Book Recommendation: God on Mute

There are some things that "good Christians" don't often talk about. Dealing with prayers that seem to be unanswered or not heard....is one of those "things." Have you ever pleaded with God, poured out your heart to Him about something that weighed your soul down, only to hear nothing but a deafening silence? Have you ever fasted and humbled yourself before God in prayer and things seemed to actually get worse? Have you ever come to God in your brokenness, crying out to Him, and it seemed He was unresponsive?

We are quick to "defend" God (as if He needs our defense). We quickly respond with Sunday school answers: "When God closes one door, He opens another! Keep your chin up!" Or, the more spiritual sounding: "Sometimes His answer is 'yes,' sometimes 'no,' sometimes, 'wait,' sometimes 'yes, but...' which is certainly true-but sometimes those words seem quite hollow when we are in the middle of the dark night of the soul. Especially when that dark night turns in to a long, dry season in life.

As a pastor, I preached through several sermon series on prayer. If given another opportunity, I would more fully develop what to do during such mystifying and difficult times such as these. Pete Greig does a wonderful job of addressing a matter that most ministers would find difficult to address: Those times when it seems God is absolutely silent when we are sincerely seeking Him in prayer.

Greig is no mere theoritician. He is one of the co-founders of the 24-7 prayer movement, a movement that has spread across the globe in remarkable fashion. Greig is a man of prayer. He is also transparent and authentic enough to write a book on dealing with those when God seems both completely absent and remarkably silent when we are crying out to Him. Greig writes from experience: When his wife was diagnosed with a massive brain tumor, Greig and his wife found themselves thrusts into a situation where all they could do was pray...and it was not tidy.

I appreciate Greig's honesty and transparency. All too often we Christians tend to talk only about those spectacular answers to prayer (and dare I say-sometimes exaggerate the reports?) and gloss over those vexing, pesky, difficult times when prayer seems to go unanswered. We avoid "that place." Greig forces us to walk with him and with Christ in the Scriptures, to that place and we are richer for going there with him-and above all, with Christ. He does not give us easy answers, nor trite "Sunday school answers," rather we are challenged to embrace faith and mystery-and to find comfort in the One who does indeed love us perfectly, even if it doesn't always "feel" that way.

If you are one of those believers who has "figured out" God-and knows all the answers, this book will either insult you or bore you. But for the rest of us...I wholeheartedly recommend "God on Mute" to you.