It has been too long since the last post here. Recently, a list was made of things I would enjoy doing. Return to blogging was one of the goals. This blog was established as a place to "process" greats books I read. Rest assured reading never stops...but just haven't allowed myself the time and luxury of blogging.
Two books have helped my motivation: The Hardest Peace, by Kara Tippetts and A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken.
Part 1 here will be for The Hardest Peace, Part 2 will be for A Severe Mercy.
I first heard of Kara Tippets toward the end of 2014 when a young woman made the news, planning to end her live prematurely in order to avoid the hard end of dying of cancer. She wanted to decide when she would die. Kara, a wife and mother of 4, also dying of cancer, wrote a letter, published through her blog Mundane Faithfulness, trying to dissuade this action and share the love of Christ with her.
Shortly thereafter, I began to follow Kara on Facebook. From those posts I heard about her book The Hardest Peace. I just had to know what her story held, what she had to say about her life, her faith.
The first couple of chapters are about Kara's early years: Growing up, becoming a follower of Christ, meeting and marrying her husband, becoming a mom, and the devastation felt by problems in their church. In a conversation between Kara and Jason, her husband, about what they went through with their church, Jason said, "Kara, tomorrow we get to wake up and be faithful. Whatever each step brings, and whatever hard comes, people will always disappoint us. But tomorrow, tomorrow we get to be faithful in that moment." Kara says, "Sometimes the hardest peace to find is the peace in saying goodbye and leaving the work of justice and reconciliation to Jesus." (My husband and I have lived this. It is hard, but yields a harvest of peace.)
After moving to a new state and home, Kara learned she had breast cancer. Before the last breath of the fight, she learned it has spread. Later, she would learn that the fight was over for her, there was nothing more doctors could do, now life would shift to keeping her comfortable.
Kara wrote, "Jason recently said in a sermon, 'We want suffering to be like pregnancy--we have a season, and its over, and there is a tidy moral to the story.' I've come to sense that isn't what faith is all about. What if there is never and end? What if the story never improves and the tests continue to break our hearts? Is God still good?"
"But because I believe God's plans for me are better than what I could plan for myself, rather than run away from the path he has set before me, I want to run toward it. I don't want to try to change God's mind--his thoughts are perfect. I want to think his thoughts. I don't want to change God's timing--his timing is perfect. I want the grace to accept his timing. I don't want to change God's plan--his plan is perfect. I want to embrace his plan and see how he is glorified through it. I want to submit."
Though it is hard to be in the "hard places" with the those who are suffering, Kara so lovingly weaves the story of cancer, the story of her family and the story of how God is redeeming all of it for His glory in not only her life, but the lives of those around her.
Kara says, "God gives us morsels of eternity over here, crumbs really, and we beg for them to remain when there is a feast awaiting us. We beg for scraps when the very best is promised."
So, why is this part 1 ? In The Hardest Peace, Kara talks about a book in which she and Jason found common ground while dating: A Severe Mercy. These two books will forever be linked in my mind. So Part 2...to be continued...
