Rom 10:17

Anne Lamott is one of those authors who is almost abused around UBC. You hear her name so much that you begin to believe that she has become overpopularized in a culture that prizes itself on finding hidden treasures in a pop culture. That way we can categorize what we are currently into as indie or pomo or emergent or whatever word is currently novel enough that it hasn’t become the vernacular of the larger pomo, indie, emergent crowd and thus useless.

Yesterday I was loading the pictures of Roy onto my computer for yesterdays post and I looked over to my left to the two remaining bookshelves that are filled with books that I deemed not good enough to be seen in my office. The ones I leave at home and tell people that “those are Lindsay’s books.” I was scanning the literature of “not quite good enough for Josh” and froze on Lamott’s book. I don’t think I would have given her a chance if it were not for Craig, who is most definitely her advocate even through all her popularizing. I’ve heard her compared to Miller, or actually Miller compared to her, and to be honest I thought Donald Miller’s book was mildly interesting at best. Yet in spite of all this and as one who has come to respect Craig’s reading suggestions I picked up the book.

I made my way through the first 55 pages and I can I say it is some of the most refreshing reading I’ve done in a while. Anne did a lot of things for me in these first 55 pages, but let me share this. I’ve been reading some books on atheism to get ready for a sermon and of particular interest to me has been the evolution discussion. Last night I watched a show on National Geographic called “Before the Dinosaurs,” in which they explore history over the last 450 million years. Taking in the emotional detachment of the prehistoric animals and their non-relational behavior I can’t help to feel that evolutionary history seems a bit crass and impersonal. And even if they didn’t get it completely right, there is still this reality in which the animal kingdom can be absolutely brutal to each other even within the last 6,000 years and often humans seem to be the epitome of this behavior. And so I begin to wonder and ask how things are to be processed if one maintains the worldview that there is no God. As one who can be overwhelmed and begin to change perspective when immersed in too much anyone thing I felt a lifeline thrown to me by Lamott.

She writes
“I didn’t go to the flea market the week of my abortion. I stayed home, and smoked dope and got drunk, and tried to write a little, and went for slow walks along the salt marsh with Pammy. On the seventh night, though, very drunk and just about to take a sleeping pill, I discovered that I was bleeding heavily. It did not stop over the next hour. I was going through a pad every fifteen minutes, and I thought I should call a doctor or Pammy, but I was so disgusted that I had gotten so drunk one week after an abortion that I just couldn’t wake someone up and ask for help. I kept on changing Kotex, and I got very sober very quickly. Several hours later, the blood stopped flowing, and I got in bed, shaky and sad and too wild to have another drink or take a sleeping pill. I had a cigarette and turned off the light. After a while, as I lay there, I became aware of someone with me, hunkered down in the corner, and I just assumed it was my father, whose presence I had felt over the years when I was frightened and alone. The feeling was so strong that I actually turned on the light for a moment to make sure no one was there—of course, there wasn’t. But after a while, in the dark again, I knew beyond any doubt that it was Jesus. I felt him as surely as I feel my dog lying nearby as I write this.”

Traveling Mercies p 49

Anne reminds me that this chaos and crass behavior is exactly what Jesus intends to redeem through recapitulated behavior.

Grace for today