-
Disciplines of a Godly Man by Kent Hughes (plan is to go through this with a small group of young men over this year). So many convicting things to work on in every chapter! We have a laugh when we compare the differences between the 'updated' revision and the prior revision of the book. The appendix references audio cassettes 😂
In other news, I recently saw James Chen (have you heard his podcast The Bible Boyz!!????) so went up to say hi 🙂 His first guess of my name was Andrew... half way there haha