Frederick Buechner - A Crazy, Holy Grace: The Healing Power of Pain and Memory

About Frederick Buechner

Frederick Buechner brings the reader to his knees, sometimes in laughter, sometimes in an astonishment very close to prayer, and at the best of times in a combination of both.

The New York Times Book Review

With profound intelligence, Buechners novel does what the finest, most appealing literature does: it displays and illuminates the seemingly unrelated mysteries of human character and ultimate ideas... One of our finest writers.

Annie Dillard, Boston Globe

If Frederick Buechner subordinated his nature and chose to write on naughts and nothings, he would still exalt his readers. When he is in representative harmony and writes of the accessibility of God to humanity and of humanitys agreement with its potential divinity, we, the readers, are lifted up, buoyed up, and promised wholeness.

Maya Angelou

You dont have to be in the habit of going to church to listen to such a literary minister; you dont have to be a believer to be moved by Mr. Buechners faith.

John Irving

Frederick Buechner is a beacon. When we cant remember what is true and what it all means, hes the person we turn to.

Anne Lamott

Frederick Buechner has inspired me not only with his writing, but with his generosity of spirit. Im incredibly thankful.

Rachel Held Evans

He isnt trying to persuadehes trying to understand what he himself believes and thinks. And that honesty is more persuasive than the most polished argument.

John Ortberg

Frederick Buechner doesnt just show us how to write; he shows us how to live.

Philip Yancey

Frederick Buechner is not just a wordsmith but an image-smithhes the bridge between Gutenberg and Google.

Len Sweet

To each new generation, his work is a revelation.

The Lutheran

Frederick Buechner gives new life to Christian truth.

Katelyn Beaty

He raises the bar not only for Christian writers, but for all of literature.

Mako Fujimura

Also by Frederick Buechner

Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABCs of Faith
The Book of Bebb

The Clown in the Belfry: Writings on Faith and Fiction
The Eyes of the Heart: A Memoir of the Lost and Found

Godric

The Longing for Home

The Magnificent Defeat

Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Whos Who
The Remarkable Ordinary

A Room Called Remember: Uncollected Pieces
The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days

Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons

The Son of Laughter

Speak What We Feel (Not What We Ought to Say)

Telling Secrets: A Memoir

Wishful Thinking: A Seekers ABC
The Yellow Leaves

ZONDERVAN

A Crazy, Holy Grace

Copyright 2017 by Frederick Buechner Literary Assets, LLC

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ISBN 978-0-310-35162-7 (audio)

ISBN 978-0-310-35054-5 (ebook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Buechner, Frederick, 1926- author.

Title: A crazy, holy grace : the healing power of pain and memory / Frederick Buechner.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Zondervan, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references.

Epub Edition August 2017 ISBN 9780310350545

Identifiers: LCCN 2017024954 | ISBN 9780310349761 (softcover)

Subjects: LCSH: PainReligious aspectsChristianity. | SufferingReligious aspectsChristianity.

Classification: LCC BV4909 .B83 2017 | DDC 248.8/6dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017024954

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV). Copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Art direction: Curt Diepenhorst

Interior design: Denise Froehlich

Zondervan Editorial: John Sloan, Robert Hudson, Gwyneth Findlay

First printing August 2017 / Printed in the United States of America

Contents

I t seems that pain and death are on the rise, lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce, ready or not. Our lives are filled with freak accidents, cancer, and the steady decay of time. Stories of destruction and pain come at us from everywhereour news, TV shows, movies, and social media sitesbecause fear and death seem to sell even more than sex. Under such a barrage of tragedy, hope can seem a flimsy comfort or, at best, a hole in the ground you can stick your head into, like an ostrich. Is it real? Is God really there? Or are we just fooling ourselves in order to cope?

My mentor and friend Dale Brown was someone whose loss I felt deeply, suddenly. There is still a Dale Brown-shaped hole in the world; I cant often think of him without tears springing to my eyes. I didnt see him all that much, but somehow it seemed as if the world would be all right in the end with him around. I met Dale at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when I took his class in modern literature. He introduced me to Frederick Buechner and showed me how Buechners early writings straddle the shift between modern and postmodern eras in Western literature. As our culture shifts again from postmodernism into something post-Christian, Buechners voice has never been more relevant. Though he wrote almost everything in the twentieth century, he is a sort of twenty-first-century C. S. Lewis, speaking about truth and hope and faith in a way that resonates with the faithful and the faith-suspicious alike. And he tells the truth in stories we want to read more than once.

The dread pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride famously points out to Princess Buttercup, Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. The statement is true, and useful for adjusting our expectations, but it leaves us emptyhanded when life takes a turn and the ones we love, or we ourselves, suffer and die. What Buechner does, and why I keep coming back to him year after year, is to say we will all of us lose everything and everyone we love. We dont know, really know, what comes next. True hope is hard won, and the struggle to hang on to it is more than we can often bear. But Buechner says if we will simply quiet ourselves and really listen into the stillness and silence, we will hear God speaking to us. In the quiet, we can use our memories and imaginations to remember our stories and the lives of our lost loved ones. And then we can catch glimpses of him who was there all along.

As Buechners fictional character Godric says, Whats lost is nothing to whats found, and all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup. It was Dale Browns favorite Buechner quote. It sticks with me still: All the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup.... Alls lost. Alls found.