fbpx

Five Good Reads for Hard Seasons

by | Apr 21, 2020 | Learning Story

Five Good Reads for Hard Seasons

 

Because I have been writing a devotional on finding peace and hope in the midst of crisis, I have been immersed in books on suffering for over a year now. It seems God was up to something in directing me to helpful resources. Today, I’m sharing five helpful books on finding hope in the midst of suffering.

Beyond Suffering Bible

Where Struggles Seem Endless God’s Hope Is Infinite

Joni & Friends

Joni Eareckson Tada, who became a quadriplegic in 1967 at the age of 17, has encouraged people with disabilities for over forty years. The Beyond Suffering Bible includes thoughts from Joni, devotionals written by the people at Joni and Friends, and other connections, showing how the hope of the gospel speaks to suffering people.

A favorite quote: “God cares too much—way too much—about us to leave us wallowing in self-pity….And so through the strange blessing of weakness, he pushes and prods us to take him at his Word.”  (A14)

Treasures in Darkness

A Grieving Mother Shares Her Heart

Sharon W. Betters

Sharon W. Betters shares the treasures she learned in the darkness after her youngest child was killed at age sixteen in a car accident. A woman of strong faith, Sharon gives us the kind gift of sharing her intimate journey with God through grief into hope. This is an excellent read for all who are grieving and for those who want to know how to come alongside the grieving.

A favorite quote: “The theme of redeeming the darkness of the journey by living a life that reflects our hope in you is a strong thread throughout Scripture. It takes every spiritual muscle to step up to such a calling, muscles that require regular exercise. Like the psalmist, I need the mind of a little child to daily face the tasks of each day with purpose and hope, trusting that in your time, you will come for your children. I long for that day.” (p.253).

A Grace Disguised

How the Soul Grows through Loss

Dr. Jerry Sittser

Dr. Jerry Sittser lost his mother, his wife, and his young daughter in a tragic car accident. As he grappled with immense loss and sorrow, he discovered a God who is gracious to redeem, to transform a person through suffering.

A favorite quote: “ If we face loss squarely and respond to it wisely, we will actually become healthier people, even as we draw closer to physical death. We will find our souls healed, as they can only be healed through suffering.” (p.10).

God’s Plans for You

J.I. Packer

This book will not give you a detailed map of God’s specific plans for you. Instead, the author, J.I. Packer, offers something far better: straight truth from Scripture about the things that we know God has planned for us—yes, plans for good and not for evil, plans for joy in the midst of suffering, plans for new life even in the midst of death and dying.

A favorite quote: “Grief, desolation, and pain are feelings triggered by present situations, but faith produces joy, hope, and peace at all times. This does not mean that grief, desolation, and pain cease to be felt (that idea is inhuman); it means that something else is experienced alongside the hurt. It becomes possible for Christians today, like Paul long ago, to be ‘sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ (2 Cor. 6:10).” (p. 110).

Suffering Is Never for Nothing

Elisabeth Elliott

Elisabeth Elliot knew suffering. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, a missionary to the Huaorani tribe, was murdered by the people he went to serve. Elisabeth later went to Ecuasorto serve the very people who killed her husband. Her second husband, Addison Leitch, died of cancer only three years after their marriage. Elisabeth speaks from the heart as a woman who knows what the Bible says about suffering and knows intimately the God who meets you in your suffering.

A favorite quote: “There would be no intellectual satisfaction on this side of Heaven to that age-old question, why. Although I have not found intellectual satisfaction, I have found peace. The answer I say to you is not an explanation but a person, Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God.” (Location 313, Kindle edition)

Get a new free gospel-centered resource every month!

Send it now!

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

Buy Now

Affiliate notice:

Living Story is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

*Author’s note: Any small earnings from Amazon affiliates are poured back into the maintenance of this site for your enjoyment! 

 

On Remembering Silly Stories: Good Medicine

by | Mar 31, 2020 | Learning Story

On Remembering Silly Stories: Good Medicine

Dear Readers, in this season of worldwide crisis, I’ve revisited the blogs I originally scheduled for this month, trying to discern whether they were fitting for the moment. In the end, I decided that we need more than ever to share stories these days, even “silly ones.” I hope this inspires you, even in these hard days.

As many of you know, I love to teach about knowing our stories of grace. Some such stories are serious, at times tragic or traumatic, with God rescuing us from the pit of despair. But others are just plain silly and bring a sweet smile when we recall them. Today’s story happened many years ago, when our two youngest were still high school students. It still makes me laugh when I think of it. I hope you enjoy it and write one of your own. 

I’ll be the first to admit, I have a bad habit of pulling people’s legs, as in, telling someone something utterly ridiculous with a completely straight face. I have hoodwinked my family (I should be ashamed to say☺), so many times that they likely would not budge if I told them the house was on fire, even if they were surrounded by massive clouds of smoke.

As much as I enjoy playing jokes on my family, I think I enjoy better being fooled with a good, old-fashioned leg-pull myself. My son and daughter got me good, and I’m still smiling when I think of their humor.

They came in from school, where I greeted them warmly with a generous plate of freshly-baked chocolate chunk cookies. They kissed me, hugged me, and exclaimed, “Oh, thank you, dear mother, you are so awesome!” (Actually, this last scene did not happen – I was just giving an example of the leg-pulling I like to do:-)!

They did, however, come in from school, where they found me sitting at the kitchen table tapping away at my computer. My younger son, a freshman, came toward me carrying one of those inevitable forms that require either an authority figure’s signature, money, or both.

It turned out to be his school picture order form. His sister built it up by very casually remarking, “Yeah, he had a really good picture this year!”

He showed me the form, which listed options for various ways to buy his “mug,” one of which was, quite literally, a mug. (As in, I could sip my coffee staring at my handsome son, and if you haven’t figured this out already, that’s just not quite the kind of mom I am).

In the “Mug Quantity” column, he had scribbled the number 10 (one for each immediate family member and four for his grandparents). He had also placed an order for 10 puzzles featuring his face. He had also ordered five mousepads so we could scroll over his nose, and he off-handedly said, “Oh, I haven’t filled in the order for the keychains and buttons yet. You can do that!”

Last week was homecoming, and as student government reps, they had been under a lot of stress. I thought, “They’ve truly lost their minds…” Frantically, my mind raced to come up with a gentle way to explain that as much as I loved looking at my 14-year-old, I really didn’t want a mug with his mug. Around the time I noticed the sticker shock (one mug was $18!), Robert cheerfully added, “But you can probably get a discount, since Dad operated on the photographer’s knee!”

Still searching my mind for the best let-down, I looked up at them. That’s when I saw their mouths trembling, quivering from the severe effort to hold in their laughter. Then they burst. “Oh Mom, we got you!” I laughed and laughed and shouted, “You got me good!” And I thanked God that I wouldn’t have to order an $18 mug with my son’s face on it. But if any of you are interested…

What about you? What silly stories that just make you smile or laugh do you have in your arsenal? I’d love to hear them! Please share in comments or over on my Facebook author page under this week’s Tell-a-Story Thursday.  

Five Great Reads on Love

by | Feb 25, 2020 | Bible study, Books, Marriage

Five Great Reads on Love

 

“Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.” C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock

To wrap up our February thinking about “love,” I offer you, my beloved readers, five books about love: single love, married love, rabbit love, caregiving love, and last but not least, Jesus’ love. I hope you’ll find at least one great read here.

7 Myths about Singleness

Sam Allberry

Because I’ve been married for thirty-seven years, it doesn’t often occur to me to read about the single life, and for that, I apologize to all of my single friends, family, and readers. Sam Allberry, a single pastor, starts with the premise that singleness is a good thing. Sadly, too many Christians see singleness as somehow “less than” God’s full design. Allberry delineates seven myths about singleness, inviting readers, both married and single, to consider what it looks like to live a fruitful and full life as a single and to welcome and respect singles in a culture that too often overemphasizes marriage and family.

Intimate Allies

Dan Allender & Tremper Longman III

Instead of telling us “how to do marriage,” Allender and Longman tell us how God does marriage. The authors trace the history of marriage back to the first man and first woman, shows how everything went awry and how the Fall affects marriages today. Then they show the hope for marriage in the redemption of Jesus Christ. One of my favorite phrases from this book is about “calling one another to glory.” Marriage, Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III suggest, is not about our happiness; it’s about God’s glory. But we can take heart, because, as we grow together in glorifying God, happiness does come!

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Kate DiCamillo

Because we all need to read more children’s books, and to become more like a little child…This is one of my favorite children’s stories that has profound truths for adults. I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll simply say that it is about a vain stuffed rabbit who is humbled through much suffering. And it’s about learning how to love. Read it. Preferably in the hardback edition with the beautiful illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline.

Helping Those Who Hurt

Barbara M. Roberts

This classic by Barbara M. Roberts, Director of the Caring Ministry at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church, is a helpful reference for all who minister to the hurting. With concise chapters on illness and aging, death, grief, addiction, rape, and many other crises, Barbara clarifies the needs in each context and offers practical counsel for a loving response. She ends with a chapter on forgiveness, a necessary aspect of the healing process. This book is about ten years old now; the only thing I could wish for is an updated version of it.

Love Walked among Us

Paul Miller

This is my favorite book on how Jesus loves, and on how we grow in love as we love like Jesus. A wonderful storyteller, Miller retells the true stories of how Jesus loved various people like the Samaritan woman, Mary and Martha, and even his enemies, the Pharisees. In the stories we discover that we can love as Jesus loved—by looking and listening, speaking the truth in love, depending on God, and dying to ourselves.  

Affiliate notice:

Living Story is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

*Author’s note: Any small earnings from Amazon affiliates are poured back into the maintenance of this site for your enjoyment.

Get a new free gospel-centered resource every month!

Send it now!

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

Buy Now

5 Quotes for MLK Day

by | Jan 20, 2020 | Learning Story

5 Quotes in Honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

As we remember the peacemaking efforts and triumphs of Martin Luther King Jr., and as we pray and ponder what peace looks like in 2020 and beyond, consider these five quotes:
We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say “We must not wage war.” It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace.

Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Nobel Lecture 1964

Trillia J. Newbell

 

United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity

The refusal to act in the midst of injustice is itself an act of injustice. Indifference to oppression perpetuates oppression.
We can so clearly see throughout Scripture that God celebrates the diversity of His creation. He does not distinguish between races in His saving love. He created man in His own image, sent His Son to save the world, and saves anyone who believes. God calls Christians to be imitators of Christ and to walk in love. If He doesn’t show partiality, neither should we.

Jemar Tisby

The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

 

Natasha Sistrunk Robinson

 

A Sojourner’s Truth: Choosing Freedom and Courage in a Divided World

His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
I wanted to become a peacemaker and not a ‘peace faker.’ Yet the healing did not come for us individually or collectively until we truly confessed our sins to God and to each other, until we replaced the lies we had accepted and believed about the other with the truth of how God wants us to become his agents of grace for each other, and until we repented of the old way.

Ephesians 1:5-6

 

Get a new free gospel-centered resource every month!

Send it now!

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

Buy Now

Affiliate notice:

Living Story is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

*Author’s note: Any small earnings from Amazon affiliates are poured back into the maintenance of this site for your enjoyment! Other items in this gift list are not affiliate links.

Photo by Suzy Brooks on Unsplash.

Reading Story: Four Books to Check Out Today

by | Oct 8, 2019 | Book Reviews, Books, Learning Story, Spiritual Growth

Reading Story: Four Books to Check Out Today

 

As promised, some brief reviews of books I’ve been reading lately. Discover “habits of grace,” see if you want to be “Educated,” find out more about “Visual Theology,” and consider the gospel hope for suffering in Tolstoy. This week, four book reviews to help you grow in knowledge and wisdom and/or joy.

Educated

A Memoir

Tara Westover

First, a caution. People who have suffered trauma and abuse may find this book very disturbing. Graphic descriptions of wounds and injuries may be hard for the squeamish (that’s me!). I listened to it like a highway driver who cannot turn her head away from an accident site. Eventually I turned to a paper copy so I could skim over the really graphic details of the injuries that kept mounting up. Despite my struggle with the graphic descriptions of violence, I still recommend this book.

It’s a fascinating, even addictive read. The driving question for me was, “How in the world did a girl who grew up in such a story become the woman who wrote this book?” It is a powerful story of redemption, not necessarily Christian redemption (the author introduces the book with a disclaimer of sorts, noting that while there is a message about fundamentalism, the memoir is not intended to be a message about any particular religion).  At the very least, there is common grace and profound healing at work, with hope for the future. Read it if you can; read it to understand how trauma affects people; read it to discover hope for healing.

A Visual Theology Guide to the Bible

Seeing and Knowing God’s Word

Tim Challies and Josh Byers

Where was this book when I was in high school, slogging through those Old Testament judges and kings? (Well, I actually loved my Old and New Testament Bible classes in high school, and they were God’s way of introducing me to the Bible which I’d never really read). I discovered A Visual Theology while planning the recent Bible study series for the blog. What an awesome gift to the world! It has eye-catching graphic charts for just about anything you might want to study in the Bible. In addition to the graphics, it is an excellent resource on the Bible. Some of my favorite parts include:

  • A well-crafted overview of the Bible and its reliability, made lively and interesting with the brightly colored graphics.
  • Some great hints about why and how to study the Bible.
  • Chapters explaining how to see Jesus in all of the Bible.

Some of my favorite graphics:

  • A gorgeous (really!) chart of all those kings I had to memorize in high school (and have long since forgotten). Right there in one nifty chart on page 143, along with the prophets that cried out to them and the passages where you can find them.
  • A depiction of the longings of Israel and how they were fulfilled in Jesus (p. 146).
  • A lovely design detailing the fulfilled prophecies about Jesus. (164-165).

This is the book you will pull out to refresh your memory or to learn something new about the Bible. I’d say it belongs on the reference shelf for any Bible teacher and most Bible students.

Habits of Grace

Enjoying Jesus Through the Spiritual Disciplines

David Mathis

This nifty little resource, which I also used for my spiritual graces series, came to me through our church library (Can I get a huge “thank God” for all the wonderful church librarians out there?! David Mathis is generous and hospitable, welcoming us into habits of “grace,” ways to grow closer to the Lord. He boils these habits down to the basics then offers supplements to add as time and season allow or require. Mathis names three main habits of grace:

  • “Hear his voice” (Word).
  • “Have his ear” (Prayer).
  • “Belong to his body” (Fellowship).

For each, he makes practical and accessible suggestions for how to go about developing healthy habits. I particularly loved the chapter on journaling “as a pathway to joy” and the chapter on fasting as a way of “sharpening your affections” in a culture focused on filling. He follows the three main categories with brief chapters about making disciples, stewarding our finances, and using our time wisely. Read this one if you want to be encouraged and/or refreshed in developing spiritual habits of grace.

Death of Ivan Ilyich

Leo Tolstoy

A follow up to reading Karen Swallow Prior’s On Reading Well, The quickest way to say you’ve read Tolstoy, but that’s not the only advantage of reading this gorgeous novella. Tolstoy, as always, does a masterful job of tracing the progression of a character, in this case, Ivan Ilych, whose ordinary pursuit of self-fulfillment is extraordinary in its description. As he agonizes through his illness, we strain with him, eager to learn how his suffering will end. The self-sacrificial love of his servant Gerisim is startling, surprising, and lovely. Read the book to discover what happens to the miserable Ivan.

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

Buy Now

On Reading Well: Four Great Books to Check Out Today

by | Aug 13, 2019 | Book Reviews, Books, Spiritual Growth, Suffering

On Reading Well: Four Great Books to Check Out Today

 

“In a world dominated by tweets and texts, hot takes and sound bites, the call to read and to read well couldn’t be more timely, especially for the people of God.” Matt Chandler, endorsing Karen Swallow Prior’s book On Reading Well.

Do you love reading? I am what one might call a “bibliophile,” (a lover of books): I read in the morning (my Bible), read during the day for whatever I am writing about, read while working out or driving (through listening to novels on Audible), and read at night to fall asleep. And yet, I confess, this lump of metal and wires in my hands presents a real obstacle to my reading sometimes. Tweets, posts, photos, blogs…I am too easily seduced by the scroll, and there went thirty minutes I could have been reading an actual entire book.

While I’m confessing, I also realized that though I love books and telling people about books, I haven’t devoted much time to sharing these great stories on this blog, partly because it’s challenging to sum up all the things I love about certain books in a format intended for fairly quick reading. All that to say—I’m going to make an effort starting today and in the future to share some mini-book reviews with you.

Here are four wonderful ones I read or listened to this summer. Maybe you’ll skip reading the rest of this blog and start reading one of these today!

A Walking Disaster

What Surviving Cancer and Katrina Taught Me about Faith and Resilience

Dr. Jamie Aten

Read this one before (or after) the hurricane hits, or before (or after) the dread diagnosis arrives.

Dr. Jamie Aten, Founder and Executive Director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute, a survivor of colo-rectal cancer and Hurricane Katrina, takes us into the world of disaster recovery and offers significant hope. As Dr. Aten shares his personal experience, he addresses many of the questions posed by suffering people and explains how suffering can strengthen our faith and resilience. Some of my favorite chapters were on “Dealing with Pain,” “Distinguishing between Optimism and Hope,” and “Facing Our Mortality.”

Between Life and Death

A Gospel-Centered Guide to End-of-Life Medical Care

Dr. Kathryn Butler

Read this when you are faced with bewildering end-of-life decisions for loved ones or yourself.

Ideally, read it before that day comes, but if you can’t, have it nearby when it arrives.

Dr. Kathryn Butler, former critical care surgeon turned writer and homeschooling mom, offers a gospel-centered approach to end-of-life care. As a skilled surgeon who understands the complexities of end-of-life care and as a gifted teacher, she is the perfect person to help laypeople understand the often-confusing end-of-life decisions set before us.

I appreciated the introduction and beginning, in which she helps the reader understand the issues, both from a medical perspective and a Christian perspective. She kindly organized the book in a way that helps people find what they need when they need it. Topical chapters include: Resuscitation for Cardiac Arrest (hint: it’s nothing like what we see on The Good Doctor), Intensive Care, and Brain Injury. The next section, called Discernment at Life’s End, with a glossary and suggestions for further reading, includes a sample Advance Directive that is worth the price of the book.

If you are in your forties and above, you’ll want a hard copy of this one to pull out as a reference, to guide yourself or your friends when those difficult days come.

On Reading Well

Finding the Good Life through Great Books

Dr. Karen Swallow Prior

Not for English majors only. People who love books will love this book about reading books, but even people who don’t necessarily love books have something to gain from On Reading Well. Dr. Karen Swallow Prior is an English professor who centers her life in Christ. Dr. Prior makes her case that reading can help us discover “the difference between evil and good,” an argument she attributes to John Milton in Areopagitica. “Reading well is,” she argues, “in itself, an act of virtue, or excellence, and it is also a habit that cultivates more virtue in return” (Prior, 15).

Bibliophile that I am, I loved the introduction on reading well: reading to learn how to think, reading things you enjoy, reading with a pen or pencil ready to mark the book…well, let’s just say I made many marks on these pages! After making a convincing argument that reading well is a worthwhile, even enjoyable endeavor, Dr. Prior takes us on a journey through twelve different virtues, exploring each through a particular classic. Her chapter on kindness and George Saunder’s “Tenth of December” made me pray to be more kind and less envious; her chapter on patience and Jane Austen’s Persuasion encouraged me to read this one of Jane Austen’s books I’ve never read; her chapter on the Death of Ivan Ilyich and her discussion of her father’s suffering made me want to read that short novel of Tolstoi’s (which I’ve succeeded in getting my son to read though I haven’t gotten to it yet).

Read this book to discover why reading well is crucial; read it to discover more great books to read!

Queen Sugar

A Novel

Natalie Bascile

Read it if you want to stand in a steaming cane field in Southern Louisiana (or maybe if you just want to imagine what that would be like). Read it if you want to explore the themes of racism, sexism, and the Great Migration.

Natalie Baszile’s novel, set primarily in southern Louisiana, transported me to a place and a story I knew little about. Her carefully crafted and richly complex characters drew me in to their story, creating empathy. I wanted to meet these people. As they traversed various landscapes, I came to understand better the Great Migration of African-Americans in the early twentieth century and was introduced to the current trend toward reverse migration.

Read it for the plot, read it for the characters, read it for the eloquent writing! Even better, listen to the version narrated by Miriam Hyman, available on Audible and possibly in your library’s audio collection.  

Get a new free gospel-centered resource every month!

Send it now!

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

Buy Now