Six New Things – Week of February 24, 2025

In the midst of continuing chaos and deep concern, love, justice, and belonging are essential good medicine for all of God’s Beloved Children. Soak them up. Share them. Be renewed. Be renewing.

To not overwhelm this week’s Six New Things, I created a separate post with resources specific to Transfiguration Sunday through Easter Sunday. Please find that here.

ONE

From the incomparable Jacqui Lewis, Shannon Daley-Harris, and Cheryl Thuesday comes, The Just Love Story Bible (Beaming), ‘a groundbreaking, justice-oriented storybook Bible’ with 52 Bible stories that invite children and families, ‘to ask important questions’ as we, ‘hear how others have also had questions about God, and the answers they discovered; to have your own ideas and ponder your own experiences; and to keep on wondering.’

Find more in our Bible with Children lib guide.

 

TWO

Explore the importance of stories and The Word with Brother Brontë: A Novel (MCD), ‘a gonzo romp through a ruined world that, in its dysfunction, tyranny, and disparity, nonetheless feels uncannily like our own’. Discover what fiction can do in your youth group with this ‘unforgettable story of perseverance’.

Consider the implications – and current realities – with more resources from our Education lib guide.

THREE

That ‘uncanny’ resemblance to today is spelled out in, Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy (Bloomsbury), which, ‘profiles the people who want to tear it all down’ as they, ‘invent a new style of religion even as they set about attacking democracy at its foundations’.

Fallouts of these efforts are found in, Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass (Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster), which ‘exposes the harsh reality of America’s racial and income inequality and the devastating impact of the pandemic on our nation’s most vulnerable people’.

Learn more in our Politics & Social Structures and Poverty, Hunger, & Unhoused lib guides.

FOUR

Overwhelm, anxiety, and exhaustion are intentional tools of tyranny. Belonging and community are good medicine.

Find additional Meditations & Poetry and Pastoral Care resources for Loneliness.

FIVE

As America’s democracy crumbles, the effects are felt around the globe in numerous ways, not least of which is amidst ongoing armed conflict. Humanizing the victims is part of resistance.

  • Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal (Haymarket), ‘is an urgent affirmation of the Palestinian condition of resistance and refusal – an ode to the steadfastness of a nation’.
  • The World after Gaza: A History (Penguin), is ‘an essential reckoning with the war in Gaza that reframes our understanding of the ongoing conflict, its historical roots, and the fractured global response’.

Learn more in our Israel & Palestine lib guide.

SIX

Amidst the chaos and heartbreak, it is essential to take time to draw near to God for rest and renewal. Drawing Near: A Devotional Journey with Art, Poetry, and Reflection (Herald), ‘includes plenty of white space for your own response to the Spirit’s nudging – whether… doodles, drawings, or poetry… allow the Spirit to stir your soul’.

Find similar resources for Devotionals & Prayers and other inspiration for Grad Gifts in our lib guides.