Book Reviews: Prayer in the Night; Sacred Endurance; and Broken
We have sort of a theme going this week: All three of these books have to do with how to get through tough times.
Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep by Tish Harrison Warren (InterVarsity Press, 2021)
I very rarely cry over books, even when they genuinely move me. So the fact that I teared up three times in the first 32 pages of Prayer in the Night should tell you something.
Tish’s book is an extended meditation on Compline, the “prayer designed for nighttime.” It pulls together a wide variety of experiences—from the ordinary darkness of night, to the dark night of the soul that many of us have experienced at some point—and shows how this particular prayer can get us through them. The book opens with Tish desperately praying Compline in a hospital room during a miscarriage, demonstrating in no uncertain terms just how much this prayer office means to her and how powerful it can be in our direst moments. And the rest of the book is just as strong and vivid, showing the reality of our need for a prayer that can help us survive the night.
As a relative newcomer to Anglicanism, I’m still getting used to prayer offices, but I love them. I appreciate Tish’s point that “When we pray the prayers we’ve been given by the church . . . we pray beyond what we can know, believe, or drum up in ourselves. ‘Other people’s prayers’ discipled me; they taught me how to believe again. . . . When my strength waned and my words ran dry, I needed to fall into a way of belief that carried me. I needed other people’s prayers.” And this prayer in particular.
As its subtitle indicates, the book concentrates on the part of Compline that asks God to “keep watch . . . with those who work or watch or weep,” and takes us through this part line by line, exploring the meanings of all the needs mentioned and how the prayer addresses those needs. It left me determined to memorize this prayer, to have by me in my own dark nights. And on a larger scale, it left me deeply thankful for a God who keeps watch.
Cover image copyright InterVarsity Press.
Sacred Endurance by Trillia Newbell
If you know me at all, you know I never run unless I’m being chased. So a book that takes running a race as its main metaphor might not seem to be the best fit.
But I’m very fond of Trillia Newbell’s writing and her personality in general. She’s been through some truly terrible things—multiple miscarriages, racist assaults, and more—and she’s completely honest about them, never downplaying the reality of them or the effects they’ve had on her. At the same time, she exudes peace and joy, and generously shares hard-won wisdom about the difficulties and obstacles inherent in a life of faith.
That balance and that wisdom are a large part of the appeal of this book, which focuses on the spiritual disciplines we need to help shape and mature our faith. And in general, they’re what keeps drawing me to Trillia’s writing, even when it means dealing with running metaphors. (And to her credit, she’s not in the least obnoxious with the running metaphors, using just enough of them to make her point without going overboard! Many of the pastors who overdo it with sermons full of sports illustrations should take notes.)
Cover image copyright InterVarsity Press.
Broken (in the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson (Henry Holt and Company, 2021)
Jenny Lawson, a.k.a. The Bloggess, has a gift for making me shriek with laughter. Also for writing with stark and searing honesty about her struggles with mental and physical illness. Often at the exact same time.
Lawson’s earlier book Furiously Happy is a great favorite of mine, one of those books you turn to when you’re feeling like a misfit and you need reassurance that everyone else feels just as much like a misfit as you do. No matter how weird you may be, when you know there’s a woman out there getting caught by her husband at 2 a.m. making the cat carry a taxidermied raccoon around on his back, somehow you feel less alone in the world.
Broken is a little more sobering overall, as it spends more time on the myriad of health issues that Lawson’s had to cope with—more issues than any ten people should have to cope with. But as I indicated, she handles even these with grace and, at certain points, with so much humor that you can’t help but laugh.
Readers should know that Lawson uses a lot of profanity and sexual humor, which may not be your thing. They’re not my thing either, honestly. But that aside, I still love Lawson’s unique view of life and her determination to have as much fun with it as possible, even in the darkest times. As she puts it, “There is joy in accepting the curious and erratic beasts that force us to see the world in new ways. And there is an uncanny sort of fellowship that comes when you recognize the beasties that other people carry with them and the battles we are all fighting even when they seem invisible to the rest of the world.”
Image copyright Henry Holt and Company.
(A note for newcomers or anyone else confused by my use of names: If I know an author personally, even slightly, I use his or her first name; if I don’t, it’s last names. It doesn’t feel right to use a friend’s or acquaintance’s last name; on the other hand, even in an informal age, it doesn’t feel right to use the first name of an author I’m not acquainted with. Unless I’m writing a semi-biographical book, like Dorothy and Jack, but that’s a whole other thing.)
Book Links
Prayer in the Night on Amazon
Prayer in the Night on Bookshop
Sacred Endurance on Amazon
Sacred Endurance on Bookshop
Broken on Amazon
Broken on Bookshop
Other Links
I recently guested on the podcast A Cozy Christmas to talk about Charles Dickens’s A Life of Our Lord in connection with Easter. (Look, there’s no reason you can’t stretch the Christmas season until Easter! Or even after, if you feel like it. Remember the Easter tree?) Here’s the link if you’d like to listen.
Also, I want to give a shoutout to Christ and Pop Culture for providing my copy of Sacred Endurance. Members get free e-books and other perks, so I highly recommend becoming a member! And not just for the free stuff, but because it’s a great bunch of people putting out great work. Membership starts at $5 a month, and it’s well worth it.