The Mrs. & the Minister

Chris Durso's The Heist: How Grace Robs Us of Our Shame is an amazing book! Sin, as Durso is right to insist, can only be understood in the light of grace.  We cannot know our sin until we know God's grace.  And that grace is known as it overcome and vanquishes our sin.  For Durso, our shame and our brokenness rob us of the life God, in Christ, makes for us.  And, like the Prodigal Sons, God's grace can only be made known because God has come to us in our own squalor and gifted us with more, so much more, than anything of which sin has robbed us. This is the great "heist" of the Gospel -- that God in Christ takes back what the Enemy has stolen. This is a book that easily change melt even the hardest heart, because it places the emphasis where the Gospel places that emphas is -- on God's love. I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

Sam Kalda's Of Cats and Men:  Profiles of History's Great Cat-Loving Artists, Writers, Thinkers and Statesmen is a fun, stylish, illustrated gift book from an award-winning artist that profiles notable cat-loving men throughout history in words and pictures.  This is a beautiful little book with lots of fresh biographies about 30 men profiled -- from writers and artists such as Haruki Murakami, T.S. Eliot, William S. Burroughs, and Ai Weiwei, to historical luminaries such as Sir Winston Churchill, Nikola Tesla, and Sir Issac Newton. In addition to all the fun art of each profile, there are some great quotes for every cat person -- male or female.   I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

Jason Stellman's Misfit Faith:  Confessions of a Drunk Ex-Pastor was not quite the book I had expected it to be.  It was so much better! Jason Stellman was a Presbyterian pastor, but he became a Roman Catholic.  I expected Misfit Faith to be, therefore, a semi-autobiographical work of Catholic apologetics.  I read of Scott Hahn's mentorship of Stellman, and expected Misfit Faith to be a new, milder version of Hahn's scholarship.  But I did not see any defense of Peter being the first pope in Misfit Faith , or any criticism of Sola Scriptura, or an explanation and defense of the Catholic understanding of justification. Instead, I read the story of Stellman's own spiritual journey.  From the opening confession that Stellman had flirted with Christian universalism, I knew this wasn't going to be a Catholic apologetic.  I wouldn't even characterize Misfit Faith as an apologetic at all.  Because if there's one thing Stellman isn't sure on...

Joan Chittister's Radical Spirit: 12 Ways to Live a Free and Authentic Life continues her literary tradition of making Benedictine spirituality accessible for new generations.  I read her Distilled from the Daily several years ago and found her spiritual wisdom deep and transformative.  In Radical Spirit Chittister focuses on the tough "spiritual hinge" of Benedict's Rule:  The 12 steps of humility. Through her judicious use of spiritual parables from around the world and events from her own life, Chittister engages readers with narrative and humor, drawing them down a path to self-revelation and spiritual grounding.  These thoughtfully choreographed chapters address the individual and offer an antidote to contemporary trends where "demagoguery is the new political brand, where narcissism is too often misunderstood to be leadership."  Chittister writes that humility is the corrective to dangerous grandiosity, which "in religion ... makes i...

Jennie Allen's Nothing to Prove: Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard is a full encouragement to stop living life for God, and instead live life with God -- and I can't agree more. To quote Allen:  "I'm not saying we turn apathetic and lazy, but I am saying we get to stop trying to impress God.  God wants to be with us.  And that reality pressed deep into us producing anything but apathy". Allen's Nothing to Prove is a book for every woman who struggles with feeling "good enough" or "big enough" for a part in God's work in the world. If you -- like I -- have struggled with your place in ministry or whether you are serving God in your daily life, I believe this book will speak volumes to you as to how amazing of a job you are doing as well as give you freedom to step away from that which drains you. I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

Louise Miller's The City Baker's Guide to Country Living is a novel that satisfies, like grandma's pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.  It's about creating family where you find it and finding your place in the world.  And it does that by striking the right balance, never veering off into oversentimentality.  If there's room for just one novel on your holiday reading list, it should be this one. Olivia Rawlings is a legit baker (ahem, pastry chef), a culinary institute grad with 15 years under her belt.  Although baking is about precision and detail, her life is somewhat in chaos.  She's behind on her rent and sleeping with an older married guy and doesn't seem to have much guilt about it.  And then, one night a flaming baked Alaska sets fire to her career in Boston and she runs off to her bestie in Guthrie, Vermont.  All this in the first chapter -- this is a book that doesn't fear throwing its readers right into the action. Guthrie is a t...

Joni Eareckson Tada's A Spectacle of Glory:  God's Light Shining through Me Everyday is a new devotional that helps those suffering with daily pain find a way to live in God's presence in the midst of suffering. Tada has been a quadriplegic for more than 50 years now, deals with chronic pain on a daily basis, and is a breast cancer survivor.  She knows well the questions we ask when we don't understand God's path for us.  She is living proof that God can actually use our weakness, pain, struggle and disappointments to bring his love into sharper focus as we follow him in this dark world. I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.