Council for Health and Human Service Ministries

Word and Deed: Thoughts on Faith-Based Leadership

Bridging Troubled Waters

There are books, and there are books! If you haven't read anything by Anne Lamott, treat yourself to Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith — sparkling, stimulating and chock full of wit, wry, humor, and anything else you can imagine that engages the spirit. As noted in Random House's publisher comments: "...in Traveling Mercies she takes us on a journey through her often troubled past to illuminate her devout but quirky walk of faith. In a narrative spiced with stories and scripture, with diatribes, laughter, and tears, Lamott tells how, against all odds, she came to believe in God and then, even more miraculously, in herself".

Much can be learned about Lamott's family and background in the introduction. Raised by parents with politics as their god, she learned to navigate many rivers filled with waters of varying degrees before surrendering to Christ. To hear her tell it, she was practically hit over the head with a sledge hammer that was concocted of drugs, alcohol, and sex before she let go and let God, all the while kicking and screaming. Little by little, fragmented pieces of her life began to heal in spite of her resistance and self-abuse.

Unlike many who have walked the same or similar paths, Lamott seems to have embraced every aspect of her life—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Self-loathing is often an accompaniment when one wakes up from a life of degradation, however, none of that shows forth in her being. Instead, she states her case simply and poignantly—not mincing words or wallowing in self judgment. In addition, we're introduced to a cast of characters that are as earthy and colorful as she is in her life before Christ, as well as afterwards. She opens herself up to learn from anything and everyone and passes on much of her wisdom, know-how, and awareness to her son, Sam.

What gets me is how easily Lamott falls into life and the more I learned about her, the more captivated I became. No one is exempt in her book, and she finds beauty in the most extraordinary places in terms of peering into the inner parts of folks and revealing their depth of character. While observing one of the members of her church in a prayerful posture, she describes her as being "...one of those unusually beautiful women—beautiful like a river. She has dark skin, a long broad nose, sweet full lips, and what the theologian Howard Thurman calls 'quiet eyes' ...because she is so unself-conscious, you get to see someone in a deeply interior pose. You get to see all that intimate resting. She looks as if she's holding the whole earth together, or making the biggest wish in the world. Oh, yes, Lord. Uh-huh."

This book is as much about faith as it is about renewal, self-acceptance, forgiveness, maturity, serenity, and love. Between the covers lies a world of writing that reflects the human condition in all of its complexity and simplicity with soulful, heart-centered reflections. In some aspects, she writes in a dialect of her own in terms of run-on sentences and expressing herself in a way that you know is part of the fabric of her being. It's gritty, hilarious, stupefying, and downright raw but it is a spiritually enlightening story. You will be glad you met Ms. Lamott!

Shirley Nelson

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