Traveling Mercies

well I realize it is Sept 1, but I just finished the last chapter of our lovely little book today! I will try to be more on time for the next one. (although I see no one else has written yet either so maybe I'm off the hook!) ;)

I really enjoyed this book! The introduction was pretty long, and I usually get annoyed with intros and prefaces and I try to speed through them, but this was actually one part of the book I enjoyed the most. I liked hearing about her childhood as she grew up being involved with several different families and different faiths. It definitely gives her an interesting perspective and background as she eventually made her way toward Christianity. I thought her little "conversion" moment was pretty interesting.

"I began to cry and left before the benediction, and I raced home and felt the little cat running along at my heels, and I walked down the dock past dozens of potted flowers, under a sky as blue as one of God's own dreams, and opened the door to my houseboat, and I stood there a minute, and then I hung my head and said, 'F*** it: I quit.' I took a long deep breath and said out loud, 'All right. You can come in'."

I find this kinda cool because, a. it just goes to show me that God really does reveal Himself to people, even those who are bent on resisting Him. Anne had described for a while that she felt this presence and this nagging weight or something on her heart, which she believed to be Jesus pursuing her. I think that is really a beautiful thing. My point b. is that her experience of accepting Christ into her life is definitely very different from my own (I would say we had some different word choices!), but this was her unique moment of opening her heart up to the Lord and He used that as His open door to come into her life. As I grow older I'm always amazed to see different people's various experiences with the Lord; He works in so many ways, and who am I to say that because He's worked in my own life a certain way, He will do the exact same thing in everyone else. Of course, I do believe that there are basic things foundational to being a Christian: i.e. making a conscious decision to accept Christ's work on the cross, accepting Him as your personal Savior, we cannot get to heaven on our own works, etc, etc, but the journey of someone getting to this point can vary a lot; I believe for some it's a specific moment like Anne's, for others a more gradual realization and acceptance over time.

As I continued on in the book I began to see what an interesting character this Anne is! I don't know what you girls thought but I at times thought she was a little out there. :) For instance, how she licked her friend's ashes off her hand as she was spreading them out on the lake, and she said she just wanted to "taste her" and keep some of her inside. Now I know she was going through major grief, but I thought that was a little odd! Speaking of grief though, I saw that this was largely a theme of this book and I thought she had some good thoughts on how to deal with it. Not only did she talk about dealing with grief in your own life, but on how to help others deal with grief that I thought was beneficial, as I sometimes don't know how to best help someone when they are hurting.

"As I've said before, I believe that when all is said and done, all you can do is to show up for someone in crisis, which seems so inadequate. But then when you do, it can radically change everything. Your there-ness, your stepping into a scared parent's line of vision, can be life giving, because often everyone else is in hiding - especially, in the beginning, the parents [or whoever else you're dealing with here]. So you come to keep them company when it feels like the whole world is falling apart, and your being there says that just for this moment, this one tiny piece of the world is OK, or is at least better."

Also, something that her pastor Veronica said:

"This is life's nature: that lives and hearts get broken - those of people we love, those of people we'll never meet. The world sometimes feels like the waiting room of the emergency ward and that we who are more or less OK for now need to take the tenderest possible care of the more wounded people in the waiting room, until the healer comes. You sit with people, you bring them juice and graham crackers."

Again, the older I get, the more I'm seeing how much pain there is in this world and how many people are privately hurting that we wouldn't even know are in pain. I believe we should turn to God first with our grief and our hurting hearts, but I also know that he gave us friends, family, and other people in our lives to come alongside us to help us through this often difficult journey. I love that about God; He has made us in His image, and He is a relational God - therefore He made us as relational human beings! He delights in our deep friendships and joy of being together and when we help each other; I think that it honors Him. Ok I'm getting off on tangents. But back to the grief point, for me as a nurse that also motivates me to be better at coming alongside patients and families in the hospital who are truly dealing with heart-wrenching situations. I only hope that I'll have people there for me during those times as well.

I wouldn't say I agreed with everything Anne had to say; for one thing she kept referring to God as a "she". She also seemed very liberal and feminist, but I still liked a lot of her thoughts. I felt like I didn't get a totally clear picture of what her view of being a Christian was; I know I talked before about her conversion experience, but things she said afterward seemed to be a little wishy-washy and emotions-driven. I didn't really hear her talking very concretely about Christ as the Savior of her life and the only true way to God, so I don't know if that's not what she believes or maybe she simply didn't refer to it much. I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong. You guys can comment on what you thought of that.

last thing, I enjoyed her son, Sam. He is a little pistol and I thought their relationship was pretty sweet.

overall, very enjoyable read! I look forward to seeing what you ladies have to say about it.

Kaufman