Learning to live with limitations

This year we have spent some time thinking about disability justice at both Graduate Christian Fellowship and Wine Before Breakfast. In doing so, we have focused on learning from those with disabilities. One lesson we have learning is about how good and holy it is to live within our limitations as human beings.

One source of learning has come from Amy Kenny’s book, My Body is not a Prayer Request. We have joined a number of Christian Reformed churches in doing a book club on the book. You can also watch a video of her presentation at the Calvin University January Series.

We have also been listening to the voices of people who have a disability. One example of that is Hannah’s preaching at Wine Before Breakfast on God as disabled.

One final possible source of learning is a talk by Jane Grizzle, “The Grief and Gift of Bodily Limitations.” While the focus is more on injury and illness, it highlights our relationship with our bodies and the goodness of learning to acknowledge our limitations. The talk can be listened to here or read here. The following are a few quotes from the talk to give you a sense of the presentation:

Her friend who is a counselor told her that ” without fail, if her clients talk about their bodies, they cry every time. It is a place of great vulnerability.”

“Illness and injury require us to slow down, to take a different path, to rest. In some ways, these limitations are a spotlight on our priorities. And when we are forced to slow down and take a look at our lives, what we see may not be pretty. Limits are another word for interruptions or dead ends. When I think about times in my life when I have hit one of these limits, I dislike them for one of three reasons: they are humbling, they are isolating, and they are disorienting.”

“In his book, Being Human, Rowan Williams writes that if we believe we are in charge of our selves and our bodies:

[We] drift towards a steady expectation that the best relationship you can be in to the world is control. The best place to be is a place where you can never be surprised. We want to control what’s strange and we want to control what doesn’t fall under our immediate power. We’re uneasy with limits that we can’t get beyond because limits, of whatever kind, remind us that there are some things that are just going to be strange and difficult wherever we are and however hard we work at them.

[But acknowledging our limits exposes something very true about us]: “we depend on what is not ours, what is not us, our will, our hope, our achievements…Christians are adopted into a dependent relationship to that which Jesus calls, Abba, Father.”

December 2021 Update

Once again we are inviting you to support us in our work at the University of Toronto. Through Wine Before Breakfast and Graduate Christian Fellowship, we challenge, mentor, and enable students to think, work, and live as Christian disciples in the academy and in their professions. Through wrestling with Scripture and difficult topics, we invite people into radical Christian discipleship, inviting them to rest in the hope of Christ and to participate in God’s work of bringing justice. 

The following words from Stephanie, an alumna of the ministry, give an example how God has worked in the past, and continues to work though this ministry into the present.

“I can’t express how much I have enjoyed staying connected via the weekly newsletter and the invitation to virtual gatherings during CoVid19.
This week’s topic [on politics] takes me back to a similar discussion held while I was on campus and there was a federal election. It was formative in my early walk as a Christian and I keep going back to those nuances I took away from that session each time I consider an issue presented in the political fora.
Although I am not I’m able to be present in it, it’s an important reminder to me that my fellow brethren are out there contemplating life with the lens of their faith.”


Grateful for how God uses this ministry to bless people’s lives, from generation to generation of students, we want to thank you for your support and participation, as well as invite you to partner financially with us in the shaping of a vibrant Christian community and witness at the University of Toronto and the wider city. 

For more detailed update about this past fall at Graduate Christian Fellowship and Wine Before Breakfast, including how we’ve been meeting in person, see the newsletter.

Imposter syndrome and trust

InterVarsity’s Emerging Scholars Network recently published a helpful post about imposter syndrome and how it gets in the way of our trusting God fully. More specifically,

The core problem isn’t that we feel bad about ourselves but that Imposter syndrome distracts from action. Fear and inadequacy are like weights around our ankles preventing us from running full speed by keeping our eyes fixed on our inadequacy. As long as we’re preoccupied with our inability rather than God’s ability, we will live a life of fearful restraint and small goals, never plunging deep into the waters of faith. Imposter syndrome stands between us and following God’s call, convincing us we’re not good or able enough.

Denise Margaret Thompson

To hear more about the challenges of imposter syndrome, I encourage you to read the full article: Imposter Syndrome, The Bible and Grad Students – Emerging Scholars Blog.

March 30 – Hana’s story

Florence-Italy

While I know I look quite young (many a bartender has needlessly questioned the integrity of my state ID), I have lived a pretty full 28 years of trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus. What does loving our neighbor as ourselves look like in our personal and professional lives? Trying to answer that question has taken me to Chicago, El Salvador, and Italy, down a winding circuitous path to academia, and now to GCF on Thursday night, where you’ll get to hear some scattered bits and pieces of that journey. Looking forward to sharing with you all!

GCF This week

GCF This Week

This week at GCF we’ll be chowing down on some delectable delicacies starting at 6pm and engaging in a conversation about disciplinary epistemologies beginning around 7pm. Our conversation about how we are taught to think will begin with presenters briefly sharing about how their discipline has taught them to think followed by your reflections and questions. We’ll end the evening with prayer, more food and dishwashing.

Graduate Christian Fellowship – November 3, 2016 – MoveIn

This week at GCF we’ll be learning about “MoveIn”  

“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

(John 1:14, The Message)

 

I have heard about MoveIn from several GCFers over the years and I’ve been thinking for a while that it would be a good thing to learn about and discuss at GCF – I just needed to find someone who could talk about it! Well this week Jordan and Danielle have agreed to come, tell us some stories and have a conversation with us about their experiences living in St. James Town and other MoveIn communities.

 

Jordan writes:

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Are you interested in prayer, incarnational living, and the poor?

 

MoveIn is a movement of regular Christians prayerfully moving in among the unreached, urban poor. Locally and globally.

It’s mission is to see the church present and making reproducing disciples in more unreached, urban poor communities globally.

 

It’s a movement that I joined. I lived as part of the MoveIn team in St. James Town (Parliament and Wellesley) for 3 years. Danielle, my wife, joined the team after we were married in 2014, but before that, when living in Ottawa, she was part of the MoveIn team on Donald Street. Since then, Danielle and I moved to England for a year and have now moved back to where we currently live — Wycliffe College.

 

We have much to share about our experiences, mostly good, though some difficult things too.

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I hope you’ll join us, and bring a friend, to hear Jordan and Danielle’s story.

 

Shalom,

Geoff