Still by Lauren Winner

Still: Notes on a mid-faith crisis by Lauren Winner is an engaging and thoughtful book. I love it for the author's faithfulness and honesty in the midst of doubt and loss.

Winner offers a series of reflections from the years following several crises in the author's life. Her mother dies, her marriage dissolves.

This book is not a memoir in the traditional sense; there is no linear narrative that leads to a tidy conclusion. Rather, Still is a journal; notes and ruminations in which Winner is struggling to find a way back to closeness with God.

Winner doesn’t give platitudes or comfort that one might expect from a book about a crisis of faith. Rather, Still is a journal; notes and ruminations in which Winner is struggling to find a way back to closeness with God

I have been reading Lauren Winner’s books since “Girl MeetsGod” (2004) and have found her writing style and how she conveys the way she “lives in her head”.  It is strange, I identify and empathise with Lauren Winner much more as an author than I have with any other author.

I picked up the book because I love Winner’s books. I chose to read it before most other books I bought (I went on a mini spending spree for books for my Kindle), because I identified with the thought of a mid-faith crisis.

I have not lost a parent, my marriage is still intact, yet I find myself in a similar position to Winner. I feel like I am in the darkness alone. That God made Himself absent at the same time He took away the ground under my feet. 

I am having another bought of serious depression. Mostly, it is manageable (never gone) but lately, not quite as manageable.
Part of the depression (whether a cause or effect, I cannot tell) is a falling away. I have stopped praying (mostly) and reading the bible (again, mostly). I attend church, but Rona keeps me from being able to listen to a sermon, or participate properly in the services.  Lots of excuses; all resulting in my feeling the absence of God.

Anyway, really this is a very good book, one I would recommend.