Have a little faith by Mitch Albom

Reading this book made me ask myself some pretty hard questions about my own life, questions which I would not have otherwise asked. Some parts of the book gave me hope, some parts made me sad about the state of things as they stand now. I guess how one reacts to a book is largely dependent on one’s state of life/mind. While the story is simple (the author is asked to do the eulogy for his rabbi and the author gets involved in a church set up by an ex-con), it captures the author’s search for what he feels truly matters in life. The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. You won’t feel that the short time taken to read this book is wasted and it is likely that the reflections of the author in the book will stay with you after you have turned the last page.

Some parts of the book which I liked:

1. (Part of a sermon by the Rabbi) “My friends, if we tend to the things that are important in life, if we are right with those we love and behave in line with our faith, our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business. Our words will always be sincere, our embraces will be tight. We will never wallow in the agony of I could have and I should have. We can sleep in a storm and when it’s time, our good-byes will be complete.

2. Much of what we called “depression” was really dissatisfaction, a result of setting a bar impossibly high or expecting treasures that we weren’t willing to work for. I knew people whose unbearable source of misery was their weight, their baldness, their lack of advancement in the workplace, or their inability to find the perfect mate, even if they themselves did not behave like one. To these people, unhappiness was a condition, an intolerable state of affairs. If pills could help, pills were taken. But pills were not going to change the fundamental problem in the construction. Wanting what you can’t have. Looking for self-worth in the mirror. Layering work on top of work and still wondering why you weren’t satisfied – before working some more.

3. He loved to smile. He avoided anger. He was never haunted by “Why am I here?” He knew why he was here, he said: to give to others, to celebrate God and to enjoy and honor the world he was put in. His morning prayers began with “Thank you Lord, for returning my soul to me” When you start that way, the rest of the day is a bonus.

4. Having more does not keep you from wanting more. When a baby comes into the world, its hands are clenched…because a baby, not knowing any better, wants to grab everything to say “The whole world is mine” But when an old person dies, how does he do so? With his hands open. Why? Because he has learnt the lesson... “We can take nothing with us.

5. The secret of happiness. Be satisfied. Be grateful. For what you have. For the love you receive. And for what God has given you. That’s it.

6. Can you predict which marriages will survive? Sometimes. If they’re communicating well, they have a good chance. If they have a similar belief system, similar values, they have a good chance. Love they should always have. But love changes. A love is proven through actions, not words. The kind (of love) you realise you already have by the life you’ve created together – that’s the kind of love that lasts.

7. The Reb once did a sermon on how the same things in life can be good or evil, depending on what, with free will, we do with them…But nowhere in the story of Creation, do we read the word “bad”. God did not create bad things. God leaves it to us…Why doesn’t he eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive? Because, from the beginning, God said, I’m going to put this world into your hands. If I run everything, then that’s not you. So we were created with a piece of divinity inside us, but with this thing called free will.

8. (Casey). But it’s not me against the other guy. It’s God measuring you against you. Maybe all you get are chances to do good, and what little bad you do ain’t much bad at all. But because God has put you in the position where you can always do good, when you do something bad, it’s like you let God down. And maybe people who only get chances to do bad, always around bad things, like us, when they finally make something good out of it. God’s happy.

9. (Reb to Mitch). It does no good to be angry or carry grudges. It churns you up inside. It does you more harm than the object of your anger. Let it go or don’t let it get started in the first place…Nothing haunts like the things we don’t say.