Author JIM McQUIGGAN
Publisher WATERBROOK PRESS
ISBN 1-57856-408-5
This is one of a number of books written by an elderly minister from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He also has a number of web pages to access. The title of this book will no doubt gain the attention of at least some of us and it indicates that there are plenty of serious matters to be found in these chapters. Written in a style that holds the interest, the reader will find the contents challenging too, especially those who espouse a lightweight, cotton candy kind of notion of God and think that being a Christian means exemption from difficulty and pain. However, this author, who is himself no stranger to the pressures of Christian ministry and much suffering (although he does not mention those personal matters much at all) tackles these issues with much, grace, humor and laces all with quotations and stories from many sources. The book is basically asking whether there is purpose to suffering and loss, life can be agonizing, what about the ‘innocents’ and can there be any reason behind what often appears to be sheer chaos and mindlessness? McQuiggan offers no simple answers but looks at God and suffering from a variety of angles and some of these will not have occurred to the minds some readers. At back of all this author reveals that God is in loving and relentless pursuit of mankind. Even God’s wrath is seen as an essential part of that ceaseless love. Suffering is a vital part of God’s work in the world whereby He is bringing redemption to His creation. There are no mistakes and there is nothing casual or harsh in God’s ways as He accomplishes His unswerving purpose. None of the chapters are long; this is a devotional book of rich substance. It is divided up into three main sections, “the wilderness,” “the people of the wilderness” and “the God of the wilderness.” God’s people are called to live and pilgrim through this world as though it were a wild and difficult place, it is not their home, but, in all their journey they will discover what God is like as He conducts them through their time here. A section of questions brings the book to a close and these could be used for group discussion for those who are serious about their Christian walk and are willing to avoid sweeping the ‘hard’ things under the carpet. God sees in ways we do not and His loving purposes are being worked out through the very things from which we would distance ourselves is among the conclusions that emerge from these short essays. How good to read the wise words of the aged on these most important things.
