Letters from the Farm: A Simple Path for a Deeper Spiritual Life

by Becca Stevens

Overview

Becca Stevens extolls the power of love in this inspirational collection of letters.

Letters from the Farm describes a faith that strives for justice and peace through loving our neighbors. It began with the simple hope that love can help in the community. That hope led to a social enterprise called Thistle Farm and that led to learning that we reap a hundredfold the seeds that are sown into a loving community.

Accompanying each letter is a verse of Scripture and some questions for reflection so that this book can be used as a devotional guide, as well as a piece to inspire you in your faith and life.

“Becca Stevens has written a beautiful book demonstrating the power of God’s healing love.”—Jane Shaw, Dean for Religious Life and Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819231758
Publisher:	Church Publishing, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/01/2015
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	730,573
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Becca Stevens is a justice entrepreneur, survivor of childhood sexual abuse, priest, and tireless advocate for women survivors. She has founded ten justice initiatives around the world and has helped raise millions of dollars to lift women out of poverty and into freedom. Becca is the president of Thistle Farms, and has been featured on NPR, the New York Times, the TODAY Show, and ABC World News. She has been recognized as a Top 10 CNN Hero and a White House Champion of Change. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Spring

Begin with Dirt 3

It's Not What You Believe, If's How You Live 7

Pray to Get Out of the Way 12

Search for Purple in Nature as We Grope for God 15

Let Your Knees Buckle with Gratitude 19

Notice the Light at the Eucharist 22

Let the Mission Form the Worship 26

The Light of Hope 28

Keep It Simple 31

Beggars in the Field 33

The Holy Ground of Farming 36

The Fellowship of Farming 39

Be a Bold Fanner 42

Summer

Remember the World Is Our Farm 47

Cultivate the Tender Soil of Forgiveness 51

Cultivating Peace 55

Grow Tree Roots 58

Weep at Injustice 61

Wild Fruits of the Spirit 64

Don't Wait for Inspiration, Be Reinspired as You Work 67

Be a Story-Keeper 70

Find Joy in Your Work 73

Digging for Our Own Healing 76

The Labyrinth of Farming 78

You Are What You Grow 80

Fall

Whispered Prayers 85

Find Ritual in the Mundane 88

Old Ways, New Visions 91

Communion Is for the Birds 93

We Are Tenants on the Farm 95

Traveling Light 99

After the Blossom 102

Pray without Ceasing 104

You Can Forget How to Farm, or Ride a Bike 106

Searching for the Heart of Farming 109

Trolling Is Not Farming 111

Imagining the Harvest 114

Winter

Signs of life 119

Stand in the Field of Hope 122

Go to the Prison to Seek Jesus 124

Our Last Remains 126

Preach Love, Truth Will Follow 128

Nurture the Silence Where Transcendence Is Cultivated 130

Fast from Everything You Love Once in a While 132

The Loneliness of Community 134

Farming Is Timeless, but We Are Given Only a Number of Seasons 136

Find the Lost Sheep 138

Ending Full Circle, at the Beginning 141

A Closing Litany for Farmers in All Sorts of Fields in the World 143

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Becca Stevens writes as she lives and works and speaks: with a fierce tenderness and an extravagant trust in God’s endless mercy. The letters in this book are written to all of us who long to cultivate such a life. They are an invitation to look for the bounty and beauty growing all around us, to find ourselves astonished and grateful for the presence of Grace . . . even in the weeds."
— Jeffrey D. Lee, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Chicago

"Becca Stevens has written a beautiful book demonstrating the power of God’s healing love. Wherever you are in your faith journey, these letters, with their compassion for humanity and passion for justice, will encourage you to deepen your faith; and Becca’s work with Thistle Farms will inspire you to open-hearted, generous living."
— Jane Shaw, Dean for Religious Life and Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford University

"Simple and from the heart, her thoughtful letters range widely, reflecting on the importance of listening; celebrating the purple in lavender; and appreciating the stillness and dry seasons of both nature and the soul. While acknowledging the world’s great griefs, such as genocide and sexual trafficking, the tone remains upbeat, focusing on freedom, beauty, redemption, and forgiveness."
—Publishers Weekly

"Becca paints each letter with gentle brush strokes, reminding us of living truths long forgotten or drowned out by busyness and shame: truths old as the dirt that pierce our heart, awaken memories, and baptize us in tears. This is not a book to be skimmed or plowed through but sipped, savored, and even prayed."
— Mike Kinman, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis and board president, Magdalene St. Louis

"Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest who was looking for a way for her congregation to become active in social justice issues and the one she focused on was sex trafficking."
—Nicholas Kristof, from the documentary A Path Appears

Editorial Reviews

05/11/2015
Episcopal priest and social activist Stevens (The Way of Tea and Justice) organizes this series of letters—to other Episcopal priests, to broken souls, even to God—around the four seasons. Each letter begins with a Bible verse and ends with questions, making the book suitable for devotional or group study use. Many of the letters have a local focus on Nashville or Thistle Farms, an organization Stevens founded that is home to women who have survived sexual abuse and drug addiction, but some also touch on global issues. Simple and from the heart, her thoughtful letters range widely, reflecting on the importance of listening; celebrating the purple in lavender; and appreciating the stillness and dry seasons of both nature and the soul. While acknowledging the world’s great griefs, such as genocide and sexual trafficking, the tone remain upbeat, focusing on freedom, beauty, redemption, and forgiveness. The book’s subtitle is a “path for a deeper spiritual life,” but the book might better be described as a well—the benefit comes from dipping in here and there. Her letters perhaps unintentionally gloss over human pain, but they are also gentle reminders that lives unfold within a larger spiritual context of grace and restoration. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"The book’s subtitle is a 'path for a deeper spiritual life,' but the book might better be described as a well—the benefit comes from dipping in here and there. Her letters perhaps unintentionally gloss over human pain, but they are also gentle reminders that lives unfold within a larger spiritual context of grace and restoration."
—Publishers Weekly

"Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest who was looking for a way for her congregation to become active in social justice issues and the one she focused on was sex trafficking."
—Nicholas Kristof, from the documentary A Path Appears

"Becca Stevens writes as she lives and works and speaks: with a fierce tenderness and an extravagant trust in God’s endless mercy. The letters in this book are written to all of us who long to cultivate such a life. They are an invitation to look for the bounty and beauty growing all around us, to find ourselves astonished and grateful for the presence of Grace . . . even in the weeds."
— Jeffrey D. Lee, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Chicago

"Becca paints each letter with gentle brush strokes, reminding us of living truths long forgotten or drowned out by busyness and shame: truths old as the dirt that pierce our heart, awaken memories, and baptize us in tears. This is not a book to be skimmed or plowed through but sipped, savored, and even prayed."
— Mike Kinman, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis and board president, Magdalene St. Louis

"Becca Stevens has written a beautiful book demonstrating the power of God’s healing love. Wherever you are in your faith journey, these letters, with their compassion for humanity and passion for justice, will encourage you to deepen your faith; and Becca’s work with Thistle Farms will inspire you to open-hearted, generous living."
— Jane Shaw, Dean for Religious Life and Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford University

From the Publisher