I love personalizing Psalm 23, and last week led this exercise at Launde Abbey – with these sheep in the background! Here’s the rendition I penned, which you might resonate with?
The Lord is my rest giver, I embrace shalom. He makes me release my projects, he leads me to the restoring waters, he refreshes my soul and my body. He helps me clear my diary for my own good. Even though I trudge through the valley of overcommitment, I will not fret, for you are with me; your tools to say no, they help me. You prepare a feast before me with those whom I’ve disappointed. You shower me with your unfailing love; my heart overflows. Surely your gentle invitations will accompany me all the days of my life, and I’ll live with you forever.
How might you apply this beloved Psalm in your life today?
Join me on the shores of the island of Iona as we stop and notice God’s presence with us. In a four-minute video, I invite you to affirm the amazing truth that if we welcome Jesus in our lives, Christ is with us.
Books of 2024. In the last year, I read almost half as many books as I usually do. As I consider why, I can see that I was too overcommitted, and for relaxing I turned to stories via the animated screen rather than the book. My-one-word for the year was “reset,” but it seems I didn’t live into that word enough.
I continue to enjoy audiobooks, although I can’t seem to retain the content of deep non-fiction books through listening, so I tend to leave audiobooks for novels and memoirs. I especially appreciate memoirs narrated by the author, and books narrated by wonderful actors such as Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks (two by Ann Patchett, for instance).
This year I give you a memoir by a contemporary Christian writer, some deep but accessible theology, a modern classic novel, and two fun novels.
A Compelling Memoir
It Wasn’t Roaring, It Was Weeping by Lisa-Jo Baker
What a book! In this memoir Lisa-Jo weaves together her life on two continents – her native South African and her adopted United States – with depth, yearning, pain, learning and ultimately love. A central part of her story is the early death of her mother coupled with the way her father parented her. She’s unstinting in her descriptions of the pain of that relationship, but she also shares their redemptive journey, which will give hope to any reader who has suffered from painful parental relationships. There is hope of healing.
I loved how she wove in the various native languages into her prose, which shines with truth, beauty, and meaning. This book is a labor of love, with the craftsmanship evident in the writing. A deserving 5 stars.
Deep but Accessible Theology
A Crazy, Holy Grace The Healing Power of Pain and Memory by Frederick Buechner
I so so appreciated listening to this series of essays, some more powerful than others. The ones on grace and pain and suffering and God’s love I will listen to again while jotting down notes – this is my bane as a visual, not auditory, learner! I was captured by one of his stories about his eldest daughter suffering from an illness that nearly killed her, and how he receive an unexpected visit from a friend who flew more than eight hundred miles in the hopes of finding find him at home. Frederick was indeed home, and their time together was transformative. An example of embodied love. As Frederick reflected later, “I was moved to the very soles of my feet by that experience, and so was he…” It was “a blessed event, a holy event.”
A Modern Classic Novel
The Blessing by Nancy Mitford
A novel by Nancy Mitford that I hadn’t read before… I picked up a used copy at one of the Tattered Cover bookstores in Colorado (not THE one in Denver, but still, a fun experience) and it felt right to read it after we left Paris and landed in the south of France (as it’s set in both locales and in England).
It’s very Nancy Mitford, which is of course what I wanted, but that means it’s a product of its time and I wasn’t going to judge it on modern standards. Full of fun and quips and characters I was rooting for. A perfect holiday read.
Two Fun Novels
Tom Lake by Ann Patchell
Oh I enjoyed listening to this novel, narrated by Meryl Streep. She brought such life and joy to the story. Having holidayed in Michigan in recent years, I enjoyed picturing the cherry trees and the family who was harvesting them during the pandemic, forced together in a time of social distancing.
The story is a looking back by the mother as she recalls her acting career and what brought her to Michigan and the life of a cherry farmer. Her love for her husband and their three grown daughters is evident. Fully enjoyable. I didn’t want it to end.
The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
I was excited for this follow up to her first novel with Molly the Maid, who loves working at the posh hotel after her grandmother died, and who solved a mystery killing. This one was another light mystery that she solved in her inimitable way. Fully enjoyable listen.
Please read and buy my books! And if you do, please write a review on Goodreads or Amazon or some other online source. And please support your books-and mortar bookstore. They are havens of fabulousness that won’t survive if we only buy online.
Jesus, the true light, shines into the world as he is born a baby and is God with us, Emmanuel. I invite you to enjoy two short videos I made during the Advent retreats I led at glorious settings, Waverley Abbey, the lovely house and the historic ruins of the Cistercian monastery, and Mulberry House in High Ongar, Essex.
A nighttime blessing and considering of the wonders of Jesus, for whom we wait in Advent:
“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world…” (John 1:9, NIV)
During Advent, this time of darkness in the northern hemisphere, we wait for the True Light who vanquishes the darkness. We embrace the gift of God who came to earth as a baby, who lived among us, who died and rose again, living with us now through his Spirit.
As you ponder the Light of Christ, I offer a poem that I’d forgotten, which someone brought to my attention last week, one I penned some years ago based on Isaiah 9:2, focusing on the True Light:
If you can set aside some time for a retreat this Advent, I know God will bless your time with him!
One way is for anyone who has an internet connection and just under two hours – join my Advent retreat sessions via YouTube and a downloadable journal. Just £15.
OrI have two in-person opportunities for an Advent retreat day:
Join me for an Advent reflection to refocus on Christ from the comfort of your home or in person at the atmospheric Waverley Abbey or beautiful Mulberry House. Through three sessions, using words and pictures, we will look at Jesus from the start, Jesus in the darkness and Jesus with us. We’ll enjoy time together as a group, and you’ll have space for your own prayer and reflection.
Waverley Abbey, Farnham, Surrey, on 14 December. Find out more and book your place. You’ll have time to explore the ruins and enjoy a the wonderful house, decked out for Christmas.
Mulberry House, High Ongar, Essex, on 16 December. Crazily wonderful price of £25 with a 2-course lunch (their food is hotel standard and REALLY nice). Find out more and book a place.
Enjoy the mist and ruins of Waverley Abbey in this Advent-themed video:
Plan now for a refreshing encounter with Jesus during Advent!
“I was able to lose myself in my time with Jesus.”
“You helped me encounter God in a new way.”
“I’m very visual, and am learning that the Spirit really speaks to me through beautiful art… Leo’s lovely paintings really blessed me. The journal was beautifully presented.”
Advent can be an intense time of the year – the hustle and bustle of preparing for Christmas can overtake our intentions to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Jesus. But however busy we are, we can trust that God is with us. He is Emmanuel – the One who always with us.
Join me for an Advent reflection to refocus on Christ from the comfort of your home or in person at the atmospheric Waverley Abbey. Through three sessions, using words and pictures, we will look at Jesus from the start, Jesus in the darkness and Jesus with us. We’ll enjoy time together as a group, and you’ll have space for your own prayer and reflection.
Together, let’s cut through the frenetic pace of the season and make space for Jesus this Advent.
Please note that I will be sharing much of the same content as for the Advent 2023 retreat.
Take a few minutes to hear about friendship with Jesus and the difference it makes (my book Transforming Love) and God-encountering, time-tested ways to pray (my book 7 Ways to Pray). Elliott and I chat at the Christian Resources Together gathering in September 2024, where I gave a keynote address and the closing devotional.
God looks on us with love. Join me for a mini-retreat (for 10 minutes) in receiving God’s loving gaze, along with imagining yourself in the story of Jesus seeing the widow of Nain during the funeral procession of her only son from Luke’s gospel.
Filmed at Upper Jenny’s at Lee Abbey, Lee Bay, Devon, England.
You may wish to engage with this longer prayer practice on a day of retreat and refreshment. Feel free to pause the video and engage with God where he takes you.
Join me in a prayer of imagining yourself in a gospel story, that of the two disciples walking away from Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus on the day of the resurrection. Their faces are downcast as they don’t understand what has happened, and then Jesus appears to them on the road, but they are kept from knowing it is him.
You may wish to engage with this longer prayer practice on a day of retreat and refreshment. Feel free to pause the video and engage with God where he takes you.
Join me in the woods near to Penhurst Retreat Centre (near Battle in East Sussex, England) to ponder and pray through some of the words of Thérèse of Lisieux, known as the little flower. As part of this, we’ll engage in a prayer asking God for emotional healing, based on Thérèse’s thoughts.
She saw the beauty of the ordinary flowers – the daisies and lilies as much as the roses. After all, what would be the glories of springtime if we only had roses? So too, how lovely is the garden of souls, made in the image of God with so much creativity and diversity.
