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I
Told the Mountain to Move
by Patricia Raybon
Tyndale, 2005
review by Katie Cogan
Sometimes
a book comes along that, for the reader, feels like an intimate
conversation with a good friend over coffee. Patricia Raybon’s,
I Told the Mountain to Move is just such a book. Having
spent her entire life in African American Christian churches, Raybon,
an award-winning journalist, finds herself, at 55 years old, not
really knowing how to pray. In this memoir of her spiritual journey,
she offers the reader a close-up and personal glimpse into her experiences
and her struggles as she enrolls in “Jesus’ school of
prayer.”
The book begins with Raybon’s husband developing a sudden
life-threatening illness, challenging her to stop crying and start
praying. This is a difficult task for her in light of their recent
marital discord. She enlists the help of “prayer warriors”
- classic and contemporary Christian writers, including Richard
Foster, R.A. Torrey, Andrew Murray, Oswald Chambers, and Mother
Teresa, just to name a few. She studies their words about prayer
and asks the Holy Spirit to give her the wisdom to learn from them.
Her transformational education
is woven in and out of stories recounting the trials and tribulations
of her own family life. Raybon discusses conflicts
with her two grown daughters, one a single mother struggling to
make ends meet, and the other a college student who leaves the Christian
church to become an Orthodox Muslim. She also comes to terms with
her alienated relationship with her aging mother. Raybon begins
to sit with God and stop begging. She learns that “prayer
is not about getting things; prayer is about getting changed,”
and change she does in the most inspiring ways.
I found myself immediately pulled into her story, wanting to read
quickly to discover what would happen next, yet needing to slow
down and savor the simple and powerful messages about prayer. Raybon
takes the reader through 24 lessons where we learn along with her
about various topics including “Have Faith but be Precise,"
"Heed the Holy Spirit," "Get Quiet with God,"
and "Serve with Love.” Raybon is brutally honest about
her failings and disappointments. She encourages complete surrender
of the will and trust in the love of God. She presents a message
that has been heard time and again, but she presents it with such
refreshing sincerity and enthusiasm, I found myself believing that,
following in her footsteps, I, too, could find the joy and exuberance
she eventually realizes.
Raybon’s conversational writing style creates a feeling of
warmth and openness. What could have been a long-winded theological
discourse instead is rendered into refreshingly understandable insights
into the work of important spiritual writers. For example, she quotes
John Wesley on the purpose of a spiritual fast and translates his
words through the use of a lovely story that takes place in a crowded
waiting room where Raybon anxiously awaits important test results
on the first day of her own fast. Two screaming siblings fighting
while their haggard parents look on with little care or concern
irritate Raybon, who is trying to find some silence and peace in
order to center herself in prayer. Confronted by her critical, angry
thoughts, she realizes that fasting is causing her to see herself
and her actions in a transformational way. She realizes that there
is truth in what she has read, and leans down towards the children
giving them a smile and some pens and paper for drawing.
Every chapter focuses on
a specific lesson illustrated by the continuing story of Raybon’s
struggle to come to terms with her life, and the joy she finds in
authentic moments and in discovering a genuine relationship with
God. Raybon lets go of wanting God to change things
for her and finds herself changed instead. Peace replaces anxiety,
anger and fear. On a particularly spectacular morning towards the
end of her journey, she wakes up, sees “white snow and blue
sky and sunshine and cheer on a lovely Colorado day,” and
asks, “Is this how a prayer story ends?” Perhaps…yet
I would venture to guess that each reader may begin his or her own
prayer story as they reach the end of Raybon’s, taking a piece
of her friendship along for the journey.
Copyright
©2005 Katie Cogan
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TOLD THE MOUNTAIN TO MOVE,
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