Bekah's Bookshelf: 2023 Reads So Far

 

            Before I found the reading challenge I decided to try this year, my first book of the year was going to be Redemptive Compassion by Lois Tupyi. Lois is a recently-retired Executive Director of a Love INC affiliate out in Idaho, and the topic of her book is required training for all Love INC staff, nationwide. Ryan and I both sat through some sessions on it in our training over the course of the last year, and I decided I wanted to read the book too.

            We ordered it in mid-December, but it took almost a month to arrive, so it actually became the third book I read in 2023, not the first.

            Even if you have no connection to Love INC (as I’m guessing most of you don’t), this book teaches some powerful principles that matter in the grand scheme of helping those in need. Lois learned, throughout her years of working at Love INC, that most methods used to help the needy don’t work. Well…they work if you want to meet the need in front of you. But they don’t lead to transformational change. They are usually just a handout, not a hand-up. The efforts to provide food, clothing, and financial help to those in crisis may help today, but next month, they’ll probably be back, in need of the same thing again.

            And so it goes, with generational poverty cycles never breaking, because everyone just comes to stand in the same line they’ve always stood in, which might have been the same ones their parents stood in.

            Redemptive Compassion is a Biblical exploration of how to love and serve those in our community and meet the needs they have, but also to create relationships with them that can help them make life changes to break patterns of need and destruction.

            This book is also a study guide, so it’s meant to be a six-week study (with readings and questions for five of seven days each week) that you can do alone or in a group. I read the book straight through, but now I’m going back through it, much more slowly, to marinate on the teaching, answer the questions, and imagine how this could look in the community we serve.

            In my opinion, the principles of redemptive compassion are kind of like courting vs. dating. I love what Lois teaches and I believe in the concept of the material she is presenting. But I also believe for it to work, you have to get a great number of people to believe it with you so you have a group of people operating with the same convictions and principles. If you try to do this alone, you won't get very far in your efforts. Perhaps that is the thing that frustrated me most about the book, honestly. I'm not sure most communities have that many people who desire to take these deeper steps. I

            The basis of her teaching is that handing out food, clothing, or money is what we usually do because it’s an immediate fix and it’s easy (assuming you have the resources). It doesn’t require long-term commitment or discomfort to the giver or recipient. Living according to redemptive compassion means you commit to being part of a relationship for the long-term, and that comes at a cost. Are you willing to pay that price? (And to be fair: Lois is not against handing out food, clothing, or money or ministries that offer such services. She just wants to explore how to take this a step further to help people change their lifestyle so they can break the cycle of generational poverty.) 

            Convicting questions, for sure. I’m thankful to be reading this book and learning more fully how to approach my own opportunities to give. I’m also intrigued to see how God uses these changes in thought-pattern for me as I serve in the months to come in whatever ways He asks!

            Here are a couple of quotes from the book that stuck out to me:

“If we want to see poverty change, we must change how we see poverty.”

“It’s not whether we fail, because we will all fail at times. It’s what we do with our failures that matter.”

“Could it be that if we don’t pray before we work we might do a good work, but not necessarily His work?”

            This book is thought-provoking, but it’s best explored slowly and not rushed through. There is so much to consider, and it might be even more impactful to read together with someone else!

**

            My next book for the year took me back to my reading challenge. I went to the “Award-Winning Nonfiction” book, and I chose Devotedly by Valerie Shepard. It was the 2020 Christian Book Award winner for the biography/memoir category, and it has been on my wish list ever since I learned it was being published! My parents bought it for me for Christmas, so now's the time to read!

            Some of you might be familiar with the names Jim and Elisabeth Elliot. As I shared in my post yesterday, back in the 1950s, when they were newlyweds with a baby, Jim was speared to death by members of a tribal group he was seeking to win to Christ. Elisabeth returned to serve the group who murdered her husband, and they did become Christians. Elisabeth went on to write many books, and I have long loved the first one of hers I ever read: Passion and Purity. It gives hints of her love story with Jim, and this book, Devotedly fills in the gaps of that love story. It's a compilation of excerpts from their journals and love letters and also includes detail added by their daughter, Valerie.  

            This book is best read slowly. I am not rushing through it, because I want to savor the story and the message it offers. It’s a longer book and the font is small, so it might take you a while to read it through, but I think it’s worth it.

            Jim and Elisabeth are known for their intense dedication to the Lord at any personal cost, and that shines brightly in this book – as I expected it would. I was so convicted, even as a married person, when I read the section about the early days of their friendship. Do I desire Ryan’s pursuit of the Lord as much as they desired that for each other?

            What I did not expect to find (but appreciated!) was the portion of their story where they grappled with their own desires pushing past their desire for the Lord. I think I might have forgotten they were human, and I found out they were. I read a review of this book where the reader was disappointed with them for having such desires and felt their entire story was a fraud. I wildly disagree. I am so thankful to find out that while their decision to follow Christ did rise above all personal desires, they DID struggle with personal desires. They were real! They were honest. THANK YOU! Just as I think we could all benefit from being more like them in our pursuit of God, I think we could also all benefit from being more like them in their vulnerable transparency.

            Even though I am not fully finished with the book, I wanted to share about it, because I think it is a worthwhile read. It is not your typical love story. It is deep and rich in ways most love stories are not. It shows a side of Christ-following not often seen in our present-day world. But it is worth the time and effort. I can see this being a book I return to over and over in years to come, because I won’t possibly be able to learn everything I need to know from the first read. In addition, this book has pushed me to want to read more books by Elisabeth (there are several!) and finish my copy of Jim’s journals. I began reading it years ago but never finished.

    I want to close with a couple of quotes from the book that I've underlined:

"Because we are not led to continue, we stop." (Ouch! I think I usually plow forward until stopped.)

"Intercession is the highest expression of love - it is pure giving. Teach me such love, dear Lord."

"How I despise myself when I get home here in quiet and think of the noise I've made."