The Sky Beneath My Feet

Beth is struggling.  Her pastor husband, Rick, is struggling.  Their sons are struggling.  Suddenly a job offer comes in for Rick and he moves into the shed in the backyard to think and pray about it.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t ask Beth what she thinks of this idea and it feels like abandonment, sending her world upside down.  Hence the title.

I always like Lisa Samson’s books.  Her Christian characters are not too-good-to-be-true.  They get mad, can be unforgiving, are confused and conflicted; they sometimes can’t even pray.  Some Christian novels have heros and heroines that never waver in their faith and convictions and always respond to difficulties with praise and worship through their tears.  I can’t relate very well to that kind of believer.  Having distinct flaws of my own, it’s refreshing to read books featuring flawed Christians who manage to find their way back to God without having everything quite so neat and tidy in their lives.

I’m a Christian, but not that kind of Christian.  Not the in-your-face culture warrior.  Not the sort to plaster bumper stickers all over my car.  I don’t drive like a Christian, after all, and when I’m speeding or cutting somebody off, the last image I want to leave them with is that shiny faux-metal fish.

Samson’s humor and the quirkiness of her characters and dialogue also delights me.  Beth puts a Christian fish on her bumper just to soothe the feelings of one of the ladies at church.  She always tries to keep everybody happy, but after Rick moves to the shed, she’s done with all that.  Her friend asks if she’s in a funk.  Of course, she can’t tell her friend the truth which is:

A funk?  That hardly describes it.  I’m bitter as cursed well water.  You take a drink and you can’t get the taste out of your mouth ever again.

The book is about inward-facing, navel-gazing Christians and one woman who decides to turn around and look at the rest of the world outside her cozy churchy environment.  Beth talks about how we examine our relationship with God so closely, trying so hard to get it exactly right, that we forget that there’s a whole world out there which needs us.

That’s the problem isn’t it?  That’s what keeps us cloistered in our little groups, insulated, always going deeper and deeper inside ourselves and finding less and less there…. But what if God’s waiting…not in here… but out there?

Beth does not stay cloistered for long.  She gets involved with a weirdo protest group, her unpredictable artist neighbor, and a downtown Baltimore mission run by “Mother Zacchaeus.”  Her sons challenge her parenting abilities while her husband still refuses to rejoin the family.

I won’t spill the ending, but suffice it to say that Beth and Rick had both been lost for a long time.  This story is about them learning a new way of doing life and a different way of hearing God’s voice.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway begins with a poem by John Donne:  “No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; … any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in  Mankinde; And therefore never send to know  For Whom The Bell Tolls      It tolls for thee.”  (All italics and punctuation are as shown in Hemingway’s book.)  This poem is used as the epigraph giving a sense of foreboding to reader before Chapter One even begins. For Whom the Bell Tolls is a masterpiece woven from threads of love, war, desperation, violence and sacrifice.

An evocative illustration of Robert Jordan in the Easton Press collector’s edition I read.

The action takes place during the Spanish Civil War which was fought from 1936 until 1939.  Oddly enough, the main character is an American named Robert Jordan who is fighting with the Spanish Republicans’ guerilla unit and who is tasked with blowing up a bridge as a major tactical maneuver which could sway the course of the war.  Jordan is a Spanish professor who loves Spain so much that he is willing to put his life on the line to fight on its behalf. Robert Jordan knew he needed to stay focused on the task at hand.  His own life and those of many others depended on it.

He had only one thing to do and that was what he should think about and he must think it out clearly and take everything as it came along, and not worry.  To worry was as bad as to be afraid.  It simply made things more difficult.

However, a complication soon comes into his life in the form of a young, emotionally scarred refugee named Maria.  (Spoiler alert!)  Jordan’s romance with his “little rabbit” develops quickly because of the desperate times in which they live.  No one is guaranteed tomorrow.  Hemingway writes so very beautifully of this love between two people who are drawn together despite language and cultural barriers.  The reader knows exactly what’s going on, but there is no explicit language– love scenes are ethereal, quiet, lovely and sweet.  I knew this was going to be a war story, but I didn’t know that the love story would be so gracefully expressed in such lyrical language.  They both know their lives may be measured in hours at this point, rather than months or years.

There is nothing else than now.  There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow….if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion…. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life….  ‘I love you, rabbit,’ he said to the girl.

Of course, this book is just as much a war story as a love story, and our Robert Jordan is not a killer at heart.  His inner conflict is revealed in a conversation he has in his own mind:

Don’t you know it is wrong to kill?  Yes.  But you do it?  Yes.  And you still believe absolutely that your cause is right?  Yes…. I believe in the people and their right to govern themselves as they wish.  But you mustn’t believe in killing, he told himself.  You must do it as a a necessity but you must not believe in it.  If you believe in it the whole thing is wrong.

One of the most memorable scenes in the book is a description of a horrifying event that took place in a small town when the peasants gained the upper hand and exacted retribution on their aristocrat-class of neighbors.  The peasants armed themselves with clubs and farming tools and forced their wealthy neighbors to run the gauntlet between them one by one.  Hemingway writes so descriptively and poignantly of the brutality of the laborers and the abject terror of the aristocrats that you can feel every emotion displayed by the people on both sides.  The rage of the townspeople is tempered by knowing that their actions are taking on a life of their own– they see that they’ve gone too far and are no longer acting humanely, but many are unable to stop.  Some of the people who must run the gauntlet are terrified to the point of paralysis.  This kind of death is too awful to face.  It’s a dreadful thing to read, yet Hemingway is so masterful in his writing, that the reading of it becomes hauntingly compelling.

Ah well, the book must be experienced to be appreciated.  It’s worth reading.  I’m glad I gave Hemingway another try.  His writing is unusual.  It’s elegant.  It’s experiential.  I can see why this book has become a classic.

In His Steps

This all-time bestseller was originally published in 1896 and has sold over 30,000,000 copies in the 120 years since then.

I found it to be spiritually challenging, thought-provoking, somewhat archaic and simplistic, but also a life-changing sort of book.

The storyline follows Henry Maxwell, self-satisfied pastor of First Church of Raymond.  The best people go there– all the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of the town.  One Sunday morning when Rev. Maxwell is preaching yet another well-crafted sermon, an indigent man comes to the front of the service and startles the congregation as he speaks of Jesus.  Rev. Maxwell takes the man home with him where the poor soul expires within a few days.  But the good reverend has been powerfully impacted by the man.

The next Sunday, Henry challenges his congregation to join him in a challenge to ask themselves constantly “what would Jesus do” in every situation of their lives, then to obey whatever that directive is.  People accept the challenge and lives begin to change throughout the city.

Obviously the situations and responses are very 19th century and cannot be evaluated through our 21st century perspective.  But nevertheless, I found myself becoming intrigued by the whole concept.  This goes far beyond the WWJD bracelets embraced by young Christians of the 1980s.  It usually involved great sacrifice and suffering for those involved in taking the pledge to always do whatever Jesus would do in their place.

Reading this book has caused me to reevaluate my everyday decisions, conversations, and activities in the light of what Jesus would do in my here and now.  So thank you Mr. Sheldon!  Well done.

The greatest question in all of human life is summed up when we ask, ‘What would Jesus do?’ if, as we ask it, we also try to answer it from a growth in knowledge of Jesus himself. We must know Jesus before we can imitate Him.

Eight Cousins

This charmingly sappy novel by Louisa May Alcott is no Little Women, but it is a cute little story.

Rose has been recently orphaned and is taken in by a bunch of great-aunts.  They are smothering her with Victorian notions of health and dress which are leaving her fragile, sickly and lonely.  Along comes her Uncle Alec, who rescues her from the well-meaning clutches of the Aunts.  Uncle Alec throws all the medicines they’ve been overdosing her with out the window and prescribes lots of outdoor exercise.  He makes a deal with the aunts that he gets to keep Rose for a year.  If she doesn’t show vast improvement, they can have her back.

Rose then gets introduced to her seven boy cousins who quickly involve her in lots of play and outdoor adventures.  She becomes a favorite of the whole family.

The book drags after a while though.  You’ve gotten the point, you love Rose and all the cousins, Aunts and Uncle Alec.  After a while, you just want to be done, yet it drones on.  I won’t give away the ending, although it’s no great surprise.  It’s definitely more of a children’s book and could use some astute editing (sorry Louisa May!), but it was a cute, happy book which is a nice change from our day-to-day realities!

The Kalahari Typing School for Men

Alexander McCall Smith has written another delightful book in the series, “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.”  Though I had seen the TV series based on these books, I had never read any of them.  The rather formal, contraction-less writing appeals to me and evokes a certain accent which seems familiar to me (I have visited Namibia, which is a next-door neighbor to Botswana, where the story is set).

I find the characters to be captivating.  Precious Ramotswe owns a detective agency in Botswana.   Mma (used instead of Ms., Miss or Mrs.) Makutsi is Mma Ramotswe’s assistant and a wonderful, quirky sidekick.  In this book, Mma Makutsi decides to open a side business to bring in some more money.  She thinks,

When I was at the Botswana Secretarial College, it was only women, and yet men have to type if they want to use computers, which they do if they are engineers or businessmen or work in banks.  I have seen them sitting in banks trying to type with one finger and wasting a lot of time.  Whey do they not learn to type properly?  The answer to that is that they are ashamed to say they cannot type and they do not want to go and have to learn with a class full of girls.  They are worried that the girls would be better at typing than they are!  And they would be!… So why not have a special class for men– a typing school for men?

The story follows Mma Makutsi’s successful typing class, Mma Ramotswe’s current cases she is working on solving, and various relationships including Mma Ramotswe’s with her fiance Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.

I highly recommend this book– it’s witty yet quiet, charming and engaging.  It’s the kind of book that makes you seek out more in the series, because you want to know the characters better.  I’d also like to read more by this author.  I like his style!

 

No Outward Thing

My heart needs Thee, O Lord, my heart needs Thee!  No part of my being needs Thee like my heart.  All else within me can be filled by Thy gifts.  My hunger can be satisfied by daily bread.  My thirst can be allayed by earthly waters.  My cold can be removed by household fires.  My weariness can be relieved by outward rest.  But no outward thing can make my heart pure.  The calmest day will not calm my passions.  The fairest scene will not beautify my soul.  The richest music will not make harmony within.   The breezes can cleanse the air, but no breeze can cleanse a spirit.  The world has not provided for my heart.  It has provided for my eye; it has provided for my ear; it has provided for my touch; it has provided for my taste; it has provided for my sense of beauty; but it has not provided for my heart.

And what has?  Provided for my heart, I mean.  Jesus, only Jesus.

Lettie Cowman lived from 1870 until 1960, but her words I’ve quoted above resonate with me as if they were written today.

We tend to think that if only our circumstances were better, then we would be content.  If I could lose 25 pounds.  If I didn’t have credit card debt.  If the sun would just come out.  If I had more vacation time.  If I didn’t have to pick up after everyone.  If someone would ask me out… And on and on and on.  Well, guess what?  If all those things magically fell into place, either you’d be happy or you wouldn’t.  As Lettie so beautifully said, those circumstances won’t change your heart.

Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  What does life “to the full” look like?  Health and wealth?  Sounds good, doesn’t it?  But, no, life to the full looks like love, discipline, learning, peace, suffering, laughing, sighing, growing, building, bleeding, and being loved and comforted by my Good Shepherd.  Living life to the full is living it full of passionate love for and from Jesus, the Christ, lover of my soul. No matter what.

The above Mrs. Charles E. Cowman quote is from Streams of Joy, compiled by Jennifer Hahn and published in 2012 by Barbour Publishing, Inc., page 107.

Faking Grace

I’m still looking for a good, humorous book.  This Tamara Leigh offering definitely was charmingly amusing, yet somehow I couldn’t bring myself to like the main character.  As a Christian chick lit work of fiction, it was hard to truly enjoy it without that connection to the main character.

Maizy Grace Stewart (uh, yeah) desperately needed a job, so she applied for an opening at a Christian publishing company.  Since she had been “saved” as a child but had never really pursued God since then, Maizy picked up a book called The Dumb Blonde’s Guide to Christianity to polish up her Christian-eze in order to fit in and make the proper Christian-girl impression.  Her trouble started right away when good-looking Brit and soon-to-be-co-worker, Jake, sees that her “Jesus is my Co-Pilot” bumper sticker is obviously attached only temporarily with scotch tape.

The characters aren’t bad– some of them are rather engaging– and the Christian message is there.  I liked the point the author was making that all the outward cues don’t count for much in the Christian life.  Maizy’s friend Tessie was surprised that Maizy called herself a Christian:

‘I’m still shocked to learn you’re a Christian.’… Feigning offense, I click my tongue. ‘Shocked that I’m a Christian?  Hey!’  I tug a cross earring and tap the matching necklace.  ‘What do you call these?’

Maizy has a lot to learn, and she learns it all the hard way.  I have to admit that I skipped a full 150 pages in the middle of the book because I just got bogged down.  But, I was interested enough that I wanted to see how things turned out in the end.  Admittedly, the ending was predictable and a bit too facile for me.

My personal book-rating system ranges from “couldn’t even finish it” to “eh” to “pretty good” to “incredible.”  This one was definitely “eh” on my scale.  I’ll keep looking for an “incredible” humorous work of fiction.  Let me know if you have one to recommend!

These Boots Weren’t Made for Walking

Finally, a book that is both amusing and entertaining: Melody Carlson’s These Boots Weren’t Made for Walking was a breath of fresh air.

The plot seems all too familiar at first.  Cammie is drifting mindlessly through life, spending too much money and taking everything for granted– until she loses her job and boyfriend in quick succession.

When I got hired at the marketing firm right after graduation, I felt pretty proud of myself, and I thought I had life all figured out.

Cammie moves home with her mother whom she assumes is wallowing in middle-aged despair over her divorce the year before.  It is weird to me that Cammie hasn’t visited her mother in such a long time when she only seems to live about an hour away, but anyway… she is thinking that this move back home will allow her to console her frumpy, dumpy, gray-haired mom.

I study the tall, thin woman in the stylish denim jacket and belted, low-rise jeans.  She smiles at me, then removes her sunglasses.  For a split second, I almost think it’s my sister Callie, only this woman seems a bit older…. Reality hits me like a baseball bat to the side of the head.  That woman is my mother!

It turns out that her mom has gotten in shape, reformed her wardrobe, resurrected her career and has a younger (much younger) man chasing her.  Cammie is the one who is frumpy and dumpy and she is desperately jealous of her mom.

So this ends up being a fun story as Cammie and her old neighbor, Will, help each other get their lives and faith back on track.  Lots of funny escapades ensue.  If you’re looking for a fun, easy read, I recommend this one!

 

The Scent of Rain

Daphne is a “nose.”  She is a highly sought-after perfume designer who had worked in Paris for a prestigious firm.  She just gave up her job in order to move to Dayton, Ohio to be with her new husband.  The problem is that her fiance left her standing alone at the altar.  He simply didn’t show up for the wedding.

Things go from bad to worse with her new job (largely because the Nose’s nose quits working), her new house which turns out to be an unsafe dump, and feelings of rejection from her family as well as her Ex.

This book is cute.  It’s funny in places.  It’s chick lit.  But it just didn’t do it for me.  It was “just okay” without really drawing me in.  I do like Kristin Billerbeck as an author, but didn’t find this to be a favorite.  I finished it to see what would happen with Daphne and her hot boss Jesse. Being a fragrance designer, this is how Daphne described the scent she would choose for him:

Jesse’s flavor would be a Hermes cologne with notes of berries, balsam wood, and dried mosses:  manly and rugged, a protector with berry overtones hinting at accessibility under the gruff exterior.  His type was true, she decided, not the sort to wander…. ‘It’s one of my gifts, sensing signature scents for people.  By their personalities.  Am I right?’

I’m looking for a good humorous book to recommend to my book club.  Unfortunately, this one won’t do it.

Breaking Matthew

A sequel to Healing Ruby by Jennifer H. Westall, this novel picked up a few years later.  Ruby is a young woman with a gift for faith healing.  Matthew is a young man God healed through Ruby’s gift.  They are obviously meant to be together, and I read this whole book waiting for that resolution and waiting for the resolution of Ruby’s troubles with the law over taking the blame for something she didn’t do.

The theme of sacrificial suffering in order to protect someone else from harm is excellently portrayed.  Ruby’s family and Matthew all struggle greatly with her decision to protect someone else at her own peril.  Their anguish at experiencing God’s silence is real.  Listen in as Matthew and Ruby deal with the pain of “unanswered” prayer:

‘But He didn’t come though.  I did everything I could think of, and I prayed and prayed.  He didn’t answer.’

She smiled.  ‘Yes, He did.  Matthew, just because things didn’t happen the way you wanted doesn’t mean you didn’t get an answer.’  She placed her hand over mine, sending a tingle of warmth through me.  ‘You’ll see.  It will be exactly what we need when we need it.’

Their faith continues to be tested throughout the book, with various characters responding in different ways.  Matthew and Ruby also progress in sorting out their feelings for each other.  Although I didn’t appreciate the cliffhanger ending, the exploration of holding onto faith through suffering and trials was movingly portrayed.

This is a good book, but it is definitely not a stand-alone novel.  It will only truly be enjoyed as part of a trilogy.  While it’s worth reading with engaging characters and interesting themes, I was disappointed that it took such a long time to develop this time, and now will require a third book to find out how everything turns out.  It might be worth your while to wait until the third book is released, then just read all three together.