GOD WALK

A daily chronicle offers a modern Christian’s personal reflections.

Ross begins her book consisting of journal entries with January 2011 and extends it forward, sometimes day by day, occasionally with gaps of weeks, always intertwining personal details from her life and ruminations about her faith. The entry for Jan. 4, 2012, for instance, mentions that she bought a pair of jeans at Macy’s, had a latte at Starbucks, and picked out some birthday cards, trying to find some with Scripture quotes. On April 18 of the previous year, she notes that it’s Palm Sunday: “We are going to church the two of us, and God is good,” she writes. “The sun is shining and there is a sweet peace in our hearts.” Some of these entries are quotidian—the kinds of daily notes that nobody can really expect will captivate readers who don’t know the author personally. For Jan. 6, 2012, for example, the entry reads: “No lemon in chai green tea please. I had a panic attack so making a note of this. I think that the lemon was too fresh and tart.” The uncredited black-and-white photographs included throughout go a long way toward putting human faces on these personal asides. But the reason some of the observations are included is a bit baffling; they are the kind of private diary entries that are private for a reason. Fortunately, other items contain more general reflections on the author’s strong faith, and these sincere declarations will hold more interest for her obvious target audience of fellow Christians. On March 18, 2013, for instance, she writes: “Grace others as He himself has graced you. God is as intentional about what he does not let us know, as he is about what he reveals to us.”

A heartfelt but idiosyncratic journal that examines one woman’s Christian life.