Late Yesterday, I Succumbed

Tim Challis reviews the review Finding God in The Shack.

I've resisted doing IT, reading It, for months now.

Nevermind that dozens of people have mentioned it to me for over a year, or longer. Last week in Arizona, one of the women I hiked with---a lovely new friend from Switzerland living here temporarily with her retired Methodist minister husband---told me it had been one of the best things each of them had ever done. Reading It. Later, after our hike, I visited with her husband who reiterated her recommendation. They both urged me to read it, too, adding once I start I won't be able to put it down.

I guess when you hear something enough, it finally breaks through.

That was only one of the many such conversations I've had with people on walks, in churches, at the hair studio, over lunch or dinner and on airplanes and trains over the past few months. So yesterday afternoon, before going to the dermatologist's office, I made up my mind to do It. Mostly out of curiosity. I decided to surrender. I went to the bookstore and bought the book. I bought It.

And then stuffed it in my purse as I drove to the doctor's.

"What good books are you reading these days," he asked ironically as he cut an incision in my numbed right ear lobe to repair the hole which had been pierced decades ago for earrings.

I said I'd just finished Tim Keller's new book, The Prodigal God, which I found to be wonderful then rattled off several other titles I was working my way through.

"Oh, yeah? Keller was here speaking last week in Nashville, wasn't he?" he asked as he put stitches in my ear while I lay on the table.

"Yes he was, and I was out-of-town and missed him. But I go and hear Tim in New York at Redeemer every chance I get. I'm getting lots of chances since my son and his family---including our new grandson---are living there now."

And then he casually asked me The Question: Have you read It?

No, I told him. Not yet. But I just bought the book thirty minutes ago and am about to surrender and start reading it once I get home later.

How uncanny that this doctor would ask me that question at that very moment. The book was right there with me, hidden in my purse buried under my coat and wool scarf. He couldn't possibly have seen it. Still, I don't think there are any coincidences in life and this was only one more indication that It was something looming large on my radar screen.

When I got home, I steamed some brocolli, and sat down in my kitchen chair. I open the book and started reading.

Today I finish it. I'm half-way through.

After I finish and have a little time to think about it, I'll write a little about here. Do you know what the book is? And have you read It? What did you think? I'll be back with more later. But for now, I'm in reading mode.

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