When I curled up with the memoir Love Mercy by Lisa Samson and her daughter, Ty — given to me by the publisher — I never expected to laugh, cry and feel mad.
Throw-the-book-across-the-room mad.
This often raw story of a mom and her 18-year-old daughter — and the bazillion people they meet — took me from the comfort of a perfectly fine Baltimore suburb to the heart of Lexington, Kentucky, where they and the rest of the family joined an “intentional Chrisitian community”
(more on that in a sec)
to Africa. Not The Lion King Africa and Hakuna matata, a problem-free philosophy.
But the Africa of AIDS.
Lisa and Ty say they went there to minister and to chronicle the crisis devastating the continent. And they do. They also find Christ’s love abounding.
This leads Lisa to the must-ask question: “What if every Christian in the world reached out in love and deed to one sick AIDS patient, one lonely orphan, one poor widow, one hungry family? Why does that sound impossibly hard to us? What if we did it anyway?”
What if?
What if we love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly with God?
The journey from the American dream to the kingdom of God, by way of Africa, sends Lisa into a downward spiral upon return to her intentional community. This community — which we learn early in the book was a place Lisa and the kids did not want to go, thank you very much — shows Jesus to the people in the poorest part of the city through action.
Back home Lisa questions her faith. She blames God. She struggles believing she can do anything to help. She admits she still kept God the Father at arm’s length.
The words of an old Methodist pastor turned hosptal chaplain challenge her back to life.
“Do you want to love God the Father,” he asks
“I want to want to,” she answers.
Loving God, loving our neighbors as ourselves — wherever they may be — this is the journey. Lisa and Ty take it, though hard. They leave comfort and enter unexpected beauty.
It’s not safe, but real — this land of “what if.” Just like Love Mercy.
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Sounds like a great book!
It is. Love Mercy even challenged me to accept that I may never go to Africa. And that it’s OK. I can help AIDS victims from here — either by sending funds to organizations that specialize in preventing and treating this disease or by extending compassion to folks in my community. There are hurting people in every community and in every church.
Blessings, Lucy