Book Review: Gentle and Lowly + Ragamuffin Gospel — Nicole O'Meara

The first devotional made me cry, not out of sadness, but from a sense of connection I have never before felt to Joni.  She described what it felt like to have COVID as a paralyzed person.  In her words, it was “suffocating.”  Seeing that word in black and white took me back in an instant to being in the Emergency Room in 2021 and feeling like I was suffocating from the bleed in my lungs.  My pulse raced and tears I couldn’t stop leaked out my eyes. Something of the fear of that memory returned but this time, it was accompanied by a feeling of knowing.  Joni knew what it was like for me because she had felt it too.

That feeling of being known and understood returned several times as I read through Songs of Suffering.  Our situations are remarkably different, but Joni shares many of the same feelings I have experienced.  I’m sure that is true for other readers and for other reasons.  Perhaps even you.

In The Scars That Have Shaped Me, Vaneetha Rendall Risner shares the spiritual journey represented by her scars. She shares her story of life-long illness (Polio & Post-Polio Syndrome) and trials (death of a child and loss of her marriage) with simple writing and honesty.

Each chapter is written like a journal entry or blogpost making this book a quick read. It may be quick but it's also packed with great theology. With vulnerability, Vaneetha reminds herself and her reader of the unchanging character of God, even in the midst of illness and loss. While my own scars and suffering are different, I found I could relate to something in every chapter which is a testimony to the presence of the same God with both of us.

In her book, you’ll find many of the same themes I write about: lament, waiting, loneliness, acceptance and dependence on God, and the sustaining grace of His presence.

In Undone, Michele shares openly all the emotions and faith questions that she experienced through her cancer experience. In Relentless, Michele walks you through the next phase of her life when cancer returns, when the orphans they brought home become theirs for life, and when she grieves the loss of her Dad to his own battle with cancer. It is personal, gut-wrenching, and oh so relatable.

While studying the life of David and the three trees referenced in Psalm 52 and 92, I was struck by the role community played in David’s life. From the band of mighty men who travelled with him during his years of exile, to the military leaders who advised him, to the prophet Nathan who held him accountable and wasn’t afraid to have the tough conversations, to his friendship with King Saul’s son, Jonathan, community helped shaped David into the king he became. His gifts were maximised and his weaknesses strengthened because of the presence of other men in his life. And community can bring this same beauty to our own lives if we will allow it to.

We all need friends like Jonathan and David in our lives—friends who remind us of who God is, who cause us to look upwards and not be overcome by our circumstances, friends who call forth what God has spoken over our lives and strengthen us to keep contending. But as much as we need them, we must also be them.

Devotionals are a great way to start a habit of meeting daily in a Quiet Time with God. If you’d like help starting a daily devotion time, please email me or leave a comment below. I’d love to help you. I’m thankful for quality devotionals that lead me to a scripture and give me something to think on during a busy day or busy season.

Here are a few devotionals that I’ve had my hands on recently.

Missionary, Amy Carmichael, made a sign with the words, “In everything, give thanks,” and marked each corner with the initials of hardships she was enduring. She gilded the edges and hung that sign in her cabin. Every time she looked upon it, she thanked God for the things represented by those initials, including rats and cockroaches.

When something is difficult, like rats, a chronic disease, a struggling marriage, or ADHD, it is not for us to know how God will work things out to be good. The answer, the motivation for thanking God for these difficult things is that God is good.

Upon reflection, I realized I have never thanked God for my undiagnosed bleeding disorder. I have not thanked him for a horrendous experience in the ICU or for the loss of my lung. I did thank him for teaching me beautiful truths through those experiences but I have never thanked him for the experiences themselves.

So, I made my own sign, “In everything give thanks,” and I jotted down initials of my own personal sufferings in the corners and I placed it on my bedside table. I have intentionally thanked God for each of those things for two weeks now. He is teaching me to be satisfied with his goodness in the midst of my suffering.

Because I love this lesson so much, I made signs for you too. You can download a card and write your own initials in the corners.

The Connected Parent provides real-life applications for concepts taught in The Connect Child. If you read The Connected Child or attended an Empower to Connect Conference to learn Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) like we did, you already know the tools Dr. Purivs taught are powerful. But, if you are like us, you may have struggled to apply them in your home, with your unique child(ren). Enter, The Connect Parent and Lisa Qualls.

This was a quick read for me, being a refresher on some points and quickly applicable on other points. What I loved most about this book is the hope that is found between the pages. These are tools that work! The wins that Lisa shared (and some losses) encouraged me to keep going, to not give up on these tools, and to keep hope alive.

if you have…

• a troop of children and drive the big van

• a colicky baby

• a teething two year old

• a teenager with fifteen extra-curricular activities that force you to affix the “mom-taxi” bumper sticker to your minivan…

…keep reading!

No matter what your hands are full with, Momma, you need encouragement. Encouragement is exactly what my friend Brooke Frick provides in this book, Hands Full: Thirty Days of Encouragement for Busy Moms.

If you think you don’t have time for self-care, or you haven’t read a book in a year, this is the book for you. If you only have time to read three pages before you fall asleep, choose this book for those three pages. You are not alone in your full life, friend. Be encouraged because God is the one who filled your hands and he will enable you to carry all that you must in your motherhood journey.

Christian author Glenna Marshall, a Christian struggled to feel satisfied when so much of her life wasn’t the way she thought it should be. Sitting on her couch with the Truth in her lap, she believed God was good, she just wasn’t sure He was good to her. What other reason could there be for her missing pieces?

She went on a quest for an answer and it led her to Jesus. Only Jesus.

The Promise is His Presence: Why God is Always Enough is her journey to finding satisfaction in God alone.

I read The Promise is His Presence earlier this year and it resonated so deeply with me that I reached out to Glenna and asked if I could interview her. She said, yes! So, this book review is even better with a BONUS video conversation.

Lisa grew up in a loving family in Utah, a sixth generation Mormon. Let me put it this way, she was so immersed in the Mormon culture, she didn’t even know what a protestant church service looked like.

Then, she met a guy… and the guy was a Christian… and he asked her questions like, “How do you know your scripture is the one true scripture?” She answered what she was taught and what she believed, “Because I’ve had a burning in the bosom.” That’s the truth test in Mormonism — a warm fuzzy feeling, proof of the Holy Spirit’s touch. Without that, you can’t know if something is true. With it, something must be true despite facts and logic. The answer didn’t satisfy her boyfriend and suddenly, it didn’t satisfy her either.

Out of Zion is Lisa’s personal story of finding Truth. It was costly but beautiful. BY GRACE, she discovered the free gift of God and the assurance of salvation. I couldn’t put this book down.

Andrew Peterson is an author, singer-songwriter, and artist. He wrote Adorning the Dark as a biographical text on how to be a Christian Creative. But it’s a lot less, “How” and a whole lot more, “Here’s what you’ll learn along the way.”

I loved it. Like 5 STARS kind of love. But, why? Why did I love this book so much?

I don’t consider myself a Creative. Peterson has changed my thinking. He makes a very strong point that God created man in his image and since God is The Creator, his image-bearers must also be creative. We are all Creatives. And we are all meant to use our creativity, little or big, to glorify God in our little corner of the universe. What we create and the joy we get out of creating comes directly from understanding that we are beloved by God. Think about that, let it soak in, then do something to out of the overwhelm of being loved. That’s creating for the glory of God. Oh, it’s such a good point.