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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.  

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A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

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The Paradoxical Freedom of Belonging to God

by | Jul 9, 2019 | Devotional, Suffering, Theology

The Paradoxical Freedom of Belonging to God

As you may have noticed, we live in a world that prioritizes autonomy, the freedom of self-rule. The mantra of the 21st century is best summed up by my children’s cry to one another when they were young, “You’re not the boss of me!”

How then, can it be, that belonging to God brings the freedom we really yearn for? The first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism tells us that comfort comes from belonging to a God who sent his Son to be our faithful Savior, to pay for all of our sins, and to set us free from the power of sin and evil.

In July of 2017, I was grieving many illnesses and losses of loved ones at the same time I was studying the Heidelberg Catechism. Little did I know that even as God gave me the good news about my only comfort in life and in death, I would need to believe it more than ever in a few short weeks.

Here is the exercise I did. Why not try it? Who knows when you might desperately need this comfort?

1. Read the entire question and answer aloud, slowly, taking your time.
2. Listen to the words and let them wash the comfort over you like a refreshing shower on a hot summer’s day.
3. For further comfort: Look up the Bible verses from which they are taken, which are listed below.
I pray you may find the true comfort and hope in Jesus Christ our faithful Savior.
This version is copied from Heidelberg Catechism.com

What is your only comfort
in life and death?

• 1.1 Cor 6:19, 20.
• 2.Rom 14:7-9.
• 3.1 Cor 3:23; Tit 2:14.
• 4.1 Pet 1:18, 19; 1 Jn 1:7; 2:2.
• 5.Jn 8:34-36; Heb 2:14, 15; 1 Jn 3:8.
• 6.Jn 6:39, 40; 10:27-30; 2 Thess 3:3; 1 Pet 1:5.
• 7.Mt 10:29-31; Lk 21:16-18.
• 8.Rom 8:28.
• 9.Rom 8:15, 16; 2 Cor 1:21, 22; 5:5; Eph 1:13, 14.
• 10.Rom 8:14.

That I am not my own, 1
but belong with body and soul,
both in life and in death, 2
to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. 3
He has fully paid for all my sins
with his precious blood, 4
and has set me free
from all the power of the devil. 5
He also preserves me in such a way 6
that without the will of my heavenly Father
not a hair can fall from my head; 7
indeed, all things must work together
for my salvation. 8
Therefore, by his Holy Spirit
he also assures me
of eternal life 9
and makes me heartily willing and ready
from now on to live for him. 10

Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash

When Your Longings Are Unfulfilled: A Devotional

by | Jun 25, 2019 | Caregiving, Devotional, Suffering

When Your Longings Are Unfulfilled: A Devotional

Are you longing for fulfillment? There’s good news!

What are you waiting for? A job, a spouse, a child to return home (whether spiritually or physically)? Maybe healing in a relationship or healing of a broken body? Discover the good news as you wait: one day, your longing will be fulfilled! Today, I share an excerpt from The Waiting Room devotional. Even though this was written about a health crisis, it applies to any unfulfilled longing.

Unfulfilled

And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.  Romans 8:23-24, NLT

“I’m sorry. We are unfulfilled. There is no diagnosis.”

Two days after our son’s first brain surgery, his neurosurgeon delivered this unwelcome news. The doctor had stopped the surgery to remove the brain tumor when he discovered what he believed to be a venous malformation. Further tests were done, an angiogram and an MRI, in an attempt to discover exactly what was going on inside our son’s head. The results were back, but they were inconclusive.

I loved the fact that our neurosurgeon shot straight with us: at this point, they still did not know if our son had a tumor. I hated the words, “unfulfilled” and “no diagnosis,” and the anxiety they aroused. In this life, what we most desire, what we most yearn for, is fulfillment, a resolution to the story.

Romans 8:18-25 helps to explain the tension we feel. In the fall, creation suffered extensive damage. Weeds would grow from the once-fertile ground; sin would spread in our once-glorious beings. The whole creation, and we ourselves, now long for release from the “bondage to decay” we now endure. Romans 8:22 compares the longing for that final glorious freedom to the pangs of labor. As theologian John Stott puts it, “The indwelling Spirit gives us joy, and the coming glory gives us hope, but the interim suspense gives us pain.”[i]

When the neurosurgeon first used the word unfulfilled, I thought it was strange, but now it makes sense. Because of his vast knowledge of the brain and extensive experience with diagnoses, he confidently expected that our hopes for a diagnosis and thus, a cure, would one day be fulfilled.

In the same way, we have powerful reasons to hope even as we groan for glory. We know that Christ has been raised from the dead; that knowledge gives us hope that we have been raised to new life with him (1 Corinthians 15:19-21). The Holy Spirit works in us, transforming us into new creation. This is the hope for which we were saved (Romans 8:24).

This saving hope points us toward our future hope, the day of resolution. When Christ comes again, our longings will be fulfilled. Our son’s diagnosis will no longer matter, because he, and we, will be fully released from sin and suffering, in body and soul, in heart and mind. This is the hope that helps us to wait eagerly and patiently (Romans 8:24-25).

Prayer

Oh, Lord, you hear the groanings of our hearts; you know what we long for most is you. We thank you for your Holy Spirit and your Living Word, which sustain us as we wait. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Romans 8:18-25.

Listen to “Our Hope Endures” by Natalie Grant at https://youtu.be/n1mu3F0dQz0.

For Reflection:

What hopes do you have that are as yet “unfulfilled”? How does the future hope of Christ’s return help you wait well?

[i] John Stott, The Message of Romans (Downer’s Grove, Il.: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 242.

Photo by Patrick Pierre on Unsplash

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

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What the World Needs Now: Forgiveness

by | Feb 5, 2019 | Caregiving, Devotional, Suffering

What the World Needs Now: Forgiveness

Scarlet red and pastel pink candy hearts are popping up in stores everywhere; Pinterest is loaded with 1001 creative and crafty ways to tell someone “I love you.” It seems like a good time to focus on love. What ignites love, and what sustains love? My husband and I both have the same answer to those questions, or the question of how our marriage has not only survived, but thrived for over 36 years:

Forgiveness. Today I share a short little story about forgiveness and the waiting room, excerpted from my new devotional. It’s called:

You Are Forgiven

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. Ephesians 1:7, NIV

One day, in the waiting room of my Dad’s oncologist, I happened to sit next to an (annoying) angel. The very word angel in the Greek indicates a messenger, and this unlikely angel had a message from God for me and my dad. My dad, who was now immobilized by tumors in his hips, was sitting in a wheelchair facing me. He chose this particular time and place to reveal a crucial piece of information he had previously withheld: his oral chemo pill was no longer defeating the cancer from the prostate, and he had stopped all treatment.

In that moment, I felt undone by rage at my powerlessness to help my dad, so I left my chair and walked to the edge of the crowded waiting room in an effort to calm myself. When I returned, I said quietly to my dad, “You did not tell me the truth when I asked. You told me you were ‘tiptop.’” He began to make excuses, to explain that he was only thinking of me and the burden I was carrying. I cut him off: “You should have told me.”

At this point, the angel entered the story. A sturdy, middle-aged woman, she sat stuffed in the pleather chair connected to mine. Suddenly I felt a pat on my shoulder and heard her speak in a rough, country voice, “It’ll be okay.”

She continued, “Just so long as you know where you’re going, it’s all okay.”

I nodded and looked pointedly at my dad, who frequently fought me on this point. I still wasn’t sure if he was a Christian. She repeated her message, “Just so long as you know you’re saved. Jesus makes it all okay.”

My dad turned back to me and repeated his apology. “I’m sorry.” No excuses this time.

I still couldn’t look him in the eye. I said, “It’s okay. You’re forgiven. I just wish you had told me.”

The angel in the waiting room was right, even if I wasn’t eager at first to hear her message. That day, both my dad and I needed the comforting knowledge of Ephesians 1:7, the knowledge that Jesus shed actual blood so that we might be forgiven. I needed forgiveness for my unkindness to my dad. Dad needed a Savior to take the burden of guilt he had carried over a lifetime of unconfessed sin. As the angel had assured us, it would all be “okay” if we believed Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for us.

Prayer

Precious Lord Jesus, thank you for shedding your blood for us, for bearing God’s wrath on my behalf. Thank you for lifting the burden of our guilt from us. Help us to live and love in the freedom of your forgiveness. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read 1 Peter 1:18; 1 John 1:7; 2:2.

Listen to “Forgiveness” by Matthew West.

For Reflection: In what ways do you and/or your loved one need to know forgiveness in this season?

Photo by Evan Kirby on Unsplash

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A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

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Counting Our Blessings When Life Is Hard

by | Nov 27, 2018 | Devotional, Suffering

Counting Our Blessings When Life Is Hard

A note about this devotional

In 2017, our family was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust into many waiting rooms at doctor’s offices and hospitals. This meditation on gratitude is excerpted from the devotional I wrote about that season. To learn more about The Waiting Room: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace and Hope in a Health Crisis, subscribe to Living Story or check back at www.elizabethturnage.com for announcements in the near future.

For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4:15, ESV

At times during our season in the waiting room, I was far better at counting losses than I was at counting blessings. When things went so far wrong and our son had had three surgeries in four weeks time, I did not feel very grateful. But I knew the apostle Paul’s insistence that God’s grace grows a heart of gratitude.

Our sin nature bends our heart away from gratitude in the best of times; during hard seasons, gratitude may take more effort than ever. Author Ann Voskamp, in her pivotal work on gratitude, One Thousand Gifts, emphasizes the effort involved when she asks, “How do I see grace, give thanks, find joy in this sin-stinking place?”  Indeed, when my 83-year-old father was wearing a diaper and moaning in pain, I had to work to see grace, to give thanks.

Gratitude does not deny the painful reality of living in a fallen world; after all, the apostle Paul wrote, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, NLT). And yet, Paul thanked God in the midst of his suffering because more people were discovering God’s grace; therefore, more people were thanking God for his gift of forgiveness, and more people were glorifying God (2 Corinthians 4:15).

Gratitude does not deny the painful reality of living in a fallen world. #gratitude #countyourblessings #countyourlosses Share on X

With Paul’s logic in mind, I began to “recount” (re-count) all of the “wonderful deeds of the Lord” (Psalm 9:1b, ESV). I brought to mind his blessings, naming them one by one, as the old song suggests:

  • Sweet friends paid us a visit today just after the doctor gave us a hard report. Thank you.
  • The doctor gave us a good report today. Thank you.
  • A smiling stranger on the elevator held the door for me. Thank you.
  • A lovely handwritten card arrived in the mail. Thank you.
  • Our son knows Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Thank you!

As I listed the many kindnesses of God in the midst of this tumultuous season, guess what happened? My heart settled. It seems the apostle Paul, who had been in prison when he wrote the words, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice,” (Philippians 4:4), knew exactly what he was talking about. He knew that we are made to thank and glorify God; that is the essence of life for a follower of Christ. As we remember the redemption God has worked in our lives, we trust God to work wonders again.

A Prayer about Counting Our Blessings

Lord, thank you for your grace, thank you for your Holy Spirit who jogs our memory to “forget not all your benefits.” Thank you most of all your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Psalm 9; Philippians 4:6-7.

Listen to “Blessings” by Laura Story at https://youtu.be/JKPeoPiK9XE.

For Reflection:

Try keeping a gratitude journal for three days. (Subscribe now to get your free 31-day gratitude journal).

Photo by Janko Ferlič on Unsplash

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