30 Days of Summer Reads: Ruby Among Us

A multi-generational saga of hope, regret, and the grace that brings us home, Ruby Among Us evokes an invitational sense of place, a cache of characters you enjoy knowing, and a story that rips and mends your heart all at once.

Learning to de-busy-fy

On vacation, I did a lot of thinking, praying, thinking, reading, and talking. I've been a bit worried about my pace of life, and I despaired that I had to bring work with me on my vacation. Yep, I even brought my crackberry, much to the chagrin of my kids who see my need for rest. All I really want is simplicity.

It seems obvious that I should've rested on vacation, right?

And for the most part I did, but with my responsibilities to The Writers View as well as various other writing and mentoring duties, I had a hard time letting go.

When I returned home, I started purging and using the word NO. Some of what I did included:

1. Saying no to endorsements. I'm sad about this, but I simply cannot squeeze in another book to read right now.
2. Unsubscribed from several emails. This has really de-cluttered my inbox.
3. Bought this book: Getting Things Done by David Allen.
4. Contacted my CPA and scheduled an appointment to talk about my options in terms of incorporating.
5. Got sick one evening and spent the time watching cooking and decorating shows. Oh how I needed that.
6. Kept my speaking fees at one level. At this point in my life, travel is a problem. It saps my strength and takes me away from my family. So if I speak, it has to be worth the time away.
7. Prayed through a new decision after my dear, dear agent moved on. It's an interesting time for me, so having to find a new agent actually feels like anticipation for what's next, though I grieve losing her. I'm expectant to see what God will do and who He will lead me to.
8. I kept my workspace clutter free.
9. Just saying no in general. I'm learning there's only one me, not five. So the one me has to say no, or I'll break up into five frazzled people.
10. I still try to keep dinner with my family a sacred time, slowing down while I prepare dinner, savoring the creativity.
11. I spent time in the garden to clear my head.
12. Unfortunately, though, in the busy-ness of coming back, I haven't exercised. (But Boot Camp will come on Monday and then I'll be sore, but happy.)

What about you? What clever, useful things have you done to de-busy-fy your life? I'd love your insight. Your wisdom. Your suggestions.

30 Days of Summer Reads: A Seahorse on the Thames

A Seahorse on the Thames, by Susan Meissner, is a beautiful story of love, forgiveness, memory, and hope. Meissner’s characters are so real, I can hear their voices as I read. She paints folks as flawed, yet yearning—needy, yet strong. I wanted her protagonist, Alexa Poole, to grow, risk, and untangle the story of her past. Expertly plotted, warmly written, Meissner once again proves she’s one of the best CBA novelists.

30 Days of Summer Reads: The Mom I want to Be

T. Suzie Eller’s The Mom I Want to Be is a must-read for moms who want to break free from a painful childhood. Woven through her painful childhood story is the story of her mom’s powerful journey toward healing. Eller offers moms a way through the mire of a painful past by welcoming forgiveness, setting boundaries and identifying and tearing down walls. If you’re a mom who doesn’t want to duplicate the home you were raised in, pick up this book and expect to be changed from the inside out.

30 Days of Summer Reads: Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man

Claudia Mair Burney is a writer who knows her stuff and struts her wordsmithing with style and sass. Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man renews my trust in fiction for the Christian market. Chock full of characters who live and breathe like real human beings with very normal struggles, a plot that twists and surprises, and a narrator’s voice that smacks beauty and authenticity, this book will entertain, challenge, and move readers.

30 Days of Summer Reads: The Feast of Saint Bertie

A story-feast from the get-go! The Feast of Saint Bertie is a surprising, engaging, unique story that will challenge readers to rethink what it means to be a Christ-follower in today’s crazy, materialistic culture. With vivid characters, unconventional settings, and a beautifully unfolding plot, this book is the kind that will stay with you, like the fond memory of a great meal.

30 Days of Summer Reads: My Name is Russell Fink

My Name is Russell Fink is laugh-out-loud storytelling—inventive, surprising, and chock full of quirky authenticity. Michael Snyder’s Fink is the kind of character that stays with you like a strange realization, but in a good way. This honest, witty story will grab you by the heart, tickle your funny bone, and highlight the intrinsic, fragile beauty of humanity in a way you didn’t expect. An exceptional first book by a refreshing voice.

PIctures from our trip to Seattle

Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC

Flowers and fountain, Vancouver, BC

Proof that we touched sand.

Chihuly Glass Sculpture Museum, Tacoma, WA

My sister's chicken.

Old growth tree, on hike with mom in the Cascades.

Proof that I remember all those equestrian lessons.

From the North Cascades Highway. Wow.

North Cascades vista.

Resort in Oroville, WA.

Dahlia on Whidbey Island, WA.

Leaping cousins at Paradise, Mount Rainier.

The finale: Mount Rainier.

The last cover in the Defiance, TX trilogy

I'm really happy about this cover! It captures the essence of the book, but leaves mystery. What do you think?

30 Days of Summer Reads: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards is an engaging story that kept me turning the pages. No simple answers, no neatly drawn up plot, this book held me close to each character, all exquisitely drawn. At times I wanted to shake one; other times I cried for another (and tears are so rare when I read). The power of love, secrets, and shame are all wrapped up in this haunting story about a family in crisis.

30 Days of Summer Reads: Home Another Way

Home Another Way by Christa Parrish is the kind of book that sticks to your heart. Beautiful, lyrical writing, real, breathing characters and a plot with surprising twists, Parrish makes me want to find this town, hang out with the people there, and engage. A rare, gutsy book for a new generation of readers.

30 Days of Summer Reads: The Husband Project

Have a sizzling affair—with your spouse! The Husband Project brims with the kind of secret and surprising advice that’ll help you become the wife he desires. A fun, innovative, and practical book.

30 Days of Summer Reads: The Moment Between

The Moment Between is a stark, agonizingly beautiful treatise on family, human frailty, and suffocating regret. With breathtaking prose, an everywoman heroine, and a twisting journey, Nicole Baart unfolds hope in the darkest circumstances.

30 Days of Summer Reads: The Uncommon Woman

Oh how I want to be the kind of uncommon woman Susie Larson writes about so poetically! Her winsome, hard-won message beckons me toward the all-consuming embrace of Jesus, away from my petty need for approval. If every woman dared to pick up The Uncommon Woman and live the kind of extraordinary life Susie thrusts her way, the world would be turned upside down.

30 Days of Summer Reads: Informed Consent

Taut with emotional suspense, author Sandra Glahn catapults readers smack dab in the middle of the world of medical ethics, exploring the desperate lengths folks will go to find a cure. Expertly drawn characters, a Grisham-paced plot, and intelligent writing, Informed Consent is everything I like about medical thrillers.

30 Days of Summer Reads: Parting the Waters

Parting the Waters is a book about authentic, gritty struggle during loss. Author Jeanne Damoff paints a vivid picture of her family’s journey through her son’s drowning accident, but she does so with broad enough strokes that the reader gleans comfort and wisdom to face any personal tragedy. If you are suffering from grief, worry, shattered expectations, or anger, Parting the Waters is a much-needed oasis to your soul.

30 Days of Summer Reads: Quaker Summer

It’s not often that I say, “This book changed my life,” but in the case of Quaker Summer, I shout it with a hearty amen. Samson weaves a compelling, surprising, faith-awakening story with the deft skill of a writing artisan. Her characters practically materialize in the room when you’re reading, wooing you to consider their lives, struggles and questions. Samson puts a human face on consumerism, compelling the reader to consider Jesus’ radical call, but she does so with candor and grace. A highly recommended book.

30 Days of Summer Reads: The Infertility Companion

The Infertility Companion: Hope and Help for Couples Facing Infertility by Sandra L. Glahn, Th.M. and William R. Cutrer, M.D., Zondervan.

Though I have not personally experienced infertility, I have walked with several friends that have. This book was invaluable in helping me understand the medical, spiritual and emotional issues facing infertile couples. Glahn’s personal story is woven throughout, giving the reader glimpses into the pain of infertility. Cutrer offers the reader practical and sound medical advice, gleaned from years and years of treating infertile couples.

Both grapple with theological questions like “Is infertility a curse from God?” and “Why did God create sex?” Perhaps the most helpful chapter detailed the well-intentioned (but painful) things people say: Just relax. You can have my children for a weekend. If you adopt, you’ll conceive. Just trust God. The latter half of the book deals with the ethics of medical intervention in an honest, non-alarmist way. If you are looking for an infertility manual with heart, pick up this book. If you are longing to love a friend or family member through infertility’s minefield, read it for understanding.

30 Days of Summer Reads: A Bigger Life

A Bigger Life by Annette Smith is a touching, realistic look at authentic characters grappling with complicated choices and painful circumstances on the backdrop of a quirky Texas town. Smith’s characters exude gritty humanity, still revealing snatches of grace and beauty in the midst of life’s fickle circumstances. If you enjoy modern southern drama, with well-drawn characters and a beckoning plot, pick up this book.

30 Days of Summer Reads: As We Forgive

As We Forgive by Catherine Claire Larson is one of those life-changing books that will linger with you the rest of your life. It’s not for the fainthearted. It’s not for the hard-hearted or those bent toward stubborn unforgiveness. It’s primarily a story of hope.

During 100 days of 1994 800,000 people were brutally murdered in Rwanda—a genocide swifter in execution than Nazi gas chambers. Imagine Denver and Colorado Springs—every man, woman and child—suddenly gone from our population and you’ll appreciate the scope of the horror. (And go look on a map of Africa. Trace your finger due South of Uganda, due West of the Congo and you’ll appreciate how little this country is.)

As We Forgive shares the stories of genocide survivors, recounting the unspeakable. But it does not stop there. Larson pulls back the curtain of the most ostentatious acts of forgiveness I’ve witnessed, where genocide survivors choose to forgive those who perpetrated such violence.

Together, through reconciliation practices and restorative justice, they are rebuilding their country from the ruins of hatred—all on the back of the One who still bears the scars for our sins today.

I came away from this book changed, deeply moved, and inspired. Having seen the power of God to help people forgive the seeming unforgiveable, it gave me hope that my own wrestling with forgiveness would end in hope. I also appreciated that none of the forgiveness modeled was simple or easy or quickly won, nor does the book purport that reconciliation is merely forgiveness while forgetting. For true restoration to occur, the person perpetrating the atrocity must first fully own his/her own sin and grieve it as such. And for the person who was sinned against to heal, he/she must revisit the place of grief in order to heal.

All this dovetails beautifully into the message God’s been birthing in me—to help people who suffer silently to tell the truth about their pasts, to choose the difficult path of forgiveness, in order to heal.

If God can reach into a genocide victim’s heart and offer peace; if He can transform a murderer into a productive member of a reconciled society; then surely He can transform your pain today. That’s the patent hope this book gives. It’s a gift to all of us. And I pray it’s a gift all open.

30 Days of Summer Reads: In All Deep Places

Lyrically written, sensitively wrought, Susan Meissner’s In All Deep Places captivated me from page one. Meissner’s strength is displaying the inner emotional landscape of her characters, this time putting the reader in the head of a male protagonist. Woven in such a way that beckons instead of dictates, Meissner’s message of redemption and heaven will stay with the reader long after she puts the book down.

30 Days of Summer Reads: Blue Like Playdough

A hopeful book that moms will relish, Blue Like Playdough is an honest, peel-back-the-covers look at the creative way God shapes us through childhood and parenthood. Tricia Goyer explores her own weaknesses along the journey, revealing her desire to serve the God who forms strength and joy and perseverance within her. A Compelling, fresh read.

30 Days of Summer Reads: Talking to the Dead

Talking to the Dead is a deeply moving narrative about grief, sanity, love, betrayal, and hard-won redemption. Bonnie Grove entices, tortures, then salves her readers through gritty characters and pitch-perfect writing. I thought about this book long after I put it down, and it stays with me today. Highly recommended.

30 Days of Summer Reads: This is Your Brain on Joy

This is Your Brain on Joy by Dr. Earl Henslin is a fascinating book about the brain, its chemistry and makeup and how that affects our lives and our moods. One of the interesting side effects the book had on me was imparting a sense of empathy for those in my life that have probably suffered from unhealthy brains. Instead of assigning guilt or blame, I’m better able to understand why they’ve acted the way they have. (And that has helped me in the forgiveness journey.)

It’s also helped me analyze myself, seeing some of my own brain-related issues.

But more than even those secondary benefits, I learned the power of being proactive in pursuing proper brain health—and I laughed when Dr. Henslin suggests creating a song list of happy songs to alter mood. I already do this!

Written in quirky, conversational tone, this book will help you understand the components of joy, how to pursue putting those into place, and how to finally move forward beyond past circumstances.

Of particular help to me was the appendix on PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and the use of EMDR therapy, which is something I’ll need to explore in the future. (It’s a therapy my counselor friend uses when she works with trauma victims in Africa). For anyone suffering from severe trauma with nightmares, sudden fear, unexplained emotional responses, this appendix alone may be the beginning of a journey of healing.

30 Days of Summer Reads: Bad Ground

Bad Ground by W. Dale Cramer, Bethany House.

I didn’t think a book about blasting holes in the earth would appeal to me, but Cramer’s eloquent and haunting prose drew me in. As I read, I remembered the feeling I got when I first read Christy by Katherine Marshall, that although both wrote about people I don’t normally encounter (miners, folks from Appalacia), their taut characterizations made me want to befriend the characters, giving me a desire to spend my life peeling away the layers of all types of folks, elevating the dignity of every human being.

Though I was sometimes bogged down by the technicalities of the mining operation, I found myself cheering for the protagonist, an orphaned boy becoming a man. Cramer has a lovely way with language, so beautiful I wanted to savor his words—words like “Burrowed into his sleeping bag, he slept as one who has no else to be, and the stars kissed his sleep like a mother” (p. 16). If you are looking for a literary work with a redemptive message, Cramer’s Bad Ground will satisfy.

30 Days of Summer Reads: The Grace of Catastrophe

Thus launches a thirty-day book recommendation spree for those of you who ramp up your reading in the summer months. Enjoy these books!

The Grace of Catastrophe by Jan Winebrenner, Moody Publishers

I opened Jan Winebrenner's The Grace of Catastrophe while flying over Europe, far above my own catastrophes. Her words of authenticity and raw spirituality gave me hope that someone else had walked the journey I was now stumbling through. Quoting classic authors like A.W. Tozer, Julian of Norwich, John Bunyan and C. S. Lewis, Winebrenner shows that we are all dusty, needy pilgrims who serve an immutable, sovereign God--a God who allows our craziness, welcomes our questions, sees our frailty, and communes with us in the most personal way possible.

Stripping away Christianese and the all-is-well façade Christians sometimes hide behind, Winebrenner offers readers a genuine picture of God-not the easily manipulated deity we've become comfortable with, but the wild, holy, loving God of the Bible. Woven throughout are the author's personal catastrophes as well as those of other pilgrims, backdropped against the grace of God. If you are struggling to understand God in the midst of catastrophe, benefit your soul by buying this book. Grace awaits you.

Beauty

Colorado

Munich

Italian Riviera

France rose

Switzerland

Valbonne, France

Texas, Sabine Creek Ranch

I wonder if I am an artist at heart. I love beauty. Love, love, love the sunset, the sunrise. Flowers. Mountains. The smell of Spring air. The ocean. A Picasso. A baby's smile. A beautiful piece of hand-thrown pottery. My children. Here's a conglomerate of my photos over the past few years.

A little disclosure: With my very first book advance, I bought a digital SLR and have been smitten ever since.

The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns.

I love the availability and accessibility of this book, love how it helps me see Jesus, His world, and the plight of most of the people populating it. Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, pens an almost memoiresque book, sharing his journey from upper echelon corporate executive to lamenting over those ravaged by poverty and disease.

A stunning reminder. A wake up call. A solid exegesis of Scripture.

What I particularly found compelling was Stearns' journey from a comfortable life. In every way, he smacked of a successful Christian person in America. A big, fat job. A stone house in the country. Kids in Christian schools. A country club membership. A faithful supporter of church and missions. A good citizen. A worshipper.

And then a recruiter asked him if he'd be willing to be considered for the president of World Vision job. He balked. Yet the recruiter persisted with this question: "Are you willing to be open to God's will for your life?"

Hearing the story of his subsequent praying, wrestling, and eventually moving across the nation to take the position really ministered to me personally. Why? We were missionaries to France for a few years and are now on safe ground in the USA, but I feel very comfortable in suburbia. When I read his words, something stirred in me. A flicker of desire ignited. It had been deadened in the aftermath of following Jesus wholeheartedly only to crash and burn.

Perhaps, perhaps God will call us again.

But beyond Stearns' own wrestling and moving out of his comfort zone is the idea of the gospel, the whole gospel, not the prosperity gospel full of holes (but full of material blessings). It's a gospel that cares for the poor. That seeks to be last. That loves the little ones.

If you call yourself a Christ follower, you need to read this book, need to saturate yourself in the gospel that is whole, need to let Him shine his light on your life, exposing your own holes.

Girl Enemies

I don't know what it is about girls. Or women. But we're a catty lot. Something icky starts happening around third grade when girls say such nice things as, "You're not my best friend anymore." Or "You can't come to my party." Then we grow in more sophistication with our words, but the malice beneath the surface says the same thing.

So far, on my sojourn on earth, I haven't encountered many personal male enemies or nemesis. Maybe it's because I don't interact deeply with men who aren't my hubby, or maybe it has something to do with the male psyche. Hard to say.

But as I read these verses today, several flashbacks assaulted me:

"My enemies say of me in malice, 'When will he die, and his name perish?' And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad. All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me" (Psalm 41:5,6, ESV).

It's that last part that gets me. They imagine the worst for me.

I remember some of my deepest girl wounds over the years, and every one of them involves this assumption of negative intent. The first memory I have of this is when I was in the first grade. I'd been kept in for recess to finish something. I can't remember what. I finished quickly, then thought, "Well, I'm here, I may as well help." So I erased the chalkboards really carefully, using those special erasers that make it really shine. I pulled one vertically then horizontally.

I smiled in my seat when the teacher came back in, awaiting her smile. I loved my teacher. Instead, she recoiled, aimed angry eyes my way and yelled at me. "How dare you erase my chalkboards without permission. How could you do such a bad thing?"

I shrunk, as you can imagine. I tried to tell her I thought I was helping, that I did it with pure motive, but she would hear nothing of it.

It's that kind of thing I'm talking about. When someone assigns a bad motive to me when, in actuality, a good motive is there. There's nothing worse than that. In those moments, when scolded, I become that little girl, cowering.

It's happened several times in adulthood. Angry women saying things about me that aren't true. (This does not mean I don't do or say or think naughty things. Of course that happens. And my dear, close friends are bold and loving enough to confront me. It's not that kind of thing I'm talking about here.) It's when girl enemies decide something about me, then forever assign whichever motives they want to me. And there's simply nothing I can do to change that.

Our pastor gave a great illustration at church that really helped me. The four quadrants of conflict. Here it is:

I almost always fell into the capitulation category, where I'm nearly always trying to satisfy the other. So many times I've taken in someone's petty words like a delicacy, feeding on them, digesting them. And then I'll say something like, "Oh, you're right. I was that way."

But that certainly doesn't help. It doesn't help the person who assumed ill intent (because I'm validating unreality), and it numbs me.

I suppose the inevitability of girl enemies is something I should expect, but in that expectation, I need to grow up a bit. Let go of words that aren't true, take to heart the ones that are, and let Jesus sift it all through. And build into the dear women in my life who speak the truth in love, who listen to me when I'm weak and needy, who don't assume the worst about me, who pray for me and give me the privilege of the same.

I doubt we'll solve the girl enemy issue. It's wrapped up in envy and insecurity and the like. But we can change the way we respond. To hear, then give it to Jesus, the One who bore the worst assumptions of others in every way.

What is life? Lord, hear my prayer

It's been one of those busy times where I can't seem to catch my breath. Where I'm more irritated than engaged. When I'm seeing the blue sky outside, but not reveling in it. What is life? A series of irrational to-do lists that seem to multiply like dust bunnies? Or real bunnies? Is it accomplishment? Prestige? Service? Saying stuff that makes people happy? Flattery? Smiling through trials?

I don't know sometimes, but I do know Jesus said He would:

• take our burdens, make 'em lighter.
• give us abundant life
• hear our prayers, then intercede for us
• take care of the condemnation that haunts
• bear our sins (oh they are many)
• breathe the Spirit into our souls
• shed His blood so we could be justified completely
  
• give us a heavenly perspective (to live for His kingdom, not ours)

These are things that make up true life.

And somehow in the crazy-busy that is my life, I've neglected asking for His help.

Lord, forgive me. I'm small. Needy. Tired. World-worn. Would You bear my burdens? Would you replace my to-do-list treadmill with abundance in my heart? With the ability to truly engage with the people You've placed near? Lord, intercede for me. I don't even have the words, the poetry, the lilt of language that You have, oh Author of All Words, the Word made flesh. When my condemning voices haunt and taunt, silence them with Your holy hush. Thank You for bearing me. For shouldering my darkness. Breathe the Spirit into me afresh. Help me not to quench, but welcome, to drink deeply and long. Thank You for justifying me. That there's nothing I can do right now that will accomplish such a feat. Only You. Only Your willingly poured blood can perform such a miracle. Renew my perspective to a kingdom-minded one. Where the first are last, the master is servant, where the poor is rich. I love You Jesus. And oh, how I need You right now. Touch me. Nestle me into your heart. Sing over me. Quiet my anxiety. Oh how I love you.

Amen.