New Becoming

Once in a while I'll be doing book reviews of new releases by authors who are in the process of becoming like I am. I want to honor their efforts toward illuminating a higher consciousness of what it means to be spiritual in a search for God. This week I read The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Jesus by Tripp Fuller. It's clear he's got a passion for both small-batch beer and God-knowledge as he "...provide[s] ingredients for [readers] to brew their own faith." He intersperses his evolving brand of theology including ideas from current and past leaders in Christianity with cheeky quotes from four Church iconic roles: The Deacon, The Elder, The Bishop, and The Acolyte. Tripp Fuller wrestles with the labels of skeptic and believer stating they both live within us. He's all for asking questions of our faith to address our doubts much like our Jewish fathers asked for millennia before us. He also addresses the language of Christianity by creating a new com...

My process of becoming is not limited to my spiritual life. I want to become more integrated into a social and growing cultural structure that I don't trample with a large environmental footprint. Several aspects of my life collided in the last year to make bicycles rise to a much higher priority level. First, my wife and I have friends who are bicycle nuts. And I mean that in the most loving way! They just finished their second bike tour in Europe. Their first was in Denmark and more recently they circled The Netherlands. They lived in Traverse City, Michigan and they embraced the in-town lifestyle by having only one car and biking to complete errands and for fun. We rode with them a couple of times and the feeling of freedom that I felt in going at my own pace while taking in my surroundings was good for my mind and my soul. Second, my wife and I were fortunate enough to travel to a bucket-list destination in the summer of 2014 to Sweden. It is a country that we were drawn to...