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shelfreflectionofficial's Reviews (844)
“Is it possible you look at personal holiness like I look at camping? It’s fine for other people. You sort of respect those who make their lives harder than they have to be. But it’s not really your thing… The pursuit of holiness feels like one more thing to worry about in your already impossible life. Sure, it would be great to be a better person, and you do hope to avoid the really big sins. But you figure, since we’re saved by grace, holiness is not required of you, and frankly, your life seems fine without it.”
Kevin DeYoung’s cleverly titled book is premised on the belief that the ‘hole’ in our holiness is apathy. We just don’t really care about it.
It’s worth asking ourselves straight out- Do I care about being holy?
Other questions we might ask as well: Do I make justifications for things I do or say so I don’t feel bad about them? When I think of ‘holiness’ do I think of self-righteousness and legalism? If I just need to believe in order to be saved, then isn’t holiness about earning my way to heaven? What’s the point of pursuing holiness if I just keep failing at it? Isn’t Christianity about a relationship with Christ, not about a set of rules?
If the words ‘holiness’ and ‘obedience’ make you flinch a little, this book is for you. The connotation of these words has been tainted by the world. The association these words SHOULD have is ‘freedom’, but you wouldn’t know it. Even in our churches we hear self-help sermons about things we need to do to become better people. “That’s moralism, and it’s not helpful. Any gospel which says only what you must do and never announces what Christ has done is no gospel at all.”
Kevin DeYoung has written a phenomenally helpful, hopeful, biblical, and grace-filled book to help us understand the freedom of holiness, why we should desire it, and how we pursue it. The writing style is engaging, easy to follow, and relatable. No matter how versed (or not) you are in Scripture, I think you will find something here you never knew or treasured before.
This book is grace-filled, as I said, because DeYoung has not set out on a condemnation rampage to tell us how much we suck and will always suck. Perfection cannot be attained this side of heaven. Yet, he is blunt and straightforward to shake us from our comfortable worldly revelry. We must be honest with ourselves.
“God’s love is always a holy love and his heaven is an entirely holy place. Heaven is for those who conquer, for those who overcome the temptation to abandon Jesus Christ and compromise their faith…. No matter what you profess, if you show disregard for Christ by giving yourself over to sin- impenitently and habitually- then heaven is not your home… If you dislike a holy God now, why would you want to be with him forever? If worship does not capture your attention at present, what makes you think it will thrill you in some heavenly future? If ungodliness is your delight here on earth, what will please you in heaven, where all is clean and pure? You would not be happy there if you are not holy here.”
It sounds harsh, but is it not true? How can we love a holy God and think ignoring his commandments on earth is acceptable?
He points out that the word ‘holy’ is found over 600 times in the Bible (700 when including derivative words). If you talk about something that many times, it’s probably important.
“…if you read through the instructions to the New Testament churches you will find few explicit commands that tell us to take care of the needy in our communities and no explicit commands to do creation care, but there are dozens and dozens of verses that enjoin us, in one way or another, to be holy as God is holy.”
So if we’ve established the relevancy and significance of holiness, why do we shy away from it or feel weird talking about it? DeYoung is not out of touch with the world. If you are a Christian, you’ve probably struggled with voicing some of your beliefs to others for fear of being considered legalistic or self-righteous. How can we make hard choices about removing things from our lives that threaten or outright wreck our pursuit of holiness?
“As soon as you share your concern about swearing or about avoiding certain movies or about modesty or sexual purity or self-control or just plain godliness, people look at you like you have a moralistic dab of cream cheese on your face from the 1950s. Believers get nervous that their friends will call them legalistic, prudish, narrow-minded, old-fashioned, holier-than-thou- or worst of all, a fundamentalist.”
“I’ve written this book to make you hopeful about holiness, not make you hang your head. And yet, when there is compromise with the world, we need conviction. We have to undergo the difficult task of looking at our lives and seeing how we may be out of step with Scripture.”
Jesus says in John 14:15- “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
We pursue holiness because we love God. It’s that simple.
If that’s still not enough for you, DeYoung includes a non-exhaustive list of 40 motivations the Bible gives us to pursue holiness. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say that reading this book will make it harder and harder for you to justify neglecting or discounting the necessity and blessing of holiness.
I found it perceptive that he identifies a worldly holiness we may fall prey to: “The world most definitely insists on holiness. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t. But the world’s holiness is not found in being true to God; it’s found in being true to yourself. And being true to yourself invariably means being true to someone else’s definition of tolerance and diversity.”
He also points out that while God speaks to us through our consciences, there are “not infallible. We can have an evil conscience that doesn’t turn away from sin (Heb 10:22). We can have a seared conscience that no longer feels bad for evil (1 Tim 4:2). We can have a weak conscience that feels bad for things that aren’t really bad (1 Cor 8:7-12). And we can have a defiled conscience that loses its ability to discern right from wrong (Titus 1:15)…” We must always test our feelings, intuitions, consciences, against the infallible Word of God.
DeYoung gets very practical when he addresses things we must look at in our lives to evaluate if they are helping or hindering our pursuit of holiness. Things like movies, TV, music, sexual practices, language. And he does point out that there are gray areas where all people will not necessarily have the same convictions. He offers two helpful questions to ask (in addition to holding it up to Scripture) when making these judgments: “Can I thank God for this?” and “Is [it] ‘helpful’ to us in glorifying God (1 Cor 10:31) or [does] it enslave us to habits we cannot break?”
Here are some other noteworthy quotes:
“The best theologians and the best theological statements have always emphasized the scandalous nature of gospel grace and the indispensable need for personal holiness. Faith and good works are both necessary. But one is the root and the other is the fruit.”
“It sounds really spiritual to say God is interested in a relationship not in rules. But it’s not biblical. From top to bottom the Bible is full of commands. They aren’t meant to stifle a relationship with God, but to protect it, seal it, and define it. Never forget: first God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, then he gave them the law. God’s people were not redeemed by observing the law, but they were redeemed so they might obey the law.”
“Commands show us what God is like, what he prizes, what he detests, what it means to be holy as God is holy. To hate all rules is to hate God himself who ordained his rules to reflect his nature.”
“[trying to be holy] from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world.” - John Owen
“The Holy Spirit sanctifies by revealing sin, revealing truth, and revealing glory.”
“It’s easy to become convinced that we can never change or that God is ready to kick us to the curb after we’ve screwed up in the same way for the millionth time. But don’t listen to yourself; preach to yourself.”
“God does want you to be the real you. He does want you to be true to yourself. But the ‘you’ he’s talking about is the ‘you’ that you are by grace, not by nature.”
“David Powlison likes to say, sanctification is like a man walking up the stairs with a yo-yo. There are a lot of ups and downs, but ultimate progress nonetheless.”
‘The Hole in Our Holiness’ is an excellent read that will rightly challenge how serious you are about holiness. It will force you to choose between apathy and Christ. They are incongruous. And it will do so in a way that frees you from having to be perfect or having to do it on your own. The hole in our holiness is not unfillable.
“No matter how entrenched the patterns of sin, I tell you on the authority of God’s Word: your situation is not hopeless. With the gospel there is hope of cleansing. With the Spirit there is hope of power. With Christ there is hope of transformation. With the Word of God there is hope of holiness.”
[Another good resource for insights on this holy pursuit by an imperfect person is Jared Wilson's book: The Imperfect Disciple ]
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
Kevin DeYoung’s cleverly titled book is premised on the belief that the ‘hole’ in our holiness is apathy. We just don’t really care about it.
It’s worth asking ourselves straight out- Do I care about being holy?
Other questions we might ask as well: Do I make justifications for things I do or say so I don’t feel bad about them? When I think of ‘holiness’ do I think of self-righteousness and legalism? If I just need to believe in order to be saved, then isn’t holiness about earning my way to heaven? What’s the point of pursuing holiness if I just keep failing at it? Isn’t Christianity about a relationship with Christ, not about a set of rules?
If the words ‘holiness’ and ‘obedience’ make you flinch a little, this book is for you. The connotation of these words has been tainted by the world. The association these words SHOULD have is ‘freedom’, but you wouldn’t know it. Even in our churches we hear self-help sermons about things we need to do to become better people. “That’s moralism, and it’s not helpful. Any gospel which says only what you must do and never announces what Christ has done is no gospel at all.”
Kevin DeYoung has written a phenomenally helpful, hopeful, biblical, and grace-filled book to help us understand the freedom of holiness, why we should desire it, and how we pursue it. The writing style is engaging, easy to follow, and relatable. No matter how versed (or not) you are in Scripture, I think you will find something here you never knew or treasured before.
This book is grace-filled, as I said, because DeYoung has not set out on a condemnation rampage to tell us how much we suck and will always suck. Perfection cannot be attained this side of heaven. Yet, he is blunt and straightforward to shake us from our comfortable worldly revelry. We must be honest with ourselves.
“God’s love is always a holy love and his heaven is an entirely holy place. Heaven is for those who conquer, for those who overcome the temptation to abandon Jesus Christ and compromise their faith…. No matter what you profess, if you show disregard for Christ by giving yourself over to sin- impenitently and habitually- then heaven is not your home… If you dislike a holy God now, why would you want to be with him forever? If worship does not capture your attention at present, what makes you think it will thrill you in some heavenly future? If ungodliness is your delight here on earth, what will please you in heaven, where all is clean and pure? You would not be happy there if you are not holy here.”
It sounds harsh, but is it not true? How can we love a holy God and think ignoring his commandments on earth is acceptable?
He points out that the word ‘holy’ is found over 600 times in the Bible (700 when including derivative words). If you talk about something that many times, it’s probably important.
“…if you read through the instructions to the New Testament churches you will find few explicit commands that tell us to take care of the needy in our communities and no explicit commands to do creation care, but there are dozens and dozens of verses that enjoin us, in one way or another, to be holy as God is holy.”
So if we’ve established the relevancy and significance of holiness, why do we shy away from it or feel weird talking about it? DeYoung is not out of touch with the world. If you are a Christian, you’ve probably struggled with voicing some of your beliefs to others for fear of being considered legalistic or self-righteous. How can we make hard choices about removing things from our lives that threaten or outright wreck our pursuit of holiness?
“As soon as you share your concern about swearing or about avoiding certain movies or about modesty or sexual purity or self-control or just plain godliness, people look at you like you have a moralistic dab of cream cheese on your face from the 1950s. Believers get nervous that their friends will call them legalistic, prudish, narrow-minded, old-fashioned, holier-than-thou- or worst of all, a fundamentalist.”
“I’ve written this book to make you hopeful about holiness, not make you hang your head. And yet, when there is compromise with the world, we need conviction. We have to undergo the difficult task of looking at our lives and seeing how we may be out of step with Scripture.”
Jesus says in John 14:15- “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
We pursue holiness because we love God. It’s that simple.
If that’s still not enough for you, DeYoung includes a non-exhaustive list of 40 motivations the Bible gives us to pursue holiness. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say that reading this book will make it harder and harder for you to justify neglecting or discounting the necessity and blessing of holiness.
I found it perceptive that he identifies a worldly holiness we may fall prey to: “The world most definitely insists on holiness. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t. But the world’s holiness is not found in being true to God; it’s found in being true to yourself. And being true to yourself invariably means being true to someone else’s definition of tolerance and diversity.”
He also points out that while God speaks to us through our consciences, there are “not infallible. We can have an evil conscience that doesn’t turn away from sin (Heb 10:22). We can have a seared conscience that no longer feels bad for evil (1 Tim 4:2). We can have a weak conscience that feels bad for things that aren’t really bad (1 Cor 8:7-12). And we can have a defiled conscience that loses its ability to discern right from wrong (Titus 1:15)…” We must always test our feelings, intuitions, consciences, against the infallible Word of God.
DeYoung gets very practical when he addresses things we must look at in our lives to evaluate if they are helping or hindering our pursuit of holiness. Things like movies, TV, music, sexual practices, language. And he does point out that there are gray areas where all people will not necessarily have the same convictions. He offers two helpful questions to ask (in addition to holding it up to Scripture) when making these judgments: “Can I thank God for this?” and “Is [it] ‘helpful’ to us in glorifying God (1 Cor 10:31) or [does] it enslave us to habits we cannot break?”
Here are some other noteworthy quotes:
“The best theologians and the best theological statements have always emphasized the scandalous nature of gospel grace and the indispensable need for personal holiness. Faith and good works are both necessary. But one is the root and the other is the fruit.”
“It sounds really spiritual to say God is interested in a relationship not in rules. But it’s not biblical. From top to bottom the Bible is full of commands. They aren’t meant to stifle a relationship with God, but to protect it, seal it, and define it. Never forget: first God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, then he gave them the law. God’s people were not redeemed by observing the law, but they were redeemed so they might obey the law.”
“Commands show us what God is like, what he prizes, what he detests, what it means to be holy as God is holy. To hate all rules is to hate God himself who ordained his rules to reflect his nature.”
“[trying to be holy] from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world.” - John Owen
“The Holy Spirit sanctifies by revealing sin, revealing truth, and revealing glory.”
“It’s easy to become convinced that we can never change or that God is ready to kick us to the curb after we’ve screwed up in the same way for the millionth time. But don’t listen to yourself; preach to yourself.”
“God does want you to be the real you. He does want you to be true to yourself. But the ‘you’ he’s talking about is the ‘you’ that you are by grace, not by nature.”
“David Powlison likes to say, sanctification is like a man walking up the stairs with a yo-yo. There are a lot of ups and downs, but ultimate progress nonetheless.”
‘The Hole in Our Holiness’ is an excellent read that will rightly challenge how serious you are about holiness. It will force you to choose between apathy and Christ. They are incongruous. And it will do so in a way that frees you from having to be perfect or having to do it on your own. The hole in our holiness is not unfillable.
“No matter how entrenched the patterns of sin, I tell you on the authority of God’s Word: your situation is not hopeless. With the gospel there is hope of cleansing. With the Spirit there is hope of power. With Christ there is hope of transformation. With the Word of God there is hope of holiness.”
[Another good resource for insights on this holy pursuit by an imperfect person is Jared Wilson's book: The Imperfect Disciple ]
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
This is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s one you will read time after time and still see and learn new things. If you do not currently own this book, you must buy it immediately! (The copy I have is copyright 1973 but they made an updated version—1993—with more Americanized language)
C.H. Spurgeon said, “I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.”
And so we have this wonderful, Scripture-rich, book. It begins with the distinction between knowing about God and actually knowing God. Moving our knowledge from our head to our heart. Taking what we learn about God into praise to God. This is a constant reminder to me, as I am one who loves learning and knowing things. If all I do is harbor knowledge and puff myself up as one who “knows” things, that does nothing for my actual relationship with the Lord. That is pride, and God has no use for one who is self-sufficient.
J.I. Packer says, “You can have all the right notions in your head without ever tasting in your heart the realities to which they refer.”
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”- John 17:3
What’s more, not only do we seek to know God, but He knows us! One of the most basic and universal desires of humanity is to be known and to be accepted. We don’t dare share everything about ourselves for fear of what others might do or say. So can we ever truly feel known? And the answer is ‘yes’, not by our peers or even our spouse, but we are known to the nth degree by God.
One of my most favorite quotes of all time [can you tell how much I like this book yet?]:
“This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself. There is equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.”
To know and be known. Entirely—past, present, and future. And to be loved all the more. Loved enough that Jesus would go to the cross to make a way to be with us before we ever did anything remotely worthy of it. (And you guys, this is just the first couple chapters.)
The general outline of the book is described here: “Knowing God involves first: listening to God's word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself; Second: noting God's nature and character, as his word and works reveal it; Third: accepting his invitations, and doing what he commands; Fourth: recognizing and rejoicing in, the love that he has shown in thus approaching one and drawing one into this divine fellowship.”
The rest of part one covers each person of the triune Godhead- God the Father, God incarnate, and the Holy Spirit.
J.I. Packer spends part two exploring attributes of God: his love, grace, truth, wisdom, justice, wrath, sovereignty, jealousy, and majesty. He speaks of God unchanging. He is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 93:2).
His character doesn’t change. His truth doesn’t change. His ways, His purposes, and His Son, do not change.
A constant. Reliable, unflappable, trustworthy.
That’s our God.
Packer titles part two ‘Behold your God’. I love that! Everything we learn about God is awesome—not the Lego Movie everything-is-awesome awesome, but the awesome where you sit in slack-jawed awe; it is unfathomable that all of these things are who God is all the time, and He, in all his glory, cares about us.
Behold your God.
“The world dwarfs us all, but God dwarfs the world… our minds reel; our imaginations cannot grasp it; when we try to conceive of unfathomable depths of outer space, we are left mentally numb and dizzy. But what is this to God?” (Isaiah 40: 26)
“Wisdom without power is pathetic, a broken reed; power without wisdom would be merely frightening; but in God boundless wisdom and power are united, and this makes him utterly worthy of our fullest trust.”
“Misunderstanding what the bible means when it says that God is love (1 John 4:8-10), they think that God intends a trouble-free life for all, irrespective of their moral and spiritual state, and hence they conclude that anything painful and upsetting (illness, accident, injury, loss of job, the suffering of a loved one) indicates either that God’s wisdom, or power, or both, have broken down, or that God, after all, does not exist. God's wisdom is not, and never was, pledged to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable.”
“When we looked at God’s wisdom we saw something of his mind, when we thought of his power we saw something of his hand and his arm, when we considered his word, we learned about his mouth, but now, contemplating his love, we are to look into his heart.” [For more on the heart of God, read Dane Ortlund’s book Gentle and Lowly]
“The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity, and had no reason to expect anything but severity…once a man is convinced that his state and need are as described, the gospel of grace cannot but sweep him off his feet with wonder and joy. For it tells how our Judge has become our Savior.”
“The final proof that God is a perfect moral Being, not indifferent to questions of right and wrong, is the fact that He has committed Himself to judge the world… It has its frightening implications for godless men, it is true; but its main thrust is as a revelation of the moral character of God, and an imparting of moral significance to human life.”
“God is good to all in some ways, and to some in all ways.”
Part three then is the application. The gospel message. What are we called to? What does it mean and look like to be a Christian? What about the pain and the hardship? Is Christ enough for us?
“Have you been holding back from a risky, costly course to which you know in your heart God has called you? Hold back no longer. Your God is faithful to you, and adequate for you. You will never need more than He can supply, and what He supplies, both materially and spiritually, will always be enough for the present.”
I truly believe this book will change your life. Truth upon truth upon truth, every page will not only expand your knowledge about God, but it will more importantly draw your heart closer to Him as you consider His character and His heart. And this is not because J.I. Packer is the man (although he was a phenomenal writer and theologian), but because this book is grounded in the life-changing and unmatched truths of the Bible.
“Lord, where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68
“From current Christian publications you might think that the most vital issue for any real or would-be Christian in the world today is church union, or social witness, or dialogue with other Christians and other faiths, or refuting this or that-ism, or developing a Christian philosophy and culture, or what have you…the issues themselves are real and must be dealt with in their place. But it is tragic that, in paying attention to them, so many in our day seem to have been distracted from what was, is, and always will be the true priority for every human being—learning to know God in Christ.”
Know and behold your God.
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
C.H. Spurgeon said, “I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.”
And so we have this wonderful, Scripture-rich, book. It begins with the distinction between knowing about God and actually knowing God. Moving our knowledge from our head to our heart. Taking what we learn about God into praise to God. This is a constant reminder to me, as I am one who loves learning and knowing things. If all I do is harbor knowledge and puff myself up as one who “knows” things, that does nothing for my actual relationship with the Lord. That is pride, and God has no use for one who is self-sufficient.
J.I. Packer says, “You can have all the right notions in your head without ever tasting in your heart the realities to which they refer.”
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”- John 17:3
What’s more, not only do we seek to know God, but He knows us! One of the most basic and universal desires of humanity is to be known and to be accepted. We don’t dare share everything about ourselves for fear of what others might do or say. So can we ever truly feel known? And the answer is ‘yes’, not by our peers or even our spouse, but we are known to the nth degree by God.
One of my most favorite quotes of all time [can you tell how much I like this book yet?]:
“This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself. There is equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.”
To know and be known. Entirely—past, present, and future. And to be loved all the more. Loved enough that Jesus would go to the cross to make a way to be with us before we ever did anything remotely worthy of it. (And you guys, this is just the first couple chapters.)
The general outline of the book is described here: “Knowing God involves first: listening to God's word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself; Second: noting God's nature and character, as his word and works reveal it; Third: accepting his invitations, and doing what he commands; Fourth: recognizing and rejoicing in, the love that he has shown in thus approaching one and drawing one into this divine fellowship.”
The rest of part one covers each person of the triune Godhead- God the Father, God incarnate, and the Holy Spirit.
J.I. Packer spends part two exploring attributes of God: his love, grace, truth, wisdom, justice, wrath, sovereignty, jealousy, and majesty. He speaks of God unchanging. He is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 93:2).
His character doesn’t change. His truth doesn’t change. His ways, His purposes, and His Son, do not change.
A constant. Reliable, unflappable, trustworthy.
That’s our God.
Packer titles part two ‘Behold your God’. I love that! Everything we learn about God is awesome—not the Lego Movie everything-is-awesome awesome, but the awesome where you sit in slack-jawed awe; it is unfathomable that all of these things are who God is all the time, and He, in all his glory, cares about us.
Behold your God.
“The world dwarfs us all, but God dwarfs the world… our minds reel; our imaginations cannot grasp it; when we try to conceive of unfathomable depths of outer space, we are left mentally numb and dizzy. But what is this to God?” (Isaiah 40: 26)
“Wisdom without power is pathetic, a broken reed; power without wisdom would be merely frightening; but in God boundless wisdom and power are united, and this makes him utterly worthy of our fullest trust.”
“Misunderstanding what the bible means when it says that God is love (1 John 4:8-10), they think that God intends a trouble-free life for all, irrespective of their moral and spiritual state, and hence they conclude that anything painful and upsetting (illness, accident, injury, loss of job, the suffering of a loved one) indicates either that God’s wisdom, or power, or both, have broken down, or that God, after all, does not exist. God's wisdom is not, and never was, pledged to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable.”
“When we looked at God’s wisdom we saw something of his mind, when we thought of his power we saw something of his hand and his arm, when we considered his word, we learned about his mouth, but now, contemplating his love, we are to look into his heart.” [For more on the heart of God, read Dane Ortlund’s book Gentle and Lowly]
“The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity, and had no reason to expect anything but severity…once a man is convinced that his state and need are as described, the gospel of grace cannot but sweep him off his feet with wonder and joy. For it tells how our Judge has become our Savior.”
“The final proof that God is a perfect moral Being, not indifferent to questions of right and wrong, is the fact that He has committed Himself to judge the world… It has its frightening implications for godless men, it is true; but its main thrust is as a revelation of the moral character of God, and an imparting of moral significance to human life.”
“God is good to all in some ways, and to some in all ways.”
Part three then is the application. The gospel message. What are we called to? What does it mean and look like to be a Christian? What about the pain and the hardship? Is Christ enough for us?
“Have you been holding back from a risky, costly course to which you know in your heart God has called you? Hold back no longer. Your God is faithful to you, and adequate for you. You will never need more than He can supply, and what He supplies, both materially and spiritually, will always be enough for the present.”
I truly believe this book will change your life. Truth upon truth upon truth, every page will not only expand your knowledge about God, but it will more importantly draw your heart closer to Him as you consider His character and His heart. And this is not because J.I. Packer is the man (although he was a phenomenal writer and theologian), but because this book is grounded in the life-changing and unmatched truths of the Bible.
“Lord, where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68
“From current Christian publications you might think that the most vital issue for any real or would-be Christian in the world today is church union, or social witness, or dialogue with other Christians and other faiths, or refuting this or that-ism, or developing a Christian philosophy and culture, or what have you…the issues themselves are real and must be dealt with in their place. But it is tragic that, in paying attention to them, so many in our day seem to have been distracted from what was, is, and always will be the true priority for every human being—learning to know God in Christ.”
Know and behold your God.
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
This reminds me why I minored in Psychology. Studying people is just so fascinating! I've read Outliers, and was equally as interested in that. Here Gladwell explains a lot of interesting social experiments done in the journey to better understand why our interactions with strangers are the way they are. He also sorts through some controversial real-life scenarios in a better way than the media feeds them to you in order to bring to life the implications of our perceptions.
The thing I keep coming back to even after reading it, is the Default-to-Truth facet. That basically we all have a threshold of doubts we accept/explain away- defaulting to truth. Only once we are pushed over our threshold of red flags do we call foul. I've realized how often that comes in to play in our day to day lives. But as Gladwell points out- we kind of have to live that way in order for society not to be a mess of suspicion and paranoia. We can't always assume the worst about people, but we do need SOME people to question. It's a precarious balance.
The only criticism I have for the book would be that sometimes the flow of the book- jumping from study to study- was at times hard to follow. A few times I couldn't remember what his point was and the connection to the main theme of the book wasn't super obvious. It didn't really matter to me because I would have found the studies interesting either way, but it did detract from being able to easily follow his train of thought. Additionally, the end was very abrupt. From the beginning I wasn't sure where he was going to end up, and I'm still not sure where exactly he landed. Or exactly what I'm supposed to do with this information. I wish he would have had more of an 'in summation' chapter at the end to review and apply. We are left hanging a bit.
I will also say that while the science and sociology behind all of this is super interesting and telling and makes a lot of sense, I do believe it has its limits. There are just too many variables in our interactions with people to ever really boil it down to a few universal standards. I think he presents really good guidelines and things to keep in mind and be aware of, but it is by no means gospel. And when he tries to explain any of it evolutionary speaking I have to roll my eyes a bit. (Personally I think it's more of a stretch for evolutionists to explain things like emotions and stranger interactions, etc than Creationists, but whatever.)
I'm smart, but I'm not smart enough to evaluate or challenge the validity of the studies. I can't speak to the academic nature of this book. But I can tell you that I found it interesting and valuable and worth reading.
Disclaimer: do not read the digital version. Get yourself an actual book. There are lots of footnotes that don't show up until the last page of each chapter on the digital version which is kind of annoying. It's also one of those books that you find yourself flipping back to previous sections or pages to make connections and that's hard to do without physical pages.
**I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review**
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
The thing I keep coming back to even after reading it, is the Default-to-Truth facet. That basically we all have a threshold of doubts we accept/explain away- defaulting to truth. Only once we are pushed over our threshold of red flags do we call foul. I've realized how often that comes in to play in our day to day lives. But as Gladwell points out- we kind of have to live that way in order for society not to be a mess of suspicion and paranoia. We can't always assume the worst about people, but we do need SOME people to question. It's a precarious balance.
The only criticism I have for the book would be that sometimes the flow of the book- jumping from study to study- was at times hard to follow. A few times I couldn't remember what his point was and the connection to the main theme of the book wasn't super obvious. It didn't really matter to me because I would have found the studies interesting either way, but it did detract from being able to easily follow his train of thought. Additionally, the end was very abrupt. From the beginning I wasn't sure where he was going to end up, and I'm still not sure where exactly he landed. Or exactly what I'm supposed to do with this information. I wish he would have had more of an 'in summation' chapter at the end to review and apply. We are left hanging a bit.
I will also say that while the science and sociology behind all of this is super interesting and telling and makes a lot of sense, I do believe it has its limits. There are just too many variables in our interactions with people to ever really boil it down to a few universal standards. I think he presents really good guidelines and things to keep in mind and be aware of, but it is by no means gospel. And when he tries to explain any of it evolutionary speaking I have to roll my eyes a bit. (Personally I think it's more of a stretch for evolutionists to explain things like emotions and stranger interactions, etc than Creationists, but whatever.)
I'm smart, but I'm not smart enough to evaluate or challenge the validity of the studies. I can't speak to the academic nature of this book. But I can tell you that I found it interesting and valuable and worth reading.
Disclaimer: do not read the digital version. Get yourself an actual book. There are lots of footnotes that don't show up until the last page of each chapter on the digital version which is kind of annoying. It's also one of those books that you find yourself flipping back to previous sections or pages to make connections and that's hard to do without physical pages.
**I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review**
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
This felt like Inception meets Split meets The Matrix.
"My vices cling to me like boat anchors. Karly told me once that I was always doing battle with another side of myself and that one day I would have to make the choice to cast him aside. But I've never known how to do that."
Having read several of Freeman's other books, I would say this one seemed quite a bit different than his others I've read. This was a little more raw and dark. He wrote in more violence and a couple sexual encounters (which- not that this justifies them, but it was not written like a romance novel scene but rather a very brief encounter to show the disconnect between two characters and reveal character development).
Dylan is grieving the loss of his wife. Already facing the possible end to their marriage, Karly and Dylan crash into a flooding river and Dylan couldn't save her. His wife and best friend are dead and his world is falling apart. Things get worse when he discovers he is being investigated for Karly's death and a string of local murders. He is fighting his own demons and his memory has gaps. But it gets yet even more complicated when he sees another version of himself running around Chicago. He is horrified to find out his double might be killing women who look like Karly and framing Dylan for them.
The therapist he is seeing introduces him to the Many Worlds Theory: "There are infinite copies of you in infinite worlds, making all of the choices you don't make in this life." Could this evil "other Dylan" have breached a parallel universe to go on a killing rampage to ruin the lives of every universe's Dylan? Or is Dylan merely hallucinating during this time of trauma and experiencing a split personality situation? Why can't he remember things and can he prove his innocence before more people die?
This is a trippy psychological thriller with a teeny twist of sci-fi. Freeman has written a truly evil antagonist that will make you intensely emotionally invested in the "true" Dylan's mission to defeat him across universes to save the Dylans and Karlys living the lives he wished he had. At the same time, he must resist the dark urges within himself to make his own conquest of his other selves to take over their perfect lives. The lines between reality, hallucination, and these mysterious parallel universes are heavily blurred in Dylan's existential journey to find himself and make up for his mistakes. Can he really get a second chance to make things right with his wife, Karly?
Though a different thread than his other books, it's still an intense thriller with a satisfying yet unexpected ending.
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
"My vices cling to me like boat anchors. Karly told me once that I was always doing battle with another side of myself and that one day I would have to make the choice to cast him aside. But I've never known how to do that."
Having read several of Freeman's other books, I would say this one seemed quite a bit different than his others I've read. This was a little more raw and dark. He wrote in more violence and a couple sexual encounters (which- not that this justifies them, but it was not written like a romance novel scene but rather a very brief encounter to show the disconnect between two characters and reveal character development).
Dylan is grieving the loss of his wife. Already facing the possible end to their marriage, Karly and Dylan crash into a flooding river and Dylan couldn't save her. His wife and best friend are dead and his world is falling apart. Things get worse when he discovers he is being investigated for Karly's death and a string of local murders. He is fighting his own demons and his memory has gaps. But it gets yet even more complicated when he sees another version of himself running around Chicago. He is horrified to find out his double might be killing women who look like Karly and framing Dylan for them.
The therapist he is seeing introduces him to the Many Worlds Theory: "There are infinite copies of you in infinite worlds, making all of the choices you don't make in this life." Could this evil "other Dylan" have breached a parallel universe to go on a killing rampage to ruin the lives of every universe's Dylan? Or is Dylan merely hallucinating during this time of trauma and experiencing a split personality situation? Why can't he remember things and can he prove his innocence before more people die?
This is a trippy psychological thriller with a teeny twist of sci-fi. Freeman has written a truly evil antagonist that will make you intensely emotionally invested in the "true" Dylan's mission to defeat him across universes to save the Dylans and Karlys living the lives he wished he had. At the same time, he must resist the dark urges within himself to make his own conquest of his other selves to take over their perfect lives. The lines between reality, hallucination, and these mysterious parallel universes are heavily blurred in Dylan's existential journey to find himself and make up for his mistakes. Can he really get a second chance to make things right with his wife, Karly?
Though a different thread than his other books, it's still an intense thriller with a satisfying yet unexpected ending.
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
He gives you a lot to think about- spiritually, ethically, philosophically and technologically.
Though not the main plot of the book, it started off with Kestrel's baby dying, which, having experienced miscarriage, struck a chord with me. I was not expecting that start to the book and was a little worried about continuing to read. But James does a fantastic job incorporating and talking about such a hard topic. The thoughts and feelings his character has about it were exactly how I felt going through the same thing. And I love how he doesn't try to give trite or cliché answers. He handles it tenderly, offering hope without dismissing the pain.
The main plot involving terrorist attacks focuses on Artificial Intelligence in a world where AI is more human-like than ever before. It's not far-fetched to think about it becoming our reality as technology continues to advance. Self-driving cars are already on the verge of being marketed today. These 'Artificials', as they are identified in the book, have settings to increase or decrease their emotion, memory, pain, curiosity, and meaning. These regulate how much they feel, question, find purpose, and find hope.
Kestrel's Aritificial, named Jordan, poses for us, as readers, questions regarding his soul, and his capability to forgive, to worship, or to believe. His settings allow him to believe in and be in awe of God, desire forgiveness, and desire to live on- to have hope in something greater than self. However, if he doesn't have a soul, is his 'worship' genuine? And does that mean he cannot receive salvation?
Further, if we are trying to make AI 'better' than humans, who have such a tendency or capability toward deception and violence, who gets to decide what is ethical? Religions (atheism included) wouldn't agree on what is moral to instill in the robots: "How do you teach a machine to act in a moral manner when you can't even agree on what morality is? Should robots assist with abortions and suicides? Should they carry out death sentences? Should they be taught to break laws or use purposeful deception when there's a greater good to be obtained by doing so? And how will they be programmed to know the difference?"
Other topics he breaches include: Can you prove beauty exists? How does justice fit into evolutionary theory? Which is more important truth or hope- would you choose truth with despair or hope built on a lie? What makes us human? Where does 'making something up' come from?
As is typical for a Steven James' book, he goes beyond a mere suspense novel and forces the reader to contemplate some of life's big questions while still maintaining a compelling, suspenseful story with natural and realistic characters. I love his books and his boldness in writing about controversial or hard to talk about topics.
Synapse will keep you on the edge of your seat, make you think, and will have you second-guessing the benefits of Artificial Intelligence.
**I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
Though not the main plot of the book, it started off with Kestrel's baby dying, which, having experienced miscarriage, struck a chord with me. I was not expecting that start to the book and was a little worried about continuing to read. But James does a fantastic job incorporating and talking about such a hard topic. The thoughts and feelings his character has about it were exactly how I felt going through the same thing. And I love how he doesn't try to give trite or cliché answers. He handles it tenderly, offering hope without dismissing the pain.
The main plot involving terrorist attacks focuses on Artificial Intelligence in a world where AI is more human-like than ever before. It's not far-fetched to think about it becoming our reality as technology continues to advance. Self-driving cars are already on the verge of being marketed today. These 'Artificials', as they are identified in the book, have settings to increase or decrease their emotion, memory, pain, curiosity, and meaning. These regulate how much they feel, question, find purpose, and find hope.
Kestrel's Aritificial, named Jordan, poses for us, as readers, questions regarding his soul, and his capability to forgive, to worship, or to believe. His settings allow him to believe in and be in awe of God, desire forgiveness, and desire to live on- to have hope in something greater than self. However, if he doesn't have a soul, is his 'worship' genuine? And does that mean he cannot receive salvation?
Further, if we are trying to make AI 'better' than humans, who have such a tendency or capability toward deception and violence, who gets to decide what is ethical? Religions (atheism included) wouldn't agree on what is moral to instill in the robots: "How do you teach a machine to act in a moral manner when you can't even agree on what morality is? Should robots assist with abortions and suicides? Should they carry out death sentences? Should they be taught to break laws or use purposeful deception when there's a greater good to be obtained by doing so? And how will they be programmed to know the difference?"
Other topics he breaches include: Can you prove beauty exists? How does justice fit into evolutionary theory? Which is more important truth or hope- would you choose truth with despair or hope built on a lie? What makes us human? Where does 'making something up' come from?
As is typical for a Steven James' book, he goes beyond a mere suspense novel and forces the reader to contemplate some of life's big questions while still maintaining a compelling, suspenseful story with natural and realistic characters. I love his books and his boldness in writing about controversial or hard to talk about topics.
Synapse will keep you on the edge of your seat, make you think, and will have you second-guessing the benefits of Artificial Intelligence.
**I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
“In our time, the emerging totalitarianism is softer, smarter, and more sophisticated—but is no less totalitarian for it... it is built on the oldest lie of all, the one the serpent whispered in the Garden, the father of every other lie: ‘Ye shall be as gods.’”
The lies referenced by the title stem from this idea. There is a narrative in our culture that is redefining reality and selling a freedom and happiness that sounds and feels good, but is playing to our deepest desire as fallen human beings- to be God. To be “free” of any obligation or thing that stands in the way of our comfort and happiness. And the very thing they claim to be "freedom" is actually a prison. Read this book and consider the implications of what can be observed about our culture and politics right now and how it affects our faith as Christians.
"Live Not By Lies" could be classified as alarmist, yet the author makes some very interesting and important points about what is happening in our country today and what the consequences could be. Like anything we read- we need to think for ourselves, think critically, and seek truth; so while I wouldn’t accept all of Dreher’s thoughts as facts, I find many of his observations super important to think about and useful to recognize dangerous things in our government and our culture- especially as Christians. I’ll share some of them here, conclude with my main criticisms, and then share some of the multitude of quotes from the book that are particularly interesting.
Dreher spent time interviewing Americans who previously lived under communist rule and discussed how a lot of what is happening in American politics and culture today is reminiscent of what they experienced leading up to the Communist/totalitarian takeover of their respective countries. In summary: identity politics, isolation, the reinventing of language, the demonizing of dissenters from the cultural narrative, therapeutic morality, the policing of free speech, the dismantling of the family, and surveillance technology.
He writes: “Elites and elite institutions are abandoning old-fashioned liberalism, based in defending the rights of the individual, and replacing it with a progressive creed that regards justice in terms of groups. It encourages people to identify with groups—ethnic, sexual, and otherwise—and to think of Good and Evil as a matter of power dynamics among the groups... [they] seek to rewrite history and reinvent language to reflect their ideals of social justice. Further, these utopian progressives are constantly changing the standards of thought, speech, and behavior.”
Identity politics are really being pushed right now. We, as humans, already have the tendency to group things and people because that’s how our brains process and try to understand. Take any psychology class and you will run into this (in-group/ out-group etc) where people tend to identify closer with others who are like themselves in some way and once they find their group identity they tend to view others outside their group in a more negative way. Our culture right now is forcing people to categorize large groups of people and are then putting labels on them: minorities= good; white men= bad; LGBTQ= good; Christians= bad; anyone who votes for Trump= bad; everyone who does not vote for Trump= good. No exceptions. There is a lot of danger when we judge people by their “group” instead of as individuals. We quickly lose our humanity.
“Loyalty to the group or the tribe is at the core of leftist identity politics... This is at the root of “cancel culture,” in which transgressors, however minor their infractions, find themselves cast into outer darkness"
This polarization of those who accept the ideology and those who dissent is more alarming when paired with the knowledge of where our technology is today. Dreher brings up China’s social credit system. We recently went to China and heard about it. Using their surveillance tech, they award citizens social merits or demerits based on behavior; these credits then dictate what kinds of jobs they have, the money they make, and the travel they are allowed to do. I doubt America will get to that level, but: “What is to stop private entities that control access to money and markets from redlining individuals, churches, and other organizations they deem to be bad social actors and denying access to commerce? China shows that it can be done, and how to do it... It is not at all difficult to imagine that banks, retailers, and service providers that have access to the kind of consumer data extracted by surveillance capitalists would decide to punish individuals affiliated with political, religious, or cultural groups those firms deem to be antisocial.” This was particularly jarring to me- I'm one who had said, I don’t care if companies or the government collect data because I’m not doing anything wrong. But I hadn’t thought about the implications of being denied access to things because I disagree with the ideology of the mob. Hopefully we never become a cashless society.
The reinvention of language is also huge. Obviously, there are plenty of words that are now rightly labeled offensive that were acceptable in the past. But I agree with Dreher that right now there is a severe policing of language and redefining of words that is really just laying the foundation for control. It is another way to control people’s thinking and creates easily identified “dissenters” and demonizes them, publicly and loudly, as evil.
“According to Hannah Arendt, the foremost scholar of totalitarianism, a totalitarian society is one in which an ideology seeks to displace all prior traditions and institutions, with the goal of bringing all aspects of society under control of that ideology. A totalitarian state is one that aspires to nothing less than defining and controlling reality. Truth is whatever the rulers decide it is.”
Dreher acknowledges that it is unlikely that America will look like the Communist Soviet with their extreme torture and gulags, but we must be aware of soft-totalitarianism creeping into our country. Propaganda is a trademark of totalitarianism. Unlike the mainly political power of dictatorships, totalitarian governments create an entire ideology they require you to accept and operate by. They want to manipulate the way you think, behave, feel, and believe. To resist these totalitarian-esque movements we must not live by their lies. Both publicly and privately. “Sometimes silence is an act of resistance. Not just standing up for the truth by communicating loudly—keeping silent when you aren’t expected to be silent. That, too, is telling the truth.”
Therapeutic Moralism is an important term to be familiar with and an ideology we have to be sensitive to. Christians are equally susceptible to this kind of thinking as secularists. It is the idea that morality is based on feelings and that God just wants us to be nice and happy. "In therapeutic culture, which has everywhere triumphed, the great sin is to stand in the way of the freedom of others to find happiness as they wish." How could anyone stand in the way of someone’s happiness? Well, if morality is defined according to an individual’s feelings and there is no external authority for what is right and wrong, how would anyone agree?
Even more seriously, for Christians, this idea of “freedom” and happiness is a direct threat to our faith. It can be seen in the prosperity gospel touted by people like Joel Osteen, Rachel Hollis and others who preach self-promotion, love of self, follow your dreams, you deserve success, wealth, health and happiness, and you are in control of whatever life you want ideology. If our lives are centered on self, they are not centered on God. God did not create us so that we could spend our lives seeking personal fulfillment and success according to the world’s standards. No, we are set apart and created to glorify God, not ourselves. And if we are seeking the world’s freedom, comfort, and happiness, we will not stand for truth. The Bible does not teach that the Christian life will be free from suffering. In fact, it guarantees it. But a government that wants to control its people will disguise their ideology with a mask of freedom and happiness- something we all, in our fallen nature, love to align with; all this to the devil’s pleasure. As Christians, are we willing to suffer for our faith? Are we willing to experience public discomfort and ostracization for the sake of truth? Because with therapeutic morality, that is what is at stake.
Another characteristic evident in a people susceptible to totalitarian manipulation, is isolation: “...we grow ever lonelier and more isolated. It is no coincidence that millennials and members of Generation Z register much higher rates of loneliness than older Americans, as well as significantly greater support for socialism. It’s as if they aspire to a politics that can replace the community they wish they had... A polity filled with alienated individuals who share little sense of community and purpose are prime targets for totalitarian ideologies and leaders who promise solidarity and meaning.” I am not surprised by this. As Christians, we know that one of the greatest tools of the devil is isolation. If we are separated from a support system who encourages us in truth and helps us sort out his lies, we can easily be swayed to believe really anything.
I'm running out of space to cover it all. So moving on.
My main criticisms of this book are lack of Scriptural content and no emphasis on God’s sovereignty. After a quick google search, I’m still not sure what kind of faith Rod Dreher has and what his views on the Bible are. Since he made a few references to Paul’s teachings on suffering and this book was promoted by Tim Challies, it would seem as though he believes what the Bible teaches, however, he misses a lot of opportunities to share Scripture and Jesus’ own suffering. He almost gave a bigger spotlight to Christians who died for their faith (people he called Saints) than to Jesus himself.
Additionally, when speaking of the future and future suffering and speculating about what could potentially befall our country, I was disappointed that he spent very minimal space bestowing hope in the sovereignty of our Lord who is the Author and Sustainer of all things. Who decides which kingdoms rise and fall. Who has already defeated sin and death. Whose plans are above all ours. Yes, we need practical application and his suggested action steps could be valuable in preparing to suffer for our faith, but more powerful than any other emotion is hope. And what hope is there but the hope that lies in the only One who literally ordains every single thing down to the roll of dice. It seems a bit irresponsible to write an entire book on the danger and destruction that looms without emphasizing God’s sovereignty over it.
I find these quotes profoundly relevant:
All the lies, and lies about lies, that formed the communist order were built on the basis of this foundational lie: the communist state is the sole source of truth. Orwell expressed this truth in Nineteen Eighty-Four: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
“[God] does not want admirers; he wants followers. As Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, God suffered with humanity to redeem humanity. He calls us to share in his passion, for our sake and the sake of the world. He promises us nothing but the cross. Not happiness but the joy of blessedness. Not material wealth but richness of spirit. Not sexual freedom as erotic abandon but sexual freedom within loving, mutually sacrificial commitment. Not power but love; not self-sovereignty but obedience.”
If nothing else, this book is a reminder that we CAN know Truth, and it's not just whatever is loudest. Seek Truth, and be willing to suffer for Him. Earthly kingdoms come and go, the earth will pass away, but His Word is eternal and so are our souls.
Other Quotes:
Social justice warriors ranks are full of middle-class, secular, educated young people wracked by guilt and anxiety over their own privilege, alienated from their own traditions, and desperate to identify with something, or someone, to give them a sense of wholeness and purpose. For them, the ideology of social justice—as defined not by church teaching but by critical theorists in the academy—functions as a pseudo-religion.... They too believe that justice depends on group identity, and that achieving justice means taking power away from the exploiters and handing it to the exploited.
Communism attempted to break apart the family by maintaining a monopoly on education and teaching young people to be dependent on the state. It also sought to lure the young away from the church by convincing them that the state would be the guarantors of their sexual freedom.
Perhaps no country on earth has been more future-oriented than the United States of America. We are suckers for the Myth of Progress... but this does not mean that all changes improve upon the past inevitably. It also doesn’t mean that “progress,” divorced from God is progress at all. In fact, progress can become very dark in a secular context, without a biblical understanding of human fallibility and without the God of the Bible as the author of history and the judge of the earth.
Christians today must understand that, fundamentally, they aren’t resisting a different politics but rather what is effectively a rival religion. This is how it was for young Russians of the late nineteenth century, who embraced Marxism with the fervor of religious converts. It gave its devotees a narrative that helped them understand why things are the way they are, and what they, as Marxists, should do to bring about a more just world. It was an optimistic philosophy, one that promised relief and bounty for all the peoples of the world.
Consumerism is how we are learning to love Big Brother... He is not exactly who we expected him to be... He’s a salesman, he’s a broker, he’s a gatherer of raw materials, and a manufacturer of desires. He is monitoring virtually every move you make to determine how to sell you more things.. learning how to direct your behavior..[He] is laying the foundation for soft totalitarianism, both in terms of creating and implementing the technology for political and social control and by grooming the population to accept it as normal.
Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.- The Party Slogan, 1984
If true, these are alarming: https://victimsofcommunism.org/annual-poll/2019-annual-poll/
[Pro tip: read the e-book to easily look up terms and access footnotes]
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
The lies referenced by the title stem from this idea. There is a narrative in our culture that is redefining reality and selling a freedom and happiness that sounds and feels good, but is playing to our deepest desire as fallen human beings- to be God. To be “free” of any obligation or thing that stands in the way of our comfort and happiness. And the very thing they claim to be "freedom" is actually a prison. Read this book and consider the implications of what can be observed about our culture and politics right now and how it affects our faith as Christians.
"Live Not By Lies" could be classified as alarmist, yet the author makes some very interesting and important points about what is happening in our country today and what the consequences could be. Like anything we read- we need to think for ourselves, think critically, and seek truth; so while I wouldn’t accept all of Dreher’s thoughts as facts, I find many of his observations super important to think about and useful to recognize dangerous things in our government and our culture- especially as Christians. I’ll share some of them here, conclude with my main criticisms, and then share some of the multitude of quotes from the book that are particularly interesting.
Dreher spent time interviewing Americans who previously lived under communist rule and discussed how a lot of what is happening in American politics and culture today is reminiscent of what they experienced leading up to the Communist/totalitarian takeover of their respective countries. In summary: identity politics, isolation, the reinventing of language, the demonizing of dissenters from the cultural narrative, therapeutic morality, the policing of free speech, the dismantling of the family, and surveillance technology.
He writes: “Elites and elite institutions are abandoning old-fashioned liberalism, based in defending the rights of the individual, and replacing it with a progressive creed that regards justice in terms of groups. It encourages people to identify with groups—ethnic, sexual, and otherwise—and to think of Good and Evil as a matter of power dynamics among the groups... [they] seek to rewrite history and reinvent language to reflect their ideals of social justice. Further, these utopian progressives are constantly changing the standards of thought, speech, and behavior.”
Identity politics are really being pushed right now. We, as humans, already have the tendency to group things and people because that’s how our brains process and try to understand. Take any psychology class and you will run into this (in-group/ out-group etc) where people tend to identify closer with others who are like themselves in some way and once they find their group identity they tend to view others outside their group in a more negative way. Our culture right now is forcing people to categorize large groups of people and are then putting labels on them: minorities= good; white men= bad; LGBTQ= good; Christians= bad; anyone who votes for Trump= bad; everyone who does not vote for Trump= good. No exceptions. There is a lot of danger when we judge people by their “group” instead of as individuals. We quickly lose our humanity.
“Loyalty to the group or the tribe is at the core of leftist identity politics... This is at the root of “cancel culture,” in which transgressors, however minor their infractions, find themselves cast into outer darkness"
This polarization of those who accept the ideology and those who dissent is more alarming when paired with the knowledge of where our technology is today. Dreher brings up China’s social credit system. We recently went to China and heard about it. Using their surveillance tech, they award citizens social merits or demerits based on behavior; these credits then dictate what kinds of jobs they have, the money they make, and the travel they are allowed to do. I doubt America will get to that level, but: “What is to stop private entities that control access to money and markets from redlining individuals, churches, and other organizations they deem to be bad social actors and denying access to commerce? China shows that it can be done, and how to do it... It is not at all difficult to imagine that banks, retailers, and service providers that have access to the kind of consumer data extracted by surveillance capitalists would decide to punish individuals affiliated with political, religious, or cultural groups those firms deem to be antisocial.” This was particularly jarring to me- I'm one who had said, I don’t care if companies or the government collect data because I’m not doing anything wrong. But I hadn’t thought about the implications of being denied access to things because I disagree with the ideology of the mob. Hopefully we never become a cashless society.
The reinvention of language is also huge. Obviously, there are plenty of words that are now rightly labeled offensive that were acceptable in the past. But I agree with Dreher that right now there is a severe policing of language and redefining of words that is really just laying the foundation for control. It is another way to control people’s thinking and creates easily identified “dissenters” and demonizes them, publicly and loudly, as evil.
“According to Hannah Arendt, the foremost scholar of totalitarianism, a totalitarian society is one in which an ideology seeks to displace all prior traditions and institutions, with the goal of bringing all aspects of society under control of that ideology. A totalitarian state is one that aspires to nothing less than defining and controlling reality. Truth is whatever the rulers decide it is.”
Dreher acknowledges that it is unlikely that America will look like the Communist Soviet with their extreme torture and gulags, but we must be aware of soft-totalitarianism creeping into our country. Propaganda is a trademark of totalitarianism. Unlike the mainly political power of dictatorships, totalitarian governments create an entire ideology they require you to accept and operate by. They want to manipulate the way you think, behave, feel, and believe. To resist these totalitarian-esque movements we must not live by their lies. Both publicly and privately. “Sometimes silence is an act of resistance. Not just standing up for the truth by communicating loudly—keeping silent when you aren’t expected to be silent. That, too, is telling the truth.”
Therapeutic Moralism is an important term to be familiar with and an ideology we have to be sensitive to. Christians are equally susceptible to this kind of thinking as secularists. It is the idea that morality is based on feelings and that God just wants us to be nice and happy. "In therapeutic culture, which has everywhere triumphed, the great sin is to stand in the way of the freedom of others to find happiness as they wish." How could anyone stand in the way of someone’s happiness? Well, if morality is defined according to an individual’s feelings and there is no external authority for what is right and wrong, how would anyone agree?
Even more seriously, for Christians, this idea of “freedom” and happiness is a direct threat to our faith. It can be seen in the prosperity gospel touted by people like Joel Osteen, Rachel Hollis and others who preach self-promotion, love of self, follow your dreams, you deserve success, wealth, health and happiness, and you are in control of whatever life you want ideology. If our lives are centered on self, they are not centered on God. God did not create us so that we could spend our lives seeking personal fulfillment and success according to the world’s standards. No, we are set apart and created to glorify God, not ourselves. And if we are seeking the world’s freedom, comfort, and happiness, we will not stand for truth. The Bible does not teach that the Christian life will be free from suffering. In fact, it guarantees it. But a government that wants to control its people will disguise their ideology with a mask of freedom and happiness- something we all, in our fallen nature, love to align with; all this to the devil’s pleasure. As Christians, are we willing to suffer for our faith? Are we willing to experience public discomfort and ostracization for the sake of truth? Because with therapeutic morality, that is what is at stake.
Another characteristic evident in a people susceptible to totalitarian manipulation, is isolation: “...we grow ever lonelier and more isolated. It is no coincidence that millennials and members of Generation Z register much higher rates of loneliness than older Americans, as well as significantly greater support for socialism. It’s as if they aspire to a politics that can replace the community they wish they had... A polity filled with alienated individuals who share little sense of community and purpose are prime targets for totalitarian ideologies and leaders who promise solidarity and meaning.” I am not surprised by this. As Christians, we know that one of the greatest tools of the devil is isolation. If we are separated from a support system who encourages us in truth and helps us sort out his lies, we can easily be swayed to believe really anything.
I'm running out of space to cover it all. So moving on.
My main criticisms of this book are lack of Scriptural content and no emphasis on God’s sovereignty. After a quick google search, I’m still not sure what kind of faith Rod Dreher has and what his views on the Bible are. Since he made a few references to Paul’s teachings on suffering and this book was promoted by Tim Challies, it would seem as though he believes what the Bible teaches, however, he misses a lot of opportunities to share Scripture and Jesus’ own suffering. He almost gave a bigger spotlight to Christians who died for their faith (people he called Saints) than to Jesus himself.
Additionally, when speaking of the future and future suffering and speculating about what could potentially befall our country, I was disappointed that he spent very minimal space bestowing hope in the sovereignty of our Lord who is the Author and Sustainer of all things. Who decides which kingdoms rise and fall. Who has already defeated sin and death. Whose plans are above all ours. Yes, we need practical application and his suggested action steps could be valuable in preparing to suffer for our faith, but more powerful than any other emotion is hope. And what hope is there but the hope that lies in the only One who literally ordains every single thing down to the roll of dice. It seems a bit irresponsible to write an entire book on the danger and destruction that looms without emphasizing God’s sovereignty over it.
I find these quotes profoundly relevant:
All the lies, and lies about lies, that formed the communist order were built on the basis of this foundational lie: the communist state is the sole source of truth. Orwell expressed this truth in Nineteen Eighty-Four: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
“[God] does not want admirers; he wants followers. As Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, God suffered with humanity to redeem humanity. He calls us to share in his passion, for our sake and the sake of the world. He promises us nothing but the cross. Not happiness but the joy of blessedness. Not material wealth but richness of spirit. Not sexual freedom as erotic abandon but sexual freedom within loving, mutually sacrificial commitment. Not power but love; not self-sovereignty but obedience.”
If nothing else, this book is a reminder that we CAN know Truth, and it's not just whatever is loudest. Seek Truth, and be willing to suffer for Him. Earthly kingdoms come and go, the earth will pass away, but His Word is eternal and so are our souls.
Other Quotes:
Social justice warriors ranks are full of middle-class, secular, educated young people wracked by guilt and anxiety over their own privilege, alienated from their own traditions, and desperate to identify with something, or someone, to give them a sense of wholeness and purpose. For them, the ideology of social justice—as defined not by church teaching but by critical theorists in the academy—functions as a pseudo-religion.... They too believe that justice depends on group identity, and that achieving justice means taking power away from the exploiters and handing it to the exploited.
Communism attempted to break apart the family by maintaining a monopoly on education and teaching young people to be dependent on the state. It also sought to lure the young away from the church by convincing them that the state would be the guarantors of their sexual freedom.
Perhaps no country on earth has been more future-oriented than the United States of America. We are suckers for the Myth of Progress... but this does not mean that all changes improve upon the past inevitably. It also doesn’t mean that “progress,” divorced from God is progress at all. In fact, progress can become very dark in a secular context, without a biblical understanding of human fallibility and without the God of the Bible as the author of history and the judge of the earth.
Christians today must understand that, fundamentally, they aren’t resisting a different politics but rather what is effectively a rival religion. This is how it was for young Russians of the late nineteenth century, who embraced Marxism with the fervor of religious converts. It gave its devotees a narrative that helped them understand why things are the way they are, and what they, as Marxists, should do to bring about a more just world. It was an optimistic philosophy, one that promised relief and bounty for all the peoples of the world.
Consumerism is how we are learning to love Big Brother... He is not exactly who we expected him to be... He’s a salesman, he’s a broker, he’s a gatherer of raw materials, and a manufacturer of desires. He is monitoring virtually every move you make to determine how to sell you more things.. learning how to direct your behavior..[He] is laying the foundation for soft totalitarianism, both in terms of creating and implementing the technology for political and social control and by grooming the population to accept it as normal.
Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.- The Party Slogan, 1984
If true, these are alarming: https://victimsofcommunism.org/annual-poll/2019-annual-poll/
[Pro tip: read the e-book to easily look up terms and access footnotes]
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
“I refused to give in to the convenient misery of being ambiguous about the truth.”
Whew. So much I could say about this book. I guess, first of all: if you are interested in the theological side of homosexuality, this is not the book for that- I would read Kevin DeYoung’s book “What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality.” If you want to see how God can reach you even when you aren’t looking for him, read this. If you want to know why you love Jesus but still struggle with sinful desires and temptations, read this. If you don’t know who you are and what the world is telling you doesn’t seem satisfying, read this.
The primary conversation around the topic of homosexuality is identity. And the world tells you that your sexuality is a huge piece of that. You are your sexuality. But what if that isn’t true? What if you can live a completely fulfilled and God-glorifying life without having sex? Didn’t Jesus do that?
Paul says in 2 Timothy 4 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth.” This isn’t talking about just homosexuality as if that is a worse than any other sin- No, it is talking about ALL of our sinful desires. The things we deem ‘good’ because they feel good. But ‘good’ and ‘right’ must be defined by the Creator, not the created.
This book is the poetic story of Jackie Hill Perry’s journey- her real-life struggle with homosexuality and how she found her true identity- like we all must do.
She says, “Being born human meant that I have the capacity for affection and logic. Begin born sinful meant both were inherently broken. The unnamed attraction I felt at an elemental level only highlighted how greedy sin can be. Desires exist because God gave them to us. But homosexual desires exist because sin does. Loving him, as we were created to do, involves both the will and the affections, but sin steals this love God placed in us for himself and tells it to go elsewhere. Same-sex desires are actual. Though born of sin, they aren’t an imaginary feeling… But the actuality of the affection doesn’t make them morally justifiable. It is the mind, when conformed to the image of sin, that moves us to call evil good simply because it feels good to us.”
It was helpful for me, as a Christian who does not experience this struggle, to understand the reality of same-sex attraction. As Jackie points out, the trend in most churches is to tell those struggling with same-sex attraction that if they just come to Jesus, they will magically become straight. If we want to show love to those who experience any kind of sinful desires and temptations (i.e. all of us) then we need to be truthful about what it looks like to follow Jesus. Becoming a Christian does not mean all of those feelings and thoughts go away- they won’t. God does have the power to remove them, and may choose to do so, but the reality is that we have to die to ourselves and our passions daily and seek the Lord. Churches also put a wrongful emphasis on marriage as if that, too, is how to live the most fulfilling life. And that is just not true.
She says, “Christ has simply come to make us right with God. And in making us right with God, he is satisfying us in God. Our sexuality is not our soul, marriage is not heaven, and singleness is not hell… Jesus has come so that all sinners, same-sex-attracted and opposite-sex-attracted, can be forgiven of their sins to love God and enjoy Him forever.”
And that is why she wrote this book.
“The same Bible that condemned me held in it the promises that could save me. I just had to believe it… Jesus had the guilty in mind when He was hung high and stretched wide. On it, He stood in my place, for my sin… Didn’t He know that that wrath was mine?... His love is what He wanted me to remember… a good God had come to my rescue.”
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
Whew. So much I could say about this book. I guess, first of all: if you are interested in the theological side of homosexuality, this is not the book for that- I would read Kevin DeYoung’s book “What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality.” If you want to see how God can reach you even when you aren’t looking for him, read this. If you want to know why you love Jesus but still struggle with sinful desires and temptations, read this. If you don’t know who you are and what the world is telling you doesn’t seem satisfying, read this.
The primary conversation around the topic of homosexuality is identity. And the world tells you that your sexuality is a huge piece of that. You are your sexuality. But what if that isn’t true? What if you can live a completely fulfilled and God-glorifying life without having sex? Didn’t Jesus do that?
Paul says in 2 Timothy 4 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth.” This isn’t talking about just homosexuality as if that is a worse than any other sin- No, it is talking about ALL of our sinful desires. The things we deem ‘good’ because they feel good. But ‘good’ and ‘right’ must be defined by the Creator, not the created.
This book is the poetic story of Jackie Hill Perry’s journey- her real-life struggle with homosexuality and how she found her true identity- like we all must do.
She says, “Being born human meant that I have the capacity for affection and logic. Begin born sinful meant both were inherently broken. The unnamed attraction I felt at an elemental level only highlighted how greedy sin can be. Desires exist because God gave them to us. But homosexual desires exist because sin does. Loving him, as we were created to do, involves both the will and the affections, but sin steals this love God placed in us for himself and tells it to go elsewhere. Same-sex desires are actual. Though born of sin, they aren’t an imaginary feeling… But the actuality of the affection doesn’t make them morally justifiable. It is the mind, when conformed to the image of sin, that moves us to call evil good simply because it feels good to us.”
It was helpful for me, as a Christian who does not experience this struggle, to understand the reality of same-sex attraction. As Jackie points out, the trend in most churches is to tell those struggling with same-sex attraction that if they just come to Jesus, they will magically become straight. If we want to show love to those who experience any kind of sinful desires and temptations (i.e. all of us) then we need to be truthful about what it looks like to follow Jesus. Becoming a Christian does not mean all of those feelings and thoughts go away- they won’t. God does have the power to remove them, and may choose to do so, but the reality is that we have to die to ourselves and our passions daily and seek the Lord. Churches also put a wrongful emphasis on marriage as if that, too, is how to live the most fulfilling life. And that is just not true.
She says, “Christ has simply come to make us right with God. And in making us right with God, he is satisfying us in God. Our sexuality is not our soul, marriage is not heaven, and singleness is not hell… Jesus has come so that all sinners, same-sex-attracted and opposite-sex-attracted, can be forgiven of their sins to love God and enjoy Him forever.”
And that is why she wrote this book.
“The same Bible that condemned me held in it the promises that could save me. I just had to believe it… Jesus had the guilty in mind when He was hung high and stretched wide. On it, He stood in my place, for my sin… Didn’t He know that that wrath was mine?... His love is what He wanted me to remember… a good God had come to my rescue.”
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
"frighteningly believable," as written in the book's summary is an accurate takeaway after reading this. Especially after also reading the author's note detailing the real-life inspiration to the story, I kinda freaked out for ten seconds and planned my own doomsday bunker with all my favorite foods and weapons, and of course a generator so we could still watch wheel of fortune... And then I realized I just don't have time to worry about that right now. Hashtag momlife, hashtag Jesus will protect me.
I love how Tosca integrated the cult escapee into a pandemic survival plot. It's an interesting dynamic of how Wynter handles the crisis- filtered through the lens of all the lies she's been believing and the brainwashing she endured. Yes, it's a bit of a stretch how well-adjusted Wynter seemed to be coming out of the cult. I think she'd be pretty worthless in such a high-tension situation, but I've decided to attribute it to the influence of Shae that she was still semi-attached to all things outside world and could assimilate faster than a normal escapee. Unlike zombie-apocalyptic stories, I like how this disease created zombie-like people (irrational, violent, and unpredictable) in a realistic way-early onset-dementia caused by an ancient bacteria that we have no vaccine or immunity for. (Insert plug for the Atlantis Gene trilogy if you like these kind of books) It was also fun to have the book set in my neck of the woods- good ole Des Moines and the Midwest- no one writes books about such geographic treasures!
The book was fast-paced and lived up to it's 'thriller' label. I am very much looking forward to the sequel to this book and seeing how the disease-riddled America fights back. Well-done.
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
I love how Tosca integrated the cult escapee into a pandemic survival plot. It's an interesting dynamic of how Wynter handles the crisis- filtered through the lens of all the lies she's been believing and the brainwashing she endured. Yes, it's a bit of a stretch how well-adjusted Wynter seemed to be coming out of the cult. I think she'd be pretty worthless in such a high-tension situation, but I've decided to attribute it to the influence of Shae that she was still semi-attached to all things outside world and could assimilate faster than a normal escapee. Unlike zombie-apocalyptic stories, I like how this disease created zombie-like people (irrational, violent, and unpredictable) in a realistic way-early onset-dementia caused by an ancient bacteria that we have no vaccine or immunity for. (Insert plug for the Atlantis Gene trilogy if you like these kind of books) It was also fun to have the book set in my neck of the woods- good ole Des Moines and the Midwest- no one writes books about such geographic treasures!
The book was fast-paced and lived up to it's 'thriller' label. I am very much looking forward to the sequel to this book and seeing how the disease-riddled America fights back. Well-done.
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
Rebecca's story is a powerful testament to how God works in the midst of suffering. I was aware of the civil war in Sudan that displaced so many refugees, but I hadn't really heard someone's full story who lived it. Rebecca's hardship begins at the tender age of 4 when her village was attacked. As she recounts the events throughout her childhood she maintains childlike innocence in her writing voice which I found very effective in understanding the world through her eyes. She lost so much, but her faith was strong and she didn't allow her pain and suffering to taint her view of God. We can learn much from her. While I have not experienced the trauma of war or loss to the degree Rebecca has, I have grieved the loss of a baby, and I know, as I think we all have, the pull of the question 'Why?' And like Rebecca, I don't find that question helpful because we don't always get to know. But Rebecca says, "Though Joseph's story is of an Israelite boy and mine is of a Dinka girl, our stories are the same in that they communicate the stories of suffering; but they also communicate that nothing is wasted in God's world. He redeems everything to himself." I love that. Even in the midst of pain we know that God does not waste it. He is in the business of redeeming all things. She goes on, "What brings healing is honoring the pain, acknowledging its impact, trusting God to secure lasting justice, and forgiving those who have caused our suffering." Rebecca's strength is admirable. Her story encourages and challenges us to resist despair and to serve others. Read this book and you will have a new heart for refugees and a broadened perspective on suffering.
**I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
**I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
"Sometimes to get your life back, you have to face the death of what you thought your life would look like."
We don't like to relinquish control of our lives. But there is an Author far better than any of us at writing stories. Lysa was reminded of this in a lot of hard ways and has written this book to share how this truth wrecked and restored her life. She is honest and realistic about pain and suffering, but does not shy away from the bold truths of the Bible, even if we don't want to hear them.
I'm not currently going through a time of grief or loss or disappointment (unless you count quarantining from the Coronavirus) but I've gone through loss before and I am sure I will again. This will be a book I come back and read again when I am overwhelmed and unable to reconcile my feelings with what I know to be true of God.
One phrase that had helped me in my time of loss that she uses is that God will not waste your pain. I appreciate these words because it acknowledges the very real pain and it doesn't explain it away or make you feel like you shouldn't feel what you are feeling. Feel your feelings and know that nothing will be wasted.
I also loved her description that we are struggling between two gardens (Eden and Heaven), reminding us that this is not our best life; this life will have suffering because of what happened in the first garden, but it's not the final garden. All of her analogies using 'dust' are so perceptive and profound. God created out of dust in the garden. And she says, "What if shattering is the only way to get dust back to its basic form so that something new can be made?" She provides tangible visuals using dust to help us understand how anything good could come from such pain. I think this was such a clever and meaningful theme to encompass this book.
Not currently in a season of hardship, I can't fully assess whether I would find comfort in this book during a time of grief, but from my perspective right now, I feel this book will resonate with most who read it. She is honest, transparent, and hopeful. She writes from a place of compassion and humility not of achievement and perfection. It is Scripture-filled. I appreciate this because she didn't just fill a book with her own musings and experience, but filtered her experience through what God says about it, letting God's words be the most important words, not hers. We lose that in a lot of books these days.
The book would make for a good Bible Study, but I read it by myself and still benefitted from it. It is structured with a section after each chapter that reviews the main points she covered, the Scriptures that were mentioned, useful discussion questions, and then a prayer. I really liked this formatting because it would be helpful as a future reference or a place to go when you need Scripture or a prayer when you are at a loss for what to do next.
I also want to point out that her writing is very good. It seems nerdy to say this, but her use of alliteration, allegory, and word play was well done. Her illustrations were spot on and made sense (unlike some writers who just try to throw in stories to name drop or make themselves look a particular way).
This book is full of great truths. Some of them may be hard to hear when our pain is raw, but we cannot afford to avoid truth to flounder in self-pity and despair.
"God doesn’t want you or me to suffer. But He will allow it in doses to increase our trust. Our pain and suffering isn’t to hurt us. It’s to save us. To save us from a life where we are self-reliant, self-satisfied, self-absorbed, and set up for the greatest pain of all… separation from God.
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!
We don't like to relinquish control of our lives. But there is an Author far better than any of us at writing stories. Lysa was reminded of this in a lot of hard ways and has written this book to share how this truth wrecked and restored her life. She is honest and realistic about pain and suffering, but does not shy away from the bold truths of the Bible, even if we don't want to hear them.
I'm not currently going through a time of grief or loss or disappointment (unless you count quarantining from the Coronavirus) but I've gone through loss before and I am sure I will again. This will be a book I come back and read again when I am overwhelmed and unable to reconcile my feelings with what I know to be true of God.
One phrase that had helped me in my time of loss that she uses is that God will not waste your pain. I appreciate these words because it acknowledges the very real pain and it doesn't explain it away or make you feel like you shouldn't feel what you are feeling. Feel your feelings and know that nothing will be wasted.
I also loved her description that we are struggling between two gardens (Eden and Heaven), reminding us that this is not our best life; this life will have suffering because of what happened in the first garden, but it's not the final garden. All of her analogies using 'dust' are so perceptive and profound. God created out of dust in the garden. And she says, "What if shattering is the only way to get dust back to its basic form so that something new can be made?" She provides tangible visuals using dust to help us understand how anything good could come from such pain. I think this was such a clever and meaningful theme to encompass this book.
Not currently in a season of hardship, I can't fully assess whether I would find comfort in this book during a time of grief, but from my perspective right now, I feel this book will resonate with most who read it. She is honest, transparent, and hopeful. She writes from a place of compassion and humility not of achievement and perfection. It is Scripture-filled. I appreciate this because she didn't just fill a book with her own musings and experience, but filtered her experience through what God says about it, letting God's words be the most important words, not hers. We lose that in a lot of books these days.
The book would make for a good Bible Study, but I read it by myself and still benefitted from it. It is structured with a section after each chapter that reviews the main points she covered, the Scriptures that were mentioned, useful discussion questions, and then a prayer. I really liked this formatting because it would be helpful as a future reference or a place to go when you need Scripture or a prayer when you are at a loss for what to do next.
I also want to point out that her writing is very good. It seems nerdy to say this, but her use of alliteration, allegory, and word play was well done. Her illustrations were spot on and made sense (unlike some writers who just try to throw in stories to name drop or make themselves look a particular way).
This book is full of great truths. Some of them may be hard to hear when our pain is raw, but we cannot afford to avoid truth to flounder in self-pity and despair.
"God doesn’t want you or me to suffer. But He will allow it in doses to increase our trust. Our pain and suffering isn’t to hurt us. It’s to save us. To save us from a life where we are self-reliant, self-satisfied, self-absorbed, and set up for the greatest pain of all… separation from God.
See more of my reviews at www.shelfreflection.com!