Undone: When Coming Apart Puts You Back Together

by Laura Sumner Truax

Pastor Laura Truax, originator of the "reverse tithe" at LaSalle Street Church in Chicago, wasn't always in this same place of faith. In Undone she shares her journey of seeing Scripture with new eyes. Whether a big crisis shakes us or little things wear away at us, these are moments where we are confronted with ourselves. This is not the way that things are supposed to be. We feel like failures. We are undone. Worse yet, we realize that underneath our masks and facades, we are not the person we are pretending to be. Who are we, really? Laura Truax knows what it's like when life hits the fan. But she discovered that these times of exposure and vulnerability can become opportunities to find out who we really are and what we are meant to be. When we come to the end of ourselves, God can meet us there to help us face our fears, take off our masks and rediscover our true self as part of his larger story. Your journey isn't done. Come discover how you can become the person you long to be.

231 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2013

About the author

Laura Truax is the senior pastor of LaSalle Street Church in Chicago, Illinois. She studied at Loyola University Divinity School and serves as a teaching pastor for World Vision and for the University of Chicago Divinity School. She and her family live in Chicago.

Reviews

[Joseph Mole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura Truax writes in the same voice with which she preaches, making a book about coming apart at the seams remarkably easy to read and reflect on. Laura has the ability to gently help the reader pull apart the masks and peer into the mirror to face ones ugliness and beauty with loving care. Undone takes current day stories and weaves them together with familiar tales of complicated biblical characters to illuminate simple yet life-altering truths about how much god loves us and wants more for our lives. This book quickly makes it to my favorites list, alongside works by Anne Lamott and Barbara Brown Taylor. A must-read!

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure I was intentionally raised to believe this, but somehow, as a child and young adult, I got the idea that being a Christian meant trying to be perfect, and hiding it when you were not. It meant having a hierarchy of sins, and only confessing to ones you had "overcome," while in reality you hid a world of feeling inadequate and out of place.

I wish I'd read this book at 15. Or 21. Or 26.

Somewhere after that I got smarter, and realized that grace happens because of our humanity: we cannot rise above it with misguided attempts at perfection. That only alienates us from the beautiful, faulty people all around us.

Laura's book is full of beautiful, faulty people. I'm grateful for this collection of stories and this second look at scripture. It's beautifully written, both vulnerable and powerful at the same time.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Undone: When Coming Apart Puts You Back Together, as the title indicates, focuses on stripping ourselves of masks and facades, or literally becoming undone, in order to allow ourselves to be what God wants us to be. Laura Sumner Truax, pastor at Chicago's LaSalle Street Church, opens by sharing the experience when she became undone and continues with complete transparency. So often, regardless of how long someone has been a Christian, individuals have broken relationships and unfulfilled expectations, a list of "shoulds" that need to be completed in order to present the image of having life all together, hide behind a variety of masks, and fear having their true self discovered. By combining a variety of anecdotes from her own life, as well as from literature and movies, with insightful depictions from a variety of Bible characters, Truax encourages readers to remove these masks of being good and busy we use to deceive ourselves and others. She then reminds readers we do not have to earn God's love and it is okay to be ordinary rather than perfect. The first step of accepting ourselves as ordinary begins by acknowledging our reality and fears.

After laying this groundwork, Truax reminds readers to have a child-like trust that God is working for us. Each success is precipitated by a failure which urges us to begin again to love others and show God's love as a community of believers. This love begins with the small, daily choices we make to show God's love to others. Truax emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with a community of believers who will both encourage and sharpen you. Reflecting on Undone by Laura Sumner Truax, two items which stand out in my mind is her complete transparency and the skillful manner in which she interweaves a variety of Bible stories into this book. I particularly enjoyed her reminder that while we are all called to be activists, we "are not all called to meet all the needs and pray all the prayers, but we are called to meet and pray for some" (p. 189). We are all called to champion different issues and need not feel badly that we are not as passionate about some issues as other people. The larger Christian community needs and benefits from the multitude of prayers and concerns.

Undone has a great discussion guide making it ideal for use in a Sunday School class or small group for a weekly study or as a one time book club discussion. It is a book to be read slowly and to mull over the concepts rather than to gobble quickly. While the target audience seems to be college age and young professionals, any one who has ever wondered if this is all there is to life will benefit from reading this book. I hope to visit LaSalle Street Church on my next jaunt to Chicago.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from InterVarsity Press. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

UNDONE by Laura Sumner Truax
If you are not fortunate enough to live near Chicago so you can hear her in person, then read this book. Truax has a preaching gift which is clearly evident in UNDONE. She tells her story, but also gives the reader the support for listening to their own story. With Biblical underpinning, Truax writes of forgiveness, grace, honesty, trust and community. You will hear Laura’s voice, but more importantly, you will hear God’s welcoming and reassuring voice.
UNDONE is eminently readable and can be read and appreciated quickly, but this is a book you will want to keep nearby to refer to often. Laura lays bare her own life giving the reader the gift of looking honestly at their own life. She writes of the freedom and opportunity being vulnerable to God affords. Her illustrations show the hope that vulnerability opens to each person.
(Full disclosure: I am a member of Laura’s congregation and am blessed because of it.)

[Dr Jeanne Porter King · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Undone" is a thought provoking, soul penetrating book that moved me to want to live, know and be even more like Jesus. The author's transparency in illuminating the raw truths and tensions of transformation were both refreshing and shocking. Refreshing to read such honesty, and shocking when her personal challenges were likewise revealed as mine. In 'Undone', Laura boldly proclaims to us the unconditional, unrelenting love of God for us. The message is timely and applicable to the "seasoned saint" or to the seeker feeling the tug of "there has got to be more to life than this." A must read.

[Arloa Sutter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully written book is filled with the promise that no matter how low we have fallen, life can be different. Laura Sumner Truax draws candidly from her own story to challenge us to fully embrace life with all it's joys and sorrows, to rise up to make a difference in the world, not by way of dutiful rule keeping but with the invincible power of guileless love and honest community. Truax courageously sheds her mask and invites us to do the same.

[Brittneybook Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave an amazing breakdown of how our lives should be a continuous death of bad decisions in our lives and the resurrecting of a joyful and giving life through second chances. I loved how she dove deep into the ability of everyone to portray a good life with shallow "images" and busyness, instead of enabling their lives to be transformed by the mercy and grace of a deep relationship with God. I LOVED this book in this stage of my life.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helped me to think thoroughly about my relationship with Christ. I learned from this book and enjoyed this book. The only negative that I have is that there were often times while reading the book that the author told stories but never finished the story or how things turned out. Being a very curious person this was hard for me. But that is not really the point of the book anyways. I received this book through the giveaway and I am thankful that I did.

[Ashley Jacobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved reading this book! It was as if Laura was sitting right there with me telling each and every story. I felt like I was back at her church in Chicago. Undone makes you like at your life in a way that helps you move forward through the stuff you have gone through. Highly recommended.

[Clifton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Lamott says in "Bird by Bird" that perfectionism is the enemy. That's true in writing, and it's true in life also. Laura Truax gets that, and she's more than happy to be less than perfect with you and for you. A book worth reading, for sure.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really wonderful book.