Author: Martin, Shannan
Brand: Thomas Nelson
Binding: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 240
Release Date: 09-10-2018
Details: Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Ministry of Ordinary PlacesWaking Up To God's Goodness Around YouBy Shannan MartinThomas NelsonCopyright © 2018 Shannan MartinAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-0-7180-7748-8ContentsIntroduction: The Call, xv, PART ONE: THE LOST ART OF PAYING ATTENTION, 1: Who Even Is My Neighbor?, 3, 2: Locking Eyes with the World We're In, 13, 3: Speech Therapy for the Common Big Mouth (Like Me), 25, 4: Salted Chocolate, 37, 5: How to Love, 45, PART TWO: LOVE LIKE A NEIGHBOR, 6: Misfits, Randoms, and Regulars, 57, 7: Whopper Extra-Value Meal, 65, 8: Tacos and Tea, 77, 9: Searching for Your People, 91, 10: Nachos by the Hour, 99, 11: Let's Stop Loving on the Least of These, 113, PART THREE: WORK LIKE A NEIGHBOR, 12: Contact Burns, 127, 13: We All Are Mothers, 137, 14: Arms Linked, 149, 15: Redefining Success, 161, PART FOUR: LOVE SONG FOR THE LONG HAUL, 16: A Theology of Endurance, 175, 17: The Discipleship of Sticking Around, 187, 18: Better Homes and Gardens, 199, 19: We Bloom, 207, Acknowledgments, 211, Notes, 215, A Personal Note from Shannan Martin, 219, CHAPTER 1Who Even Is My Neighbor?I sat at the pint-sized table at the coffee shop downtown, my knees banging against its worn wooden edge each time I shifted in my seat. Across from me sat my dear friend Becca. Her hands were wrapped around a mug of coffee, probably something exotic like Sumatra or Ethiopian blend, all direct trade, naturally. But Becca doesn't particularly care about the origins of her beans, and I'm a tea-drinking contrarian. The coffee was never the point.Conversation percolated around us, bubbling up now and then into laughter among women flushed and limber from morning yoga, stay-athome dads with strollers, city leaders, freelancers, and tunnel-visioned students. An orthodox priest in a floor-length black robe took the table to our left, and to our right sat two men knitting, one of whom wore a bun. Right in the middle sat the two of us, me hiding yesterday's hair under my signature red ball cap, and Becca wearing a sweatshirt decorated with an airbrushed, wintry landscape.As usual, we were trying to figure out how to fix the world.It wouldn't be unfair to classify this assemblage of two opinionated verbal processers as a glorified vent session, with plenty of comic relief mixed in. We were both political junkies (recovering and otherwise), so the upcoming presidential election was foremost on our minds, and the fact that we didn't agree on a solution only added punch to our discussion. On top of that we were both experiencing near-terminal church-related funk, the racial tension of our country continued to be revealed, religious people were damning each other to hell over a legion of issues, and there were new rumblings that we might be on the brink of war. It was a lot.Along the way, Becca elevated the emotional atmosphere with stories about her former cough-dropaddicted house pig named Brats and her misadventures involving an accordion. When one of us rambled, the other went up for air, taking a sip of our now lukewarm beverages, careful not to miss a word. These coffee dates were not for the faint of heart, which presented a problem since Becca had been clinically diagnosed with a mouthful of medical jargon amounting to "faint of heart." As always, we tried to keep our cool.Becca and I first met at the little Methodist church my family attends. Fueled by mutual intrigue and maybe a bit of shared loneliness, we graduated from Sunday handshakes to these intermittent Wednesday mornings.Separated by twenty-five years, the two of us were never meant to be friends and certainly not coconspirators. She is a single woman with no children and a senior discount. I'm young enough to be her daughter. Our ideologies don't perfectly align. Our theologies tear away from each other now and then. Yet, in each other, we recognized the reward of stepping outside our norm, and our unlikely friendship grew. Before long, we
EAN: 9780718077488
Package Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
Languages: English