We were delighted that so many customers and friends responded to the various titles we suggested in our latest BookNotes that landed in your inboxes (if you subscribe) right in the middle of the Thanksgiving holiday. Black Friday isn’t so hectic around here but we smile, knowing it was the exciting day we opened our doors back in 1982. No shindig here, but as I suggested in that latest newsletter, we are very, very grateful for those keeping this family biz alive. Thank you one and all. Your orders and notes and calls have been appreciated, believe me.

I also hoped you enjoyed those links to a podcast on which I appeared to talk about Advent reading and the reminder of our own “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” bi-weekly podcast. Check them out (and share if you are so inclined.) You can watch them at YouTube or listen on Spotify or Apple.  Again, we are grateful and hope that our story of the sort of stuff we do here somehow encourages you in living out your own story, even in your own “hopes and fears of all the years…”

Which brings me to this short BookNotes.

I feel compelled to share a few ideas for you about what some call a “blue Christmas.” I’ve been to some “Blue Christmas” services where people lament and wail and offer up their grief to God, a special sort of Christmas gift of shared sadness. I’ve been to others that while they may not sing “Joy to the World” they are only just a tad more gentle, with quiet verses and soft candles. Services that offer a place to ponder the season in light of our hurts and sorrows and worries are a godsend. However, it seems to me that one hour out of a busy season of ho-ho-ho-ing isn’t enough. We need to make space for God to touch our hurting hearts. Advent is a perfect time for getting in touch with such stuff. We should be glad that the liturgical cycle of the church year affords us this time of attending to longing and unmet hopes.

First one we highly recommend.

The Advent of Justice: A Book of Meditations by Richard Middleton, Brian Walsh, Sylvia Keesmaat, and Mark VanderVennan (Wipf & Stock) $15.99  / OUR SALE PRICE = $12.79

Although not only about grief and loss exclusively my favorite Advent devotional remains the small, Bible-rich set of reflections, The Advent of Justice, which you may find helpful even if (maybe especially if) you are worried and/or jaded or disappointed.

I read through this short book every Advent, not only because all four authors are among my good friends but because I know of no other book that connects Old and New Testament (and longing, lament, hope and promise) so very, very well. I guess one might say it is Brueggemann-esque — provocative wisdom drawn from close socio-cultural reading of the settings of the Biblical texts. I think it is nothing short of brilliant… it understands the context of the prophets, the looming concerns about exile, and the facts-on-ground-questions about poverty and displacement and full-bodied hope. This was first done by the social justice ministry and public theology organization in Canada, the Centre for Public Justice. The evocative writing of these four is rooted in the practice of waiting even while attentive to the realities of pathos. You’ve never read an Advent book like this and you, too, may revisit it often.

4 on hard times /  4 on hard Advents

Here, then, are four books (of many, many) about sorrow and lament and sadness in our Christian lives. And then I’ll name four that are specifically about attending to those realities during Advent and the Christmastide season which follows. I hope these are helpful.

Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart: What Art Teaches Us About the Wonder and Struggle of Being Alive Russ Ramsey (Zondervan) $29.99  // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.99

I’ve commented about this already, describing it as a book I really, really liked and very highly recommend to one and all. Each chapter explores the hard times of a certain painter and how his or her work can remind us of our own deeply human hurts and struggles. It is not a downer of a book, but is edge-of-your-seat informative and yet, in an allusive and gracious way, invites readers into the stories of these painters (some religiously-inclined some less so) and their visions of life and hard times.

I am honored to have an endorsement blurb on the inside (and, please know, it really is an honor.) Russ Ramsey wrote a previous book like this called Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eye of Faith which I thoroughly enjoyed. This one is (as Douglas McKelvey puts it) “highly entertaining and informative” but “in the end they reveal themselves as hospitable invitations to get to the transcendent heart of things.”

The storytelling is great, the artwork shown is moving, the ways in which such stories shape our hearts and unleash something — this book is worth every penny. And it will allow you to honor your own human story, even if it is sad or complicated.

A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in the Rituals of Grief and Healing Amanda Held Opelt (Worthy) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

Again, I have written about this at length before but wanted to just remind you of it here, now. Amanda (the sister of the late author Rachel Held Evans) was in great grief after the rather sudden and unexpected death of her sister. The short version is simple: she found great comfort in exploring various grieving practices in various cultures, exploring what they get at, what they offer, why some folks do these (sometimes slightly odd to most) customs and how they can bring healing and resolution. I really, really enjoyed this book, its creative style reads like great nonfiction reporting and memoir, almost, and its advice is offered with a light touch.

Sarah Bessey (herself a very talented writer) says, “One of the best books I’ve read in ages… a profound, mystical, and even haunting book that will be a faithful companion to all of us who have seen trouble.”

Walking with God Through the Valley: Recovering the Purpose of Biblical Lament May Young (IVP Academic) $28.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.40

This is brand new and I haven’t read it all but I’m happy to announce that this is really, really good, a refreshing deeply Biblical study (but not unaware of the deeper philosophical and theological questions that ensue as you unpack texts of lament and ask the big questions of theodicy.) And yet, not only a Biblical study, it is deeply pastoral, human-scale, an invitation to get real with God and each other and use these passages in our own faith communities. We need to learn to practice lament in our own lives and in our churches. This book offers an excellent foundation.

We have a good number of books about lament — Biblical and more experiential — and this tends to be a bit headier, exploring how lament “echoes throughout the pages of Scripture.” But May Young — who chairs the Department of Biblical Studies, Christian Ministries, Intercultural Studies and Philosophy at Taylor University. — knows how to teach and how to inspire and how to even come alongside us, guiding us towards how to engage the texts of lament and explore them in our own contexts.

Bible teacher Andrew Abernethy says that Walking with God Through the Valley is, “A fantastic book! Not only do we learn more about cement, but we are propelled through personal examples to practice lament individually and communally.”

Ingrid Faro of Northern Seminary says,

“This is the book on lament that we’ve been waiting for and need.”

 

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope Curt Thompson (Zondervan) $27.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.39

I promised that this would be a short BookNotes column so I do refer you back to one of the other times I explained why we so appreciate Dr. Curt Thompson and why The Deepest Place is so very, very important for us today.

It is on the nature of suffering but it is no dry treatise on the reasons for suffering. Nor is it merely a pious reminder to trust God in all things. Curt is a neuroscientist and therapists (see some of his own unique and wise therapeutic practices in his fascinating, beautiful book called The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community) so he knows a bit about what really gives folks a sense of hope, how our characters can be profoundly shaped in Christ-like ways as we learn resilience and authentic flourishing.

There are fabulous stories in this wise book and it is — as author Ian Morgan Cron puts it — “a spiritual formation tour de force for anyone ready to look life’s inescapable pain in the eye and make something better of it.” Jessica Honegger notes on the back that this book can give “durable hope.”

Blue Christmas: Devotions of Light in a Season of Darkness Todd Outcalt (Upper Room) $14.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99

This may be a fairly conventional Advent devotional — a nice page or two a day during the season — but written for those who are hurting or down. Reflective and honest but still mostly about Advent. While it suggests (on the back) that “for many, this time of year magnifies loneliness, anxiety, grief, and despair” Blue Christmas doesn’t dwell too bluntly on the hurts and fears. I wish it were a bit more raw, but it wants to offer some bit of charm, I guess. Outcalt is the lead pastor of a large United Methodist Church and has written a lot of books (including one about praying through cancer. He understands.)

There are closing prayers for each devotional and some additional prayers in the back which are honest and useful. Also discussion questions.

There is also a short “Blue Christmas” worship service outline in the back with sample invocations and prayers, litanies and carols, nicely structured.

A Weary World: Reflections for a Blue Christmas Kathy Escobar (WJK) $16.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $12.80

This one, by an author we deeply respect (who pastors an innovative and inclusive church in North Denver called The Refuge), may be a tad more profound, including a deep understanding of those who are demoralized due to injustice in the world, those who, need to lament not just due to their own difficulties but because they bear some of the weight of the world…  A Weary World offers understanding about the great sadness in the world this time of year when many are worried and exhausted and when, not only do some of us struggle, but the whole world seems so disordered. She offers a lot of allusive insight, great reflections exercises and more.

Kathy has done Blue Christmas services for years and they have been sincerely appreciated, especially among those who want something substantive but will not settle for religious cliches. There is extra digital content for worship ideas and study groups at the publisher’s website.

Wounded in Spirit: Advent Art and Meditations David Bannon (Paraclete Press) $29.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.99

This is a remarkable (and very handsomely designed) hardback with artwork, each devotional inspired by painters who were troubled and sad.  I have raved about this extraordinary book before and extreme David Bannon’s insight and care immensely. (Philip Yancey, who knows a thing or two about such things, wrote a breathtaking foreword.)

Not unlike the new one by Ramsey, listed above, Bannon used these artist’s stories of loss and depression to console his own emotional sadness in his own time of loss and struggle with depression. A powerful story… a great resource.

Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us, Then, Here, and Now Scott Erickson (Zondervan) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

Again, this is one we’ve highlighted often, before. Some really like it, not only for the hipster graphic art, but because it is written in conversational, honest, storytelling, almost memoir style. This is a bit edgy, kind of cool, by a really raw writer who is a young-ish artist. He understands the creative impulse, has a less than typical sort of spirituality, and enhances his good book with lots of graphics and illustrations (that are black, white, and gold; very cool!) This is all about needing to be real during this season, being honest about the audacious story of Mary and Joseph and the incarnation, but also about our own feelings of alienation and discontent. Can we be honest about all that, bringing it all together? This fresh and engaging book (now out in a paperback) will be a book for those who may not want a more typical book of holiday cheer.