When God's Ways Make No Sense by Dr. Larry Crabb

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When God's Ways Make No Sense

Raw is the first word that comes to mind when I think of how to define this book. Wrestle might be the second word. You get the feeling that author is wrestling with the title of this book most of the time he is writing it. He's fighting cancer, his wife's having surgery, his insurance company tries to cancel his health insurance, friends are fighting their own battles, and he's trying to figure out a God who isn't following the happy Gospel so many modern Christians are ascribing to.

I'm not even really sure how to describe this book in a few succinct sentences. Part of me wrestled with the fact that Dr. Crabb still seemed to be wrestling with this issue at 70 plus years of age. I mean aren't we supposed to have life figured out by then? And the other part of me appreciated the raw honesty that he expressed in the words of this book as he himself wrestled with who God is and how to define His Sovereignty.

Basically, I would say read the book. It's definitely worth it and will challenge your thinking. Using three Bible characters: Jonah who resisted and ran, Saul who distorted and denied and Habakkuk who trusted and trembled, Dr. Larry Crabb will lead you on a journey to a faith and trust like none you've known before.

"The tragedy is real. Our desire for things to go well in the smaller story that begins at our birth and ends at our death is stronger than our longing to know God well enough to live now in His larger story, a story that began for us when we were born again and will continue throughout eternity. A foolish tragedy: we thirst more for lesser goods than for the greatest good."

"...Only when we tremble before a God whose good ways do not seem good to us can we get in touch with our deepest thirst, with the inconsolable longing to know and experience God in a way we never will till we lay  eyes on Christ"

"We will never uncompromisingly trust God for the supreme good He is doing in the difficulties we endure until first we tremble over the good we so strongly and understandably want that He is not doing."

I received this book from Baker Books and was not required to write a positive review, but it is definitely a book I am planning to keep and would recommend to others.

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