Lisa notes

Which Is Better? Knowing or Doubting?
—Book Review of "I've Seen the End of You"

By LisaNotes June 23, 2020 Book reviews, Encouragement 14 Comments

“The most important surgery I would ever perform would be the stitching together of my faith, my doubt, and the things I thought I knew.”
– Dr. W. Lee Warren

There’s a type of brain cancer I wish I didn’t know about. Glioblastoma.

And even now, I only know about it because I read something in a book about it. Thankfully, that’s all I know.

But Dr. Lee Warren knows much more about glioblastoma, and I’m glad. He’s a brain surgeon who cuts it out.

Is It the End of You?

The bad thing about glioblastoma for Dr. Warren is that it’s almost always fatal. So when he sees glioblastoma show up on your brain MRI, he has to be the one to tell you something. To be honest. Yet still give you hope.

And choosing which words to say is a heavy weight on him.

It bothers him so much that he wrote a book about how to deal with it. About how to “pray for God to heal someone of something no one ever survives.” It’s called I’ve Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon’s Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know. And I highly recommend it.

If the intersection of doubts and faith weigh on you as well, Dr. Warren’s words may help you, too.

It’s a book of stories, but it contains a faith thread from beginning to end.

When Doubts Come, Don’t Despair

When we believe God is good, yet we see bad things happening, we can question our faith in who God really is.

Dr. Warren wrestled with this as he worked on one patient after another, and lost one patient after another.

But then a deep tragedy occurred in his own life. And all his doubts surfaced to a new level.

“Did I really believe, or did I believe I was supposed to believe?”

Instead of insisting on certainty in every aspect of his faith, he made peace with his doubts. He even came to see the necessity of doubts.

“I have learned that doubt is not the enemy of faith. The enemy of faith is often the things we think we know.”

Thinking we’ve already arrived, that we already know it all, can be the end of us.

But doubting? Doubting can keep us pushing forward to learn more.

It can motivate us to keep searching for things we’ve gotten wrong, and “like a good scientist, reform our hypothesis and reframe our beliefs.”

Dr. Warren says,

“Doubt is not fatal if we recognize it for what it is: a smudge on the lens. When we realize that, wipe it clear, and put the glasses back on, we’ll be okay. The things we think we know are more like cataracts. They can obscure and blind us to the truth of God’s work around us that is plain to see when our eyes are healthy.”

While there are things we can know and rely on as foundational truths, there are other things we think we know but that aren’t reliable. Those are the things I’d rather doubt than *know* because they prevent me from seeing the real truths.

But how can we know the difference between the two? That’s our work to do.

Just the Beginning

I don’t want smudges on my glasses. When I notice them, I take my glasses off, wipe them clean, then put them back on. And see clearer once again.

I want to do the same with my doubts.

I hope no one I know personally gets a diagnosis of glioblastoma. Because I don’t want to see the end of them.

But as Dr. Warren says, there is always more to the story. Faith is stronger than doubt.

Maybe we’ve seen just the beginning.

Your thoughts?

Thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah and
Net Galley for the review copy of this book

sharing with Grace & Truth, Jen, Teresa

It’s Way Past Time
+ Grace & Truth Link-Up

By LisaNotes June 19, 2020 Discrimination, Grace & Truth Link-Up 20 Comments

Time to Let Go

When I was a teenager, if you asked my favorite book, I’d say Gone with the Wind. Scarlette O’Hara provoked a love/hate feeling for me as the protagonist of the story.

But as time went on, and I got older, and opened my eyes a little wider, I realized Gone with the Wind was no longer my favorite book. Far from it. It stereotyped Black people as tools for white people’s use. It glorified slavery as a way of life in the antebellum south that I never participated in or believed in.

Yet this very week I noticed I still had my very old copy of Gone with the Wind displayed on my living room bookshelf. After all these years of knowing better. Ugh.

I’m replacing it with Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.

It is one of two books I bought this week from Black authors for #BlackoutBestsellerlist week. The other is The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby. I’ve already started it. And am already being convicted.

It is time, way past time.

What else is it time for?

Time to Change

Corporate America is being jostled out of its slumber, too.

The movie Gone With the Wind was pulled off HBO Max last week.

Also, the companies of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s Rice, Cream of Wheat, and Mrs. Butterworth’s announced they’ll be rebranding. NASCAR is finally banning Confederate flags at their races.

While banning flags, rebranding products, and replacing books are good starting points, they can’t substitute for the harder work of dismantling racism.

It’s time to press in to change policies to prevent more senseless deaths, to create reforms to end systemic inequality in housing and education and healthcare, and to pass better legislation to ensure a more just justice system.

And it’s time to do the even harder work of weeding out racism in hearts, one by one. Getting to the root of prejudice is work for Jesus and me, for each of us.

It is time, way past time.

What else is it time for?

Time to Celebrate

Today is the day we celebrate Juneteenth.

June 19, 1865, is when Union General Granger told the slaves in Texas that they were now free (even though the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed them two years earlier on January 1, 1863).

On June 19, 1980, Juneteenth was made a Texas state holiday. New York and Virginia are making progress for the same.

Even though Juneteenth is not currently a national holiday, 47 of our 50 states observe it to some degree (all but Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota). Last year the Senate passed a resolution to make it a national holiday; the House has yet to approve it.

Companies, communities, and churches across America acknowledge Juneteenth in various ways, including the National Football League and Twitter. This year even Jeff Bezos of Amazon sent a letter to his employees to use the holiday to reflect, learn, and support each other.

But today is also a day, like every day, we can ask God to clean out the nooks and crannies where prejudice may still hide. To purify our hearts of all racism and pride. And to fill us with grace and love for every person, everywhere.

It is time, way past time.

Today’s Featured Post

Today’s featured post for the Grace & Truth Linkup is by Shelbee, Maybe It’s Time We Listen.

She writes about the past two weeks,

“I feel like someone stole my rose colored glasses. Ripped them right off my face, threw them to the ground, and stomped on them until they were nothing but a pile of shattered plastic. But I think I probably deserved it. I have been hiding behind those things for my entire life.”

“I have no idea where to start. But those who have been the victims of these injustices, they might have some ideas where to begin. I think maybe it’s time we listen to them.”

Read all of Shelbee’s post here at her blog, Shelbee on the Edge.

Then add your own links below.

Now Let’s Link Up!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

What have you had to let go of?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Feeling Down? Lift Every Voice and Sing
–And the Story Behind the Hymn

By LisaNotes June 17, 2020 Encouragement, Guest posts 4 Comments

Often when we are down, we dare not look ahead to the future.

What can “Lift Every Voice and Sing” teach us to do?

Here are 3 things you can do now to practice hope for your future, using this classic hymn that’s been providing hope for over 100 years in the Black community and around the world.

Read it all here.

I’m writing today at Do Not Depart. Will you join me there?

8 Reasons We Don’t Speak Up Against Racial Inequality
—And Why We Should Anyway + Infographic

By LisaNotes June 15, 2020 Discrimination 30 Comments

It doesn’t have to be in writing. It doesn’t have to be online.

But we’ve likely all been in more conversations of some sort this past week about racial injustice in America.

And when we refuse to talk about it? Here are 8 justifications I’ve used in the past. Lord, have mercy.

I’ve revised this list from last Friday’s post: Whatever Your Volume, Say Something.

But it’s not meant to shame us when we’re quietly listening; there is immense value in that.

Listening needs to come first.

But after we listen, there is a second thing to do: use our voices. However God individually calls us to do it.

Whatever that way is, may we do it in love.

Who have you had conversations with? Have they been easy or hard? Please share in the comments.

Whatever Your Volume, Say Something
+ Grace & Truth Link-Up

By LisaNotes June 12, 2020 Discrimination, Grace & Truth Link-Up 18 Comments

Writing Names

It’s washed away now. Bare.

The rain stripped our sidewalk clean Tuesday. It left no traces of the laughter that we had last week with colored chalk, drawing pictures with our 2-year-old granddaughter.

We had fun writing names.

But sometimes we write names for another reason.

And writing these names is not fun.

We write these names as a testament to a life taken too soon. It’s a ritual undertaken frequently to memorialize yet another Black man or woman dying at the hands of systemic racism in our country.

#sayhisnameGeorgeFloyd

Isn’t everyone talking about it?

Well, no.

Why Silence?

When we don’t speak up about racial injustice, why not?

Here are 8 thoughts behind choosing silence. Unfortunately, I’m guilty of some.

HOPELESS
Sometimes we don’t speak up because we feel hopeless. We think our voice won’t make a difference. Nothing ever changes. Why bother?

DEFENSIVE
But *I* didn’t do anything, we say. *I* am not racist, we say. We drown out voices telling us otherwise. Our pride smothers our humility. It strangles our repentance and growth.

ASHAMED
When I watched the video of Amy Cooper call the police on Christian Cooper, a Black birdwatcher in Central Park, I cringed. For her weaponization of white women’s tears. Sometimes we want to ignore the stories because we feel ashamed by them.

IGNORED
Or we’re quiet because we think nobody is listening to us anyway. Why talk into the void? Our sound is too faint.

APATHETIC
Does racial inequality really concern me? Everything’s stable in my community. Why stir things up? We have no skin in the game.

INARTICULATE
Or we don’t want to say the wrong thing. We don’t want to be misunderstood. We don’t want to make things worse. So we say nothing.

UNCERTAIN
Maybe we’re conflicted. We’re not even sure what we believe. We’re waiting for complete confidence before we say anything at all.

UNCOMFORTABLE
Or maybe we see others face retaliation when they speak up. We don’t want to lose friends or make someone angry at us. Conflict makes us uncomfortable.

But does silence really resolve any of these concerns? Does it release us from personal responsibility?

Does it make racial inequality disappear?

Where Do I Start?

You don’t have to start big.

Here’s what speaking up does NOT require.

It doesn’t require you to wear black t-shirts with meaningful sayings (although you might).
It doesn’t require you to march for miles around a courthouse with a crowd of people (although you may).
It doesn’t require you to blast your thoughts on social media or blog posts or anywhere online (although you can).

Start here instead: with yourself. Talk it out with God about you.

What do I believe about race? About justice? Why? Why not? Are my beliefs helpful or harmful to God’s heart? To other people?

Then maybe talk it out in the privacy of your home. With your partner, with your kids, with your parents.

Maybe you will talk it out further with others. With coworkers or church members or friends in your neighborhood.

Of course racial injustice need not be the only thing we talk about. But it is one thing we need to talk about. It’s worth our time. It’s worth the risk.

And it might just be a matter of life or death to another human being.

Oppression Hurts Everybody

Something stirs in each of us when we see injustice.

And when we cause or contribute to injustice ourselves? Once we realize it, let’s repent. Grieve it. Turn from it. Change.

Oppression not only harms the oppressed, it also destroys the oppressor. It eats away at our souls until they crack.

If you’re a follower of Jesus, Latasha Morrison says in her book Be the Bridge that we are the agents of reconciliation. And because of that:

“It’s never too late for us to acknowledge and lament racial injustice. It’s never too late to understand the historic depth of racism and to ask God to show his mercy and heal us.”

It’s never too late to give our nation a fresh start and make the world a safer place.

I believe God smiles when he sees our attempts to play better together, to love each other stronger, to write each other’s names in chalk on sidewalks—for life, not death.

This is work for all of us to do.

We are all stewards of God’s grace.

Add Your Voice

We drove our granddaughter back home on Saturday. We returned home to a quiet house.

I put the sidewalk chalk back in its box. I’ll save it again for the next time she visits.

And then we’ll draw again. It still won’t be a masterpiece. We won’t get it perfect. Not many people will ever see it or know about it.

But we’ll know we did it. We’ll keep adding our names and voices to life’s conversation, however small. It will form us.

Add your voice, too.

You have something to say.

To somebody.
At some volume.
For peace and justice and righteousness.

Start somewhere.

Say your something.

And Now . . . Our Featured Post

Yvonne Chase, a sister of color and of common faith, writes her response to a white sister about how to respond to racial injustice at her post, Silence Speaks Volumes.

She doesn’t want to offend you. But listen. Listen with your heart to her heart.

I’ve been sitting with her words all week since I read her post.

“Whatever you do, don’t be silent….If you are my sister in Christ and believe we’re all made in God’s image, how can you be silent?”

May Yvonne’s words stick with you, too.

“Black people cannot fight this battle alone. We need our white allies to come alongside us and fight with us until change comes.”

Read all of Yvonne’s post here at her blog, YvonneChase.com.

Then add your own links below so we can hear your voice, too.

Thanks for sharing, Yvonne! Here’s a button for your blog.

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

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LAUREN SPARKS
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LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
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Now Let’s Link Up!

So many of you ARE saying things! We read your words and hear your hearts here online and in person. We’re listening and learning. Thank you.

Get the infographic here of 8 Reasons We Don’t Speak Up…and Why We Should Anyway

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Kindness Isn’t Always About Our Comfort
—Book Review of Human(Kind)

By LisaNotes June 10, 2020 Book reviews, Discrimination 9 Comments

“The world needs more of what’s good and true in us. It needs to be reminded that we’re miracles.”
– Ashlee Eiland

Being kind can sometimes be easy. Other times, it can cost us.

Being kind often means listening with ears wide open.

And when we can’t can be physically present to listen in person, we can listen through written words. Even when it’s uncomfortable.

Ashlee Eiland writes words for us to listen to in her new book, Human(Kind): How Reclaiming Human Worth and Embracing Radical Kindness Will Bring Us Back Together.

Her words aren’t always easy to hear. But they just might be necessary.

Be Kind

Ashlee is a Black woman of faith who grew up in majority-white spaces. If you wonder what that’s like—its comforts and discomforts—you can listen to Ashlee and find out. She shares her stories and lessons she’s learned along the way.

“Being black, no matter what your black looks, sounds, or thinks like, is a full-time job here in America. Trying to stay alive is an exhausting grind, regardless of your job or the car you drive or whether you have a college degree.”

Ashlee also lets us know that kindness is sometimes the hardest thing she’s ever given.

Yet even despite hardships, she’s found that kindness is the best way to show love.

Be kind to others.

And be kind to yourself.

“That truth is this: no matter what destructive and damaging names you’ve been called, they aren’t the ones that matter. The ones that matter are Worthy, Valuable, Chosen, and Beloved. These names remind you that you weren’t, in fact, a mistake but a person who needed to live.”

We can all take a page from Ashlee’s book and learn to live better and love better by choosing kindness.

More Quotes from Human(Kind)

“Seeking to understand someone who’s lived a different story from ours, collecting different beliefs and values along the way, may be one of the most rebellious and controversial acts we could choose in our current cultural landscape.”

“I left that day knowing that sometimes even doing good is not enough. Sometimes we just have to sit with what’s hard and humiliating about the difficult work of unity and do our best not to let it kill us.”

“But maybe it’s worth showing up anyway. Maybe we still show up just to prove that kindness and proximity aren’t always about our comfort. We keep showing up to remind ourselves that dignity and hope weigh more than humiliation’s sting.”

“They stopped whatever they were doing to see what was actually happening, and they extended what they had to offer in order to meet me where I was. Isn’t this how we find our way back to one another? We have to remember what it was like to feel lost and alone.”

“When we let silence do its work, we leave space for the delayed hope of possibility. We may not have spoken our piece, but we leave space for the peace that could one day break through and draw us closer in our humanity.”

Share your thoughts in the comments.

My thanks to Net Galley, WaterBrook
& Multnomah for the review copy

sharing with Grace & Truth