Prayer When You Don't Have The Words: Mini Reviews of To Light Their Way and A Rhythm of Prayer

When Kayla Craig's daughter was three years old, she was hospitalized with a respiratory virus. Sitting by her bedside, Craig discovered that she could not find the words to pray. When a friend sent her a book of prayers, she found comfort in praying words that had already been laid out for her. As she continued to raise her children, she found many moments when she just did not have the words for the joy or sorrow or doubt she was experiencing. So she wrote a collection of prayers for parents, for the ones who are overwhelmed, for those smiling and crying as they send their little love off to kindergarten for the first time, and for the ones who are feeding a baby in those dark early morning hours.

This collection of prayers and liturgies is beautiful and varied. Craig writes in the introduction that these are not prayers that ignore reality; instead, she includes prayers for the one who parents alone, a prayer for receiving a diagnosis, and one for when your child is the bully. Some are meant for a caregiver to pray by themselves, and others are meant to read with your child. There are even simple breath prayers intended to help parents connect with God in the midst of school pickup, getting everyone to practice, and ensuring every child has brushed their teeth. To Light Their Way is a beautiful reminder that it is ok to not always have the words, and it would be a fantastic gift to give to any parent or caregiver. 

To Light Their Way
A Collection of Prayers and Liturgies for Parents 
By Kayla Craig
Tyndale Momentum October 2021
240 pages
Read via Netgalley

Sarah Bessey had a similar moment of not knowing how to pray. She recalled the prayer circles of her youth, missing both the confidence of knowing that others were praying for her and the many different ways they reached out to God. Bessey asked a group of women who teach and challenge her to contribute prayers to this collection. These prayers are not necessarily meant to be read and repeated verbatim.  Instead, they are intended to inspire you to find your own new ways to pray. 

The prayers in this book are angry cries about injustice or a guided prayer for when you don't know what you want. Some selections are not prayers themselves; they are letters to a future self or musings on the power of a mother or grandmother's prayers. One of the prayers in this book even sparked controversy when the Black author prayed that God would just let her hate white people instead of having her heart broken over and over by people who won't address their racism. It is good for us to be reminded that prayer doesn't have to look just one way and sometimes the anger or grief we feel is uncomfortable to confess. A Rhythm of Prayer is exactly this reminder and a powerful tool for anyone who calls out to God. 

A Rhythm of Prayer
A Collection of Meditations for Renewal
Edited by Sarah Bessey
Convergent Books February 2021
176 pages
Read via Netgalley 

Nonfiction November: Out of Sorts

Sarah Bessey is a writer of incredible grace and kindness. There are many books about the moment when someone becomes a Christian, but there are very few that deal with the changing journey of faith. It is easy to feel confident in our beliefs - we know exactly what we believe and why...until the day when things aren't so clear anymore. We find something that doesn't make sense or realize that we just don't believe a certain thing in light of our own experiences. Through Bessey's words, we see that our beliefs can change over time and we can be gentle with ourselves as that happens.

Throughout the book, Bessey compares faith to holding a rummage sale. As we sort through the pieces of our faith, we rediscover some things we had forgotten we had, but we also find things that no longer fit into our lives. There are chapters about every person's ability to ask questions and dive into theology, how we can and should keep reading through the portions of Scripture that make us uncomfortable, and finding beauty in the new and ancient practices of the church. In all of these things, she always brings the focus back to Jesus and His love for us. 

Bessey weaves together her thoughts about an evolving faith with her own story of coming to faith as a child, growing up in the church, leaving it for six years, and then finding her way back. She is honest about the pain she experienced and the mistakes she made.

Out of Sorts is a book of loving warning for the person new to faith about the trials they may face. It is also a reassuring message of solace for the person who thought they knew what they believed, only to find themselves in a spiritual wilderness. A faith that looks exactly the same for years is a faith that isn't growing. This is a normal part of our journey, despite its uncertainty. With gentle and kind guidance from people like Sarah Bessey, we are able to walk through it together with the knowledge that all will be well.


Out of Sorts: Making Peace with An Evolving Faith
By Sarah Bessey
Howard Books November 2015
272 pages
Read via Netgalley

Review: Jesus Feminist

Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women

By Sarah Bessey

Howard Books November 2013

240 pages

Received via Netgalley

Jesus and Feminist. Those two words don't usually spend a lot of time together. Feminism is often viewed as anti-religion and it seems as if there is no place for feminism in the generations of patriarchal tradition that are foundational to the church. But Sarah Bessey argues that Jesus was a feminist, that Christ himself challenged the women he encountered to use all of their gifts and to come and follow Him. She invites us to stop arguing and share our stories with each other. Through our stories and our honesty, we will find unity and draw closer to the God who made us as men and women.

This book is perhaps best described as a warm hug from a very smart and very compassionate lady. In the introduction, Bessey invites you to lay down your tightly held ideas about what it means to be a woman in the church. Instead, she takes your hand and leads you outside to share a good bottle of wine and dig your toes into the sand as you share your story of the ways you have been hurt or pushed aside, the people who have been Jesus to you, and the moments when God found you and loved you at your most vulnerable. 

Although Sarah has described herself as a "happy clappy" Christian, this does not mean that she has not done her research. She examines the moment when Jesus spoke to women, when he healed them and when he taught them alongside his male disciples. Bessey even tackles those troublesome passages where we read that women should be quiet in church and are not allowed to teach. She does so with a level head and in the context of its time and place, the other books that accompany it in the Bible, and the Abba God who inspired it all. 

Jesus Feminist does not limit itself to the Americanized churches that we find on our street corners. Bessey points out that the world fails women over and over again, by limiting them, by denigrating them, even by murdering them. Followers of Christ should be the ones to change the broken system, not the ones contributing to it. We are challenged to be a voice for justice for men and especially for women all over the world. 

It sounds cliche, but this book made me laugh and it made me cry (all within the first ten pages). Best of all, it challenged me to rethink some of the most controversial and highly debated sections of Scripture. If we believe that God is the God of love, then he loves women too. He created men and He created women and He has big plans for us all, if we are willing to lay down our petty arguments and precise definitions and just walk together in love. With Jesus Feminist, Sarah Bessey has given us a gift - an opportunity to share our stories and learn how to better love God and each other.