A Few Good Reads

“What I Came to Respect Most About Tim Keller (Even More Than His Preaching)“

Scott Sauls’ post does not necessarily focus on Tim Keller, but on our culture’s propensity to shame people. He offers several examples of cultural shaming and reminds us how the Gospel takes away our shame. Then he does talk about how Keller responded to people and events with grace instead of shame. What he says has many implications for our various relationships. “Because Jesus shields us like this, we should of all people be zealous to restore reputations versus destroying reputations, to protect a good name versus calling someone a name, to shut down gossip versus feeding gossip, to restore broken relationships versus begrudging broken people.”

“The Transformation of David Brooks“
New York Times oped writer David Brooks has been taking an interesting journey over the last half decade. He journeyed away from merely writing about politics and ventured into writing on moral philosophy. In a culture where people seem allergic to concrete discussions about morality, Brooks finds himself at odds with many people in his field. This post from the Columbia Journalism Review examines Brooks’ transformation and in it he shares some amazing thoughts on moral philosophy and moral discourse in our society. “When he began using his column several years ago to philosophize about personal morality, he says, ‘I felt like I was wandering off the map into weird territory.’ Where to, exactly, remains mystifying. Brooks thinks a tradition of journalists fluent, or at least conversant, in moral concepts dissipated in recent decades. Theologians were walled off within their denominations, and public discourse about values grew dysfunctional. A life of ‘meaning’ by today’s standard, he wrote in his Times column to begin 2015, ‘is flabby and vacuous, the product of a culture that has grown inarticulate about inner life.’”

“How our housing choices make adult friendship more difficult“
Writing for Vox, David Wright questions how the way we select housing might be affecting our friendships as adults. In particular, he argues friendships are built through “repeated spontaneous contact.” Spontaneous contact with others is nearly impossible when we get in the car in our garages, drive to work by ourselves, drive home by ourselves, pull into the garage, and then sit in the house watching television. “Those of you who are married with kids: When was the last time you ran into a friend or “dropped by” a friend’s house without planning it? When was the last time you had a spontaneous encounter with anyone who was not a clerk or a barista, someone serving you?”

The Art of Neighboring
For those who want to work on being good neighbors to those living around them, you will benefit from this book by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon. In it they share how you should think about being a good neighbor and how you can be a good neighbor. ““By becoming good neighbors, we become who we’re supposed to be. As a result, our communities become the places that God intended them to be.”