Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense by Dr. Larry Crabb

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense

Dr. Larry Crabb

Baker Books

2018

http://www.newwayministries.org/index.php

I chose this book because the title intrigued me. When God’s Ways Make No Sense. There have been plenty of times when that seemed truer than I’d like to admit. Are we even allowed to say something like that? Even if we think it. So, an author willing to take on that topic had my attention. And mostly because I wanted his take on what to do about it?

As it turns out Crabb pretty much gave away his case very early on in his book with a single scripture quote. The basic idea is God is GOD and we are not. His motives and actions are incomprehensible to mankind and He owes no explanation for them either. Crabb admits near the end of his book that he is not a theologian which I knew going into this book, but his arguments are theology. Or at least I think so. I found his repeated circling the topic a bit frustrating.

That said, the book does provoke thoughts from the reader. Are his arguments and comments valid? Just Who is God? What is He like? (Yes, I’m old school and assign the masculine pronoun still.) What is my part in all that? Or do I even have any part? Crabb looks at the Biblical accounts of Jonah, Habakkuk, Saul/Paul and how they handle themselves when what they saw God doing made no sense to them. He revisits their reactions in modern garb later in the narrative. He sees their reactions as duck and run, reinterpret the word given, or acceptance with questioning trust.

In the end this author decides that the actions and circumstances that make no sense in a person’s life as a means of deepening the relationship between the believer and God. Hard pill to swallow, but in a lot of his examples I agree with his conclusions.

The value of this book isn’t its narrative which repeats itself frequently, but the questions that it forces the reader to confront. Based on that I’d recommend it.

I received this book from the publisher in return for a review.

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