Nancy Guthrie and her husband lost two babies to the same genetic disease. This book, she says, is “the culmination of my search for deeper understanding that has come with the perspective of years and further study of the Scriptures since writing my earlier book Holding On to Hope.”
Guthrie has built her book around eleven statements of Jesus that speak to the experience of sorrow and grief. What that gives us is a thorough, biblical answer to the questions raised when we suffer; and when we’re experiencing the worst things in life, we need the complete answer. It’s a wonderful thing to trust that there will be a glorious resurrection when all that hurts us is made right and whole in a way it never could be in this life, but it’s even better when we can understand that there is meaning in our sufferings themselves. We draw comfort, too, in knowing that our Saviour understands our sorrow because he experienced deep suffering. And there’s more: those are the main points of just three of the chapters in Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow.
This is a small book. Each chapter is short and the style is conversational. The format is perfect, I’d think, for someone who is struggling through difficulties, when circumstance and attention span can make studied reading difficult.
From first to last, Guthrie’s little book is gospelly. It includes a clear presentation of the good news, and is saturated with the message of what Christ has done and how it “speaks into” our experience of grief. It doesn’t gloss over the hard truths, like the need for self-denial and the reality of God’s wrath, either. The chapter on God’s ordaining relationship to suffering is especially strong, yet not too complicated to be understood by someone new to this truth.
You can tell that I liked this book, right? But I do have a few quibbles. First, I’m not thrilled that the scripture is usually quoted from the NLT, and even, at least once, from The Message. I’m not an NLT hater—I have one and I use it and I think I understand why this translation choice was made—but the NLT often loses a little of the rich meaning of the text, and when it’s quoted in bits, it just feels flat. Second, while the points Guthrie draws from the texts are scriptural, she does sometimes come to them in roundabout ways. And last on my minor complaints list is this: I’m not sure that I agree with everything she writes in the chapter on forgiveness.
But I used the word quibbles on purpose. These are small things and they don’t take away from the value of Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow. This is an excellent book to read if you’ve are grieving or to give to someone who is suffering through difficulties.
Update: Oh yes, I forgot to mention that as with most of the books I review, I received this one as a freebie. And as always, I tried not to let that influence my review.