That we gave a try and found not to be so crazy after all. I put them here in no particular order and with no links. Google is your friend.
On finances: Dave Ramsey (for us money knuckleheads) for his Financial Peace University; and then for even more radical an approach, Mr. Money Mustache (he's a fun writer—a bit, well, colorful at times!).
On diet and health in general, Fatburningman, Abel James and his great book The Wild Diet; Mark Sisson and Primal; Wim Hof and his funky breathing technique and cold exposure (or read Scott Carney's *What Doesn't Kill Us*). As usual, we just ignore any "evolutionary" comments!
On life in general (assuming, of course, the Sacred Scriptures!), check out William B. Irvine's *A Guide to the Good Life.* Great stuff on ancient stoic wisdom. I've been thinking a long time about his insight that the problem with unnatural desires is that they cannot be satisfied. Note that there's a bit of convergence between Mr. Money Mustache / Wild Diet / Stoicism; and that's not even going into the convergences you can recognize between stoicism and Christianity.
On stuff, Konmari. Seriously. We did this (well, almost finished doing this) and have been amazed at the “sparks joy” concept. My two huge take aways for the kitchen: organize for ease of cleanup and water and grease are the enemies. Yes, water. Dry off that sink! I have been delighted at the peacefulness that arises from everything having a home in our home.
On computing, iPad Pro and iPhone. Done. Yes, I know, the whole “my laptop cannot be replaced by an iPad” debate. I’m here to tell you that it has completely replaced mine. I do everything on my iPad. It holds my hymnal, my Bible and notes, my sermons, page layout and editing, you name it. Via the magic of Horizon app, I have a complete PC that I can use as needed.
On all things weird and wacky, the Tim Ferriss podcast or his latest book *Tools of Titans.* I DID say weird and wacky. You have been warned.
On computing, iPad Pro and iPhone. Done. Yes, I know, the whole “my laptop cannot be replaced by an iPad” debate. I’m here to tell you that it has completely replaced mine. I do everything on my iPad. It holds my hymnal, my Bible and notes, my sermons, page layout and editing, you name it. Via the magic of Horizon app, I have a complete PC that I can use as needed.
On all things weird and wacky, the Tim Ferriss podcast or his latest book *Tools of Titans.* I DID say weird and wacky. You have been warned.
And that's about it for the day.
6 comments:
Pr. Weedon,
At what point does the Stoic philosophy/worldview conflict with Christianity such that it can't be used in good conscience?
Pax,
Brian Yamabe
Brian,
I am not enough of a student to note all the conflicts. I think that while both encourage us to think about death regularly, they do so for totally different ends. The stoic would think about death to give a perspective on making the best of life and valuing each day with gratitude; the Christian thinks about death regularly to learn how to think of it from God’s perspective: a sleep for the body from which we will be awaken by the resurrection. The stoic teaches us not to be attached to things because they cannot give us happiness, but enjoying them while they are present; the Scriptures teach us not to be attached to things but to recognize in them the love of the Heavenly Father who provides good gifts for His children to enjoy (and who always has more!); thus to peer through them to perceive His love. In fact, it really comes down to that: the stoic is, I think, making the best of the world as it is, but not as a gift from the hand of Him from whom you came and to whom you have been called to return through Jesus and empowered to make that journey by the Holy Spirit. Or said even simpler: the stoic is blind to the love that suffuses this creation!
Pr. Weedon,
Thank you so much! The stoic seems to have similar values but for different reasons which seems similar to civil righteousness (right behavior; wrong motivation). Have you come across any stoic values that conflict with Christianity?
Honestly, I haven’t noticed an out and out contradiction, per se. I really appreciated the insight of Epictetus that all things can be divided into either things over which you have no control and things over which you have control; why waste time worrying about the things over which you have no control? Helpful in many ways, but I did wonder where that leaves us in relationship to prayer, since there is nothing over which the One to whom we pray does not exercise control. Hence, it struck me that there are situations which I cannot control but which still ought to concern me and for which I ought to pray. But then having prayed, indeed, not to worry. Does that make sense?
One thing I’ve pretty much stopped doing is listening to news or even reading much of it. Now and again, I’ll sneak a peek, but it’s mostly stuff that I can do absolutely nothing about, and so why worry with it? Same thing kind of led me massively away from social media.
You had mentioned on TSW about the Konmari house blessing, and it occurred to me that the Orthodox do this at Epiphany each year with their house blessings. I write CMB over my door each year at Epiphany -is this OK to do as a Lutheran?
Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar! Yes, and in fact the Pastoral Care Companion mentions that house blessings are appropriate each year during...EPIPHANY!
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