Like Any Normal Day

"Like Any Normal Day" by Mark Kram, Jr.

A very interesting book, one that I don't necessarily agree with but, gets you thinking.  This is the story of Buddy, who is an all-star high school football player. He has it all going for him, friends, girls, athleticism, and personality.  It took about 30 seconds to change all that.  At a football game he was tackled, flipped upside down and landed on his head.  He lay facedown on the field, believing these were his last moments.  Now this happened in 1973, before all the precautions against injury were in place.  He was flipped onto his back, lifted onto a stretcher, and placed into an ambulance with the assumption he had a broken leg.  Buddy ended up with a broken neck that left him paralyzed.  The brunt of his care was shouldered by his mother. Buddy was in constant pain from spasms that left him weary.  He was extremely worried about what would happen to him once his mother was too old to care for him, and that time was fast approaching.  He felt guilty for the huge burden that he was to his mother.  Buddy wanted his mother to be able to live her own life before it was too late for her.  He had an incredible bond with his youngest brother, Jimmy.  Jimmy lived to see Buddy laugh.  He also shoulder Buddy's emotional well being.  One day Buddy had had enough of his suffering and asked Jimmy if he would take him to Dr. Kevorkian.  Buddy made all the arrangements and Jimmy agreed.  Jimmy felt like so much had been taken from Buddy that he deserved to have this one thing.  This is a story of hardship, struggle, brotherly devotion, and unending love.  It is a story that tells of how tragedy affects so many.  

A Grace Disguised

"A Grace Disguised" by Jerry Sittser

If you like tragedy, like me, then this book is for you.  It is written by a man, Jerry, who in one car accident lost his wife, his daughter and his mother.  He tells of the accident that changed his life forever.  Jerry writes of how he chose to respond to the loss.  He writes that in how he responded was his defining moment, not the accident itself.  He had other children to live for and set an example for.  He could not do what he wanted, to lie in bed and wallow in self-pity, he had to show them how to continue to live despite the huge loss.  "We do not always have the freedom to choose the roles we must play in life, but we can choose how we are going to play the roles we have been given."  Choosing how we deal with trials is about the only choice we really do have.  "It is the power to choose that adds dignity to our humanity and gives us the ability to transcend our circumstances, thus releasing us from living as mere victims."  "So with the background already sketched in by circumstances beyond my control, I picked up a paintbrush and began, with great hesitation and distress, to paint a new portrait of our lives."  It's not easy to pick up the pieces from loss, any loss, and start anew.  "Who knows how one experience, so singularly horrible, can set in motion a chain of events that will bless future generations?  Loss may appear to be random, but that does not mean it is.  It may fit into a scheme that surpasses even what our imaginations dare to think."  We do not know the impact our loss, and how we deal with that loss, will effect those around us.  Only God sees the bigger picture, yet there are many that are watching how we respond.  "The problem of expecting to live in a perfectly fair world is that there is no grace in that world, for grace is grace only when it is underserved."  And we are all under serving of that grace.  "Wrong that is forgiven is still wrong done and must be punished.  Mercy does not abrogate justice, it transcends it."  Wrong is still wrong yet I love his statement that mercy transcends the wrong and that can only be God.  "If people want their souls to grow through loss, whatever the loss is, they must eventually decide to love even more deeply than they did before.  They must respond to the loss by embracing love with renewed energy and commitment."  "Choosing to withdraw from people and to protect the self diminishes the soul; choosing to love even more deeply than before ensures that we will suffer again, for the choice to love requires the courage to grieve.  We know that loss is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  So naturally we dread the losses that loom ahead.  But the greater loss is not suffering another loss itself but refusing to love again, for that my lead to the death of the soul."  Such good words, yet so very hard to live out, although necessary to live the life God intended.  

Leaving Before the Rains Come

"Leaving Before the Rains Come" by Alexandra Fuller

This was an interesting book and a different read than my normal.  I didn't realize till about 3/4 of the way through the book that the author was writing about her life.  It is about her life living in Africa and then marrying a man from Wyoming and how much her life changes after marraige and her move to the states.  It is a book with tragedy and overcoming that tragedy.  The book tells how drastically different life in Africa is compared with to life in the U.S.  "The problem with most people is that they want to be alive for as long as possible without having any idea whatsoever how to live."  It's so true, we all get lost sometimes and forget what living is really about.  We all get caught up in the supposed to's or have to's and forget the beauty of connection and family and love.   "...there is nothing like the profound loneliness of early motherhood to make a person ache to be embraced by their person of origin."  Motherhood makes us all long for our mothers I believe.  Those early days of motherhood can be scary and make you feel all alone.  Yet becoming a mother makes us appreciate the woman we call mom and forms a bond that wasn't previously there.  "Easy is just another way of knowing you aren't doing much in the way of your life."  God doesn't call us to easy and really most things that are worth while take work.  These are the times that we have to have the biggest faith, when things are hard.  It is when we see God work and truly feel Him.  I don't agree with all of this book but it was an intereting read and I liked learning more about Africa and life there.  I appreciated the authors look at tragedy and being willing to overcome.

Heaven Is Here by Stephanie Nielson

I started following this author's blog through another blog a few years ago. It wasn't long after her accident and I was inspired by this woman. The book is about her life, she had the ideal life, handsome husband, four beautiful children and her looks. One fateful day all that changed when her and her husband were in a plane crash. She was burned over 80% of her body. She woke in the hospital months later, barely alive. The book is about her struggle to survive, the pain she had and continues to have just to move each day, her determination to be a mother to her children, her husband who stood by her side and showed her what real love looks like, her faith that she has a purpose here and God spared her. (I do want to preface the rest of this entry with saying that the author is a Mormon. I've quoted the things that she said about God and used my beliefs to explain them.) It truly is an incredible story and she is a very special woman. It is a great book to give perspective on what really matters in this life, and the way we look is certainly not one of them. "How he hoped they would feel God's love in the natural world, just as he did." Stephanie and her husband both love to be in nature and wanted to instill this love in their children. That by being in God's creation they would feel His love for them. I feel this. I look at all that He created and am in such awe. Nature makes me feel closer to Him. "I don't want being physical to get in the way of getting to know the real you." Her husband said this to her when they were dating. What a great thing for a guy to say. "I saw God in those eyes. I saw reassurance. I even saw a glimpse of triumph. I was still me. Those eyes were mine. The life I saw in them came from God, and that gave me hope for the life of my body." This was the first time that she looked at herself after the accident. Oh what a hard moment that would be. She was so disfigured. But in that moment she was given strength. Her eyes were still her. Beautiful. "Heavenly Father, are you really there? And do you hear and answer every child's prayer? Some say that heaven is far away, but I feel it close around me as I pray. Pray, He is there. Speak, He is listening. You are His child. His love now surrounds you." A child's song, a parents response. So simple yet what we all, young or old, wonder from time to time. "When lonely, cold, hard times come, we have to endure, we have to continue, we have to persist...Keep knocking on that door. Keep pleading. In the meantime, know that God hears your cries and knows your distress. He is your Father, and you are His child." And they do always come, don't they? But this life is about enduring, continuing even when it's oh so hard. And the best part is that we are heard, He does care. "We look for Christ's scars because they are evidence of what He did for us. They'll be the first things He shows us when we see Him again. Your scars tell a story, too. Although they may not make you feel attractive, they are a witness of a miracle, that God blessed you to live, and that you have accomplished very difficult things." What a beautiful sentiment. All our scars are a testament of what we have been through, how we have overcome and how God has done great things in us. We shouldn't hide them or be ashamed of them. God uses it all for His glory and our best. He loves us so. "I have accepted myself in a world that does not accept me, because I have learned-and more than any of the lessons of my accident, this is the one I wish I could teach everybody-that our hearts matter most. Your heart matters most, so be gentler and more patient with yourself, and their hearts matter most, too, so be kinder and more compassionate to others. It's a beautiful heart, not a perfect body, that leads to a beautiful life." Good wisdom to live by.

Coming Home

"Coming Home" by Karen Kingsbury

This is the last book in the Baxter series.  And it was such a sad book.  I am a tragedy junkie but this one had me in tears and I think I'm good with tragedies for at least three months now.  But the book was oh so good.  Karen does such a good job of interweaving faith in her books.  Not just faith we speak but real faith, faith played out in the midst of tragedy.  The whole Baxter family is getting together for their dads 70th birthday.  But before they can celebrate tragedy strikes.  It will take all their faith and prayers to get them through the darkness.  Will their love be stronger than their heartache?  Will they be able to remember God's promises?  I'm tearing up just writing this.  So forewarning, you will cry, you might even have to put down the book for a breather.  But it is worth it.  Karen did good.  She ended the Baxter family well.  "Love between two hearts, two souls was never the same from one person to the next."  Love looks different between all of us.  God designed us all different so our love looks different.  Read this book, it will give you faith.  If you are in the middle of a trial, of your own dark time, this book will bring hope and renew your faith.

The Dead Don't Dance

"The Dead Don't Dance" by Charles Martin

I picked this book up at the Salvation Army for a couple of bucks. The title and cover caught my eye and I can't lie, the tragedy within the pages. I just can't pass up a tragedy, I tell myself it is because I like to see how people overcome (at least I hope that is why). I also love discovering new authors and I like this one. It is a story about love and a baby about to be born when tragedy hits. It tells about how and who and why we must rise above but also how hard it is to move on. It is about treasuring all we have, every second, every breath. It's a journey of despair but of finding the light of hope. "When you boil it down, all we got left, all anybody's got, is faith...and hope...and love. And we all gonna make it. All three of us." Those are the three things all of us have, if we choose them, and all three of them are the things that are going to last, going to get us through when we think we can't. "Cause you need to hear that there are folks in this world who got lives just as bad as yours. Life ain't fair, and welcome to earth." Sometimes self pity takes over and we think we are the only ones going through this or have trouble and we are oh so very wrong. "If God is who He says He is, then He's big enough to handle my ranting and raving. And all my questions." And I think sometimes that is just what we need to do, He understands, He hears and He loves us all the same. "I had played my best, Maggie would be proud, but I felt empty, not full. I guess that's because playing your drum only has meaning when you share it with someone else." "We scar, but in the end, we heal." We don't forget what we have been through and a lot of it leaves scars but we heal, we move on with God's grace. I loved how the character in this story found hope in the most unlikely of places and I love that hope won.