Why Everything That Doesn't Matter, Matters So Much

Why Everything That Doesn't Matter, Matters So Much
Author: Andi Ashworth
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2024-03-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400337720

A hopeful and practical model for what it means to be a Christian and a culture-maker in a world of hurt and wondrous possibility, from multi–Grammy winner Charlie Peacock and his wife and author, Andi Ashworth. Do you feel powerless and overwhelmed by the pain and suffering all around you? Have you ever asked, What can I do to mend the world, my family, or my own life? And if I could, why bother? Does my own small part even matter? If so, here comes hope from two guides who are further down the road. Charlie and Andi have written a collection of letters to Christians and spiritual seekers who think deeply and care acutely about the state of the world and their personal spheres of influence. In Why Everything That Doesn't Matter, Matters So Much, beloved and trusted mentors, Charlie and Andi offer you: Thought-provoking explorations into the many facets of Christian culture care and making, from the kitchen to Carnegie Hall. Practical guidance for how to care for and improve the quality of human life, locally and globally, no matter your vocation. A theology of imagination and creativity that provides a framework for all of life. A model for expressing love in marriage, friendship, citizenship, and every kind of work—even in the midst of cynicism, fear, exhaustion, and oppression. It might be said of Christians that our lives are either moving in the direction of the redemption Jesus has on offer, or away from it. Each of these letters is a gentle nudge in the direction of God's powerfully ordinary purpose for each of us, no matter what the future holds, to participate fully in the beautiful, redemptive work of Christ.

Stuff Matters

Stuff Matters
Author: Mark Miodownik
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2014
Genre: History
ISBN: 0544236041

An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, from concrete and steel to denim and chocolate, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science.

What Are You Going to Do?

What Are You Going to Do?
Author: Eric Wilson
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2024-01-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 080247182X

What Are You Going to Do? tells an inspiring true story. In the early 1950s, war scattered hundreds of thousands of orphans across South Korea. Many Koreans sacrificed everything to help. When Everett Swanson arrived to preach to troops on the front lines, he stumbled upon starving orphans. The plight of these children broke his heart. He faced the question: “What are you going to do?” Authors Matt Bronleewe and Eric Wilson tell how Swanson’s answer to those six little words led to the organization known today as Compassion International. Seventy years later, Compassion International sponsors over two million children all over the world, providing meals, education, vocational training, Bibles, letters of support, and more. We are often faced with the same question, “What am I going to do?” And, like Swanson, we feel inadequate, afraid, or ill-equipped. Readers will see how small faithful choices can lead to larger ones—and in so doing, change the world for generations to come. Everyone—young and old—should be acquainted with this amazing story of faith, courage, and compassion.

The Church in Dark Times

The Church in Dark Times
Author: Mike Cosper
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2024-11-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 149344185X

When calling out evil, we often look for the obvious: malice, cruelty, and wickedness. We try to uncover the impulses and motivations. But all too often, malevolence masks itself behind the best of intentions. In The Church in Dark Times, Mike Cosper unveils this dynamic in the growing crisis of abuse and other failures in modern evangelical churches. Cosper, a cultural critic and church leader, examines how the workings of evil have shifted in the modern world. Drawing on the work of 20th-century writer and philosopher Hannah Arendt, Cosper explores what we can learn from her theory of the "banality of evil," or ordinary people going along with corrupt principles and practices that have been normalized over time. Through this fascinating study, Cosper uncovers the underlying causes of the breakdowns of the church and then offers practices that foster healing and renewal. This book will engage Christian leaders and all followers who want to better understand how church crises keep happening--and how we can resist them and move forward.

The Artist's Joy

The Artist's Joy
Author: Merideth Hite Estevez
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2024-06-25
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 150649725X

The ultimate guide for creatives of all disciplines and levels to discover a sustainable, joyful artistic practice. Whether you are a dabbler, a career creative, or a long-time self-proclaimed "tortured artist," Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez is here to help. As a professional oboist, teacher, creative coach, graduate of The Juilliard School, and beloved host of the podcast Artists for Joy, Dr. Estevez knows the world of creatives and what they truly need to cultivate a life-giving practice. The Artist's Joy offers not only tools for the journey but a deeper understanding of the ways the miracle of creativity works in our lives. Dr. Estevez guides artists at all levels and in all disciplines to build a creative life that resonates deeply with their core values, and to cultivate an artistic practice that is joyful and sustainable. She shares her discoveries and insightful?coaching exercises that stem from the belief that when we are connected to what resonates deeply within us, the "tortured artist" trope simply doesn't hold. By looking at creative work through a new lens, she provides us a means to begin--or to begin again--in sustaining ways. Complete with self-coaching questions, a group discussion guide, and a companion playlist with tracks for musical meditation and creative engagement, this is your guide for life as an artist that will resonate long after the last note.

Everything Matters!

Everything Matters!
Author: Ron Currie
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2009-06-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101050926

"Startlingly talented . . . he survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice all his own." -Janet Maslin, The New York Times In this novel rich in character, Junior Thibodeau grows up in rural Maine in a time of Atari, baseball cards, pop Catholicism, and cocaine. He also knows something no one else knows-neither his exalted parents, nor his baseball-savant brother, nor the love of his life (she doesn't believe him anyway): The world will end when he is thirty-six. While Junior searches for meaning in a doomed world, his loved ones tell an all-American family saga of fathers and sons, blinding romance, lost love, and reconciliation-culminating in one final triumph that reconfigures the universe. A tour de force of storytelling, Everything Matters! is a genre-bending potpourri of alternative history, sci-fi, and the great American tale in the tradition of John Irving and Margaret Atwood.

I'm Everywhere and Nowhere. and I Own Nothing and Everything

I'm Everywhere and Nowhere. and I Own Nothing and Everything
Author: Yann Girard
Publisher:
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2016-09-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781539112709

Over the past seven years I've lived in more places than I can remember. I lived and worked in Shanghai, New York, Berlin, Bangkok, Munich and a few more places, not including the dozens of places I've stayed at for just a few days or weeks.While writing these lines I'm in a small town in Malaysia.I've basically lived out of a backpack for the past seven years. And the longer I'm doing this, the less stuff I need. Right now I carry less than 10 items around with me in a carry on backpack that weighs less than 10kg. I go wherever I want to go. I currently spend less than $800 a month. Including everything. My most precious possession is a $300 Acer laptop.I've started a clothing company in China, for the Chinese market, which failed miserably. I've launched more than 10 websites, some of them made some money, some of them didn't. I shut down all of them. I've written seven books (this is my eighth). None of them was a bestseller. I write a blog where I published more than 500 articles so far. I've more than 100,000 monthly readers spread across multiple platforms.I'm by no means successful. Or rich. But I have more than enough, by all means. I have access to everything I need. And I can buy and afford everything I need.I'm not a minimalist. Or a digital nomad. Or an entrepreneur. Or a blogger. Or an author.I'm mostly trying to just be myself. I'm trying to be myself in a world where it gets harder and harder every single day to just be yourself.It's not always been easy. As a matter of fact it's probably been hard more often than it's been easy. But every day of struggle and doubt has been worth it. Being yourself and creating your own life instead of just living a life is always worth the struggle.This right here is my story. This is what I've learned about life, myself and the world around me.I'm everywhere and nowhere. And I own nothing and everything...

Peace Is Every Step

Peace Is Every Step
Author: Thich Nhat Hanh
Publisher: Bantam
Total Pages: 162
Release: 1992-03-01
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0553351397

In the rush of modern life, we tend to lose touch with the peace that is available in each moment. World-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, and author Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to make positive use of the very situations that usually pressure and antagonize us. For him a ringing telephone can be a signal to call us back to our true selves. Dirty dishes, red lights, and traffic jams are spiritual friends on the path to “mindfulness”—the process of keeping our consciousness alive to our present experience and reality. The most profound satisfactions, the deepest feelings of joy and completeness lie as close at hand as our next aware breath and the smile we can form right now. Lucidly and beautifully written, Peace Is Every Step contains commentaries and meditations, personal anecdotes and stories from Nhat Hanh’s experiences as a peace activist, teacher, and community leader. It begins where the reader already is—in the kitchen, office, driving a car, walking a part—and shows how deep meditative presence is available now. Nhat Hanh provides exercises to increase our awareness of our own body and mind through conscious breathing, which can bring immediate joy and peace. Nhat Hanh also shows how to be aware of relationships with others and of the world around us, its beauty and also its pollution and injustices. The deceptively simple practices of Peace Is Every Step encourage the reader to work for peace in the world as he or she continues to work on sustaining inner peace by turning the “mindless” into the mindFUL.

The Dismantling

The Dismantling
Author: Lana Frankle
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2016-09-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1365315304

Dismantle (dis-man-tl) verb used with object (dismantled; dismantling) meaning: to disassemble or pull down; take apart. What happens when you look at health and choose sickness? What does it look like when the line between magical and ill blurs? From medical personnel gripped by strange passing impulses to adolescent peer pressure turned bizarre along with worlds that turn this one upside down. You will question everything in existence. Gain perspective of how it can all just fall apart with a simple look from a complete stranger or be built up from the careful placement of a wind with a seed. The Dismantling runs the gamut of the weird and uncomfortable as it slowly picks this life apart.