Quaker Summer by Lisa Samson ~ Book Review

 Heather has it all.  A privileged lifestyle provided by her heart surgeon husband.  She is a stay at home mom with a teen age son, lives in a huge house on a lake, drives a big vehicle and wants for nothing.  But she's not happy.  She is constantly spending more and more money.  And convincing herself it's all for good reason.  The tennis court is so her son's friends can hang out, the new pool furniture to replace the furniture that's only a couple years old is so that she can give the older one to someone who needs furniture.  And on and on it goes to the point where her husband is being worked into the ground in order to keep up with it.  And his dream of missions is permanently on hold.  But Heather can't seem to stop herself.  She must keep up with the Jones and surpass them all and keep up appearances all in the name of being a giving person.   But this summer all is about to change.   As she is starting to be convicted of her attitudes and spending habits, her world turns upside down when circumstances cause her to meet a pair of Quaker sisters who reach out to her and a nun who runs the homeless shelter.  Can she put aside all her excuses and learn what God is trying to show her?  What needs to happen before she can let go?

I really did enjoy this story.  I found it quite relatable in the sense that we all make excuses, even good sounding ones, for our attitudes and lifestyles and actions.  But when God starts to convict us on some of this stuff we tend to run the other direction unfortunately and it takes time for Him to get through to us.   Though the author chose the vehicle of a privileged lifestyle to get the story across, Heather's journey could have been mine in any number of areas.   About 3/4 of the way through the book I was thinking "Get the point already, Heather",  but thenI thought to myself that sometimes I too am stubborn and clueless and don't want to admit or learn what God would be trying to show me.   We tend to hang onto what we know and what is our comfort zones.  This story made me laugh, and cringe, and my heart went out to the character as she struggled to let go and get out of what she knew and what was comfortable into the life God had for her and her family.

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