Home

When it comes to reading, I can be a bit of a snob. By "snob" . . . of course . . . I mean I'm selective. I read what I'm told to read by my teachers. I also have entrusted my reading to a select group of people who bat around .900.

One of my inner-circle reading friends suggested I check out this novel a few years ago. It blew me away . . . I think I read it in two days. Which, for me, is not normal.

Then I found out that the author of this novel was one of Barbara Brown Taylor's favorite writers. BBT is one of the best writers in all of Christianity. Period.

So, another novel by MR just came out. I picked it up on Saturday. It is doing surgery on me. Scot McKnight recently reminded me of one of my favorite sections in the novel.

“There is a saying that to understand is to forgive, but that is an error, so Papa used to say. You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding. Her [Glory’s] father had said this more than once, in sermons, with appropriate texts, but the real text was Jack, and those to whom he spoke were himself and the row of Boughtons in the front pew, which usually did not include Jack, and then, of course, the congregation. If you forgive, he would say, you may indeed still not understand, but you will be ready to understand, and that is the posture of grace.”


The book is called Home. Check it out. You won't regret it.