Book Review: Grace Can Lead Us Home: A Christian Call to End Homelessness by Kevin Nye

Grace Can Lead Us Home: A Christian Call to End Homelessness by Kevin Nye
207 pages

Published August 9th, 2022 by Herald Press

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Grace Can Lead Us Home is a must-read that will challenge your assumptions about homelessness, its causes, and potential solutions. Author Kevin Nye is the assistant director of programs at The Center in Hollywood, a non-religious non-profit providing services and advocacy for people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles.

Nye argues that homelessness is a problem of unaffordable housing, and no matter how they end up homeless, all people deserve the resources they need, including housing. He explores the complex and interconnected issues that contribute to homelessness, such as affordable housing, mental illness, addiction, trauma, and systemic injustice. Nye does not shy away from the hard questions or the messy realities, but he also offers hope and grace to both the unhoused and the housed. He writes, "By drawing readers back to the biblical vision of justice, Kevin Nye gives readers a new lens for seeing their unhoused neighbors."

In chapter four Nye talks about the disproportionate number of LGBTQ youth who are unhoused, in large part due to being kicked out of their homes. Sadly, even if they go to shelters, they aren’t always safe, especially trans women. Many faith-based shelters are explicitly non-affirming and trans women are forced to sleep in rooms with cisgender men “puts them at direct risk for targeted violence.”

“As the battles over LGBTQ+ affirmation rage on in Christian institutions, we cannot lose sight of the physical and psychological harm we are inflicting on people whom God loves. Our limited theological imaginations, which prioritize how we think and feel about sexuality and gender identity over how we value the actual lives of fellow bearers of the divine image, is driving LGBTQ+ people to homelessness and all its subsequent harms.”

I also appreciate the emphasis on harm reduction in chapter five. “Harm reduction” generally is about minimizing harm to people instead of demanding perfection. When it comes to substance abuse, Nye writes: “Harm reduction” is a set of beliefs for approaching substance use and addiction that highlights users’ choice, autonomy, and safety.” Therefore, the response to substance abuse shouldn’t be about punishment, but first about reducing the harm to people and communities impacted.

This book is not only informative but also transformative. It will challenge you to rethink your theology, your politics, and your relationships. It will also inspire you to join God's work of restoring dignity, healing, and community to those who are often overlooked and ignored. Grace Can Lead Us Home is a timely and prophetic call for Christians to end homelessness in our world.

Table of Contents
-A Note On Language
-Introduction
1. Seeing And Being Seen
2. Housing
3. Isolation And Connection
4. Community And Solidarity
5. Mental Health
6. Substance Use and Overdose
7. Addiction And Recovery
8. Abundance, Beauty, and Celebration
-Conclusion

“We must push for solutions that actually end homelessness, rather than ones that simply push it out of sight and out of mind.”

Grace Can Lead Us Home Affiliate Purchase Links: Bookshop.org (supports local bookstores)

Amazon: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible Audiobook

I actually got to meet Kevin in person at Evolving Faith in October!

Kevin Nye is a writer and advocate working toward ending homelessness by engaging best practices. He has written on the intersections of homelessness and faith for Religion News Service, Sojourners, Red Letter Christians, and more. He has presented at national conferences on the topic of homelessness, including Housing First Partners Conference 2022.

Kevin currently lives with his wife and son in Minneapolis, MN, where he works as Housing Director at an organization addressing youth homelessness.

Follow Kevin on the web: 

Twitter: @kevinmnye1 

https://kevinmnye.com/

View all my book reviews

I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and Amazon and I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Favorite Non-Fiction Books Read in 2022

These were my top ten favorite non-fiction books that I read for the first time in 2022 (simply alphabetized by author's last name):

• Queer Hands of God edited by Crystal Cheatham
• Baptized in Tear Gas: From White Moderate to Abolitionist by Elle Dowd 
• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
• The God Who Riots: Taking Back the Radical Jesus by Damon Garcia
• Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks
• The World's Poorest President Speaks Out by Yoshimi Kusaba
• Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation by Madeleine L'Engle
• Miracle on 10th Street and Other Christmas Writings by Madeleine L'Engle
• Mother God by Teresa Kim Pecinovsky
• Beyond Shame: Creating a Healthy Sex Life on Your Own Terms by Matthias Roberts 

I highly recommend all of these but most especially the titles in bold.

Favorite Fiction Books Read in 2022

These were my top ten favorite fiction books that I read for the first time in 2022 (simply alphabetized by author's last name):

• Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1) by Becky Chambers
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot, #2) by Becky Chambers
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) by Becky Chambers
• A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2) by Becky Chambers
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
• X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont
• Upgrade by Blake Crouch
• The Resisters by Gish Jen
• Superman: Son of Kal-El, Vol. 1: The Truth by Tom Taylor

Yes, I realize that five of those are all by Becky Chambers. I said I had found a new favorite author! All ten of these are also in the science fiction genre. =) What can I say? I like what I like!

Be sure to check out my 2022 Reading Recap if you missed it!

I have a new favorite author! (Becky Chambers)

I love science fiction. I love sci-fi movies, tv shows, and books: Star Wars, Star Trek (I am an equal opportunity nerd!), Doctor Who. I love time travel stories and space exploration, robots, A.I, and more!

So after hearing lots of people talk about loving the novella, A Psalm for the Wild Built, and reading the description**, I listened to it through my library recently and loved it! Then I decided I wanted to read more from this author. 

I have now finished reading the first two books in her Wayfarer's series and have determined that Becky Chambers is my new favorite author! (I have many favorite authors, it's allowed!) 

Here are my very short reviews Goodreads:

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished reading on 2/2/2022

**Official book blurb description** 

"Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend. Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers' series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?" 

This book felt like a hug! The definition of a cozy, comfort read! I only wish it were longer and I can't wait for the sequels!

I also did not expect this sci-fi fiction novella to be so relevant to pastoral ministry!

Dex wants to be a tea monk and help people. On their first day of trying to actually do this, a woman comes to him crying because her beloved cat just died. If this passage doesn't speak directly to those entering some kind of pastoral ministry after seminary then I don't know what does:

"Dex realized with a stomach-souring thud that they were standing on the wrong side of the vast gulf between having read about doing a thing and doing the thing. They’d been a garden monk until the day before, and in that context, their expressions of comfort to the monastery’s visitors came in the form of a healthy foxpaw crawling up a trellis or a carefully pruned rose in bloom. It was an exchange expressed through environment, not through words. Dex was not actually a tea monk yet. They were just a person sitting at a table with a bunch of mugs. The wagon, the kettle, the red and brown, the fact that they were clearly well past apprentice age—all of it communicated that they knew what they were doing. They did not.

Dex did their best to look sympathetic, which is what they wanted to be, rather than lost, which is what they were. “I’m sorry,” they said. They scrambled to recall the written advice they’d spent hours consuming, but not only had the specifics evaporated, their basic vocabulary had as well. It was one thing to know people would tell you their troubles. It was another to have an actual flesh-and-blood stranger standing in front of you, weeping profusely as means of introduction, and to know that you—you—were responsible for making this better.


The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished reading on 3/1/2022

I have a new favorite author in Becky Chambers! I loved this story so much! There's this whole found family/chosen family thing going on which was lovely! I can't wait to read everything else she has written!

 

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished reading on 3/9/2022

I wasn't sure about this one at first. It took a little bit for me to get into it because even though it picks up right after the first book ended, we are now following two characters we didn't get to know much in the first book, and leaving the rest of the crew behind. But before too long I was hooked and I was constantly looking forward to when I had time to listen to the audiobook. I can't wait to read the other two books in this series!

View all my book reviews

Favorite Memoir-ish Books I read in 2021

Out of the 202 books I read in 2021, 20 were in the Memoir/Biography category. 

Here are 10 of my favorites: 

1. Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans with Jeff Chu (the first part of this is more of her theological memoir style, the second part is less memoir from what I remember.)
2. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd                                                           ["The truth may set you free, but first it will shatter the safe, sweet way you live." See more quotes I loved here.]
3. Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story by Julie Rodgers
4. Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile
5. As a Woman: What I Learned about Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy after I Transitioned by Paula Stone Williams
6. One Life by Megan Rapinoe
7. Save Yourself by Cameron Esposito
8. Leather & Lace: A Gay Man, Lost Love, and a Road Trip With His Dead Sister by Matt Bays
9. Affirming: A Memoir of Faith, Sexuality, and Staying in the Church by Sally Gary
10. Where the Light Fell by Philip Yancey

I pre-ordered Wholehearted Faith on audiobook and ebook because it is the last book (for adults) by the late Rachel Held Evans. The audiobook dropped into my audible app sometime after midnight on November 2 and I listened to the Foreward, the Introduction, and the Prologue before I fell asleep that night. I listened to chapter one on the way to my church internship that morning. (Which, by the way, if it wasn't for Rachel's earlier writings, I'm not sure I would even be pursuing my MDiv right now and working as a pastoral intern right now.)

I listened to chapter 2 on my way to my preaching class that night where I was preaching my very first sermon!

I listened to chapter 3 on my way home. Then between that night and throughout the day on November 3, I finished listening to the audiobook and highlighting so many passages in the ebook. I wanted to savor and devour this book at the same time. I wanted to cry, a lot.

Rachel's words continue to inspire me and resonate so deeply with me. Her heart for the marginalized is God's heart for the marginalized. I follow Rachel as she followed Jesus, with her whole heart. And my heart still hurts that she is no longer with us on this earth in physical form. Reading this book brings up my grief and my thankfulness for her life and work, for what God has done and continues to do through her words.

"For better or for worse, there are seasons when we hold our faith, and then there are seasons when our faith holds us. In those latter instances, I am more thankful than ever for all the saints, past and present, who said yes and whose faith sustains mine. They believe for me when I’m not sure I believe. They hold on to hope for me when I’ve run out of hope." - Rachel Held Evans

"My desire is that you face all your questions, all your conundrums, all your contradictions, boldly. I cannot guarantee you will retain the faith you inherited—I know that mine is not exactly the faith that my parents helped to instill in me—and honestly, a static faith or an unchanging one isn’t and shouldn’t be my prayer for you, because as we learn and as we grow, faith should evolve." - Rachel Held Evans

*****

This is what I wrote right after I read Leather and Lace by Matt Bays:

I see some of my own story in Matt's. It's not the same exact story, obviously. I am a gay woman, for starters. But there were some things that resonated deeply. Like this quote: "hiding from yourself makes things all the more difficult to find. Nearly impossible. [...] Looking back, it's easy to see the truth. But when you are in an all-out war to be straight, you’ll forage for any clue that points in that direction. [...] I spent years complicating what would’ve been easy to know. But I didn’t have the tools to be honest with myself or others."

And this:

"My walk out of evangelicalism happened over a very long decade. At first, it was like coming out of a coma. Then once I was awake, there was sifting to do—fear to let go of, educating myself, new friends to find, and ultimately, the breaking away. When your entire life is defined by something this powerful, it becomes an amputation with ghost pains that can last a lifetime. Standing at the precipice, something was calling me forward. But leaving the place where I had lived for so long—that I was entirely familiar with—was a terrifying leap. Because there are some leavings we cannot get back to. While walking out on them, we are also abandoning a part of ourselves. And there is something sad about that. Because nothing in our lives is exclusively one thing or the other. In each segment, there is good and bad. Love and loss. And inhabiting the new places we’ve never been demands that we find out who we are there, what we will become, and how we will live." (Matt Bays)

2021 Reading Recap (the one with the charts and graphs)

10 of my favorite fiction reads in 2021

*****

So, what were your favorite memoirs you read this past year?

Favorite Fiction Books I read in 2021

I met my ridiculous reading goal of reading 200 books again in 2021. I actually read 202. Here is the link to my super nerdy post with charts and graphs from my reading spreadsheet tracker.

Anyway, out of those 202, 75 were fiction, and out of those 75, these were my top 10 favorites. Well, I left off the C. S. Lewis books I re-read this past year which are obviously still my favorites (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, for example, which I re-read again in December). 

Here are ten of my favorite fiction reads from 2021:

1. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
2. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
3. The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3) by J. R. R. Tolkien
4. The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1) by J. R. R. Tolkien
5. The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2) by J. R. R. Tolkien
6. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
7. The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster
8. The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe by Arvind Ethan David
9. Lumberjanes, Vol. 11: Time After Crime by Shannon Watters
10. Lumberjanes, Vol. 14: X Marks the Spot by Shannon Watters

This was my second or third time reading through The Lord of the Rings trilogy, this time I listened to them on audiobook. The only other re-read was the short story, The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster. It was originally published in 1909 and it amazes me that a story from over 100 years ago basically predicted the Internet and so many of the things we use it for today!

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig was my favorite new fiction book I read in 2021. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a new fiction book this much. It might have been Dark Matter or Recursion by Blake Crouch. I love the premise and I love the way it unfolds. I just loved it from start to finish!

This is the blurb about the book from Goodreads: "Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?'

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe, there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place."

The other book I want to highlight is Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, first published in 1970. A dear friend of mine told me this was one of her favorite books and recommended I read it and I loved it so much! It is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. This allegory/fable reminds me in some ways of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Here are just a few of the quotes that stood out to me:

"Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight – how to get from shore to food and back again, for most gulls it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight."

“He spoke of very simple things- that it is right for a gull to fly, that freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation in any form.

"Set aside," came a voice from the multitude, "even if it be the Law of the Flock?"

"The only true law is that which leads to freedom," Jonathan said. "There is no other.” 

***************

So, what were your favorite fiction books you read this past year?

Mini Book Reviews (February 2021)

A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal by Sarah Bessey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finished reading on 2/20/21

I have savored every word of this book. I’ve gone back over most of the prayers at least twice already. I have fallen asleep listening to the audiobook multiple times. (Is it any wonder I had a dream last night where Sarah Bessey was comforting me? 😂)

Anyway, do yourself a favor and read this book. Buy it if you can, you’re going to want to come back to it again and again.

A passage I love from the introduction:

"Often when we find ourselves at a crossroad in our faith, rethinking everything from church to scripture to family to art to politics to science to prayer, we think we have only two options: double down or burn it down. So when it comes to prayer, we might mistakenly believe that if we can’t pray the way we used to or the way we were taught, somehow that means we can’t or don’t pray anymore, period. [...] So no, the point of this is not to give you prayers to pray but to show you: you still get to pray. Prayer is still for you. You still get to cry out to God, you still get to yell, weep, praise, and sit in the silence until you sink down into the Love of God that has always been holding you whether you knew it or not. [...] I want this to help you feel a bit less alone. My hope is that you’ll borrow language from these prayers and be reminded that you are held—always, fully, completely—in the Love of God. I want this to be an act of resistance at this moment in our time, a way for us to fling wide the doors to prayer, to set up a few tables in your wilderness so that we can feast together on truth, justice, and goodness." - Sarah Bessey  

Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A story by Richard Bach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finished reading on 2/23/21

I loved this book so much! It is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. This allegory/fable reminds me in some ways of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

"Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight – how to get from shore to food and back again, for most gulls it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight."

*****
“He spoke of very simple things- that it is right for a gull to fly, that freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation in any form.

"Set aside," came a voice from the multitude, "even if it be the Law of the Flock?"

"The only true law is that which leads to freedom," Jonathan said. "There is no other.”

queering lent by slats
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Published 1/7/2018

Finished reading on 2/25/2021

I loved this short collection of poems/prayers so much. They wrote 40 poems, one for each day of Lent, and included a sermon they preached on Easter Sunday. Absolutely beautiful!

This was one of my favorite parts: 

"maybe it's because i grew up 

in churches 

crawling under pews 

and i know You don't 

constrict Yourself to churches 

but so often i just want 

to slump against church walls, 

to be absorbed into the plaster 

to kiss the stone 

because i need somewhere to pour this love. 

i need somewhere to find my rest. 

and curling up underneath Your pews 

is the closest thing i've got 

to falling asleep in Your arms."

- slats 

Transforming: The Bible & the Lives of Transgender Christians by Austen Hartke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finished re-reading on 2/24/21

This is a great resource for anyone who is wrestling with theology around transgender people and is wanting to understand and learn more. Highly recommend.

View all my book reviews