Blog to Book: Carry On, Warrior

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I finished this beauty of a book a week ago, and have not been able to write since.  I am afraid to write about this book,  because I know what I will say will pale in comparison to the essays of the incomparable Glennon Doyle Melton of the blog, Momastery.  I don't want to detract from the Truth, Redemption, Humor, and Pathos that are found within these pages, which has occupied my mind and heart since I finished reading.  I also know this feeling would make my new friend Glennon* sad and despondent (as described in Building a Life) .  So, in order to find some inspiration, (and to procrastinate by joyfully rolling around in her words even more), I dove in headlong and found this gentle, grace-filled, kick in the pants:

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 Which, thanks to my new friend Glennon, is an oft heard refrain in my house.

Here's the thing.  I am intimidated and awed and humbled by the insight, honesty, and theology housed in these essays, and am simultaneously paralyzed by the TRUTH she tells, the beauty of her writing, and the feeling that my paltry attempts at composition are NOTHING compared to what real writers can do.  To what she did.  Because she has kind of said everything that I could. And then said some more.  All while doing the things that I do all day, like raising children, tending a marriage, teaching, and messily attempting to live out my faith.

When reading some of these pieces, like I feel like girlfriend stole my brain.  How did she know what I have been thinking all of these years?  How did this stranger new friend get in my head?   And damn her for writing it all down before I could!  Reading is my inhale.  Writing is my exhale.  YES!  Yes Glennon!  How did you know?

Thanks to her courage and radical truth-telling, she has given voice to some Truths that I have always known, but hadn't found the words to express.

You Can Do Hard Things

We Belong To Each Other

Love Wins

Be confident because you are a child of God.

Be humble because everyone else is too.

And just when my inadequacy is about to take me, and this post, down, I read these words:

If, anywhere in your soul, you feel the desire to write, please write.  Write as a gift to yourself and others.  Everyone has a story to tell.  Writing is not about creating tidy paragraphs that sound lovely or choosing the "right" words.  It's about noticing who you are and noticing life and sharing what you notice. When you write your truth, it is a love offering to the world because it helps us feel braver and less alone.  And if you're a really, really bad writer, then it might be most important for you to write because your writing might free other really, really bad writers to have a go at it anyway.  

If you feel something calling you to dance or write or paint or sing, please refuse to worry about whether you're good enough.  Just do it.  Be generous.  Offer a gift to the world that no one  else can offer:  yourself.

So, I will write.  Hopefully often.  Certainly badly.   Because as Brene Brown says, unused creativity is not benign.  And I do have stories to tell.  Even if my stories are revealed through the stories of others.

Thank you, my new friend and writing mentor, for sharing your stories.  The world is bigger and bolder for it.  Carry On, Warrior.

*Her work is so honest and REAL.  She feels like my new friend.  And in a way, she is.

The Gospel and Social Activism

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Jen Hatmaker's bookInterruptedcame to me the way many books do. . . through recommendations from friends.  This book, however, was recommended by two thoughtful readers in the same day, which rarely happens, and both readers asked for my thoughts. One person liked it;  one did not.  I was intrigued and promptly began.

Jen and her family were living a very traditional Christian pastor's family life, when the Jesus's focus on the poor left them gobsmacked and wondering what they could do differently in their world.  They left the mega church and began, in their words, a "barefoot church" that focused on a more post-modern perspective of being in authentic relationships with people, specifically the poor.  Feed my sheep was the rallying cry.

This book reminds me in all good ways of of Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution (Claiborne, in fact, appears in the book). I finished it a week ago and Jen's voice is still rattling around in my head.  This book helps the faithful remember that while the trappings of Christianity can be tainted and misleading, Jesus himself was pretty clear.  Feed my sheep.  I make all things new.  Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.  Jen and her family distilled these tenets down to a lifestyle in south Austin, which interrupted her more comfortable, complacent life.

Both people who recommended the book had no quibbles with the theology, but both took umbrage at her tone (which can be quite sarcastic at times).  In my opinion, her tone was self-depricating and refreshing in the main, with some sprinklings of sarcasm.

This book was a wonderful piece to read at the beginning of a new year and during a time of change in my life.  It prompted a long overdue, contemplative discussion with my family surrounding who we are, what we are doing, and where should our focus be.  This book greatly helped to center and refocus my spiritual life as one of serving rather than seeking to be served.