As a counselor for 20 years, Brown (Living the Renewed Life
) has worked with many Christians who try to do everything right, then despair when their lives don't play out as they hoped. Many of them have relied on religious industriousness to bring them spiritual satisfaction, only to find frustration. But just as the Israelites drank water from a rock in the wilderness, Brown says, those who feel they have failed can find God in the most unexpected of places: "I believe that, with a subtle but transforming shift in perspective, the apparently mundane tasks and commitments in your life—yes, even your hardships and heartaches—are stones from which the deepest healing and nourishment of the Savior can flow." Such an outlook requires imagination and relinquishing control, because God is more interested in refining believers amid life's troubles than in granting them relief from their pain. In urging Christians to abandon themselves to God, Brown at times obscures his points with vague language, and the book might have benefited from fewer first-person illustrations. This guide is intended for the Christian Living section of bookstores, but it avoids a chief error of that genre: It offers its principles without promising that they will be easy to practice. Those who desire intimacy with God may find refreshment here. (Apr.)
