A new year, a new you!

Right?

Eh.

I find it to be quite tiring.

What is with our fascination with the new?

Why are we always needing more?

Why do we need to be different from who we were a month ago?

Can’t we just stay in Thanksgiving during those subsequent five weeks and forego the ambush of all the “new” that bombards us?

 

Consumeristic elements aside, I actually do appreciate that in the calendar, there is a scheduled time to take a step-back and appraise what our life looks life.

What path am I on, and do I want to go that way anymore, or do I want to turn a different way?

Am I who I thought I was?

Do I like who I am?

Who do I want to be?

Which way do I want to go?

This is, essentially, repentance.

 

Once a year, we take a moment as a culture to repent!

Of course, depending on someone’s worldview, this looks drastically different. If one person takes this opportunity to see if they have been living into the joy and peace God beckons them into, and another person simply starts a new diet, the new direction for each person is categorically different. But it is a new path nonetheless, a change of mind and heart, a genuine repentance.

 

If you have chosen to make a life-change to start a new diet or pick up a new hobby, or something like that, bless you.

Seriously. I do not mean to minimize it. There are great reasons to do things like that. I have had my life seriously altered by those very things.

 

Still more, if you are doing a different sort of repentance (perhaps you are doing both), looking to turn to a deeper form of Christianity, I have some recommended resources below.

 

Happy new year! May you know that God calls you “Beloved” and adores you, whether you stay on your new course or not.

Even if you give up on every diet, read-your-Bible-daily-plan, gym membership, etc., God still cherishes you. Shalom.

 

I recommend these because in them I have found Jesus calling me into a more intimate and honest engagement and relationship:

 

Reconstructing the Gospel:

 

This book explores the roots of Christianity in the USA, particularly in relation to slavery. Racial tension has been quite public in the past couple years, even in the church, and this book will help you explore why that may be—and, more importantly, how you might be able to identify where your own Christian worldview might have some roots in an unhealthy for of Christianity.

 

Additionally, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is one of the plenary speakers at the Santa Barbara Mission Conference this year. I would highly recommend attending!

 

 

White Awake:

 

This book explores what it means to be white and to be a Christian. I am white, so I found this to be an important read. It was very sobering and helpful. If you have been wondering how whiteness effects Christian expression, I couldn’t recommend this book highly enough.

 

I gave this to the high school students for Christmas, so if you see them feel free to ask them what they are learning from it.

 

 

Out of Sorts:

 

This great work by Canadian theologian Sarah Bessey is a perfect book for this season of repentance. This book is all about a Christian expression that takes a step back, finds a more Jesus-centered path forward, and how to navigate what can feel a faith that is evolving. Maybe, actually, you have found that your faith already has evolved into something quite different from what it looked like a decade ago, and you need a guide to help you think through that transition. Either way, this book is for you!

 

 

Water to Wine:

 

This book is about a pastor’s journey into a deeper form of Christianity. He had been pastoring a church that grew to be very successful numerically, but he ended up feeling empty. Theologically, it was all too thin. As he discovered a more ancient, and less flashy, form of Christianity, he oriented the church in a new direction (and lost 2/3 of the members!). If you are feeling that the Christianity you participate in looks a little too much like the culture around you, this book might be a refreshing read.

 

 

*We are not paid by affiliate links, they are provided as a curtesy so you can preview the texts mentioned.  Feel free to purchase, or not, any of the above at your favorite retailer.