I left class believing-accepting-that there was a God.' Nonetheless, it would take the heartbreak of her father's death and more than a dozen years of escalating drug and alcohol addiction to bring Lamott to fully embrace Christianity. I don't know how else to put it or how and why I actively made, if not exactly a leap of faith, a lurch of faith.

This story pierced Lamott and she 'crossed over. Abraham, Lamott learned, so trusted in God's love that he was willing to follow the order to sacrifice his own son. Raised by her bohemian California family to believe only in 'books and music and nature,' Lamott (Bird by Bird Operating Instructions) was enthralled by the Danish philosopher's rendition of the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac.

As she puts it, 'My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers.'Ī key moment in the step-by-step spiritual awakening of the author came to her as a freshman in college when an impassioned professor taught her Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. Against all odds, she came to believe in God and then, even more miraculously, in herself. Lamott's faith isn't about easy answers, which is part of what endears her to believers as well as nonbelievers. And Traveling Mercies is a welcome return to those lives, as well as an introduction to new companions Lamott treats with the same candor, insight, and tenderness. The people in Anne Lamott's real life are like beloved characters in a favorite series for her readers-her friend Pammy, her son, Sam, and the many funny and wise folks who attend her church are all familiar. Since Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird, her fans have been waiting for her to write the book that explained how she came to the big-hearted, grateful, generous faith that she so often alluded to in her two earlier nonfiction books. Lamott claims the two best prayers she knows are: 'Help me, help me, help me' and 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.' She has a friend whose morning prayer each day is 'Whatever,' and whose evening prayer is 'Oh, well.' Anne thinks of Jesus as 'Casper the friendly savior' and describes God as 'one crafty mother.'ĭespite-or because of-her irreverence, faith is a natural subject for Anne Lamott. Sometimes even in the same breath.' - San Francisco Chronicle 'Anne Lamott is walking proof that a person can be both reverent and irreverent in the same lifetime.

From the acclaimed author of Bird by Bird comes a personal, wise, very funny, and “life-affirming” book ( People) that shows us how to find meaning and hope through shining the light of faith on the darkest part of ordinary life.

Traveling mercies lamott