Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

shannan martin

When she writes, I pay attention: Review of The Ministry of Ordinary Places by Shannan Martin

Shannan Martin has a unique way of making you feel right at home with her words while also dropping some deep truths in the middle and changing everything you thought you knew.

When I read her first book Falling Free two years ago, I was scared about the impact it would have on my life. This time around, when I had the chance to read an advance copy of her second book, I was excited to apply whatever teaching she had to offer to my life.

I was drawn to The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to God’s Goodness Around You because of its appeal to the everyday. I no longer believe “ministry” is something reserved for a special few and I wholeheartedly believe that some of the most ordinary things we do can be glimpses of the Kingdom. I underlined so many words in this book, but I don’t just want to collect quotes and share statements: I want to live them out. This is a book of right-where-you-are making a difference and I dare you to be uninspired by her stories.

I will share a few snippets, though, just to give you a sense of what this book is all about.

On what it means to live sacrificially:

“But I had seen enough to understand that growth often requires death, and sometimes death looks like losing that extra fifteen minutes of sleep. Sometimes it asks us to surrender our softest pajama pants and lace up our walking shoes for the greater good, even if we’re not quite sure why it matters.”

This stunning sentence: “The world would not feel so impossible if each of us committed to truly knowing five of our nearest neighbors.”

And this, a sort of benediction for the daily work:

“This is my prayer, that as we look around and locate pain, widening our scope when necessary, we’ll have the guts to take swift action. I pray that we’ll all go down together, arms linked, hoarse from shouting on behalf of those found at the short end of justice. I pray that down at street level, we’ll feel the tremor of God’s power and decide, once and for all, that our feet were made for low places and worthy battles. We’ll hang a scarlet cord from the window as our promise to keep meddling for the sake of the kingdom.”

I think this would be a good choice for a church or neighborhood book club. Lots of discussion potential and practical application.

Disclosure: I received an Advance Reader Copy from Harper Collins Christian Publishers.

The book I was afraid to read: Review of Falling Free by Shannan Martin

To me, the scariest books to read aren’t the ones that conjure up the most horrific scenarios meant to thrill and terrify us. Nope. The scariest books I read are the ones that challenge me to do something difficult, or at the very least, outside of the comfortable world I’ve created for myself.

falling-freeThat’s the kind of book this is. Falling Free: Rescued from the Life I Always Wanted by Shannan Martin is a book I would only recommend if you are willing to re-evaluate the status of your life. If not, I’d advise you move along. (And while I did receive a free copy of this book from the publisher, my review reflects my opinion only and a positive opinion was not required.)

Martin was living her dream life in a cute farmhouse with her family surrounded by acres of land, full of friends and church family (she used to be known as the Flowerpatch Farmgirl) when that life began shifting in ways they didn’t expect. And it opened them up to so much more.

They gave up the farmhouse and moved into the city, a change that seemed all wrong from the outside: wrong side of the tracks, wrong schools, wrong job. They took a chance that God was serious about less being more, and they’ve discovered that He is true to His word. But it’s a struggle to get there. Martin writes:

In order to live an abundant life, we will lose before we gain. We will be last so he can be first, but no worries, he won’t forget in the end. God promises us gifts of loss and less, and though we know all his promises are for our good, we resist them. (p. 101)

And just because God is in it doesn’t mean it’s been easy. As the Martins moved into the neighborhood and began to open their lives to their neighbors and eventually the men in the jail where her husband is a chaplain, they learned the truth about community. Martin writes:

Community, in its purest form, is anything but pure. It’s noisy. Inconvenient. It demands we com to painful terms with the persistent cultural lies of independence and self-sufficiency, both of which run contrary to the gospel. … To be in community is to be painfully aware of our own unlovability but to offer ourselves anyway. Community simply can’t share space with masks or props. (p. 123)

Falling Free is Martin’s personal story of having her eyes opened to the world around her, but it’s also a challenge for the rest of us to see our lives anew. In the book, she doesn’t lay out a step-by-step plan for everyone to follow exactly in her family’s footsteps. But she does invite us to see in a different way.

One encounter with God’s sovereign love and consuming power can change your heart’s desire on a dime … It doesn’t mean it will be easy or simple or that there won’t be some mid-grade anxiety. There’s a difference between being too scared to do hard things and doing hard things scared. Communing with the God of the universe will inspire all kinds of unscripted movement and giant leaps past “normal.” It’ll make surrendering seem like the safest way. (p. 82)

There’s so much to digest in this book that a once-through isn’t enough. Beyond just reading Martin’s words and calls to step away from comfort, though, I want to live it out.

Falling Free probably won’t leave you feeling satisfied or calm. It might make you angry, defensive or scared. I think that’s okay. Just know that reading it might make you squirm and set you on a new path for life.