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Grace in the Maybe: Instructions on Not Knowing Everything About God
Written with honesty and humor, this delightful collection of essays will stimulate your thinking, stir your heart, and nurture your soul.
In Grace in the Maybe author Katie Savage beckons you to join her as she embraces the mystery of faith and gently eases into the sometimes turbulent waters of contemplative exploration. She writes with honesty and humor about the uncertainty and doubt that is inherent in the life of the growing believer, finding that even in the midst of questions, bold assurances of faith emerge.
You’ll find yourself falling into step with Katie as she meanders through the liturgical calendar of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost, as this insightful book weaves ordinary stories and surprising insights into satisfying reflections of the spiritual life, relationships, and life as we know it.
This delightful collection of essays will stimulate your thinking, stir your heart, and nurture your soul.
In Grace in the Maybe author Katie Savage beckons you to join her as she embraces the mystery of faith and gently eases into the sometimes turbulent waters of contemplative exploration. She writes with honesty and humor about the uncertainty and doubt that is inherent in the life of the growing believer, finding that even in the midst of questions, bold assurances of faith emerge.
You’ll find yourself falling into step with Katie as she meanders through the liturgical calendar of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost, as this insightful book weaves ordinary stories and surprising insights into satisfying reflections of the spiritual life, relationships, and life as we know it.
This delightful collection of essays will stimulate your thinking, stir your heart, and nurture your soul.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2012
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174 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 20, 2017
I liked Katie Savage’s idea of writing devotions based around the liturgical calendar. She talks about seasonality, and that she didn’t appreciate the seasonal nature of her faith or life in general, coming as she did from a Protestant church (with little attention paid to the liturgical calendar) and a part of the world with basically only 2 seasons, and I can very much relate to both of these situations. At the same time, I have lived for 12 months in a part of the world where the 4 seasons are clearly delineated, so I can also relate to enjoying the colour change of the leaves, seeing the leaves disappear, and watching new green shoots appear on the trees. And I agree that it is also good to acknowledge seasonality in matters of faith.
I wish my church was more intentional in its observance of some parts of the church calendar such as Lent and Advent, but at the same time, just because my church doesn’t observe these seasons doesn’t mean that I can’t do my own studies/devotions through these periods.
I wish my church was more intentional in its observance of some parts of the church calendar such as Lent and Advent, but at the same time, just because my church doesn’t observe these seasons doesn’t mean that I can’t do my own studies/devotions through these periods.
February 25, 2019
I enjoyed the author's stories about her own faith struggles, especially as she struggled with a very conservative upbringing. However, I did not see the connection between the particular stories and the seasons of the church year in which she placed those stories.
September 15, 2019
This book made some really great points. Unfortunately most chapters seemed to take forever to get to them. Some of the chapters I had no clue what the point actually was and in ones that made a point it was prefaced by so much rambling I was left frustrated. It really needed some editing.
August 8, 2022
I listened to an Audible edition of this book.
November 20, 2012
Excellent book. I wrote about it (and quite a few other things) in depth here: http://aliteraryillusion.wordpress.co...
Here are a few excerpts from that excessively long post that are book relevant:
Since I am a woman, I can’t comment on an audience for this book. I mean, she does talk about things like the relative size of her breasts, and breast feeding, and breast pumping, and squashing her sore, milk-filled breasts with the strap of a heavy bag. (Don’t worry, if you think you’re sensing a theme. If I remember correctly, all of the breasty references are constrained to one chapter…two, max.)
Katie writes about other stuff too. Like a difficult summer she experienced as a teenager when a friend died at church camp. And a harrowing, riddled-with-misadventure trip through Europe one Christmas holiday. And the hilarious shortcomings she views in herself (such as the fact that, for a long time in her life, she never cleaned underneath her oven knobs). And an awkward evangelism experience she had to participate in one time, in which she was to play a drunken demon, even though she had never actually been drunk and wasn’t sure what it looked like.
The best thing I found about Katie’s book is that, despite the subtitle potentially scaring off certain readers, with all its mentions of faith and reflections, it’s really just a book about the human experience. And it just so happens to be written by someone whose experience includes believing in Jesus. It’s true, there are references and allusions to Christian-y things that might escape a non-well-read, non-Christian reader, but that won’t really detract from the quality of the reading experience. Katie writes with both a depth comparable to theologians and an accessibility that will invite and welcome anyone who isn’t actually interested in all the God stuff. She spends enough time talking about non-God stuff that anyone who is not drawn to those parts will still remain engaged and interested, but for those who are drawn to them, she also ties everything together beautifully in a way that any author I’ve edited could only hope to do.
The margins of my copy of Whirlybirds are filled with my notes, mostly of laughter. But there’s also a fair amount of assent and agreement because, as it happened, the further I got in Katie’s book, the more convinced I became that we are twins separated at birth (never mind the fact that she’s two or three years older than me). There were even a couple of times when I read my own thoughts on the pages. Sometimes I loved this. However, the third or fourth time it happened, I began to feel I was running out of material for my own future book. When that happened, I underlined the sentence and wrote in the margin: Dammit! She’s stealing all my lines!
Anyway, the point is, this book is really good. And if you are not a Christian I still think you’d like it. If for no other reason than the abundance of one-liners, or, as stand-up comics like to call them, zingers. There’s a lot of them, and I’ll just give you one because one of the Amazon reviews quotes a whole bunch, and that made me mad because I felt that those particular lines were spoiled for me, even though they really weren’t, and even though the book is pages and pages full of them, so it didn’t really spoil anything at all.
The one I liked in particular is actually one of the ones having to do with breasts. It’s near the beginning, and Katie talks about the changes her body went through during her first pregnancy. It reads thus:
"My pregnant breasts were as dainty as my regular breasts, and my delusions of bountiful cleavage – even cleavage that lasted only a few months – rapidly faded."
The reason I liked this line so much was that it produced this margin note: And now, so have mine! :(
And those delusions of mine have faded even more now that I’ve finished the book and realized just exactly how similar Katie and I really are. So, that’s a bummer (about the breasts, not the similar personality thing). But here’s the thing: Katie’s a damn good writer, and everyone should know it.
Here are a few excerpts from that excessively long post that are book relevant:
Since I am a woman, I can’t comment on an audience for this book. I mean, she does talk about things like the relative size of her breasts, and breast feeding, and breast pumping, and squashing her sore, milk-filled breasts with the strap of a heavy bag. (Don’t worry, if you think you’re sensing a theme. If I remember correctly, all of the breasty references are constrained to one chapter…two, max.)
Katie writes about other stuff too. Like a difficult summer she experienced as a teenager when a friend died at church camp. And a harrowing, riddled-with-misadventure trip through Europe one Christmas holiday. And the hilarious shortcomings she views in herself (such as the fact that, for a long time in her life, she never cleaned underneath her oven knobs). And an awkward evangelism experience she had to participate in one time, in which she was to play a drunken demon, even though she had never actually been drunk and wasn’t sure what it looked like.
The best thing I found about Katie’s book is that, despite the subtitle potentially scaring off certain readers, with all its mentions of faith and reflections, it’s really just a book about the human experience. And it just so happens to be written by someone whose experience includes believing in Jesus. It’s true, there are references and allusions to Christian-y things that might escape a non-well-read, non-Christian reader, but that won’t really detract from the quality of the reading experience. Katie writes with both a depth comparable to theologians and an accessibility that will invite and welcome anyone who isn’t actually interested in all the God stuff. She spends enough time talking about non-God stuff that anyone who is not drawn to those parts will still remain engaged and interested, but for those who are drawn to them, she also ties everything together beautifully in a way that any author I’ve edited could only hope to do.
The margins of my copy of Whirlybirds are filled with my notes, mostly of laughter. But there’s also a fair amount of assent and agreement because, as it happened, the further I got in Katie’s book, the more convinced I became that we are twins separated at birth (never mind the fact that she’s two or three years older than me). There were even a couple of times when I read my own thoughts on the pages. Sometimes I loved this. However, the third or fourth time it happened, I began to feel I was running out of material for my own future book. When that happened, I underlined the sentence and wrote in the margin: Dammit! She’s stealing all my lines!
Anyway, the point is, this book is really good. And if you are not a Christian I still think you’d like it. If for no other reason than the abundance of one-liners, or, as stand-up comics like to call them, zingers. There’s a lot of them, and I’ll just give you one because one of the Amazon reviews quotes a whole bunch, and that made me mad because I felt that those particular lines were spoiled for me, even though they really weren’t, and even though the book is pages and pages full of them, so it didn’t really spoil anything at all.
The one I liked in particular is actually one of the ones having to do with breasts. It’s near the beginning, and Katie talks about the changes her body went through during her first pregnancy. It reads thus:
"My pregnant breasts were as dainty as my regular breasts, and my delusions of bountiful cleavage – even cleavage that lasted only a few months – rapidly faded."
The reason I liked this line so much was that it produced this margin note: And now, so have mine! :(
And those delusions of mine have faded even more now that I’ve finished the book and realized just exactly how similar Katie and I really are. So, that’s a bummer (about the breasts, not the similar personality thing). But here’s the thing: Katie’s a damn good writer, and everyone should know it.
August 12, 2013
In a book that shares the thoughts and viewpoints of one pastor's wife to the general masses, join the author as she explores the mystery of faith and what it means to each of us. She delves into the liturgical calendar with grace, writing about Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. She relates how being a Christian is more about faith in the unseen and actions towards the world at large than it is about "being nice". And how sometimes being a Christian isn't about how you present your flawlessness and walk to those in your life, but how much you need Him to guide your steps.
I found this book to be more of a personal memoir than anything else. Maybe that's what the author intended, maybe not. But it struck me that no matter how we try to write, a part of ourselves always comes out in the writing. Our true selves, our true thoughts and our true beliefs will shine through clearly whether it's fiction or an attempt to tell the world about our life. I found Katie (this is my first review where I've referred to the author by their first name) to be very charming in her delivery of her story. She doesn't preach, or act like she has it together. She is plain spoken and humble about her life and experiences, and she has something funny to say in every chapter. While I don't normally read books like this, (much less the kind of book that men will be loathe to read) I found her perspectives fresh and insightful no matter where you are in your walk with God.
This book was provided by Howard Books for free in exchange for an honest review.
I found this book to be more of a personal memoir than anything else. Maybe that's what the author intended, maybe not. But it struck me that no matter how we try to write, a part of ourselves always comes out in the writing. Our true selves, our true thoughts and our true beliefs will shine through clearly whether it's fiction or an attempt to tell the world about our life. I found Katie (this is my first review where I've referred to the author by their first name) to be very charming in her delivery of her story. She doesn't preach, or act like she has it together. She is plain spoken and humble about her life and experiences, and she has something funny to say in every chapter. While I don't normally read books like this, (much less the kind of book that men will be loathe to read) I found her perspectives fresh and insightful no matter where you are in your walk with God.
This book was provided by Howard Books for free in exchange for an honest review.
August 18, 2013
This book was previously published as Whirlybirds and Ordinary Times (Fall, 2012). Katie has written essays on a variety of topics including ones that trouble Christians. She explores healing, communion, consumerism, and lots more. She is very honest in her thoughts, especially for a pastor's wife. This is definitely a woman's book as guys probably would not like to read about a breast pump. The book would probably appeal most to the twenty to thirty something age group of Christians. See my full review at http://bit.ly/19qkgyN.
March 21, 2014
This wonderful book is written by the wife of one of my pastors. It includes some stories of our church which makes it extra special to me. I loved the humor, the honesty, and the insight. Well done, Katie! I can't wait for your next book!
December 16, 2012
I like this book because I agreed with her on a lot of things and she seems like a fun person, but I wish there was more of a story line and consistent narrative. Still a good read.
January 6, 2013
I expected to love this book, but I felt a bit lost in the stories at times. They seemed to hide rather than illustrate the reflections.
February 4, 2013
Lovely read.
July 30, 2015
Grace in the Maybe gives fresh eyes to the seasons of faith. I'm grateful to have read it!
June 6, 2014
Having soaked myself in memoir, decent, but I find her a bit tedious.
July 19, 2015
Reading a book about God? Me?
Yer goddamn right. A very funny dance through matters of faith in a crowded world.
Yer goddamn right. A very funny dance through matters of faith in a crowded world.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews