Review: You Can Trust a God with Scars

February 4, 2026February 3, 2026 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

You Can Trust a God with Scars

You Can Trust a God with Scars, Jared Ayers. NavPress (ISBN: 978164158-9963) 2025.

Summary: For those wondering if God can be trusted, a study of the story of God’s intimate understanding of suffering.

I was in an Old Testament workshop with Dr. Stephen Hayner, former president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He introduced the workshop stating that the main question the Old Testament, indeed all of scripture addressed was “Is God good and can we trust him?” There are good reasons many wonder if this is so both in what they see in the world around them and what they’ve experienced in their own lives. Jared Ayers has wrestled with this question personally. But what really brought the thoughts together that form this book were discussions with Daniel, a coffee-shop regular who found out he was a minister, and asked him about his sermon each week.

At the heart of those conversations was a walk through the Christian story. He begins with our deep longing for home and the sense that we are exiles. This is a reflection of how we turned our backs on a loving Creator, who then comes and asks, “Where are you? From here, he explores the currents of our contemporary life. We both rail against God for the rotten shape of the world, yet have to figure out where our sense of justice comes from. Quoting David Bazan, he says, we’ve “killed the captain, but…can still hear his voice.”

So, who is this voice? Ayers takes us back to God’s self-disclosure as I Am, YHWH. He makes the world in love, sticks with Abraham and his descendants, though they make a mess, and reveals himself in Jesus. At the heart of it all is love. Yet we are “miserable offenders,” and much of the mess of the world is one we’ve made. It’s beneath the floorboards of all our lives. Ultimately, God’s solution is to become one of us, “Incarno,” that is, “in flesh/meat.” God stoops to serve, enters into our suffering, and unjustly dies. This is the God with scars who may be trusted.

In succeeding chapters Ayers works out the significance of this identification with human suffering. And he offers reasons why we may believe the victory of the resurrection over suffering and death. Then there is the community formed by his Spirit, with all the messiness that needs perpetual reforming. He concludes with our hope of the return of Christ and how that affords hope for today.

Along the way, Ayers weaves his own story, references to contemporary film, art, music, and literature into a fresh re-telling of the Christian story. He leaves us with questions for reflection after each chapter. Not only does he not blink at the horrid realities of our world. He also shows us a God who didn’t blink but became one of us. God intimately acquainted himself with our condition. And he acted powerfully to show us another life is possible. This is a good book for doubters and skeptics, something all of us are in our most honest moments.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Mid-Faith Crisis

November 24, 2025November 23, 2025 / rtrube54 / 2 Comments

Mid-Faith Crisis

Mid-Faith Crisis, Catherine McNeil and Jason Hague. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514010365) 2025.

Summary: When the foundations of one’s faith are shaken, it appears an endpoint, but may be a transforming experience.

You are the daughter of a pastor in a small town. Church was a wonderful place until it wasn’t, when dad was dismissed from his position and the family had to leave town on two week’s notice. Or you entered pastoral ministry after appearing on a national Christian television show and “stole the show.” But real life has been hard. A child with health difficulties, a bout with depression, and the untimely deaths of two friends. Combine that with disillusionment with the state of the church in your country. How does one write sermons when you are no longer sure of the things you are writing?

Those, in short, are the stories of the two authors of this book. Church hurt, disillusionment, existential doubt. While there are many paths, a number named in this book, to mid-faith crisis, the authors of this book write as fellow travelers. The question is, what does one do when the faith, once so central, no longer seems to address the challenges in one’s life? Or what does one do when that faith is a source of emotional pain, associated with hurtful experiences?

The authors begin by talking about stages of faith, that faith may grow and change as we do. The four they identify are inherited faith, confident faith, mid-faith crisis, and conscious faith. The latter emerges out of mid-faith crises, and usually at mid-life or later. It’s marked by a sense of coming home, finding peace, living with mystery and complexity.

But how does one move through the darkness of mid-faith crisis? Is it possible to emerge from this, not with a lost faith but a deeper one? Part Two of this book, “The Crisis” addresses the different forms of crises people most commonly experience. They address doubt, moving from intellectual uncertainty to relational trust and faithfulness. They address church hurt and stress the importance of naming the harms. But then the decision is one of courage, to trust even a few with these hurts, even if this doesn’t happen in a formal church structure. They explore when our heroes fall, betraying trust; when prayers fall silent; overwhelming suffering; the collapse of belief; the fading of feelings.

There are no glib answers. Often the question is moving from what one thought faith and the Christian life was like, beyond the tingles and the good feelings, to waiting, to trusting in the absence of feeling, to hanging on because the alternative is the abyss. The authors conclude with inviting us to exchange greatness for goodness. The crisis of faith really challenges our false conceptions of a great life, great church, great leaders, great experiences with God. Conscious faith is one without the illusions, where we recognize God’s quiet, hidden presence in a messed up world, and learn to walk in imperfect love, wandering steps and slow, in communities of flawed people like us slowly changing into the likeness of Jesus.

I appreciate the honesty of the authors throughout. We see how they are still on the way. For example, they offer no quick fixes to church hurt. Catherine still struggles with safety and acceptance in the church. But she still chooses community. She trusts friends with her struggle. Furthermore, the authors treat mid-faith crisis as a developmental step, not an aberration. They point to a faith for the second half of life, the opportunity to grow deeper rather than drop out.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Month in Reviews: October 2015

November 4, 2015November 3, 2015 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

I began October with a review of a book talking about the common ground between the philosophy of Ayn Rand and the Christian faith. I celebrated the work of Ohio novelist and agriculturalist Louis Bromfield, reviewing two of his narratives of his work to restore Malabar Farm in nearby Mansfield, Ohio. Faith and doubt were also themes of the month as I reviewed a book on eight adults who believed and the place of doubt in Christian experience. And I looked at the challenges facing the Western church as it relates to Christians throughout the world and how that changes our paradigms for mission and even how we think about who gets to define Christianity. With that, here are summaries of my reviews with links to my complete reviews:

The Soul of Atlas, Mark David Henderson. Lexington: Reason Publishing, 2013. Is there any way to reconcile the thought of Ayn Rand and the Christian faith? Through a personal narrative of dialogues with his two fathers, one a Christian, and one an adherent to Ayn Rand’s philosophy (Objectivism) the author explores what possible ground could exist between Objectivists and Christians.

The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy, David Halberstam. New York, Open Road, 2013 (originally published in 1969). This is a classic account of Robert Kennedy’s last campaign tracing his decision to run, primary campaigns and evolving political vision that ended on the night of his primary victory in California.

Pleasant Valley, Louis Bromfield. Wooster: Wooster Book Company, 1997 (originally published in 1945). The author, a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, narrates his return from France to the area he where grew up, his purchase of several worn out farms, and his pioneering efforts in sustainable agriculture that restored the land to fertility, bringing health not only to the land but to those who made it their home.

Overturning Tables, Scott Bessenecker. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014. Scott Bessenecker argues that Western missions efforts are often captive to corporate culture and practices inconsistent with efforts to reach across cultures and to the marginal peoples outside the corporate world.

Abusing Scripture, Manfred T. Brauch. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009. The author explores the different ways we misread the Bible and consequently interpret and apply it in ways that abuse both the intent of the text, and sadly, in some cases the people with whom we apply these texts.

Mere Believers, Marc Baer. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2013. Can individuals seeking to live faithfully to their calling change history? These profiles of eight British believers demonstrate that “mere believers” can indeed have a transformative influence in matters both of the heart and of the intellect.

To Whom Does Christianity Belong?, Dyron B. Daughrity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. This book argues that when one speaks of “Christianity” this must be understood in global terms in all of its diversity of expression and not simply in the forms we Westerners are most accustomed to.

Questioning Your Doubts, Christina M. H. Powell. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014. This book comes out of the world of academic research and proposes that the process of questioning our doubts as well as our faith builds bridges of understanding deepening both our exercise of reason and confidence in our faith.

Malabar Farm, Louis Bromfield. Wooster: Wooster Book Company, 1999 (originally published in 1948). Malabar Farm continues the story begun in Pleasant Valley of the author’s efforts of restoring a worn out farm to productivity, covering the years from 1944 to 1947 and going deeper into his philosophy of agriculture and the all-important matter of the soil.

The Theology of the Book of Isaiah, John Goldingay. Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2014. Taking the book of Isaiah as a whole and as it would have been read by its first readers, Goldingay both considers the theologies present in each major section of Isaiah, and traces the theological themes emerging from the book as a whole.

Best Book of the Month: I’m going to go with Louis Bromfield’s Pleasant Valley. I loved his descriptions of restoring the land, building the “Big House” and his stories about other farmers. I think Bromfield’s farm books deserve a wider reputation for their path-breaking descriptions of early sustainable agriculture practices. I also deeply appreciated his love of the hill country of north central Ohio, which I also consider among the most beautiful parts of the state.

Best quote: I’m going to go with Bromfield’s description of his neighbor Walter Oakes and his love for “My Ninety Acres”:

“As I watched that big work-worn hand caressing that stalk of corn, I understood suddenly the whole story of Walter and Nellie and the ninety acres. Walter was old now, but he was vigorous and the rough hand that caressed that corn was the hand of a passionate lover. It was the hand that had caressed the body of a woman who had been loved as few women had ever been loved, so passionately and deeply and tenderly that there would never be another woman who could take her place. I felt again a sudden lump in my throat, for I knew that I had understood suddenly, forty years after the woman was dead, one of the most tragic but beautiful of all love stories. I know now what Robert’s strange remark about Nellie and the ninety acres getting all mixed up had meant. Robert himself must once have seen something very like what I had just seen” (p. 154).

Coming Attractions: Look for my review of The Fellowship, Philip and Carol Zaleski’s book on the Inklings, which I’m a good way through. I also am currently reading a book suicide from a pastoral counseling perspective, a novel of Frederick Buechner, and a book on Athens and Jerusalem, on philosophy and Christian faith. I’m looking forward to reading a new book on acedia, one of the seven deadly sins and a history of the Great Books movement that arose out of the University of Chicago.

[“The Month in Reviews” serves as a kind of index of all the reviews posted on this blog. By selecting “The Month in Reviews” link on the menu bar, you can explore a nearly complete list of books reviewed at Bob on Books.]