Book Review: Days Like These by Kristian & Rachel Anderson

This is a chronological walk through Kristian’s cancer, in his own words. Blog posts he wrote during his struggle with cancer have been compiled into chapters with a summary section at the end of each written by his wife Rachel. It’s incredibly personal, very personal, and of course very emotional throughout.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book like this before – written in the middle of the struggle, describing every up and down, no hiding behind cliches or spiritual catchphrases – and it’s pretty powerful. Simply by reading this informal journal we’re taken on a detailed and highly personal journey through cancer – it isn’t pretty, but it’s enlightening. I’ll definitely look at cancer differently having read this.

To be honest, I found the book quite difficult to read; firstly, the obvious subject matter, but also because it’s written as most blogs are, simply a collection of thoughts he’s having on that particular day with very little thought-through holistic storyline. That’s part of the beauty of it but I’m not entirely convinced it lends itself well to book format – it took me a long time to read it, and I read a lot. That said, the personal nature of it did genuinely draw me in to the point that I really felt like I had built a relationship with Kristian – it moved me to tears more than once.

An issue some might have with it is that he uses language every so often that some would consider offensive. I’m not sure whether this is because Australians (like Kristian) approach language differently to Brits (like me), or whether it’s simply a genuine expression of his frustration at that moment, but if that’s the sort of thing that would lose you, you’re probably not going to enjoy it.

Overall I’d certainly recommend this to anyone who is struggling with cancer, knows someone who is, or doesn’t know anything about it. Kristian’s focus invariably returned to Jesus in spite of the bad news that kept coming his way, and that attitude is something pretty much everyone could learn a lesson from.

I got this ebook for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

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Book review: Captive in Iran by Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh

This is essentially a diary following the interrogation and imprisonment of two Iranian ladies, who were held by the government for nine months simply for being Christians. Their story covers everything from their arrest to the prison environment, relationships with the guards and other prisoners, the court case and hearing about the news reports.

Firstly: this is eye-opening. I knew basically nothing about Iran before reading this, and it almost reads like a fiction story. The Iranian government is controlling and insecure, oppressing women and silencing any voice against them going as far as falsifying statements and handing out the death penalty simply for disagreeing with them. This book is a well-written account of the experiences of two innocent ladies remaining calm and speaking out in the face of persecution.

By the nature of it the book’s saddening, but there’s an under-current of faith and hope throughout the whole thing; the authors are Bible-focused and love to pray, and are an incredible modern example of rejoicing in the midst of suffering.

That said, there’s humour in here as well; on a few occasions the ladies related giggling as a bit of a coping mechanism, and the mental image of pompous, ultra-serious prison guards being humiliated by two ‘infidels’ not being able to stop laughing made me chuckle on many occasions, despite the rest of the book’s content.

I’d encourage anyone and everyone to buy and read this book. It’s written really well and it’s informative; I’m certainly going to be more aware of the situation in Iran from now on, and not only for Christians. The message of the book is clear, true and simple: Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh were quite literally captives in Iran, but the people of Iran are themselves captives of the regime there, whether they realise it or not.

I got this book for free from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

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What to do when you’re about to die

I’ve never done any research into how people die, but I’ve definitely read somewhere that the majority of deaths happen to people lying in bed. In other words, they know they’re going to die, and end up basically waiting for it to happen.

Sorry to be morbid.

But however most people die, I reckon there aren’t many people who actually see death staring them in the face and have the opportunity to contemplate it head-on.

Robert Shelby, a lay pastor at a Baptist church, is one man who did when his head hit the bottom of a swimming pool while diving in.

None of my body is moving. So, I go through my feet, my toes, my legs and knees, go through my arms. I’m trying every single part of my body that I thought might get me there, tried dog paddling, but I’m absolutely paralyzed. There’s nothing moving.

Robert Shelby was about to drown, and he knew it.

I prayed just a moment about it, and what came to me was that [since] I praised God for the last 10 years of my life, I should praise him now. So, I began praising him for his grace, for saving me, sending his son, those type things, praising him for the privilege of raising up a family and ministering to people. I prayed that he would watch over my family and provide for them.

His story’s pretty moving, so get a tissue out, read the whole thing here, and be inspired.

How many bridges are there in the Bible?

English: “The Deluge”, Frontispiece to Doré’s illustrated edition of the Bible. Based on the story of Noah’s Ark, this shows humans and a tiger doomed by the flood futilely attempting to save their children and cubs. Français : “Le Déluge”, Frontispice de l’édition illustrée par Gustave Doré de la Bible. Basé sur l’histoire de l’Arche de Noé, la gravure montre des humains et un tigre tentant en vain de sauver leur progéniture. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have you ever noticed that humans just plain old like bridges? You can do so many things on them: play Pooh Sticks, walk over them, drive over them, look upriver, look downriver, cross from one side of a river to the other…we like bridges.

Christians also like bridges. As a university student I was told in no uncertain terms that the person and work of Jesus is a bridge that takes sinful man over the chasm of hell to the perfect and holy God. Lovely. So how many times does the word ‘bridge’ appear in the Bible?

None.

But there’s plenty of water.

So what does the Bible do when it comes to water if there are no bridges? Well, God sometimes parts the water to help his people out of a tough situation. Sometimes he walks on water while his people are in a tough situation. Sometimes he’s asleep in the boat while his people are in a tough situation.

In fact, it seems that the concept of creating a bridge to help yourself out of a tough situation is entirely alien to the Bible. Instead, God seems to say one of two things: (1) I will give you a miracle and release you from this tough situation, or (2) I will be right there with you, but you’re going to have to ride out this tough situation.

This really addresses the ‘problem’ of suffering! At times, God miraculously intervenes to break people out of suffering, and how much do we love to hear about that?! But at other times, God says: Don’t be afraid. I’m right here, and I’m going nowhere. Ride out your storm, and I’ll still be with you when it’s over.

Thinking about it now, that’s quite comforting.

Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis by Terry Lindvall

This book is a study into C.S. Lewis’ approach to humour. The author acknowledges that in reality dissecting a joke stops it from being funny, so attempts instead to simply present Lewis’ ideas in their purest form, quoting from him liberally and attempting to communicate to the reader what he really meant without losing the wit originally present.

The book’s split into six parts: an introduction, a deeper look into C.S. Lewis’ four ‘types’ of humour (satire and flippancy, the joke proper, fun, and joy), and a conclusion.

Let’s start with the good bits. Lindvall accurately captures C.S. Lewis’ character throughout – he goes into a lot of depth for each aspect of Lewis’ approach to comedy, and as I say he quotes from him left, right and centre. I found myself challenged at times and chuckling at times, and sometimes experiencing both simultaneously. C.S. Lewis would be proud!

But for me there are some glaring not-so-good bits which don’t necessarily make the book a bad one, but are certainly worth noting.

Firstly, the book assumes a certain level of background knowledge about C.S. Lewis such as his nickname ‘Jack’ and his portfolio of books, both of which are referenced with little or no context, leaving the reader confused without that knowledge. If you’re completely unfamiliar with C.S. Lewis I wouldn’t use this book as your introduction!

Secondly, the book is very long! This is less a light-hearted joke book, more a weighty biography. Even the nature of the footnotes section (a very detailed bibliography rather than an explanation of context) is far more intellectual than the title might suggest.

Thirdly, saying this is about C.S. Lewis is not quite right – Lindvall probably quotes from G.K. Chesterton just as much as Lewis, and for good reason, but I feel it does take away from the focus of the book being C.S. Lewis.

Finally I’m not sure that the book has the right title. It’s subtitled ‘the comic world of C.S. Lewis’, but in reality it’s about general attitudes to life, Christianity and eternity, including dealing with suffering, sin, and other things which it would be difficult to describe as ‘comic’.

In summary then, I genuinely enjoyed this book; I do think it’s a fair reflection of Lewis’ attitude towards laughter and a deep sense of joy. I suppose, however, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, which just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover (much like Lewis himself).

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Want to be skeptical?

So a few weeks ago I suggested that the foundation of everything anyone believes is based on circular reasoning.

I stand by that post.

I found it interesting, therefore, when I saw this article the other day about God’s purposes in suffering – if you find yourself believing that suffering is bad, do you believe that simply because you already believe that? Here’s a little quote to whet your appetite:

…seeing the blind man on the temple steps triggered their curiosity: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

God the Son…gave an answer that would turn their theology on its head and affect the futures of millions…God made this man blind in order to demonstrate his power in him.

…

After his world-shaking statement, Jesus made the man see! In that moment everything changed. See the power of the Word! Light shown into dark eyes. A brain that had never processed optical stimuli was given immediate ability to interpret a visual world.

But even more revolutionary in its repercussions, the man went from being perceived as the object of God’s wrath to being the object of God’s kindness!…

So was it worth it — all the suffering? It all depends on what God gave him in return.

God so loved him that he gave his only Son so that by believing in him, this man would not perish but have eternal life. What this man received beyond his miraculous physical healing was the far more miraculous forgiveness of all his sins and eternal life in God’s presence where full joy and pleasures never end.Such a gift would be worth a thousand blind lifetimes.

The article itself isn’t much longer than what I’ve quoted here; have a read.

God’s sovereignty in disability

This is a phenomenally powerful, moving and thoroughly godly interview between John Piper and John Knight, whose son was born without eyes. The full transcript is available for free here. Fully worth the 20 or so minutes.

A Conversation With God by Alton Gansky

This book is a collection of 55 questions asked to God, and an account of what His response would be based on the Bible. The questions are separated into various categories, such as God, the Bible, pain and suffering, and today’s world.

 

When I first received this book I was excited; the book naturally fell open at a chapter on whether or not God loves gay people, and I liked the answer. A couple of pages earlier was a chapter on abortion, and again I liked the answer. I decided I’d behave myself and read it from the beginning.

 

Unfortunately, my experience then changed. To say that the title of this book is ‘a conversation with God’, this is a bit of a weird conversation. Each chapter begins with the same question asked three times: first in one sentence, then in a couple of paragraphs, and then in the form of several questions at once. The answers are then not provided by God, but by an entire cast of characters, including Judas, Micah, Asaph, Urbanus, and Matthias. So the format, if anything, is simply confusing. This book is not a conversation with God.

 

On top of this I didn’t find the answers particularly helpful, particularly at the ‘foundational level’ questions. For example, the opening question (in it’s short form) is ‘God, who are You? What are You?’ to which God responds with ‘I’m unique in all creation.’ I agree that God is unique, but ‘in all creation’? Surely God is outside of creation? The answer then continues by describing His characteristics, one of which is His jealousy, which Gansky defines as ‘the fear of losing what you have [in the same way that a husband] worries that he might be losing [his wife].’ I disagree. God is not afraid, and He is not worried.

 

In this entire opening chapter the Holy Spirit is never mentioned, nor is the existence of the Trinity – a major oversight when the question is ‘God, who are you?’. When the Holy Spirit finally pipes up (in chapter seven, after the section of God is finished), He is called simply ‘holy spirit’, as if He is some impersonal force rather than a Person in the Godhead. In the ‘cast list’ in the introduction (which contains a spelling error), the Holy Spirit is not even mentioned. God and Jesus are both named as if they are separate people (I can only assume that Gansky means ‘the Father’ each time he references God), and overall the understanding of God just seems to be a bit clumsy.

 

It seems a shame that silly things like this have slipped through despite the apparent input from a whole host of people (none of whom are named, by the way). The most frustrating of these silly things must be that the introduction seems to disagree so much with the actual book contents. In particular we’re told that the combined efforts have intended ‘to do away with what is often called Christianese‘. Great! But it takes hardly any time for Jesus to start talking about forgiven sin and ‘disciples, who became apostles and established the church to spread the message of salvation.’ What are disciples? Or apostles? And what’s this sin, forgiveness, church, or salvation?

 

At times the specific questions aren’t even answered, the response is simply a general talk about a related topic! For example question two is specific: ‘God, how can we believe that You created us?’ but the answer is summed up early on: ‘The key to seeing creation is the willingness to look…there is no lack of evidence, only lack of belief.’ Well, I agree with the statement, but the answer’s not right – ‘how can we believe?’ ‘You just need to believe.’

 

So in summary I’m not the biggest fan of this book, which is a shame. The idea’s an interesting one, and some questions are dealt with well, but the content of the book just doesn’t live up to the title or the introduction.

 

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Max on Life by Max Lucado

In this book Max Lucado takes a whole lot of questions that he’s found he’s been asked over the years, and endeavours to respond to each one in one page each. The book is separated into several sections dealing with hurt, home, relationships, and so on.

Max Lucado is a really good communicator and I think is at his best in this book; the toughest question takes no more than a page and a half to answer, and the vast majority of the time you feel like he’s presented a thoroughly biblical and sincere response.

There are some nice quotes, catchy phrases, and good disciplines in here as well – my only concern would be that because of the succinctness of the answers, a reader may not be able to properly take in the content!

The only thing that slightly frustrated me was the same thing that occurs in all Lucado’s books; he uses a different translation every time he quotes from the Bible. At times this is useful and brings a good take on the topic, but every so often I was left wondering why that particular translation of that particular verse…

All in all, thoroughly recommended. Whether you read it cover-to-cover, or pick out the most relevant questions or Bible verses or topics, I’d be happy recommending this to any reader, Christian or non-Christian.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Why suffering

Image via Wikipedia

I’m currently listening to an audiobook by Randy Alcorn – it’s very good. I’m sure the review will be up soon at my book review blog.

Anyway, in this book he asks the tough question: why does suffering exist? He answers the question in a number of different ways but for me one of the highlights was when he looked at Romans 8:

‘I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us…For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.’

If the apostle Paul were asked, ‘Why suffering?’ he would answer in one word: ‘Glory.’

Suffering is real. Suffering is bad. But the result is glory. F. F. Bruce explained that glory is not compensation for suffering, but the result of it; suffering is actually necessary for our future glory.

This is ultimately seen in the cross of Christ. The resurrection is not there to make up for Jesus’ suffering on the cross, it could only happen because of his suffering on the cross.

Paul’s picture of childbirth is perfect: without the pain, there would be no new life.

Let’s not imagine that somehow Satan is thwarting God’s plans by making us and others suffer; it’s all part of God’s ultimate redemptive story, and the future glory is surely going to outshine any suffering anyone has experienced while on this earth.