Talk about a hard book. This was it. I am actually writing this a bit later than I wanted to and should have because this was a hard book. Not hard word wise but hard emotionally.
Just Show Up is blunt and beautiful. Written by two friends going through the hardest things – cancer knowing it is only going to be alright after death. Simply put this book is about friendship. But it is oh so much more! More specifically, this book is about being there and doing the things that need to be done in friendship when it is something you never can imagine having to do.
Really, the title says it all “Just Show Up.” Sometimes, that is all that can be done but that is all that needs to be done. Kara was ill and Jill just barely knew her. But, Jill knew something much more important – friendship doesn’t stop just because something hard comes into life and Kara needed friends. Even with a large community of friends. So, Jill showed up. And it became a beautiful friendship. From there, it became an encouraging book for us on the outside.
Just Show Up is practical. Just Show Up is truthful. Just Show Up is challenging. Just Show Up is what each of us needs. It isn’t about hospitality. It isn’t about comfort. It isn’t about feeling good. It is what is needed.
There are so many gifts that are needed during a time of hard. Jill and Kara bluntly discuss those and how to maneuver through them. Gifts such as silence, receiving, giving, friendship, and community. Gifts such as talking about the hard things like the future. Gifts such as doing the things that need to be done like cleaning the toilets or changing the diapers. Gifts are every where, in every day, in every thing.
God is not absent in this book. God is found throughout the book – in the suffering, in the action, in the love, in the sharing. In the fact that this book was written and published. God is always there and Kara and Jilll share that throughout this book.
When something hard is going on in someone’s life, sometimes the best thing you can do is Just Show Up.
This book is a challenge to me. It spells out some of the answers to things I have said or asked and shown me the error of my ways when I thought I was trying to help someone. (I wasn’t doing a very good job.) Just Show Up spells out some of the do’s and don’t’s in hard times. It is practical. It is honest. It is beautiful.
Just Show Up is a wonderfully fantastic read. It will be one my shelf to be revisited and reread as I grow and change and find new abilities that God has given me.
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Tagged: books, Family Christian, friendship, life, reviews
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