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A month or two ago I was contacted about reading and reviewing Rory Feek’s new book, This Life I Live. I love reading so getting a new book for free sounded like a fantastic idea to me. I said yes and I’m so glad I did!
Prior to reading This Life I Live I knew practically nothing about Joey and Rory. I had seen some stuff on Facebook here and there but that was it, so I went into the book knowing very little of their story.
Here’s a snippet from the book’s page on Amazon:
In this vulnerable book, [Rory] takes us for the first time into his own challenging life story and what it was like growing up in rural America with little money and even less family stability.
This is the story of a man searching for meaning and security in a world that offered neither. And it’s the story of a man who finally gives it all to a power higher than himself and soon meets a young woman who will change his heart forever.
This Life I Live is written by Rory in a very conversational manner, much like his blog which I have since discovered. It is not in perfect chronological order, but jumps around a bit – each chapter has a certain theme, much like a blog post. I found Rory’s writing style very readable and I enjoyed the format.
The great thing about biographies is the realness is of them, if I can use that non-word haha. It was so interesting to learn about Rory’s early life and inspiring to see how far he has come since then, from a rough, unstable childhood to a successful life in music.
But more importantly, it was amazing to see him give the credit to God. To explain how God changed his life and how subsequently in his marriage with Joey, in their careers, and in her battle with cancer they sought to bring God glory.
I came away from the book encouraged in several ways. I appreciated Rory’s attitude, reflected in this quote:
Time has a way of making me realize that we can either lay the blame for our problems on someone else, letting that be an excuse for why our life isn’t turning out the way we want it, or we can take the blame upon ourselves and let the responsibility for any change that should happen be on us.
He isn’t saying that he’s to blame for his rough childhood, but he does take responsibility for each choice that he made along the way. I thought it was so admirable to see that.
I also came away from the book grateful to the Lord for how He works in our lives. He often does things that we don’t understand but we can know for sure that whatever He does, somehow, is going to be the best for us.
Finally, This Life I Live reminded me of the brevity of life. I need to cherish the moments that I have with my loved ones because we’re not guaranteed any certain amount of time together.
By the way, before Joey passed away, she and Rory recorded a album together called Hymns That Are Important to Us. I borrowed the CD from a friend after reading This Life I Live and I loved it! The music is beautiful and it is made so powerful by the fact that Joey recorded it during her battle with cancer. Whether you read the book or not I’d encourage you to check out the album.
What have you been reading lately? Any suggestions for what I should read next? I’d love to hear from you in the comments! 🙂
{Pardon the awful hair + no makeup – I was just so excited to get my book in the mail that I had to take a picture!}
