01 October 2008

Into the Fire BY Jeffrey S Savage

rating: 4 of 5 stars

KNOW YOUR ENEMY AND PROTECT THAT WHICH YOU DEEM MOST VALUABLE! what do you deem most valuable?

I have been meaning to read this book since May. I finally got to it this week. The timing was quite interesting as it leaves me with intense mixed emotions. This is a moving fictional story about a man who is left to be tested by Satan himself. This is a modern day story of Job. We are having some major struggles in our household right now and this book left me mixed on feeling like I am being similarly tested yet knowing that our situation really could be so much worse! I have had many dreams over the time that we've been having our major struggles this entire year, but they seemed to intensify while reading this book. Power of suggestion, maybe?! Overall things are gradually getting worse for us, I (as of right now) am still holding strong to my faith! It is one that can't easily be messed with! I will let the following quotes and thoughts from the book speak for themselves:

pg 112: "Fish aren't the only ones with scales. The world can place scales on a child's eyes sometimes, blinding them from seeing what's important in life. And it's not just children that can be blinded either. Nope, no one's immune to scales."

pg 185: "On this earth. You are here to experience, to learn. Somehow your generation has come up with this crazy notion that God is supposed to keep you from experiencing pain. You think that adversity is a punishment, instead of realizing that it is an opportunity. You are so busy trying not to get hurt that you miss the chance to grow ---"

pg 205: "...maybe the real message of the story is...we can't control what happens to us, be we CAN control what we do about it---what we learn from it."

This book openly leaves one to wonder at the reality of just how much those that have gone before come back to help us. Also, if we believe that is possible, do we open ourselves up for that help?! Things that make you go, HMMM....

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds like an interesting book- I love when I read books that I can actually apply some of the teachings to my current life- know of any books about homeless pregnant moms of 4 boys- who have to wait a year for sheet rocking to be done? *Ü*

Hema and Becky said...

That book does sound interesting. I hope things get better for you all soon!

Melinda said...

I really liked that quote from p. 185, that we shouldn't expect God to keep us from experiencing pain. That's very thought-provoking.