[Music]
[Applause]
so I have always been a shy person it’s
not so visible anymore but it’s still
there inside I’m shy I was also a shy
child but I was a shy child so eager to
discover life I was in such a hurry to
learn to learn how to read and write to
learn how to write to ride a bicycle I
wanted everything now so for me growth
has always been both a very appealing
thing and a very scary thing and I
actually think that that is what growth
is because growth always means you enter
a territory where you have never been
before you enter a part of yourself that
is unknown and that is scary because you
may even lose yourself now when I was
three years old
a toddler very playful toddler and my
hobby was getting lost so me and my best
friend you know would go out into our
little neighborhood and we would reach
the furthest street we would still known
and we still knew and then we would go
beyond that and we were lost and that
was both you know thrilling exciting and
also scary and it sometimes ended in
tears of course another story when I was
a child I often had a strange pain in my
left leg and sometimes I would wake up
in the middle of the night and the pain
would be so bad that I would call for my
mother or father and they would come and
rub this lotion you know sit next to my
bed rub this lotion on the leg until the
plane went away it always took a long
time and according to my parents
these were growing pains which makes
sense you know I was a child and I was
growing
now the strange thing is that sometimes
I’m now 36 and sometimes when I’m very
busy and I’m overwhelmed I still wake up
with this strange pain in my left leg
but maybe it’s not so strange
maybe growth still is a painful process
maybe growing
hurts this still surprises me
and I still feel as if I shouldn’t feel
this way as if growing shouldn’t hurt as
if maybe I’m doing something wrong
because I open facebook I look at it and
all my friends seems to be having a good
time so maybe I’m doing something wrong
but then I do the same thing so I just
put a message on Facebook I’m here at
TEDx Apeldoorn first there’s a horse
then there’s me so you know I’m also
creating this rosy image of myself and
and it doesn’t feel so good because I
think we have so many more interesting
things you know to talk about so many
more interesting stories to share about
ourselves stories about how we deal with
pain how do we deal with hardship how do
we share these things where do we find
beauty when life becomes hard those are
very real things and there’s another
thing that bothers me and that is how
these days politicians also paint this
very rosy image of our national identity
it’s all you know they’ll helmets and
all beautiful history and all beautiful
values and everything like that and they
even use Christianity to say we have all
the good norms we take care of the right
people we love everyone and as a
theologian I think that’s wrong in fact
I think to hell with all of these rosy
pictures because that’s not who we are
and as a few Lodging I also know that
Christianity in our area doesn’t have
this beautiful history Christianity was
very very
limiting for a lot of people it didn’t
enable growth in many cases now a friend
told me last only last week it seems
strange that you are a theologian
because few lodgings aren’t really known
for being very innovative so I said yeah
I know that’s you know that’s the image
we have to deal with and I also know
that sometimes it’s true theology can be
very limiting actually sometimes it
seems that it’s more about limiting
people than about enabling people to
grow but I also have a different story
to tell I am a theologian because I love
growth and I love challenge and I love
doing that and I also love theology and
I don’t think that’s a coincidence I
think actually these two work very well
together so for me religion is an
invitation to transform for me religion
is about telling honest stories about
yourself telling the whole story and
being able to go to the places where you
are hurt where you are afraid and also
to be able to share those stories with a
group of people can we listen to some
music maybe
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
what did you feel
listening to this music it’s on what bra
hem it’s a lute player and I used to
listen to this music a few years ago
while I was finishing my dissertation
now writing a dissertation is a hell of
a job you know you have done this I see
some nodding there any organs thank you
for recognizing you know the the painful
press process of Labor that a
dissertation is you’ve done all these
research and then you have to write a
book and all the knowledge and
everything has to be in the book in the
right place using the right words so I
was listening to this music and at the
time I felt you know close to a nervous
breakdown I was doubting whether I would
ever succeed whether it would ever be a
work that was worthwhile and I was very
very stressed now when I listen to this
music just now I realized that my
response is so different so I be
faithful and emotional so apparently
something has transformed in the way I
now look back on this period and I
realize that actually what seemed to be
such a horrible period of nervous
breakdown
in fact was a process of growth and I’m
you know and I kind of think who was the
woman you know writing this dissertation
how did she manage to do all these
things but she did and apparently it’s
me so it’s you know and I learned so
many things from that and and that’s a
beautiful thing but it also makes clear
to me that growth you know it involves
pain it involves a lot of patience a lot
of endurance and it also takes courage
you know to endure not to step back not
to give up but just to continue every
single day in that process so I want to
close with a story from the Bible
because
I’m a biblical scholar the dissertation
was also was on the Old Testament
actually religion and conflict if you’re
interested and the story is from the
book of Genesis Adam and Eve they are
familiar right so so often the story is
told kind of as a negative story
so there’s paradise there’s you know the
first set of humans Adam and Eve there’s
the tree of knowledge of good and wrong
and Eve stupidly you know plucks fruit
from the tree and gives it to Adam I
think she first takes a bite and then
gives it to Adam and then everything
goes wrong wrong wrong now I think
there’s a different way of reading this
narrative and that is a narrative of
growth because when you think of it
paradise is horrible
it’s like an all-inclusive vacation you
know there’s not much to do they’re not
not any decisions to be made and you
cannot grow because everything will stay
the same it’s horrible so you know
plucking the fruit and eating from it
that’s the decision to become an adult I
think and then real life starts and real
life in a way you know we know it now so
it comes with hardship it comes with
responsibility it comes with the need to
make choices and it comes with the
possibility of growth and that I think
is an extraordinary extraordinary
beautiful thing so I wish all of us many
many processes of growth thank you very
much
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
so I have always been a shy person it’s
not so visible anymore but it’s still
there inside I’m shy I was also a shy
child but I was a shy child so eager to
discover life I was in such a hurry to
learn to learn how to read and write to
learn how to write to ride a bicycle I
wanted everything now so for me growth
has always been both a very appealing
thing and a very scary thing and I
actually think that that is what growth
is because growth always means you enter
a territory where you have never been
before you enter a part of yourself that
is unknown and that is scary because you
may even lose yourself now when I was
three years old
a toddler very playful toddler and my
hobby was getting lost so me and my best
friend you know would go out into our
little neighborhood and we would reach
the furthest street we would still known
and we still knew and then we would go
beyond that and we were lost and that
was both you know thrilling exciting and
also scary and it sometimes ended in
tears of course another story when I was
a child I often had a strange pain in my
left leg and sometimes I would wake up
in the middle of the night and the pain
would be so bad that I would call for my
mother or father and they would come and
rub this lotion you know sit next to my
bed rub this lotion on the leg until the
plane went away it always took a long
time and according to my parents
these were growing pains which makes
sense you know I was a child and I was
growing
now the strange thing is that sometimes
I’m now 36 and sometimes when I’m very
busy and I’m overwhelmed I still wake up
with this strange pain in my left leg
but maybe it’s not so strange
maybe growth still is a painful process
maybe growing
hurts this still surprises me
and I still feel as if I shouldn’t feel
this way as if growing shouldn’t hurt as
if maybe I’m doing something wrong
because I open facebook I look at it and
all my friends seems to be having a good
time so maybe I’m doing something wrong
but then I do the same thing so I just
put a message on Facebook I’m here at
TEDx Apeldoorn first there’s a horse
then there’s me so you know I’m also
creating this rosy image of myself and
and it doesn’t feel so good because I
think we have so many more interesting
things you know to talk about so many
more interesting stories to share about
ourselves stories about how we deal with
pain how do we deal with hardship how do
we share these things where do we find
beauty when life becomes hard those are
very real things and there’s another
thing that bothers me and that is how
these days politicians also paint this
very rosy image of our national identity
it’s all you know they’ll helmets and
all beautiful history and all beautiful
values and everything like that and they
even use Christianity to say we have all
the good norms we take care of the right
people we love everyone and as a
theologian I think that’s wrong in fact
I think to hell with all of these rosy
pictures because that’s not who we are
and as a few Lodging I also know that
Christianity in our area doesn’t have
this beautiful history Christianity was
very very
limiting for a lot of people it didn’t
enable growth in many cases now a friend
told me last only last week it seems
strange that you are a theologian
because few lodgings aren’t really known
for being very innovative so I said yeah
I know that’s you know that’s the image
we have to deal with and I also know
that sometimes it’s true theology can be
very limiting actually sometimes it
seems that it’s more about limiting
people than about enabling people to
grow but I also have a different story
to tell I am a theologian because I love
growth and I love challenge and I love
doing that and I also love theology and
I don’t think that’s a coincidence I
think actually these two work very well
together so for me religion is an
invitation to transform for me religion
is about telling honest stories about
yourself telling the whole story and
being able to go to the places where you
are hurt where you are afraid and also
to be able to share those stories with a
group of people can we listen to some
music maybe
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
what did you feel
listening to this music it’s on what bra
hem it’s a lute player and I used to
listen to this music a few years ago
while I was finishing my dissertation
now writing a dissertation is a hell of
a job you know you have done this I see
some nodding there any organs thank you
for recognizing you know the the painful
press process of Labor that a
dissertation is you’ve done all these
research and then you have to write a
book and all the knowledge and
everything has to be in the book in the
right place using the right words so I
was listening to this music and at the
time I felt you know close to a nervous
breakdown I was doubting whether I would
ever succeed whether it would ever be a
work that was worthwhile and I was very
very stressed now when I listen to this
music just now I realized that my
response is so different so I be
faithful and emotional so apparently
something has transformed in the way I
now look back on this period and I
realize that actually what seemed to be
such a horrible period of nervous
breakdown
in fact was a process of growth and I’m
you know and I kind of think who was the
woman you know writing this dissertation
how did she manage to do all these
things but she did and apparently it’s
me so it’s you know and I learned so
many things from that and and that’s a
beautiful thing but it also makes clear
to me that growth you know it involves
pain it involves a lot of patience a lot
of endurance and it also takes courage
you know to endure not to step back not
to give up but just to continue every
single day in that process so I want to
close with a story from the Bible
because
I’m a biblical scholar the dissertation
was also was on the Old Testament
actually religion and conflict if you’re
interested and the story is from the
book of Genesis Adam and Eve they are
familiar right so so often the story is
told kind of as a negative story
so there’s paradise there’s you know the
first set of humans Adam and Eve there’s
the tree of knowledge of good and wrong
and Eve stupidly you know plucks fruit
from the tree and gives it to Adam I
think she first takes a bite and then
gives it to Adam and then everything
goes wrong wrong wrong now I think
there’s a different way of reading this
narrative and that is a narrative of
growth because when you think of it
paradise is horrible
it’s like an all-inclusive vacation you
know there’s not much to do they’re not
not any decisions to be made and you
cannot grow because everything will stay
the same it’s horrible so you know
plucking the fruit and eating from it
that’s the decision to become an adult I
think and then real life starts and real
life in a way you know we know it now so
it comes with hardship it comes with
responsibility it comes with the need to
make choices and it comes with the
possibility of growth and that I think
is an extraordinary extraordinary
beautiful thing so I wish all of us many
many processes of growth thank you very
much
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
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