Left to tell

“We all ask ourselves what we would do if faced with the kind of terror and loss that Immaculée Ilibagiza faced during the genocide in her country. Would we allow fear and desperation to fill us with hatred or despair? And should we survive, would our spirit be poisoned, or would we be able to rise from the ashes still encouraged to fulfill our purpose in life, still able to give and receive love? In the tradition of Viktor Frankl and Anne Frank, Immaculée is living proof that human beings can not only withstand evil, but can also find courage in crisis, and faith in the most hopeless of situations. She gives us the strength to find wisdom and grace during our own challenging times.”

-Elizabeth Lesser, co-founder of the Omega Institute, and author of Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

I have to admit, it's been a long time since I've picked up a book that I couldn't put down ... one of those books that you read from cover to cover in one sitting ... one of those books where everyone asks you if you are all right the next day because you look so exhausted from a night of reading rather than sleep.

And quite frankly, I feel a bit guilty when I say that the can't-put-it down book that has most recently "done it to me" is one of cold blooded killings, mass murder and suffering so intense even the tremendous passion with which the author has described it leaves the notion of such pain beyond my fathoming. It's a survivor's account of the Rwandan Holocaust - a survivor who others looked upon with disbelief not only because she managed to survive hidden away in a minuscule bathroom for three months - teaching herself English while she was at it, but because she learned to forgive the unforgivable.

But with a title like Left to tell: Discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, it's also a story of tremendous courage ... and faith. I wish I could find now the point where she talked about positive thinking and prayer, how, in a sense, she sees the two as being nearly in the same. As one reviewer has written, "this is a book that defies adequate description" ... one that "reminds us that with faith, miracles will always appear: and that forgiveness is the key to freedom". In short, it's well worth the read!