Ronald Dunn and his wife passed through profound and tragic experiences. He is a minister from the USA and so these trials were worked through in the context of the busy life of a Christian leader and his family. Lessons learned through these experiences are woven with detailed studies of the life of Jacob and his struggles, in that of Job and his suffering and finally of King David and his disappointments to give us a book that will prove very helpful to those who read it carefully. The author’s style is quite racy and readable. He does not dwell too much upon his own personal anecdotes but rapidly moves from them to apply the lessons learned and he does not hold back from frank disclosure of the realities of his own failures in the path through which the Lord carried him. Good and evil are mixed up in our lives and are present every day. He seeks to unravel the knots, at least a little, concerning this fact. There are sections in the book where he seeks to indicate that only the ‘breaking of the day’ will reveal fully just what has been wrought in the lives of those who responded to God in the midst of their trials. He goes further, indicating that those trials will in fact in the end prove to have been the greatest sources of blessings. The book is not trite but very real. Questions such as ‘why’, ‘why me’ and ‘what now’ are examined. A helpful section on the memory is included, is it a minister or a monster? ‘What to do when you do not know what to do’ is very straightforward part of the book and deals with the dark side of grace and when the Lord says no. The book is practical, spiritually well founded, laced with some good humour and serious all at the same time. In short, it makes for a good read and will provide encouragements to teachable and seeking hearts who are passing through inexplicable trials. The particular publisher “Authentic Publishing’ is committed to reprinting books written in the last sixty or so years that can be regarded as ‘spiritual classics’.
