“Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy” by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott’s beautiful Hallelujah Anyway was the perfect audio book for me to listen to at this particular moment.

The past several weeks have been fairly challenging on both a personal and professional level. My grandmother and a beloved member of the congregation passed away within a week of each other and I found myself more than a little worse for wear. Additionally, I was, and am, dealing with some leftover deployment related grief and and emotional baggage.

While the details of that situation will wait for another day, the bottom line is that I began the month of September physically and spiritually exhausted. Quite simply, the situations I faced left me stressed, tired, and frustrated. Several of the balls that I have been attempting juggle crashed to the ground in a spectacular fashion and I am just now beginning to get my feet back under me.

Penguin Audio’s production of Hallelujah Anyway has been a critical piece of getting me moving back in the right direction. My commutes over the past two weeks have included her gentle voice walking me through the story of how she rediscovered mercy, and what a difference that experience has made in her life and the way she lives. The mercy she speaks about is not only the compassion we offer to others, but the grace that we direct towards ourselves.

Part of Lamott’s premise is that human beings are naturally merciful and compassionate. When we are born we possess an innate ability to love and be loved. Along the way traumas are experienced that slowly erode that ability until we eventually become a mere shell of who we once were. This leaves us angry, broken, and unable to be the person whom God has created us to be.

Because hurting people hurt people, this shared brokenness is at the root of many of the evils in our world. We are disconnected from our true selves. We allow ourselves to become addicted to a myriad of substances and activities in vain attempts to fill in the void.

Rediscovering mercy leads to healing

While at first this sounds like bad news, accepting this reality is also the key to beginning to heal. Lamott draws on several biblical stories and characters, as well as experiences in her own life, to remind the reader (or listener in my case) that even when things are awful, grace is still real. God is still there with us. Compassion abounds because mercy is an inherent part of our truest selves.

When we are able to take a step back and recognize this truth, everything begins to fall into proper relief. Although life is awful, it is also beautiful. Fear, injustice, and anger are part of the world we live in. However, so is forgiveness, reconciliation, and joy. Peacemaking begins with mercy towards oneself and extends outwards from there.

This is what I needed to be reminded of this month. I needed to hear that even when things fall apart, God is not done with us. Ann Lamott was a prophetic voice in the wilderness inviting me to look reality in the face, accept the world as it is, and declare Hallelujah Anyway.