The Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren

Do your daily small tasks really matter in the whole scheme of things? In Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Warren walks us through the rhythms of a typical day and highlights lessons that can be learned from each simple practice.

Christians are taught to look for a radical life, a life of conspicuous sacrifice and service - a life that seems obviously set apart for something more than the mundane and unimportant... We tend to want a Christian life with all the dull bits cut out. Yet God made us to spend our days in rest, work, and play, taking care of our bodies, our families, our neighborhoods, our homes. What if all these boring parts matter to God? What if days passed in ways that feel small and insignificant to us are weighty with meaning and part of the abundant life that God has for us?

She emphasizes that it is in the dailiness of the Christian faith - the making of the bed, the doing of the dishes, the praying for our enemies, the reading of the Bible, the quiet, the small - that God's transformation takes root and grows. Evangelicals tend to focus on a "radical Christianity" full of excitement, passion and risk. Quoting Eugene Peterson, she writes, There is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for the long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.

In addition to a radical faith, we American Christians love a productive faith. The busier we are in God's work, the more spiritual we feel. But Tish gently reminds us that if we realize that ALL we do is for God's glory (even the mundane), it helps us to resist the idolatry of work and accomplishment. She reiterates this in her chapter on rest where she writes that sleep reminds us that ultimately it is God who does the work. When we lie down at the end of the day, it is a confession of our limits and a recognition of the holiness of rest and the blessedness of unproductivity. As we stop all our "doing," we joyfully acknowledge God's watchcare over our lives.

This is not a book that will bowl you over, but it is a perfect book to read during lockdown. I, as a missionary, appreciated this careful analysis of what a life of faithfulness looks like, especially when opportunities for [frantic] Christian service have been curtailed.

Blessings,

The Rich Mrs. Burgoyne by Kathleen Thompson Norris

When I want light reading with substance, I turn to Kathleen Norris.  Not the poet/essayist, but the one who wrote novels at the turn of the 20^th century.

At first glance the book appears to be a formulaic romance.  Rich widow moves to town, reforms (and wins the heart of) a handsome but lazy newspaper editor and lives happily ever after.  However, in The Rich Mrs. Burgoyne, the love story is peripheral and the emphasis in the book is on what it means to live well.  In fact, there is a strong, old-fashioned thread in the book on the value of motherhood and on children as one of life’s greatest riches.  So the title is a pun.  Is Mrs. Burgoyne happy because she is wealthy? Or because she has embraced a higher calling?

At one point in the novel, Mrs. Burgoyne makes the point that if every mother in the world would reach out to an unloved child, the world couldn’t help but be a better place.  You may call that simplistic, but as I pondered the idea, I didn’t find it too far afield from the biblical mandate to “love one’s neighbor.” If every Christian woman made it her goal to invest in the life of one other needy person, certainly, the impact would be tremendous.

The book takes an amusing look at mothers of all stripes.  Some are rich. Some are poor.  Most are more concerned with appearances than with their children’s spiritual welfare.  Mrs. Carew is described as someone who was so entirely absorbed in the pursuit of the “correct thing,” so anxious to read what was “being read,” to own what was “right,” that she never stopped to seriously consider her own or her daughter’s place in the universe. (p. 47) Happily, Mrs. Burgoyne’s example begins a new trend among the ladies in Santa Paloma.

We live in a culture that belittles motherhood and the sacrifices it requires.  I’m a fan of books that remind us that it is a valid and worthy career.  This title is available free on Kindle.