Book Review: Portraits of Perseverance

I'm not sure when or where I bought this book. It bears a $2.50 price tag. I know why I bought this book. Not only is the topic about Job (as conflicted a man as ever there was), but the author is Henry Gariepy, a name I grew up hearing because he was a Salvation Army officer. I don't know if my parents  knew him personally, but the name drew me to make this small purchase.

Portraits of Perseverance is, as the subtitle promises, 100 Meditations from the Book of Job. I read through the Bible once a year, using a reading chart that accompanies my prayer journal (running out of space because I've used it for 5 years now). With the book of Job approaching, I pulled this book by Gariepy off my shelves to supplement my devotional reading. In the introduction, Gariepy promises that his book "selects the textual gems of [Job] that sparkle with insights and inspiration. Included are facets of timeless truths from some of the lesser-known texts."

I appreciated Gariepy's use of familiar hymns and quotes from various individuals. In the third meditation, about prioritizing family, he quotes U.S. Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson: "Forgive those of us who give family such a low priority.... Help the Senators not to be so busy trying to save the nation that they let their children go to hell." We have such an opportunity to speak into the lives of those in our families. Do we take those opportunities seriously?

I also could relate to words in the 19th meditation, "How Not to Comfort." In addressing Eliphaz's claim of a vision from God, Gariepy writes: "After all, who can debate the authority of someone who says, 'God has spoken to me.' It leaves no room for discussion. Thus Eliphaz spoke with absolute dogmatism." Gariepy goes on to suggest why this arrogance is deadly: "Eliphaz broke all the rules of offering counsel and comfort. From him we can learn the negatives to avoid when people are hurting. His arrogance instructs us not to be dogmatic, judgmental, insensitive, theologically naïve, and superficial. Often, people in trouble do not need our words and our philosophies; they need us. They need our love, our caring, our compassion, our affirmation, our practical support, and encouragement."

I took comfort from the 38th meditation on life after death. Gariepy calls the grave, "the robing room where we put aside the travel-worn attire of our earthly pilgrimage to become clothed in the garments of immortality. The name of Jesus will be our password at the gates of death to usher us into life eternal and the joys of heaven." How wonderful to know my son is clothed in garments of immortality and resting in the arms of Jesus, whom he claimed as Savior!

Indeed, meditation number 67 seemed to be directly written for me. He writes: "A man whose son died at 21 was not able to overcome his grief and mourning. One day he was asked by his minister, 'If the choice had been offered you of having him 21 years or not at all, which would you have chosen?' The joy of happy, sunlit hours need not always be overshadowed by the storm clouds that have come."

If you are facing life circumstances that bring you to your knees, this book offers encouragement and points to the spiritual source of strength. Amazon lists the paperback copy at $70.51. That's a far cry from the $2.50 I spent . The hardback price is far lower, at $6.21, but the image shown is a paperback copy. I also noted, from the Amazon author biography, that he wrote another book I own and reviewed, Andy Miller: A Legend and a Legacy. I would love to find a copy of what Amazon calls his "most popular," Songs in the Night (stories behind hymns - a current fascination of mine) or his When Life Gets Tough.