Today I am taking the time to do a review of  Gerald Sittser’s book, A grace Disguised.   Though I call it a review it is perhaps more of a reflection.  Gerald Sittser is a professor of Religion at Whitworth College.  He has written a number of books and has an easy and engaging writing style. In his book, A Grace Disguised, he is sharing the story of a very tragic automobile accident involving he and his family and a personal story of suffering and hope.  I have had the opportunity to read the book twice now, and the second time it seemed to impact me more as I had gone through some pretty significant suffering myself.

     For Sittser, there is a sense of Divine Providence and that we can learn something through suffering. His book would perhaps answer the following questions: How does our repsonse to pain either guide us through the pain or actually entrap us in the pain? How do we care for those who are suffering? and What is God’s relationship to human suffering?

     When personally reflecting upon Sittser’s book two things stand out for me.  The process that he himself went through and his response, and secondly that the suffering that he was going through, became through time something that was trans formative.  How he talked about going into the pain versus running from it or being in denial over it, might not be our first response.  How we might more typically want to shut down or hide.  But he pressed forward through it.  It did not mean that he wasn’t looking for the to why?  Or that he wasn’t questioning the timing of the drive, or other what if kinds of scenarios.  He just clung on to the sovereignty of God and knew too that he had to be there for the rest of the family that survived.  At some level, life had to go on.  He definitely knew that we play a part in the healing process.

     That the suffering would somehow affect a transformation for him and his family, was something that he comes to in the book.  And in fact he does express some knowledge that he gained about himself, i.e. his self centeredness or that he needed to be a better more attentive father.  He learned of the things that he needed to let go of and also became more involved with others in the community.  He learned to accept the gifts of grace from others as they helped him with his young son who was recuperating from his injuries, or as they helped him with the rest of what needed to happen as he moved through his loss.  In the book it is  apparent that for him, somehow this tragic loss was part of a plan.  God was not only with him as he suffered, but his very life and capacity within himself in relation to others who suffer, or his relationships to others and God was being expanded.  Something good was going to happen because of it.  His courageous gift of this book gives us hope when we too struggle.

     I would highly recommend this book to those who are caring for someone in the process of suffering.  It would also be helpful to those who are at a point in their suffering where they want the kind of input that the book  offers. It is not a cold, purely theological answer to the question of God and human suffering.  It has a much more pastoral perspective.  One can connect strongly with his story and in the process feel very cared for while coming to some perspective of suffering.

Tagged as: Grief, Loss, Suffering