Once a week I compile the short reflections I’ve offered on my Facebook Author Page into one blogpost. If you benefit from these thoughts, please pass them along to your friends:
Monday, April 30, 2018
I decided to try something new–here’s a video clip with some of my thoughts about how Jesus welcomes people who are new and might be feeling uncomfortable and pushes people who have been around for a while into a less comfortable space:
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
I think I am currently reading this book for the third time, and I think I will read it again someday. Yes, I got to read some early drafts because I was at a writer’s workshop with the author. And yes, she’s my friend. But that’s not why I’m reading it again. I’m reading it again because the prose is lyrical and compelling and surprising and beautiful, because the stories span generations and the globe and yet remain clear and relevant, and because the insistence that in a world of darkness and despair, we have reason to hold onto hope, to celebrate the light, and to lean in to the goodness and beauty and joy of it all.
Rachel uses her own experiences as a mother and as a doula–especially as a doula in Malawi–to think through risk and anxiety, life and death, beauty and hope.
If you like literary memoirs, if you have ever struggled with anxiety, if you like family stories, if you like birth stories, if you like really good writing, buy this book and read it. And then read it again. And then tell everyone you know who loves books like this that they too must read it.
It’s available today: https://amzn.to/2Ks3SGo
Here’s what I wrote when I endorsed it (after the second time I read it): “Birthing Hope drew me in from the first page to the last. Rachel Marie Stone’s masterful interweaving of family story, theological truth, and personal reflection on birth, life, and loss puts her in the company of writers such as Rebecca Solnit and Eula Biss. I will return to this book for wisdom, beautiful writing, and encouragement that, even in the face of loss and sorrow, it is good to give ourselves to the light.”
Friday, May 4, 2018
A friend of mine asked me to help her put together a summer reading list for friends who are interested in God/Christianity but aren’t sure what they believe. She mentioned Traveling Mercies, by Anne Lamott. I’m planning to recommend Tatoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle and possibly one of Marilynne Robinson’s novels. What about you? What books helped you understand the God of the Bible in a new or different way? What books would you recommend to someone who is exploring faith as an adult for the first time?
