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Book Review
How to 'Make Room for God': local author shares spiritual insights
Reviewed by Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
January 17, 2008
It’s nothing new for a Christian author to lament the materialism of Western culture or describe Americans as over-worked and under-appreciative of what’s truly important.
Nor is any local bookstore suffering a shortage of time-management books, which promise readers a better family life or more successful career if they just organize everything they own into color-coated plastic bins, or something like that.
So, at first look, local author Susan K. Rowland’s book, “Make Room for God: Clearing Out the Clutter,” appears a little redundant.
It recognizes that many Americans are unhappy because of how “cluttered” their lives are with possessions, unessential responsibilities and general “baggage,” and also provides principles for bringing order to the chaos and creating room for a spiritual life.
But the book is also much more than this, as it incorporates bits of personal reminiscences and closes each chapter with questions for further reflection.
And while its topic of “life-simplification” or “how-to-treat-yourself-better” seems a bit prosaic at first, as the book progresses, Rowland continually surprises with passages of real insight and beauty.
At its best, the book deals with learning how to forgive and foster a kind of healthy detachment from worldly cares. That last issue was one close to St. Ignatius of Loyola’s heart, and though Rowland uses modern terms, “Make Room for God” is really just a good re-presentation of timeless spiritual advice.
Rowland describes in her introduction the path that led to her writing this book. In a very short time, her husband of 30 years divorced her and her three college-aged sons left the house.
“All my buried fears of abandonment and failure came to the surface,” Rowland writes of that time. “For years I had barricaded them by doing and buying, worrying and putting off my own dreams to make sure everyone around me was okay.”
The author explains she got through that difficult period by relying on prayer, the help of some close friends and a new understanding of how her life should be oriented.
“Guided by the principle it is more important to be than it is to do, I made big changes in how I was living my life, one tiny step at a time,” she writes.
“The first lesson we as people of faith must learn is this: Doing things is not nearly as important as becoming who we are meant to be,” she continues. “If all God wanted was for us to do things, we would be machines. God wants us to become someone.”
Certainly, Rowland agrees that action plays a large part in this equation, but it’s an action that stems from a right interior disposition to God, not from some vague impulse for “productivity” which she claims plagues modern America.
And this right interior disposition can only come about by creating space for Him to work within us. For Rowland, this means comprehensive reform.
The book deals with how we treat our bodies through diet, exercise and sleep; which activities are best in the evening for maintaining a calm and recollected state — hint: it’s not plopping down on the couch for four hours of sitcoms; and how to realize which possessions are extraneous and only serve to weigh you down.
It’s impressive how Rowland convincingly makes the case for her principles of simplicity, and her book would make a good read for anyone serious about making some room and some time for a healthier spiritual life this year.
Andrew Junker is a staff writer for The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.
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