12 Days of Community: L.L. Barkat

High Calling Blogs managing editor L.L. Barkat turns online promotion on its head this holiday season with her newest innovation – 12 Days of Community. The premise? Spend the next week and a half shining light on the work of others in what she calls the “12 days of Christmas with a techno-community touch.” I loved the notion the minute I read about it and thought: what better way to kick off 12 days of community at Flirting with Faith than to feature L.L. Barkat, author of Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places and InsideOut: Poems.

I first encountered author, speaker, blogger and poet L.L. Barkat on the Jesus Creed blog earlier this year when Scot McKnight kindly allowed me to post there as a guest. Barkat and I connected easily online and even more easily when we met for tea and homemade scones in the dining room of her lovely Craftsman home which is about an hour away from mine. Since then I’ve watched this woman juggle four blogs (five if you include her duties at High Calling); launch an innovative Twitter-based experimental poetry community called Tweetspeak Poetry and release InsideOut: Poems. Incredibly she does all of this while homeschooling her wonderfully talented daughters and speaking with groups locally and across the nation.

This excerpt of Stone Crossing gives you a taste of L.L. Barkat’s gift with words and a glimpse into her life. I hope her work and her example are as inspiring to you as they have been to me. It will also give you a stepping off point for a contest she launchjed in November on her Seedlings in Stone blog that provides writers, poets and others with the opportunity to share their thoughts and insights on Stone Crossings and win a chance to be one of five people whose entries will be featured here on Flirting with Faith in early January. Here are some reviews to whet your appetite – maybe you’ll want to put it on your Christmas list!

Reviews of Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places

“L.L. Barkat tells a painful story of abuse and loss. But it is not her story but God’s story that takes center stage in this remarkable book. The beautiful and intelligent writing will pull you in, but the deep and uncommon insights will keep you reading. Here is a book full of the wisdom which can only come when real life meets God’s grace through God’s Word. It is a book meant to be read slowly.” — –Steve Hayner, Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth at Columbia Theological Seminary

“Stone Crossings walks the reader through the foggy landscapes of life, arriving at subtle moments of true grace. Barkat’s courageous, unblinking honesty is a gift, a gift offered in gentle, delicate, literary prose.” — –Don Everts, author of Jesus with Dirty Feet and God in the Flesh

“With a storyteller’s charm and a Bible teacher’s grit, L. L. Barkat weaves memoir, humor and spiritual insight together into a satisfying read. She challenges us to open our eyes anew to the amazing graces God lavishes upon us every day, in ordinary and surprising ways.” — –Edward Gilbreath, author of Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity

“You are holding an invitation to a table set for two–you and L. L. Barkat. At this table, near a river in my mind’s imagination, she will tell you her story of faith. You may not even notice the river, for the storytelling will lift you into a life of faith that will not lead you to gaze at her but to enjoy the same life of faith. The only writer I know quite like Barkat is Eugene Peterson. That probably tells you all you need to know.” — –Scot McKnight, author of The Jesus Creed

“[O]ne of the best books I’ve read in a while. . . . This glorious book is thoughtful without being laborious, literate without being self-conscious. [Barkat] has a great eye for details, and a luminous style that revels in God’s presence in the day-to-day.” — –Byron Borger, Hearts & Minds Bookstore, Booknotes Blog, March 24, 2008

Barkat’s writing is lyrical in places, and– to this reader– reminiscent of the prose of Annie Dillard. It is often laced with a quiet humor that itself is a kind of grace. Barkat is attuned to both the natural world and the poignancy of everyday domestic scenes. Her book would make an excellent subject for a small group study. –Monica Tenney, Congregational Libraries Today, 2009

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