I am generally not a fan of devotionals, but in this very hard season of our lives my normal things weren’t working, and I felt I needed something to ground me. Well, Nailed It! 365 Sarcastic Devotions for Angry Or Worn-Out Christians by Anne Kennedy is absolutely sensational.
It’s a super short reading each day – even my grief-addled brain can handle it. There’s no fluff here, no earnestness or cliches, but neither irreverence. It’s surprising in a good way, not just because of the tone, but also the content. It brings out aspects of the text, and OT connections to Jesus, that have not occurred to me before.
I love that I don’t have to work hard to make this devotional work for me. It is fresh and comforting and challenging and poignant all on its own. It treats me gently, but still manages even to do rebuke. It’s like the tenderness of Christ in a book.
I’m 20% of the way through. I might write a longer review when I’ve done the full 365.
Categories: Written by Tamie
Tamie Davis
Tamie Davis is an Aussie living in Tanzania, writing at meetjesusatuni.com.
Meet Jesus at uni 
Can you give an example of a devotion from the book?
I’d love to. Not sure how it works with copyright though? I guess reproducing one day wouldn’t be breaking it?
Well, here’s two, both from Genesis so as to take early examples that hopefully whet rather than satiate the appetite:
On Gen 1:3-5
So often the introduction of light into a room seems exactly like the wrong thing. Whenever I huff my way into the dimness of the Parish Hall on a Saturday evening – my hands full of Sunday School paraphernalia, my mind stretched with many Lists of Anxiety – it is not a relief to turn on the lgihts. The light exposes surfaces obscured by clutter: an array of brown metal chairs and tables, the strange black and white print of a soulful, dewy-eyed young girl with her hands arrange archaically near her face, the gaping maw fo the closet jumbled with lost coats and shoes and bits of dying paper. The ubiquitous stuff that fills every free space in the cosmos, whether a poor dusty yard in Africa or my kitchen counter a world away. How can any of this be good.
But God says the introduction of light into the world is ‘good’. He brings the light himself and it is good because he is good. All the clutter in the corners of your soul, the vague disappointments of the day and of life, the unkind word of the judgy church lady, the myriad of small failures that build over the week into a mountain by Friday, over it all God casts his light. The Day of his Presence doesn’t always start out cheerfully. A first harrowing light illuminates the clutter and sin underneath everything. The soul reels back in shock and tries to turn it down, make it dimmer. But God is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love. His light is sure and true. Eventually the eye adjusts and the path is cleared. the dust is slowly removed, the big obstacles to trust and love put away.
—–
And on 43:5.
Usually when something terrible happens – some ugly smear of sin – after the initial shock and grief everyone picks up and carries on, never speaking of the terrible thing. Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery and then go home to console their father, pretending that his disappearance was a chance accident. And Joseph goes forward to be a foreigner in a strange land: learning the language, exceeding all expectations. But the thing had been done. Whether anyone spoke of it or thought of it, it was always there.
A whole life-time, then, is lived between the dreams of Joseph and the dreams of Pharaoh. It seems like the past has been effectively and completely buried. But going quietly into work one morning, overseeing the grain distribution and record-keeping, Joseph looks out over the crowd and sees those who had cast him out. And instantaneously, as if it had just happened, it washes over him like a tidal wave. And as the wave passes, he discovers hope.
So he has to finagle, and struggle, and maneuver to be able to see them again, to see Benjamin, to see his father. And so he says, and they hear him, “Unless your brother be with you, you will not see my face.”
And so speaking, his words are for every single person whose life has some terrible ugly stain, some horrible event that covers over the future and the past. You can’t go in to see the king. You can’t come in unless you bring your brother, the savior, with you.
Where did you get your copy of this from? The Kindle store says it has not been released and Amazon says not available in Australia.
M
Sent from my iPhone
Oh bother! I am still on the US kindle store
The Kindle version is available on Amazon Australia. I just bought it. 😊
Oh this looks fantastic! I’m looking up an e-copy immediately!!!
On Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 7:48 AM, Meet Jesus at uni wrote:
> Tamie Davis posted: “I am generally not a fan of devotionals, but in this > very hard season of our lives my normal things weren’t working, and I felt > I needed something to ground me. Well, Nailed It! 365 Sarcastic Devotions > for Angry Or Worn-Out Christians by Anne Kennedy is a” >