Every now and then a book falls into your lap that surprises you. The reasons for surprise can vary. But the very best reason for surprise is when a book is written by an author you’ve never heard of and his book is good and real and makes you think. You read the final pages and hope he’s already sitting down at his laptop doing the hard work of writing the next book. 

Meet author Jamie Blaine. A licensed psychotherapist who, throughout the course of his book, Midnight Jesus: Where Struggle, Faith and Grace Collide, worked part-time in a mental hospital, ministered as a counselor in a large church and also held a side job as a DJ at his local skating rink. Full time storyteller.

Grace and faith usually have to catch me unaware. They arrive not so much through sermons or lectures of four-point plans, but through stories. No big insights, just little epiphanies - tiny places where the light breaks through. It might be that split second of strange peace in the room of a dying man; one late flash when the addict comes clean; the moment she breathes deep and puts the pistol down; the still, small instant when God walks in; when we are all sons and daughters trying to find our way back home.

I know it’s a long quote but it explains the book better than I can. Sometimes it can seem like the church people just stay inside their four walls and do Bible study and meet up in each other’s homes for small group.

That’s not enough for Jamie. In fact, that doesn’t seem to make much sense to him at all. He finds Jesus in all kinds of people everywhere. Sometimes even at midnight.

When you’re waiting for a ride to rehab at ten o’clock on a Sunday night, small talk can turn spiritual pretty quick.

Early on, he tells of an encounter he has with a retired Episcopal priest at the mental hospital.

J: All right, Father… Got any advice for me on this helping people thing?

Priest: You have to go empty, son... with no agenda. Never think you’re above it all. You show up like someone who barely escaped the fire, found water, and returned to rescue those who are left.

The people society seems to try and forget. Jamie makes a compelling, scriptural argument that Jesus would have invested in their lives. He would have spent time with them. He would have done most of the listening. I really appreciated Jamie’s take on the Bible.

What he found in all dealings with people was a truth I’ll take with me:

Every day it seems the patients are teaching me to look for the good, to not believe everything I think, that often the best prayer is simply, Help me, please. 

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I received a copy of Midnight Jesus, written by Jamie Blaine, from NetGalley for the purpose of generating a review. Italicized quotes are from the books. The opinions expressed here are my own.