Mel's Book Review: Layers by Sandi Patty

My sister picked the book Layers up when we went to the 2008 Women of Faith, Infinite Grace conference. Wow! What an experience! Any woman who hasn't had the pleasure of attending one of these events, should try to make the next one - very powerful! http://www.womenoffaith.com/


Sandi Patty, a multiple Dove award winner, Grammy Award winner, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame'er, is among the group of inspiring singers, speakers, and entertainers who bring encouragement and God's love to the stage on Women of Faith tours. Most, if not all, of these women are also authors. I would love to read all of their books, but for now here are my thoughts on Sandi Patty's Layers:

As many know, being a Christian in no way spares us from the hurts, pains, and harms of this world. In her book Sandi shares a major childhood event and draws a clear picture of the many resulting protective layers she wrapped herself in. The years from childhood to adulthood she, of course, had more experiences which created more layers -- layers that most of us can identify with in our own lives. She takes her readers on a guided tour of her journey of coming to understand their existence , their causes, and the way they effected her life and her relationships.

Although some protection of our hearts and feelings can be good and healthy, being tightly wrapped in false exteriors can choke out the real us. These layers are originated in fear, and fear is not a true protector.

In Layers, Sandi introduces her beautiful family of eight kids and a loving husband. She also shares some of their family events that further demonstrate how layers can form, but more importantly, how they can be peeled away giving refreshing freedom from bondage, revealing more and more of the beautiful image of God we each bear.

Sandi has a very friendly writing style, speaking to her readers with a tone that gives the feel of a chat with an old friend. She is funny, tender, and real as she shares her experience of entering a mental health facility and all she has gained from that counseling.

I was absolutely moved by the way Sandi takes a C. S. Lewis story, and helps bring to light just how we layer ourselves and just how willing God is to peel our layers away.

Each chapter ends with a question section, and the question is always the same: So what do I need now? Sandi first asks herself the question and gives her answer. She then asks the reader the question and leaves blanks for an answer. I always had an answer to put down. Sometimes I could barely wait to get to this section because so much would be uncovered in my own heart though the chapters. This exercise was definitely therapeutic just as it was meant to be.

Reading this book helped me see more clearly my own layers, and gave me tools to begin my own peeling process. In a way, this book exhausted me - in a really good way, that is. I cried a lot, I laughed, I prayed, and I did some healing.

I will read this one a second time. I hope you will give it a read; I think you will enjoy it!

From the red letters: A Little More About an Old Story

Jesus is leaving one town to go to another because He knows that the whole point of His work is getting lost in some kind of false competition being built up by the Pharisees of the time.

Pharisees were religious leaders of the time. That’s not a bad thing, but a lot of these guys had become puffed up, thinking more highly of themselves than they did the commoners, those they should have been caring for. They went so far as to make additional rules and regulations for the people to follow as if God’s rules were not enough.

In between the town Jesus was leaving and the town He was going to sat the city of Samaria. The conscientious Jews of the area would go miles out his way to avoid this place. There was definite racial hatred encouraged between the devout Jews of the land and the Samaritans. The Samaritans were part of the Jewish race who, for years, had intermarried and become viewed as watered down and unclean. Remember some of those additional rules made by the Pharisees? Well, here are three of their laws: 1) If you take food from a Samaritan, you could be put in bondage 2) If you gave food to a Samaritan, your children could be put into bondage 3) If you ate with a Samaritan you may as well be eating pig’s flesh (a Jewish no-no).

Avoid the Samaritans? Not Jesus; He travels right toward Samaria where, He comes across a Samaritan woman who is coming to draw water from the well He is resting at. The well is called Jacob’s well. The woman has come by herself in the midday to this well just outside of town. When she gets to the well, Jesus says, Give Me a drink. The woman responds by saying, How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?

From what we have discussed so far, we know one reason for this woman to be a little shocked with Jesus already. As we discussed above, she is a Samaritan and He is a Jew. The Jew-Samaritan issue truly was a serious one, but the woman also mentions that she is a woman. A Rabbi or teacher of that day would not even speak to his own wife in public – it just wasn’t heard of. Added to the racial problems of the time, there were also gender prejudices.

Some more things we can assess from this woman are that she is probably poor and an outcast among her own people. This assessment comes from the fact that she is alone fetching her water and it is midday. Women of influence and good standing would gather water together and at a more opportune time of the day. It must have made her feel pretty uncomfortable to trot up to this well alone, perhaps feeling unwanted and sad, only to find a man – a Jewish man, no less – to have to be around. And now He wants water from her? This has to be very strange to her.

Jesus says to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.

The woman replies, You have nothing to draw the water with…Are you greater than Jacob who gave us the well and drank of it himself? This response makes me feel that she is guarded and skeptical of the strangeness of this Man, being somewhat snippy with Him.

Jesus answers back, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst. The water I give shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.

This woman has stumbled into a real moment, and she realizes it. Her suspicions begin to subside. She moves from skeptical to earnestly curious. It seems to me she is feeling like, there is something here; I don’t know what it is, but there is something about this man and His words. So she says, Sir, give me this water so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw.

There it is. She is interested in what He is offering. She has lowered her guard down.
Jesus says to her, Go, call your husband, and come here.

How immediately sad she must have felt. One moment she is caught up in the beauty and possibility of this Man’s words, and in His next breath He pushes her back down to the reality of her sadness and shame. She answers Him, saying, I have no husband.

Jesus replies, You have well said, I have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.

Now we know that this is how this woman is an outcast even among a whole people of outcasts. I cannot imagine feeling any lower than being from a people that the rest of the world seems to look down upon, and among those lowly people, you are cast down even lower.

What Jesus communicated to her by revealing all that He knows about her after He had offered her His gift is: Woman, I know EVERYTHING, and I still offer this to you, BUT you have to get real and honest with Me because it is a relationship that I offer. See, God requires our honesty and confessions to Him. He longs for an intimacy with us that just cannot happen if we are trying to lace it with hidden secrets.

The woman's guilt and shame keeps her from putting this together fully. Even though Jesus has forced her thinking back to her shame and guilt and sadness, it is intriguing to her that He knows all of this about her, for she knows He is a stranger to both her and her people. Sir, she says, I perceive you are a prophet. Raising her guard back up, she seems to want to engage Jesus in a politically religious debate. She says, We worship in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Jesus says to her, Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know…an hour is coming and is now when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

She is again stunned by the beauty of this Man’s words, and by this moment. Her spirit is being stirred within her. Her guard is really going down now as she says, I know that Messiah is coming; when that One comes, He will declare all things to us. And Jesus does something for her that He did not do for many while He was here on earth; he actually tells her who He is. He says to her, I who speak to you am He.

At this point, Jesus’ disciples come walking up to the well. They are shocked to see Him talking to this Samaritan woman, so the woman left her water pot and went back to the city.

When she got to the city, she immediately told the men that she had met a Man who knew everything about her. She said to these men, This is not the Christ, is He? Remembering that this woman was an outcast, you can imagine how excited she must have been to be willing to rush up and gush such a tale out to the townsmen. But the next amazing thing is: They believed her! These men immediately went out toward the well to see for themselves.

In the meantime, although Jesus’ disciples didn’t question Him about the woman, their concern was obvious. So Jesus, pointing toward the city of Samaria, began telling them that these fields were white for harvest (harvest of longing souls for the Lord, that is). And at that moment here the crowd comes seeking to see this Man that the woman told them about. Seeking to meet the Messiah.

Jesus spent two days with these Samaritans. After speaking to Jesus, the people of the town told the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.

My friends, Jesus knows our EVERYTHING, even those things we have not shared with anyone else, and still, He offers a relationship with Him to each of us!

Here is the Good News for you and me in this story:
He already knows EVERYTHING
He wants us to talk to Him about it ALL
He isn't ashamed of us
He wants a relationship with each one of us

This story begs the question within each of our hearts:
What is it that I need to speak openly with Him about?

Pistol's Purpose

When I saw Pistol, there was no doubt about it, no back and forth. Hands down, she was the one. She was a tiny black Pomeranian girl in a sea of her much larger black Pomeranian brothers. She was beautiful, tiny, and precious!

Now, I was looking for a puppy for my children to give to them as a Christmas present. At the time, I was in a sad marriage with a man who typically attended only to his own wants. But to my surprise he announced one day that I was to find a small housedog for the kids for Christmas, and it needed to be a girl – they're more protective of their home, was his logic.

The mission I had been given was in and of itself a miracle. A small house dog? The man giving me the mission always claimed a firm belief that animals belonged outside; humans belonged inside.

Here I now stood in another phase of the miracle – five puppies; four Baby Hughie boy dogs, and one precious tiny girl! No need to search further. Mission accomplished. Little did I know that this tiny bundle of joy would not only be a Christmas present to my kids from their parents, but she would be a longtime companion gift to me straight from the Lord, Himself.

On the drive home with our new puppy, she curled up in my palm, which I held close to my chest. She scooted as close to me as she could. During that 45 minute drive, the amazing bond between us was formed. She was a precious joy seared on my heart, and I was instantly her EVERYTHING.

Christmas morning she was presented to the kids who were thrilled to have her to be a part of the family. Before the day was done, we had named this spunky ball of energy, Pistol.
We have had Pistol for nine years now. Nine years of greeting me with more enthusiasm than I have ever seen. Nine years of sleeping on my pillow, snuggled against my shoulder and head. Nine years of jumping up and following me anytime I move.

I am no longer married. During times of divorce, financial woes, heartaches, and loneliness, Pistol has showered me with, I love yous; I need yous, you're my everythings, the way only a dog can do. I have been aware the entire time we have had this little dog that she was a direct, hand-picked gift to me from God, which I would need to fulfill certain lackings in my heart. I have thanked Him a thousand times for His gift to me.

It is so clear why God created these creatures. They love so unconditionally. They hurt and worry when we are sad or angry. During these times, they rush by our side with a countenance that shouts "I care!" "I hurt, when you hurt." If we are excited about anything, they pick up on that too. There is their countenance again – "I am so thrilled too! I don't know what about, but if you're happy, I'm happy!" What an uncommon connection their little hearts have to ours! It can only be explained that they are gifts from the Lord.

As I see it, a dog was designed to love us, care about what we care about – empathize, warn us of danger and protect us, be cute and pleasing to the eye and touch, and to need us so completely as to cause no doubt between us that we are the master and their lives are fulfilled, cared for, and nourished through us alone.

What a beautiful reflection of our relationship to our Master. Pistol depends completely upon me. I am her everything. I sustain her life and am her fulfilling source of joy. Sure, I let her run in the park where there are birds to chase, cars to bark at, and dead lizards to roll in, but she never seems to fail to understand that I am her everything; that apart from me, all those additional joys aren't enough.

My mastership is not a bad thing in Pistol's eyes. She takes comfort in my total control because she knows that I know things she does not. She knows that in my love for her, there is safety, comfort, and freedom to be what she was designed to be.

This is the way it is between us and our Master. There are careers to chase, sports events to cheer at, and smelly responsibilities to tend to, but only because our Master lets us run in the park of life to play and explore. But still, He is our everything. We depend completely upon Him. He sustains our lives and is our full source of joy. He absolutely knows things that we do not know.

Pistol fulfills her purpose within her relationship with me effortlessly each day because it is simply who she is.

That's what I would like for myself. I want to fulfill my purpose within my relationship with Jesus – to know Him, to long to be with Him, to perk up at the sound of His voice and come running when He calls, and stay in constant anticipation of His presence. For me, I know I want it to be effortless because it's simply who I am.

While she is here and long after she is gone, I will always be grateful for my little Pistol and the lessons she has taught me.