Book Review - The Silent Gift

The Silent Gift, a historical novel written by Michael Landon, Jr. offers a glimpse into the lives of the unlovely and those who feel unloved - but who are loved deeply by God. The story centers around Jack, a little boy growing up during the Great Depression and who is deaf and mute and around Jack's mother Mary who wants to protect Jack from those who want to either hurt Jack or exploit what appears to be a unique gift from God - the ability to prophesy - but ends up in a seemingly unending series of ever more perilous circumstances.

This book is not what I would call a typical religious historical fiction book because it deals with deeper subject matter than the typical historical fiction. It makes the reader consider what it means to be gifted by God and how those gifts might not appear like gifts to the world. Or perhaps the world would have us use our God-given gifts to benefit ourselves or others and not to serve God. Another subject focused on to a lesser degree is that of how God takes the broken and unloved and makes them whole in Him.

About halfway through The Silent Gift I was almost ready to put it down because I thought the author was going down a road I didn't agree with. But I kept reading and I'm glad I did because in the end he brought out the exact point I thought he was contradicting - that God-given gifts are not to be used for gain and that our faith belongs in God and not in what we can do to provide for ourselves.

Overall, this is an excellent book and might just make you take a second look at society's outcasts and realize that everyone is worthy of love.

Book Review - Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain

I received the book Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain by Drs. Paul Meier and David Henderson from Thomas Nelson Books for the purpose of reading the book and then blogging about my opinion of it. When I first picked up this book I assumed the intended audience was those who are in the midst of intense pain in some form. As I read I learned that, to the contrary, this book is intended for anyone who has ever found themselves in a pain-filled situation - in other words, it's for everyone.

The authors divide the painful events of life into seven categories: injustice, rejection, loneliness, loss, discipline, failure and death. I discovered that, while I have never faced a dramatic instance of pain (such as job loss, death of a close loved one, etc) this book offers practical, Christ-centered advice on how to deal with painful situations of any proportion. Anyone should easily be able to recall instances that fit into most if not all of these seven categories and will realize that when they face similar situations in the future they will be able to look at them from a different standpoint - the standpoint of what does God want to accomplish in your life as you experience this painful event/situation? The book makes it clear that God does not cause these situations but He does want us to learn from them and especially learn to lean more fully on Him as our Source of strength.

Throughout the book the authors use a combination of Scripture and anecdotes from their own experiences to show how God grows us through the painful experiences of our lives - but only if we choose to grow. Everyone suffers pain in this life. It's a part of existence on Earth. But we learn from it and grow through it only by looking to God for the greater purpose the pain serves in our lives.