a lenten read

this year for lent i decided to read a biography of someone whose faith would encourage my own.  i read about amy carmichael. 


a chance to die: the life and legacy of amy carmichael
by: elisabeth elliot


i found amy carmichael to be of the most resolute faith, but of someone who would intimidate me greatly should i ever meet in person.  she was focused and determined.... i often thought about my own faith as i read about her life and ministry of prayer....which was the point of reading about her during lent.  but i also found elliot's writing very documentary like.  i would have like it to be more narrative, a story woven around a culture and a woman whose faith remained ever steady in times of woe and sorrow. i loved how elliot would site the hymns that amy would remind herself of... and how rich the story was told through amy's own poems and letters BUT i have to say, elliot's writing was not compelling.  i guess it didn't need to be in order to convey the power of amy's life and the point being her faith and purpose to serve her King every day..... 

make us thy laborers, 

let us not dream of ever looking back,

let not our knees be feeble, hands be slack,

o make us strong to labour, strong to bear,

from rising of the  morning till the stars appear.

make us thy warriors,

on whom thou canst depend to stand the brunt

of any perilous charge on any front,

give to us skill to handle sword and spear

from the rising of the morning till the stars appear.

not far from us, those stars,

unseen as angels and yet looking through

the quiet air, the day's transparent blue.

what shall we know, and feel, and see, and hear

when the sunset colours kindle and the stars appear?

--from toward jeruselum

and just so you don't think i am more spiritual than i am..... i also read reckless magic (number 1 in the star-crossed series) by rachel higginson.  a full-blown teen lit (not even worthy of the young adult category) about a girl who does not know she is a witch even though she goes to a high school for the "gifted" (aka - more witches and werewolves).  and yes, i am tempted to read the rest of the series. perhaps, i will wait for summer then i can justify it while i sitting on a beach somewhere..... should i actually end up on a beach somewhere this summer.