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thewomancalledsun's reviews
122 reviews
Hope in the Dark: Believing God Is Good When Life Is Not by Craig Groeschel
1.0
WORK REVIEW
Hope in the dark is a book that sets out to accomplish the ambitious task of answering the question that many people have; “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” I am saddened to say that this book, in my opinion, fails in answering that question. The book is thankfully short and straight to the point, and it is full of wonderful examples of persevering faith. However, the book is also obviously targeted for people who already believe in God. I say this because anyone who doesn’t go into this with such an attitude will probably scoff and put the book down before the end of the first chapter.
Hope in the dark is what I would describe as Christian fluff. A wonderful example of this is on page 133 where the author is officiating the funeral of a friend, and when at a loss for words, proceeds to say “God is good!” it was followed by, and I quote, “a moment of silence as the entire room seemed to exhale, and then everyone responded together ‘all the time’”. There are without a doubt people who will read passages like those and be comforted and encouraged or will even want to aspire to such faith, but that is a very specific type of Christian. For the average non-believer and even a vast number of Christians such passages will come of as almost cultish and incomprehensible.
Do not misunderstand me, Hope in the Dark is most decidedly not a bad book it’s just a book very obviously targeted to the type of person who already believes in God and has no problem blindly putting all their faith in God no matter what. If you have any kind of deeply rooted doubts and questions about God, evil, and how they could possibly co-exist, you will not find your answers here. That is, if the answers you are looking for are less superficial than the same textbook answer Christians have been giving for a millennia, “God is good and no matter how much we hurt and don’t get it we just have to trust that He knows best”. I do not blame Craig Groeschel for attempting to answer this question that has been plaguing Christians for as far back as religion has existed, I also do not blame him for failing to give an answer that is more than the same thing we have been told over and over again. The reason I don’t blame him for this is because most pastor/author types always attempt to answer these seemingly unanswerable questions when they reach a certain amount of notoriety, its simply human hubris. I do concede that that is a somewhat unfair assessment considering the heartfelt forward written by the author explaining how the book came to be, however I feel that it would also be biased of me to not include my honest thoughts.
All in all, Hope in the Dark is not at all a bad book and for a specific group of people it would be phenomenal book. However for the rest of us Hope in the Dark is a book with good intentions that simply aimed a bit too far and fell a bit too flat.
Hope in the dark is a book that sets out to accomplish the ambitious task of answering the question that many people have; “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” I am saddened to say that this book, in my opinion, fails in answering that question. The book is thankfully short and straight to the point, and it is full of wonderful examples of persevering faith. However, the book is also obviously targeted for people who already believe in God. I say this because anyone who doesn’t go into this with such an attitude will probably scoff and put the book down before the end of the first chapter.
Hope in the dark is what I would describe as Christian fluff. A wonderful example of this is on page 133 where the author is officiating the funeral of a friend, and when at a loss for words, proceeds to say “God is good!” it was followed by, and I quote, “a moment of silence as the entire room seemed to exhale, and then everyone responded together ‘all the time’”. There are without a doubt people who will read passages like those and be comforted and encouraged or will even want to aspire to such faith, but that is a very specific type of Christian. For the average non-believer and even a vast number of Christians such passages will come of as almost cultish and incomprehensible.
Do not misunderstand me, Hope in the Dark is most decidedly not a bad book it’s just a book very obviously targeted to the type of person who already believes in God and has no problem blindly putting all their faith in God no matter what. If you have any kind of deeply rooted doubts and questions about God, evil, and how they could possibly co-exist, you will not find your answers here. That is, if the answers you are looking for are less superficial than the same textbook answer Christians have been giving for a millennia, “God is good and no matter how much we hurt and don’t get it we just have to trust that He knows best”. I do not blame Craig Groeschel for attempting to answer this question that has been plaguing Christians for as far back as religion has existed, I also do not blame him for failing to give an answer that is more than the same thing we have been told over and over again. The reason I don’t blame him for this is because most pastor/author types always attempt to answer these seemingly unanswerable questions when they reach a certain amount of notoriety, its simply human hubris. I do concede that that is a somewhat unfair assessment considering the heartfelt forward written by the author explaining how the book came to be, however I feel that it would also be biased of me to not include my honest thoughts.
All in all, Hope in the Dark is not at all a bad book and for a specific group of people it would be phenomenal book. However for the rest of us Hope in the Dark is a book with good intentions that simply aimed a bit too far and fell a bit too flat.
Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton
1.0
This WAS NOT a bad book.
I just couldn't get into this book. It was really heavy and 'deep'. . . if that makes any sense.
It really wasn't a bad book and the polyamorous themes were handled well in my opinion. So like I said, not necessarily a bad book I just didn't understand it and couldn't get into it.
I just couldn't get into this book. It was really heavy and 'deep'. . . if that makes any sense.
It really wasn't a bad book and the polyamorous themes were handled well in my opinion. So like I said, not necessarily a bad book I just didn't understand it and couldn't get into it.