Have a Little Faith A True Story
Have a Little Faith A True Story
“Clear some space on your bookshelf for Mitch Albom’s, Have a Little Faith, the story of a faith journey that could become a classic. Those who were born into faith, have lost faith, or are still searching will all be engaged and challenged by this powerful story of “finding faith” in relationships with others and with something greater than ourselves. Never satisfied with easy answers or soft platitudes, Mitch explores some of life’s greatest mysteries and unanswered questions with great honesty, depth and self reflection. ”
–Jim Wallis, CEO and Founder of Sojourners and author of The Great Awakening
What if our beliefs were not what divided us, but what pulled us together?
In Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds–two men, two faiths, two communities–that will inspire readers everywhere.
Albom’s first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, Have a Little Faith begins with an unusual request: an eighty-two-year-old rabbi from Albom’s old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy.
Feeling unworthy, Albom insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he’d left years ago. Meanwhile, closer to his current home, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor–a reformed drug dealer and convict–who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof.
Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Albom observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat.
As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Albom and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times. Although the texts, prayers, and histories are different, Albom begins to recognize a striking unity between the two worlds–and indeed, between beliefs everywhere.
In the end, as the rabbi nears death and a harsh winter threatens the pastor’s wobbly church, Albom sadly fulfills the rabbi’s last request and writes the eulogy. And he finally understands what both men had been teaching all along: the profound comfort of believing in something bigger than yourself.
Have a Little Faith is a book about a life’s purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all. It is one man’s journey, but it is everyone’s story.
Ten percent of the profits from this book will go to charity, including The Hole In The Roof Foundation, which helps refurbish places of worship that aid the homeless.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars A Tale of Three Journeys of Faith
In “Have a Little Faith”, Mitch Albom, the author of such best-sellers as “Tuesdays with Morrie” and “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” has once again hit a home run. This true-life tale begins with a question. An elderly Rabbi named Albert Lewis asks Albom to give his eulogy. Taken aback by the question, he asks the Rabbi, who he refers to as “Reb” if he is dying. “Not yet,” he replies. In many ways, “Have a Little Faith” is about that “not yet.” It is about the journey that Albom takes to get to know this Rabbi better as well as the spiritual journey that takes place within Albom as a result. Interspersed in the story is the tale of another man of God, Pastor Henry Covington.
Covington has taken an unlikely route to the ministry and ministers to unlikely Christians. At first, the reader will wonder how these two tales are connected. The story of an upstanding Rabbi facing his decline, and the tale of a young drug dealer seem to have little in common. Albom, always the consummate story teller, has done a fine job of interweaving them into a beautiful portrait of what it means to serve God. The reader will have to wait for those connections to make themselves clear, but the wait is definitely worth it.
At the time when Albom is asked to write and deliver Lewis’ eulogy, he hadn’t really been around him in twenty-five years. Even as a child, he had attempted to run away from him. “He was tall, six foot one, and I felt tiny in his presence. When he looked down through his black-rimmed glasses, I was certain he could view all my sins and shortcomings. So I ran. I ran until he couldn’t see me anymore.” As an adult, Albom had moved away both figuratively and literally. He decides he needs to get to know Lewis better in order to do him justice in this final farewell. What Albom thinks will be a few meetings turns out to be eight years of interaction. Albom deftly shares stories from long ago with lessons from the “Reb” now until the reader is granted a very moving picture of him. In one particularly insightful passage, Albom tells of the Rabbi’s pain when his young daughter died. Albom asked him that unanswerable question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” he honestly answered “No one knows.” Yet, this never caused the Rabbi to question his faith in God. Atheism held no appeal for him. He stated, “It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no, than to think that nobody’s out there.” The Rabbi also shared his great secret of happiness with Albom. It’s very simple, really – be satisfied and be grateful for what you have.
“Have a Little Faith” is about the journey – of these two men of God who Albom rights about and about Albom’s own journey. Yet, readers will find their own journey in these pages as well, for humans, regardless of their faith traditions, reach out for the God that created them. We are always searching and hoping to discover more. In his conclusion, Albom writes that “it hit me, finally, that this was the whole point of my time with the Reb and Henry: not the conclusion, but the search, the study, the journey to belief.” For me, reading and experiencing “Have a Little Faith” was one more step on that journey.
5 Stars Worth Every Penny
I loved this book. I learned a lot about the Jewish faith and just faith in general. I’m beginning to think that when God wants a story told, he calls Mitch Albom. I’ve never encountered anybody like he has…Morrie and Al Lewis and Pastor Henry. I’m almost envious of the guy. I guess as an avid reader, I sort of know them but it isn’t quite the same.
Anyway, the book made me laugh and cry just like the rest of the books I’ve read by Albom but none of them made me sob like this one did. I had to put the book down for a bit after I read the eulogy. It was so beautifully written and after reading the entire story, I couldn’t help but fall apart.
It took me a day to read it with a few breaks. Once you start, you won’t stop until the last page. Unless you’re like me and have to take a break after the eulogy.
Fantastic book. I’m going to read it again in a couple of weeks. I bet I get more out of it than I did the first time around.
I had to wait almost a month for this order to come from Amazon. That was the only part that was a drag.
5 Stars This book will give you faith….
Simply describing Mitch Albom’s “have a little faith: a true story” as inspiring does not do it justice. It is a book I would highly recommend to book clubs, for rainy days, escapism, soul-searching, and one not to put away in an old tupperware tub – the reader will definitely want to read it again and again.
It is a story that reaches across generations, and will continue to do so. No matter what the situation the reader has been in or witnessed, there will be a connection, one that will both awaken the mind and the heart.
Here’s but one of many brilliant examples:
“But what if someone from another faith won’t recognize yours? Or wants you dead for it?
`That is not faith. That is hate.’ He sighed. `And if you ask me, God sits up there and cries when that happens.’”
In a world where those who live within feel an increasing loss of control on a number of levels, this book connects us all. All as humans, all as individual souls, all who at some point in our lives have had at least a little faith. Perhaps if we continue to do so, the world will be a better place. It is not enough for us to wait for the next tragedy to do our part. We need to embrace our humanity and share this world the way it was meant to be shared and do so on a daily basis.
A wonderful wonderful book. Well done, Mr. Albom!
J.R. Reardon
author, CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS
and DISHONORED
5 Stars Mitch Albom is one of a kind
If you appreciated Mitch Albom’s perceptiveness and sensitivity interviewing Morrie in “Tuesdays With Morrie,” you will also love those same qualities in “Have a Little Faith” – whatever your faith. Thank goodness Mr. Albom didn’t restrict his career to writing only about sports.
5 Stars Classic Mitch Albom
Mitch Albom’s newest story “Have a Little Faith” is the first book I read on my new Kindle DX. It is a poignant reflection of the author’s journey to learn enough about a man to deliver that man’s eulogy. The eulogy is for the author’s Reverend, a man he had known his entire life and “The Reb” himself asks Mr. Albom to say his final farewell and makes the request eight years prior to his death. In the spirit of “Tuesday’s with Morrie” Mitch Albom begins meeting with “The Reb” on a regular basis and in the process of learning about the Reb, he is reminded to look at the world beyond his own experience. He meets another man along his journey, another preacher who reminds him to open his mind and his heart. Have a Little Faith is a wonderful story, it made me cry at times and reflect on my own relationships reminding me to listen differently and learn from the experiences of others.
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