Thursday Things #101

A great fiction read, two podcasts, a prayer, gold glue and broken stars.

Every other Thursday, I share a handful of things I'm loving, reading, watching, listening to or just discovered. AKA the random good stuff we’d talk about over coffee, or text if we had one another’s phone number. I'm glad you're here!

Hello hello! Forgive me for the brevity at the top — I’m writing this part last, squinting through a migraine, reaching for Kleenex every few minutes (this thirteen day cold will. not. quit. and I’m all the way over it.), and giving thanks that I prepped most of Thursday Things ONE HUNDRED AND ONE late last night.

(Me, carrying some of the big “one hundred!!!” energy over.)

(I’ll stop now but no promises when we near 150.)

(P.s. I loooooved reading through your comments on #100. It was so good to see familiar names + ‘meet’ and reply to many of you who commented for the first time. I mean it: I’m glad you’re here.)

Here’s to the sharing of good things and many more Thursdays together.

(P.p.s. As of today, there’s a new “share” reward feature at the bottom. If you enjoy these emails, it would mean the world to me if you invited friends to subscribe and read with us. If they subscribe (free or paid) using your link, you receive benefits that give you special access to extras. More info here.)

The Wishing Game.

Quirky. Unique. Kinda predictable but still precious. I teared up at one point and laughed out loud a few times. (I mean, Lucy walks by a framed painting in Master Mastermind’s house and underneath it, where the name of the painting and artist would be, a plaque reads “I have no idea who this man is.” C’mon.) Crossing my fingers that we’ll get to see this adapted into a movie, though I’ll happily take a sequel.

That this is Shaffer’s debut novel? What even. Fiction writers amaze me… the worlds they create! Incredible. 4.5 stars from me, rounded up to 5 because again: DEBUT.

I zero percent know V.E. Schwab, but I agree with this endorsement: “A work by turns clever, dark, and hopeful, Shaffer’s debut is a love letter to reading and the power childhood stories have over us long after we’ve grown up.”

Yep, pretty much that. It had me imagining what it might be like, as an adult, to visit the worlds of each series I read as a child. Which of course left me wondering which childhood stories shaped you and if there’s a beloved book you’d like to step into . . .

Up for sharing? I bet between all of us, we have many in common.

P.s. FWIW, there’s a little bit of language but it’s low on spicy scenes.

Prophesy Your Promise.

There are two songs from Bryan and Katie Torwalt that have made themselves at home in my mind, bouncing from one to another, an unending musical pingpong match.

This is one of them. I’ll save the other for next Thursday so we can sit with these lyrics for a minute.

A portion of the lyrics:

When I only see in part,
I will prophesy Your promise
I believe You, God
'Cause You finish what You start
I will trust You in the process
I believe You, God

You set a table in the middle of my war
You knew the outcome of it all
When what I faced looked like it would never end
You said, watch the giants fall

And fear can go to hell
Shame can go there too
I know whose I am
God, I belong to You

The beautiful broken.

You’ve heard of Kintsugi, yes? I’ve seen more and more writers mention it in recent years, but this from Hannah Brencher, on gold glue and broken stars? I’m still thinking about it.

Click the image below (or this link) and scroll through the slides.

hannahbrencher

A post shared by @hannahbrencher

May the visual stay with you, too . . . an actual nightlight that becomes its own glimmer of light in the dark of night.

“We don’t have to be afraid when the stars break. We have gold glue for that.”

Two podcasts.

If you’re a podcast person, or honestly if you just need encouragement in your ears, I want to recommend two episodes I’m still thinking about weeks after first listening.

The first is episode 487 of That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs. She’s joined by Dr. Alicia Britt Chole and I’m telling you I immediately downloaded this one, intrigued from the get-go after reading and recommending Alicia’s newest book to you earlier this summer. While they cover some of the same themes, you don’t need to read the book prior to listening. Here’s the description from the show notes: The brilliant Dr. Alicia Britt Chole teaches us about the night originating before sin in Eden, what the Gospel says about our capacity, and how to do grace well. It's also a very special conversation about the Gospels that I know you're going to love.

The second is episode 241 of Out of the Ordinary with Lisa-Jo Baker and Christie Purifoy. This one is about slowing, savoring, and practicing sabbath for an extended amount of time. It’s a gentle invitation to pause, to rest from creating. I never told you this, haven’t written the words publicly though it took a year to plan for and next week marks a year since it happened, but I took a sabbatical last November. I could write an actual dozen emails about it (don’t worry, I’ll spare you) and one day it’ll be time to say more than just a small sentence tucked away toward the end of Thursday Things, but for now I’ll just say it’s worth the time, the effort, the money and the energy to choose rest. You might have to fight for sabbath, I know. But I also know: it’s worth the fight.

A prayer.

I’ll leave you with this prayer from

Stephanie Duncan Smith

’s latest newsletter. (Consider this an extra good thing:

SLANT LETTER

is one email I always open and read to the very end.)

Cosmic . . . and yet never out of reach.

Thanks be to God.

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What are you loving? Any books we should know about? Maybe a song, a TV show, a recipe or an Instagram account you’d recommend? Share a good thing or two below!

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