The Remarkable Ordinary - A Book Review

The Remarkable Ordinary - How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life by Frederick Buechner


The Remarkable Ordinary is based on a series of mostly unpublished lectures, where Buechner explains how to stop, look, and listen to your life. The book is organized into three parts.

In Part 1 Stop, Look, and Listen For God, Buechner uses art and faith to teach us how to pay attention to greatness in and amongst the ordinary. He says, "To love your neighbor is to see your neighbor. To see somebody, really to see somebody, you have to love somebody. You have to see people the way Rembrandt saw the old lady, not just a face that comes at you the way a dry leaf blows at you down the path like all the other dry leaves, but in a way that you realize the face is something the likes of which you have never seen before and will never see again. To love somebody we must see that person's face, and once in a while we do. Usually it is because something jolts us into seeing it."

In Part 2, Listening for God in the Stories We Tell, Buechner tells his own stories and yet, we somehow remember our own stories as we read. In one anecdote he tells about a time he was giving a lecture on his spiritual autobiography. After he was done, an Episcopal clergyman stood up to introduce Maya Angelou and said, "Ms. Angelou will now get up and tell you her story, and it will be a very different story from the one that you have just heard from Frederick Buechner." As he said that, Maya Angelou, who was sitting in the front row and shaking her head from side to side, got up and she said he was wrong. She said, "I have exactly the same story to tell as Frederick Buechner." Although we all come from different experiences, we are all created in the image of God and we have the same stories to tell.

The last part of the book, Telling the Truth contains more stories about Buechner's life and how those situations helped him to find remarkableness in the ordinary and to love those around us well.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it for anyone who wants to explore ways to find extraordinary in the every day life.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Handlebar Marketing as part of their Book Review Blogger Program. I was not required to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
 

A Crazy, Holy Grace - A Book Review

A Crazy, Holy Grace: The Healing Power of Pain and Memory by Frederick Buechner



     This was the first book I have read of Buechner's (pronounced Beekner if you don't know) so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, in looking him up on Facebook, I found that many people I respect like his author page so I was excited to give it a read. While this is a short book, it has a lot of meat to it. 
     In this book Buechner uses the pain and grief he experienced from his father's suicide to explore how wounds can be healed. In the midst of the grief and pain God may seem far away or perhaps not present at all. One of my favorite passages in this book says, "You can never be sure you're gong to find a pearl in the depths; you find monsters in the depths. But it seems to me that what you do find in the depths is yourself and each other, and even God is present, there in the depths as well as in the heights." Isn't that what life is about? Finding ourselves, each other and God in the depths as well as the heights? This statement brought to mind the many people in my life that have walked through the depths with me and made me so grateful for their presence.It also was a reminder of times God felt far away or even absent, yet on the other side of the depths I could see God's grace that sustained me. Buechner says that loss will come to all of us, but we are not alone. Crazy and unreal as it may sometimes seem, God's holy, healing grace is always present and available if we are still enough to receive it. 
     Another thing I gleaned from this book is the idea of using your experiences in the depths to come alongside another person and walking out their own grief. Buechner suggests that our grief is not wasted when we can use it to help others.
     I enjoyed reading A Crazy, Holy Grace and am anxious to read more of Buechner's books. In fact, I was sent this book and another of his books in exchange for a fair and honest review. I am not obligated to give this a positive review, but I did enjoy it and would definitely recommend it.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Handlebar Marketing as part of their Book Review Blogger Program. I was not required to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”