Month: February 2024

Books · religion

Our Pain Matters to God

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A review of Where is God in all the Suffering?

I began this book immediately after last week’s book, What if It’s True? The author. Amy Orr-Ewing, is an Oxford-educated, a writer, and director of an apologetics center. While she is a passionate layperson devoted to evangelism, she does not have the novelist’s eyes that Charles Martin has.

That made getting into this slim volume (130 pages) a little more challenging for me. The best parts of the book are where she relates her own experiences, or the experiences of others very close to her, in suffering. Her depiction of the Grenfell Tower fire opens the chapter on Anger. Anyone who keeps up with the international news remembers that – but many don’t know about the events in the week after – the service that she and her husband conducted for the survivors and community after. That moving story showcases God’s love for all those angry and in pain in that tragedy.

With these scenes from her life Orr-Ewing begins the chapters of this book. Each chapter focuses on a particular emotion or type of suffering: grief, sickness, natural disasters, violence, and more. In each chapter, after the opening, she looks at how Christians perceive God’s response. Where is He? She continually contrasts the materialist/atheist philosophy against what Christians believe. In the chapter on sickness, she writes:

But why should the physical frailty of our bodies hurt us at this almost transcendent level? Could our human experience of illness be a reminder, an indicator, that to be human is to be more than a material entity of molecules and atoms?

She reminds us that Hebrew poets from 3,000 years ago were asking God about this in words that Christians and Jews cherish today:

Hear my prayer, Lord;
let my cry for help come to you.
Do not hide your face from me
when I am in distress.

Psalm 102: 1-2a

The Psalmist continues with vivid depictions of his illness:

My heart is blighted and withered like grass;
I forget to eat my food.
In my distress I groan aloud
and am reduced to skin and bones.

Psalm 102: 4-5

This second book in my Lenten reading series made me realize anew the power of story to convey truth. A story captures our imaginations and brings us in. A listener or reader empathizes with the characters, perhaps cheering them on or watching in despair. Stories are what we remember – not lectures. After all, did not the greatest teacher ever known teach in parables?

Books · Gratitude · religion

Seeing with new eyes

AuntGem2 Comments

The parables of Jesus in modern language

I’ve been reading the book “What if It’s True?” by Charles Martin every morning as part of my devotional time this Lent. Martin wrote this book after he decided to take a fresh look at Scripture, reading it with the mindset: What if this can be trusted? What if this really, really is true? What if the King of the Universe is speaking to me through it? And – if that’s so, what should my response be?

Martin said of his motivation:

What if this Jesus, the One who walked out of the tomb shining like the sun, holding the keys of death and hades, is alive – in you? In me? I write fiction for a living, and that’s either the craziest thing I’ve ever heard, or the most important word ever spoken.

Introduction, What if It’s True?

His reading led him to beautiful epiphanies and moments of heartbreak, stories of how God’s word is working through him. Each chapter is about a different story from Jesus’ life. Each chapter ends with a prayer that Martin prayed and recorded. These prayers are so raw and intimate it pushes aside any of your pretenses. I wanted to kneel several times reading these prayers that he wrote.

I’m only ¾ of the way through, but so far, my favorite chapter is Chapter 10 – “No Gone is Too Far Gone.” As in every chapter, he sketches the scene or parable in the language and idiom of today. His retelling of the story of the Prodigal Son made me understand exactly how low that poor boy got – it was if I could taste those horrible slops the prodigal had to eat. And when the Father sees the son from far off, coming home – you feel that joy.

It’s not that the Scripture is unclear, but hearing the story over and over, in the same words of the ESV or NIV for so many years had dulled its power. Through his book, Martin allows me to glimpse the sheer joy of this parable – the minute the son repented, the Father forgave him. And forgave him so generously – no nonsense about working off his debt, acting as a servant in his house. He restored him to sonship. That is the beauty of repentance. It’s a big ask – to turn back to the Father, to deny ourselves – but the rewards are overwhelming.

Books · religion

Looking heavenward

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Books for Lent 2024

This Lent I’m choosing to read one new book, finish one I started last year and never got through, and re-read an old favorite.

The one I have to finish is “What If It’s True? A Storyteller’s Journey with Jesus.” Last year, for whatever reason, I never made it past chapter 3. Here’s hoping I can actually read it this Lent and give you a review!

Next up on my list is to finish my re-read of “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis. My bookclub, The Inklings, is reading this classic this winter. I’ve read it several times, and each time I marvel at the description of a bus tour from Hell into Heaven, and the souls who are redeemed. It’s an exploration of Lewis’ complex thoughts on the possibility that Purgatory exists – and that some saved souls may need to be purified (or, in this book, “made solid”) in order to be able to withstand the holiness of Heaven. My favorite part is the description of the lady who was one of the “Great Ones” in Heaven. Who she was on Earth was quite a surprise to the traveler.

And new this year – I’m reading “The Collects of Thomas Cranmer.” Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury who wrote the Book of Common Prayer, the greatest collection of prayers and services in the English language. He wrote different collects for every week of the liturgical year. These beautiful short prayers are composed of five parts: 1) the Address, 2) the Acknowledgement, 3) the Petition, 4) the Aspiration, and 5) the Pleading. Here’s one example – the famous Collect for Purity:

  1. Almighty God,
  2. unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid,
  3. cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit
  4. that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name,
  5. through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Books

Let’s read others’ body language

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Consider these situations: A CEO is across the table from negotiating with a peer for the best terms in a merger. A mother is questioning her teenage son about where he was the night before. An HR rep is interviewing a new prospect.

Every one of these people wants to know what the other person is thinking.

They’d have no problems if they read Joe Navarro’s “What Every Body Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People.” This book not only shows you how to read the clues when someone is being dishonest, but it also teaches how to maintain situational awareness, and maybe even win a poker game or two.

The limbic brain in action

Navarro and his co-author begin with an explanation of the brain, and how our most primitive brain – the limbic brain – is responsible for most of our body language. We’re responding to situations with the most basic of impulses without thinking: freeze, flight, or fight.

This book is filled with examples of body cues Navarro learned from his 25-year career in the FBI. These memorable vignettes are liberally placed through the book, and along with numerous photos demonstrating each body position, help break up the text chock full of citations. Some of the scenarios are ones you can practice immediately.

And – the one area of the body which is the most “honest” part? The part of the body that cannot but help but give you away if you are lying? It’s not your face. A trained poker player can master their face. No, the answer will surprise you. And I’m not giving it away here – go get the book