Heather Hodges

While watching Scooby Doo today, my youngest son, Elijah, told me that I should get “Life Alert”. “How old do you think I am?” I thought. But instead of taking the comment as an insult I chose to hug him and say, “Thank you for caring about me so much.” On the other hand, it is important to know Someone on call when you’ve fallen and can’t get up, no matter how old you are.

I have just finished reading a book by Lauren Winner titled “Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline.” Lauren is a recent convert to Christianity from Judaism. I met her last year at the Zoe Conference in Nashville, where she was the keynote speaker. I found her to be a refreshingly down-to-earth, intuitive, Godly woman. (Aside: One comment she made during her talk that has haunted me to this day was in regards to the church of Christ’s a capella music. She thought the singing was beautiful and uplifting, but found it curious that the women were the ones to always have the “echo” part. Hmmmm…interesting observation.)

“Mudhouse Sabbath” is an invitation for Christians to enrich and deepen their faith by learning from the spiritual practices of Judaism. Lauren delves into the daily, weekly, and yearly practices of Orthodox Judaism that continually remind the faithful of the stories, grace, love, and presence of God. There is so much for Christians to learn about spiritual discipline from this beautiful little book. She discuses the practices of sabbath, hospitality, food and fasting, mourning, prayer, candle-lighting, etc. I have learned so much from Lauren already and I’m looking forward to my next Winner read, “Girl Meets God: On the Path to a Spiritual Life.” Thanks Lauren for pointing us in the right direction.