Taking a Leap...

It's the beginning of a new month, which means the start of a new CW blog chain which I will be leading off...or maybe I should saying taking a leap as that is the topic for this month's chain of writing.

For my start of the chain, I would like to do a book review on a story that is a true leap of faith. The book is a Southern novel (which means there's going to be a lot of talk about food, family, and gossip). The story begins with the lead character, Mattie, a spirited 76 year old, preparing lunch for her son who is coming to visit. She is still living on her own despite her son's thoughts that she should be in a nice old folks home as the upkeep of the house is too much for her. Her son doesn't like the fact that she's taken in a mangy stray dog and is even more upset when she takes in a runaway who is also a bit of a juvenile delinquent.

She thinks taking care of them is what she should do as she follows the words of the Bible which say we are to take care of "the least of these" referring to the dog and the young boy. Caring for these two of God's creatures gets Mattie a lot of grief not only from her son but the local townsfolk as well. There's some interesting scenes with the local church folk also who seem to miss the point in the Bible of caring for one another. Mattie doesn't care what others think. She has taken a leap of faith that with God's help she can do some good for both neglected and unwanted creatures.

The title of the book (and later a movie) is "Walking Across Egypt" by Clyde Edgerton and was written about 20 years ago. It rings true today as it did when it was first written. The title refers to the Israelites walk through the desert looking for a new home that God promised them. This is also comes into play with a current sermon series by Max Lucado at my church entitled "You'll Get Through This." In both cases they deal with taking a leap of faith when times are rough and looking to God for direction. Each reminds us that life can dry out our spirit and we can be in for a lot of frustration along the way. Still we've got to look past our here and now...to what can be... with a little leap of faith.

If you would like to learn more about the book and it's author, click here for a link to my interview with him. If you'd like to hear all or part of Max Lucado's series, click here. Then be sure to click on each of the daily posts this month to the right for others thoughts on taking a leap of sorts.