For people who have read Anne
Lamott’s previous writings on faith and life, this book will come as no
surprise. It continues her own
confessions, struggles, insights, longings, and gropings toward understanding
herself and a fuller relationship with God and with her fellow human beings.
For those who have not read
any of Lamott’s earlier books, pick this one up. Lamott writes with humor and unfailing
honesty as she confronts her own (and our) human greed and selfishness and love
and honor and, yes, mercy.
Woven throughout are her own
takes on various Bible passages and people that may well resonate with the
reader. They certainly do with me. Listen to her about St. Paul with whom I have
long had a difficult relationship:
“Putting aside the little
problem with all the people he had killed, he was annoying, sexist, stuffy, and
theoretical. He was not a great
storyteller like the Gospel writers. He often got preachy, and his message was
frequently about trying to be more stoic, with dogmatic ‘Shape up’ and ‘Shame
on you’ talks. He was cranky, judgmental
and self-righteous, worse even than I.
Yes, he had moments of genius and light, but then he’d start wagging his
fingers again. Yet, he knew my heart, he
knew the struggle with our dark side: ‘I
do not understand what I do. For what I
want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.’
And he preached the willingness to be loved and included, as is. He knew that people like me would want to
have the willingness to have the willingness, but that this is scary and
hard. He knew that it comes from the
pain of staying the way we are, cut off from ourselves, squandering our lives,
envying others, bingeing on whatever, terrified of making mistakes.”
Lamott explains that it is
mercy – the promise to offer and receive relief and forgiveness – that lies at
the heart of all great faith traditions and our own spiritual identity. Mercy gives us the chance to “soften ever so
slightly” so that we can understand one another more deeply. Mercy is, in her words, “the medicine, the
light that shines in dark places.”
This book is beautiful, with
so many wonderful passages that beg to be read and savored, pulled close into
your heart and pondered there. Read
it. You won’t be disappointed.—Jeanie Smith
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