A Longing for Faithfulness and A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

If you read my last reading update, you know I blitzed through a bunch of new releases in the first half of the summer, some good, many not. I walked into the second half of summer with deep longing for what one might flippantly call old fashioned. I was done with the FOMO kind of reading that I get when I see exciting “Summer Reading Guides” or buzzy posts about beach reads. I was craving characters, stories, or nonfiction deeply rooted in the idea of faithfulness.

Faithfulness is the word of my heart right now. Celebrating the legacy of my husband’s grandmother this summer cemented this idea for me, giving me a word for what was a growing idea in my mind. I would love to be known as half as faithful to God, my family, and my every day work as she was. (And I should add that joyful faithfulness is really the longing here, for she was no browbeaten woman, but warm and sharp and capable and kind). There is a lot more anyone who knew her could say about her legacy, but to stay to the point of why this matters in my reading life, I realized that what I am yearning for in my thought life is a kind of mentality that doesn’t thrive in the current age. A courageous perseverance in steadily loving and caring for people, all kinds of people, without chasing after fame and followers, that commitment to something good and true over the long haul whether it’s trending or not is not popular in books, movies, or much of anything right now.

So coming into this second half of the summer, I was tempted to give myself a firm reading line, like, “No books published after 1960!” That would be ridiculous; I know by experience there are good and noble books published here and now. Even so, it’s the old books calling to me now. For fun reading, I’ve been enjoying Margery Sharpe (The Foolish Gentlewoman), Maud Hart Lovelace (my youngest girls and I read the first four Betsy-Tacy books over the school year last year, and now my oldest daughter and I have been collecting and reading all the rest of the Deep Valley books this summer), D.E. Stevenson (always), Frances Hodgson Burnett, and much more obscure titles that I have sitting on shelves all around my house, waiting for me to remember picking them up in thrift stores and book sales and come back to read them finally. There’s a measure of satisfaction I find right now even in just the act of being faithful to go back and read a book I’ve long been meaning to read.

And then I heard this title in a book group setting: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Oh! The very title is soul-filling. Published by Eugene Peterson in 1980, and revised in 2000, it’s a book on what it discipleship, or following the way of Jesus, over a lifetime looks like. It isn’t soul-crushing in its expectations for people or a lecture on what not to do at all, but a look at the way the Psalms of Ascent lead followers of God into understanding and dedication in the Christian life. It’s beautiful and clear, and I can’t recommend it more highly. I don’t know why I haven’t heard of it before, but I tend to think it all comes down to my ears perking up to that title because now is the time I should be reading it.

I also picked up Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World. It was a good wake up call for me to remember how important it is to be intentional in our decisions, not in a confrontational way, but in a guiding and focused way with our kids. Most parents want their kids to be aware of needs around them and generous and loving towards others, and also to have a resilience to face hard things as they grow up and become their own independent people in this world, but we don’t always connect how our parenting can instead make them feel a sense of entitlement that carries them right into unending self-centeredness. This book has a lot of good tips and insights for getting away from entitlement and toward generosity and thankfulness.

I’m planning to pick up a recommended mystery novel soon on audio, finish Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart (but it’s a little eerier than I expected….hoping I can stick with it), also finish Jayber Crow because I need more Wendell Berry in my life, and get back to some Gene Stratton Porter books I’ve been meaning to read for ages. As always, I would love your recommendations and hope you are finding some awesome books to carry you through the end of summer and into the back to school/back to fall season.

Faithfully,

Mia The Reader

P.S. If you’re ever curious, please see the About page for an explanation on my online nom de plume!