Review: Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom is an excellent writer! Have a Little Faith touched me deeply, and it reignited my desire to take a World Religions course. So often people fear and hate what they do not understand. It would make such a difference if we just tried to understand!
 
Mitch shares a few life changing experiences in Have a Little Faith. He was asked by his childhood Rabbi to give his eulogy. The "Reb" wasn't on death's door, so Mitch had several years to visit with him and prepare. The lessons he learned along the way are lessons that we can all benefit from!

I read a library copy, and ended up taking a lot of notes that I thought I'd share. Most are quotations from the book.
 
"The most inspirational man I knew only reached his potential by helping a child reach his." P. 39
 
"Mitch," he said, "faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe." P. 44
 
"I think it is the first time I've heard that God might love the 'enemy' as well as us." P. 76

Mitch asked how the Reb knew that God existed, and gave a pretty good case about science and cloning and mysteries being solved-haven't we outgrown God and Jesus? Reb said, "When you come to the end, that's where God begins." P. 76

Talking about a car bomb in Israel ,"life is what God gives us," P. 88

"Abraham's instinct was correct. You must first argue against violence and destruction, because these are not normal ways of living." P. 91

"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, I should have.' We can sleep in a storm.

"And when it's time, our good-byes will be complete." P. 93

The secret to happiness is to be satisfied and be grateful "for what you have. For the love you receive. And for what God has given you." P. 102

Second death- being forgotten. Avoided by having our families remember us. P. 128

"Jesus - I call him the greatest recycler I know! . . . Jesus . . . he lifts me up. He rearranges me. He repositions me. By myself, I'm no good - but he makes all the difference!" P. 136

"Remember, the only difference between marital and martial is where you put the 'I'." Without marital commitment you miss "A happiness you cannot find alone." P. 144

"The genius of life is its variety." P. 160

"you can touch everything and be connected to nothing." P. 165

". . . you can embrace your own faith's authenticity and still accept that others believe in something else." P. 168

A month of mourning and mourning rituals-very interesting! P. 181

Man in prison (Usur) would say the Muslim prayers, but end it with "In Jesus name, amen." When asked about it he said, "I don't know if it's Allah or Jesus Christ after this life. I'm just trying to get in . . . " P. 201

"If you could pack for heaven, this was how you'd do it, touching everything, taking nothing." P. 210

"Mitch, it does you no good to be angry or carry grudges. It churns you up inside. It does you more harm than the object of your anger." P. 211

"Nothing haunts like the things we don't say." P. 212

" . . . in some ways, we all have a hole in our roof, . . . with a little faith, people can fix things, and they truly can change, . . . " P. 244