You guys. I am so terribly behind on posting a review for this book and I feel awful about it because IT IS SUCH AN INCREDIBLE BOOK! It deserved a really great, lengthy, shining blog post a long time ago. I received it last fall when it released and read it within a week or so. Honestly it was maybe in my top five favorite reads from 2016. It was one of those books you finish and want to immediately purchase copies of for everyone you love. I highly recommend it!
Shannan Martin’s book Falling Free: Rescued from the life I always wanted came into my hands in the middle of our house search. In a sense I was resistant to reading it, since Martin’s book is a memoir sharing about their leaving behind the life they thought they always wanted for something that seemed far riskier, smaller, and challenging. Its good to read something like this while in the midst of your own home search. What Martin was leaving behind–a cute farmhouse, a mini homestead, a comfortable community–these are some of the things my husband and I are looking for and dreaming about. And not that there is anything wrong with having a farmhouse or a homestead or a wonderful church community. But Martin sure does challenge our notions of what we need, what we expect, what we feel entitled to, what we think God would have for us, what we think is safe, what we hope for. She brings perspective. She gives courage to truly abandon your life to the faithfulness of God, even in the face of the risk and discomfort involved. She holds out the glory of Jesus and the life of following and obeying Him as higher and greater than our small dreams, our small hopes for a comfortable, safe, monochromatic life.
An author I have loved, Emily P. Freeman, has highly recommended Martin’s writing, which is what led me to check out her first book. I was not disappointed! She is at turns hilarious, witty, and yet poignant and insightful. She can turn a phrase like few authors I’ve read, bringing fresh insight and conviction to our typical American way of life and thinking. And her taco recipe has become a regular staple in our home. (Thank you, Shannon.)
I can’t tell you more about it because I simply can’t decide what to emphasize most. Just go read it. If you at all feel bound up, go read it. If while you have most comforts and pleasures accessible at your right hand yet can’t shake the niggling sense that you’re missing something, go read it. If you’re hungry for the kingdom of God, go read it. If you’re hungry for more of God, go read it. If you’re just plain bored, go read it.
Read at your own risk. Prepare to be perturbed, disturbed, challenged, convicted, awakened, and set free from the life you think you want to the life God would have for you.
Thank you to Book Look Bloggers for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
everything He gives 