Welcome! We’re glad you’ve joined us to discuss all things books. Here and in the Facebook group we love to make a cuppa and talk about the latest books we’ve read – why we liked them, what we gained, or why we wanted to throw them across the room in disgust.
I look forward to hearing what you’re reading!
Amy Boucher Pye
This month I'm reading…
What Falls from the Sky by Esther Emery
(Zondervan, ISBN 978-0310345107)
Could you live without the internet for a year? Especially if you are a digital native – that is, one born after 1979? Esther Emery, in a point of crisis, embarked on an experiment of cutting herself off from all things digital for a year – even debit cards. What she thought would be a time of deprivation turned into a season of abundance and life, as she rediscovered God and herself.
She found herself returning to her husband after their marriage had suffered some betrayals. Life together felt precarious and fragile, but without the distraction of social media and e-mails, they started to rebuild their marriage from the foundation.
They had moved across the country for a new job for her husband, and she temporarily gave up her career in the theatre to stay home with her newborn and toddler. The isolation of a new city and no electronic networks pushed her to embrace new experiences. And as she slowed down, she could now hear the call of her heart, and of God as he whispered an invitation for her to return home.
I found her story compelling and engaging, and read it voraciously one day when I was weary and felt I couldn’t produce anything more just then. Her words spoke rest into my soul, of our identity in God, of how he awakens in us our passions and calling. When I felt flat, her words brought life.
For Esther, the year-long journey involved slowly embracing her heritage as the daughter of a pioneer of the self-sufficiency movement in the United States. As she learned to make bread and to garden, she became concerned with the modern craze with waste. Indeed, her year without the internet was the start of a journey that led her and her family to live off the land in a yurt in the mountains.
You may not go to social media for affirmation, but as we all are made to worship, we all have the propensity to fill our empty places by turning to something other than God. Esther’s story is a gentle call to heed the still, small voice of the Lord who always wants to speak to us.
