May
Book of the Month
May
“The Insanity of God”
By Nik Ripen
Several years ago, I came across the book, “The Insanity of God” and I absolutely refused to read it! God is NOT insane and who in their right mind would choose that for the title of a book?!
Every time the book showed up in my social media feed, or I saw an advertisement for it, I scoffed. I absolutely refused to read a book with a deplorable title such as that.
And then ….
My daughter-in-law, Emily, lived in Texas at the time and was part of a small group of young moms who were deeply pursuing the will of God for their lives. This group of sincere and Godly women decided to read, “The Insanity of God”. Emily stayed up all night reading it even though she was the mother of 4 small children. She convinced me that I must read it.
And I did.
I stayed up all night reading it … and then I read it again … and again. The true story is compelling, heart wrenching and convicting all at once. I realized after reading this book, that my world was too small, my heart too hard and my complaints were too selfish. I wanted to experience the insanity of God.
Here is the description of this riveting book:
“The Insanity of God is the personal and lifelong journey of an ordinary couple from rural Kentucky who thought they were going on just your ordinary missionary pilgrimage but discovered it would be anything but.
After spending over six hard years doing relief work in Somalia and experiencing life where it looked like God had turned away completely and he was clueless about the tragedies of life, the couple had a crisis of faith and left Africa asking God, "Does the Gospel work anywhere when it is really a hard place?" It sure didn't work in Somalia.
Nik recalls, "God had always been so real to me, to Ruth, and to our boys. But was He enough for the utter weariness of soul I experienced at that time, in that place, under those circumstances?"
It is a question that many have asked and one that, if answered, can lead us to a whole new world of faith.
How does faith survive, let alone flourish, in a place like the Middle East? How can God truly overcome such evil? How do you maintain hope when all is darkness around you? How can we say "greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world" when it may not be visibly true in that place at that time? How does anyone live an abundant, victorious Christian life in our world's toughest places? Can Christianity even work outside of Western, dressed-up, ordered nations? If so, how?
The Insanity of God tells a story - a remarkable and unique story to be sure, yet at heart a very human story - of the Ripkens' own spiritual and emotional odyssey.
The gripping narrative account of a personal pilgrimage into some of the toughest places on Earth, combined with sobering and insightful stories of the remarkable people of faith Nik and Ruth encountered on their journeys, will serve as a powerful course of revelation, growth, and challenge for anyone who wants to know whether God truly is enough.”