Friday Favorites: "The Uncommon Woman" reviewed

I'd like to start a new thing here on Beck Far From Home. Every Friday I'll dedicate my post to highlighting a great book I've read.

Let's kick things off with one of my all time favorite Christian books; The Uncommon Woman: Making an Ordinary Life Extraordinary by Susie Larson. I am so thankful that God gives good gifts to each believer that bless the church body as a whole, I have certainly been blessed by Susie's Holy Spirit led instruction. The Uncommon Woman was given to me a couple of years ago by a dear friend, who has excellent taste in books, and I devoured it. The impact on my life has been undeniable and I've actually read it through three times. It's pages are scarred with deep black lines marking my favorite sections and stained with tears.

Susie writes with warmth and honesty, sharing the journey that led her to the discovery of liberating truth. It's broken down into three sections; The Uncommon Woman Understands the Paradox that She is Nothing and Everything, The Uncommon Woman Embraces a Different Perspective and The Uncommon Woman Changes the World.

I was talking about the book with my mom this week and I told her the one word I would use to sum up what I've learned through it's pages is humility. Susie uses the beautiful account found in John 13 of Jesus, God made flesh, stooping down to wash his disciples dirty feet to compel us to face our own sin blackened ones. The way I love Jesus, how I see myself, my response to others was shaken and reformed as I read. Everything changes in light of recognizing our great need and his answering mercy. She writes about our continual need for cleansing, “This issue isn't with identity but with our whereabouts. Our dirty feet do not speak of who we are, but rather of where we have been... Jesus wants to move toward you with the towel and basin.”

Later on the book addresses how we live in relationship with others, especially women, in light of God's great mercy and example of humility. Once again I was blown away. I felt like Job who says I put my hand over my mouth, I have said too much, I have been talking about things I don't understand (my paraphrase from Job 40). One of my favorite paragraphs regarding forgiveness, and I have many, says, “In the matters of our heart and our calling, our offender is beside the point. The fight for us is one for a heart that is willing to hand over our offenses because Jesus asks us to. God will defend. God will settle the accounts, and when he does, everyone will know that he is a God of righteousness and power. We don't need to instruct Him in the ways of justice.” Light bulb! Once we get that right we have the privilege of watching God do amazing things in other women's hearts that we might otherwise have missed, because instead of seeing holy transformation we would have been too busy judging.

I could go on and on about the lessons learned; one's about resting in Jesus, choosing our battles, overcoming fear, showing compassion to others. But I won't, instead I recommend you read for yourself. As summer approaches and life slows down just a tad let me encourage you to add this insightful, powerful book to your reading list, I don't think you'll regret it!

You can check out the book here and Susie Larson's website here.