Book Review: Voices of the Faithful, Vol. 2

I was recently given the opportunity to review Voices of the Faithful: Book 2, a devotional by Kim Davis and Beth Moore. (And in case you're wondering, Thomas Nelson sent me the book to review but no other compensation changed hands!)

First Impressions:
The subtitle of this book is Inspiring Stories of Christians Serving Around the World. I absolutely love "inspiring stories" of any kind, so I was quite psyched to begin this book. Somehow I was imagining nail-biting stories of courage in the face of danger and breathtaking accounts of miraculous interventions. So when I started reading the first few entries, I was taken aback. The anecdotes were so, well, normal. The people I was reading about didn't seem that much different than me, other than that they were living in another cultural context. I started to be disappointed. And then I read more.

Second Impressions:
As I worked my way through account after account of prayers being answered, of hindrances turned to blessings and of wrong heart attitudes made right, I slowly began to realize that these stories WERE inspiring, but for different reasons than I expected. Instead of presenting out of the ordinary experiences, the authors focused on showing how God works in our day to day lives. And that very normality affected me deeply. I too could pray for my  neighbors and watch expectantly for God's work in their lives. I too could see that next trial as a vehicle for growth instead of an annoyance to be survived. I too could serve outside of my comfort zone and accept the "culture shock" that would inevitably follow as part of identifying with Christ.

Once my visions of grand stories was adjusted, I found this book to be encouraging and uplifting. A majority of the entries were thought-provoking and challenged me in small but important ways. I'm looking forward to sharing this book with my children as they get older. I think it will make a great family devotional and will help us to see that life as a missionary is really not so different from ours if we choose to learn to be all that God desires for us.