I received this book for free and this post may contain affiliate links
I am excited to share with you my review of Nomad: A Spirituality for Travelling Light by Brandan Robertson. Brandan is a thought-leader, author, activist and commentator. Learn more about Brandan at his web site.
Brandan Robertson is wise beyond his years. In Nomad, Brandan shares his courageous spiritual journey of wandering. We learn that to truly experience God we need to wander. Brandan also challenges us to wonder, which for him is synonymous with worship. Let me briefly share some key points that I particularly enjoyed. I think you will too.
Search
“My faith doesn’t end my search; it inspires it. It amps up my curiosity and whets my appetite for discovering what God is doing in and through the world each and every day.” Brandan is on a journey. He wants to know who this God is and what this God is up to in this world.
I agree! I too want to search. I must explore. I need to move out of my comfort zone. Brandan mentions that Jesus pushed his followers to move beyond their comfort zones. We serve a God that is on the move and He wants us to move with Him.
Love
Love is powerful! Hate divides. “Love is what has the power to bring divided groups together.” We need to release our fear and scapegoating tendencies. “At the cross, Jesus revealed to us the way to deal with our fear and our impulse to scapegoat those who look, think, act, or worship differently – release it.”
We must model what Jesus did. Jesus released all of these tendencies. Jesus taught that there is a new and better way: love, forgiveness and mercy.
Common Table
“Most of us didn’t participate in small traditional practices like gathering around a common table for dinner each evening.” We have lost this. When I was young our family sat at the table each night. I now have my own family. We do sit at the table but it is not every night.
We need to get back to this. It is important. Why? It holds us together. We share. We laugh. We cry. We enjoy each other’s presence. My family has five members. At the table a sixth member joins us, God.
Belonging
“On this journey of faith, having a place of belonging and a people to walk alongside us are essential.” This is vital. We need to feel loved. We need a safe place where we can express ourselves. Each one of us is at different place on our journey. We can learn from each other. We can help each other. We can grow together.
True Self
“So when God calls us to be holy, we’re being called to embrace our ‘True Selves,’ the authentic Being God originally created us to be.” God created each one of us to bear His image. God certainly created diversity. Take a look all around you. We should feel free to express who we are and what we want to do. We are not what the world tells us to be or do. We must let our true selves shine and be expressed in this world. Brandan shines his true self!
Silent Prayer
“Time and time again, we find Jesus fleeing the crowds of people who followed after him to spend time communing with God in prayer and meditation.” I complement my verbal prayer with silent prayer. My silent prayer practice is centering prayer.
Like Jesus I need this time in silence with God. Silence teaches me who I am. Silence teaches me how to live. We can have union with God. “This radical notion of union with Christ has been lost in the Western Church today.” It does not need to be lost! We need to bring it back.
Incarnation
“Western Christianity has forgotten the truth of the incarnation, that God put on flesh in the person of Jesus and continues to reincarnate himself in the hearts of his children.” Just as Jesus is at once God and human, we are both human and divine beings with a little “d”. God is within each one of us and patiently waits to be shared with the world.
Next Steps
Like Brandan mentions, I too want to wander and seek God, patiently, courageously and with openness. “I will continue to wander, seeking for God wherever he is to be found. Patiently. Courageously. With Openness.” I highly encourage you to read Brandan’s book. I do not think you will be disappointed.
Go Further
Nomad: A spirituality for travelling light by Brandan Robertson
Our Witness: The unheard stories of LGBT+ Christians by Brandan Robertson
True Inclusion: Creating Communities of Radical Embrace by Brandan Robertson
Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living by Shauna Niequist
Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life by Phileena Heuertz
Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – This is a great way to listen to books with your cell phone while you drive, walk or relax at home. I frequently listen in my car during my commute to and from work. I’m a proud affiliate.
The Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault: Jesus first and foremost is a Wisdom teacher, grounded in the universal traditions of spiritual transformation, and the first teacher of non-dual consciousness the West had ever seen. Almost two thousand years ahead of his time, he stands in the lineage of the great Jewish prophets, the master “cardiologist” entrusted with implementing the promise made to the prophet Ezekiel: “I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Centering Prayer by Cynthia Bourgeault: Centering Prayer is a simple, no-frills form of meditation in the Christian tradition. Since it was first developed by Christian contemplative monks in the 1970s, it has allowed tens of thousands of practitioners worldwide to “return home,” developing an authentically Christian meditation practice which not only delivers the healing and quieting of the mind typical of all meditation paths, but also reconnects directly to Christianity’s hidden treasury of mystical and transformational wisdom.
The Gospel of Thomas by Cynthia Bourgeault: This e-course, “The Gospel of Thomas with Cynthia Bourgeault,” is a complete “Thomas starter kit”: everything you need to know to get you up and running with this remarkable text, plus a generous sampling of its most important sayings, arranged thematically so that they speak to issues that contemporary spiritual seekers are actually dealing with.
Sounds True has titles by teachers and authors such as Thomas Keating, Cynthia Bourgeault, James Finley, Richard Rohr, David Frenette, Parker Palmer , Adyashanti , Eckhart Tolle , Michael Singer , Jon Kabat-Zinn , Marianne Williamson to name a few.
Contemplative Light offers courses on contemplative practices (Christian Meditation, Centering Prayer, The Examen, Lectio Divina, The Jesus Prayer), the Christian mystics (ancient and current) and spiritual writing. Peruse their wonderful offerings.
Prayer-Bracelet: Authentic Orthodox prayer ropes and bracelets are handmade by monks in the Orthodox monastaries reciting a prayer for every knot they tie. Peruse their prayer ropes and bracelets that are all handmade, provided by several orthodox churches around the globe.
Themes in the Gospel of John by N. T. Wright: The course approaches the Gospel of John in a way that looks at seven key themes. These themes bind the Fourth Gospel together in a manner that allows us to see this ‘new way of living’ as possible for followers of King Jesus. In so doing, we then apply these themes to the current era in order to ask ourselves questions about how we are putting them into practice. In a way, this is the story of how to live out being the presence of God on earth through the indwelling of God’s spirit.
Prepare to be immersed in the 1st Century A.D. context of the life, work, teachings, and actions of Jesus. Check out Simply Jesus by N. T. Wright. It is based on his book Simply Jesus. Enjoy an article I wrote about one of the lectures on the Beatitudes.
This course is a short course based on Prof. N.T. Wright’s latest book, Simply Good News. Tom Wright will guide you through the chapters of his book through videos that suggest what some of the main points are. You will instantly get into the heart of the idea of ‘good news’ as it was understood by the 1st Century writers of the New Testament. You will be brought into their world in order to make more sense of what ‘good news’ means in our world.
Christian Prayer Methods: Prayer is a core Christian practice, but for many, this means “saying prayers” or asking God for various favors. In this course, we will review a variety of methods of prayer that have been used for centuries in Christianity. Whether you’re a beginner who is just learning how to pray, or a more mature Christian who has been at it awhile, this course will offer specific guidance, encouragement and support for practicing several time-tested methods of prayer.
