Wisdom Hunter by Randall Arthur
Decription:
One of the most dynamic and powerful church leaders in Atlanta, pastor Jason Faircloth seems to have it all. But when a dramatic and tragic turn of events causes him to lose everything, Jason finds himself in a serious crisis of faith. He sets out on an eighteen-year international journey to find his only surviving family member, a granddaughter who is being hidden from him--and discovers surprising answers to his deepest questions about himself and the God he once served.
Review:
A friend from church told me I "had" to read this book. I'm so glad she did! It was powerful and meaningful from the very beginning! Randall Arthur takes a hard look at a paster who is all about appearances and shows what happens to him when he is stripped of all of it. At the start of the book Jason is pastoring his church and demanding his members follow strict legalistic rules like no dancing, no rock music, no pants for women, etc. He is uptight and strict with his wife and daughter and has driven his daughter away from home with his unbending rules. Suddenly his family is gone and his faith is pushed to the limit. He never completely loses his faith, rather he discovers that he has put God in a box and applied a formula to him and now he decides to take God out of the box and rediscover life.
He has one motivator that keeps him from giving up on life completely, and that is to find his granddaughter. As years turn into decades, Jason's search takes him all over the world and in and out of all kinds of adventures. He ends up in Norway and wanders into a church there that changes his life yet again. This unassuming church has a kind and wise leader whose wisdom in dealing with his congregation touches Jason and rekindles his relationship with God to a new level. Yoma helps Jason settle once and for all his beliefs about the loving side of God's character.
I don't want to give away the ending...you have to read it yourself, but Jason's life continues to take twists and turns and I fell in love with the character he becomes--someone who knows God's love intimately and does all he can to spread God's love to others without any hint of the old worries on whether a person "deserved" God's love or "earned" it.
What a wonderful message--and having it delivered in a story like this made the impact even greater than if he had just preached on it directly.
I give this a big sunny day rating and call for no humidity too!
