Have a Little Faith

The book, which I couldn't put down and couldn't blog about on Tuesday evening because of supper hour, is Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom.

When I saw it in bookstores months ago, I planned on buying it—as soon as it is in soft cover. In this country, hardbound books are prohibitive (to people like me anyway). I have become an Albom fan since Tuesdays with Morrie.

At the book fair, there was a softbound edition. But I already had purchased too many books, way beyond my measly budget, so I hooked my chance on my friend, Eli, who was leaving for her yearly sabbatical in the US, and who buys me books, every single time, from a dollar shop.

I gave Eli a list of three books. “Only if they cost a dollar each,” I said.

In two weeks she was back with three books!

As usual, she refused to take my money. “Grace, I quickly read them all, so those are my books which I am bequeathing to you.” In that case then, nobody ever refuses a bequest.

Grace!

Have a Little Faith stirred in me the deep thoughts and feelings I visit when questions leap and tumble in my brain. Albom has a way of wrenching human emotions and un-wrenching them all at once. He feels deeply about people and a whole range of those heart rumblings he shares through simple, uncomplicated words.

He also has an uncanny way of piecing various story lines together, like solving a jig-saw puzzle, making each piece interconnect, never to separate again.

He recognizes mentors in ordinary and extraordinary people (gifts of grace, I call them), and seeks them out, never letting go nor getting off.

And most of all, in this book, he made me understand what one goes through in a faith struggle, and how he is redeemed through those he adopts as life gurus, who do not teach faith, but live it.

He ends the book with, “I am in love with hope.”

So am I.