PRAISE FOR THE NOBLE RENAISSANCE
When my friend Carrie speaksyou lean in to listen. When she writes, you are drawn into every word narrating a beautiful story and bringing you into the moment. This book carries a vital message about the virtues, values, and moral character of our culture that are seemingly silent. Carrie invites us to restore the understanding and meaning of nobility, and I know it will unlock a generation to nobility, before it is too late.
Caitlin Zick, author of Look at You, Girl and codirector of Moral Revolution
Nobility, so long associated with aristocracy, goes to the heart of what it is to be a graceful and loving Christian. In this superb book Carrie Lloyd lifts the veil from this forgotten word and we find we are looking at Jesus.
George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury (19912002), now Lord Carey
Carries voice is a true treasure. She illuminates ideas and stories with her compassion, humor, and presence. The Noble Renaissance is a compelling work, gently moving us with a magnetic pull toward a deeper, more meaningful, Christ-centered life.
Amanda Lindsey Cook, singer-songwriter
Society is hungry for personal growth, this we know. Books on how to change oneself are de rigueur these days, stocked up like pantry staples before a blackoutyet rarely do we find one that delves so deeply into a trait that, if attended to, can change every aspect of our lives. Carrie Lloyd, in The Noble Renaissance, has done exactly that. This incisive and steady journey deep into the applications and origins of nobility not only reveals treasure little, if ever, exposed to the light of day, but moves the heart toward actual transformation. Lloyd is both witty and kindand in pursuing this attribute that she herself clearly prizes, she invites us all to a kind of life that is truly of another kingdom.
Teresa Archer, managing editor for Darling Magazine
In an increasingly chaotic and morally debased world, Carrie Lloyd taps into the inherent human drive to achieve a higher state of being and, by extension, a more noble relationship with other people and the world.
Michael Braverman, television executive producer
In a cultural moment when doing what feels good in the moment is exalted, Carries prophetic battle cry has the power to awaken this generation and a sleeping church. With nuance, grace, and humility, Carrie invites us to live compelling lives of integrity, character, and compassion, and ultimately to reclaim the lost art of nobility in the everyday.
Katherine Harris, author, speaker, educator, and host of The Refined Collective Podcast
2020 Carrie Lloyd
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ISBN 978-0-7852-3175-2 (eBook)
ISBN 978-0-7852-3174-5 (TP)
Epub Edition April 2020 9780785231752
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020933663
Printed in the United States of America
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For my mother, May Lloyd
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CONTENTS
Guide
N obility of character has never come through the laying on of hands with prayer or prophecy. It would be so much easier if it did. Character is instead built day-by-day, decision after decision, usually in the midst of conflict or challenging circumstances.
When we come to Christ, we become a new creation. We are given the mind of Christ, and the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us, making our body His temple. His nature, the ultimate example of nobility, becomes our inheritance. But we make choices every day on whether were going to align ourselves with what He has said or direct our hearts toward the inferior. Carrie Lloyds The Noble Renaissance plants itself within the crossroads of those decisions. Her beautiful writing, filled with humor and her own vulnerability, urges all of us to pursue the noble life. When nobility becomes a priority, it has a profound effect on the world around us.
Character is never formed in the absence of options. For example, the Garden of Eden needed two trees: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve had to have the chance to choose between what God said they were to do and what He said they were not to do. This choice was not given to them as some form of cruelty from God. Not hardly. Instead this was the God-given pathway for them to come into the fullness of all that He intended as they learned to accurately represent Him on earth. This was the entrance to His rewards, as there are no rewards where there are no options. Our loving heavenly Father is revealed as a father through rewarding the noble choices of His own. The strength of our role as co-laborers with Christ is solidified in our eagerness to choose well. This is the way of the noble.