Sin Boldly

Sin Boldly, from Cathleen Falsani, was the latest adventure I had in reading. And, well, it was interesting. I suppose.

The premise of this book is that grace is everywhere. Often we don't even have to look for it; it finds us, scurrying into our lives when we least expect it. In a rainstorm in downtown Chicago as well as on safari in Africa, grace appears. Grace uses people, events, all sorts of medium to insert itself into our lives. And we are far, far better for it.

The problem I had with this book was its lack of structure. Basically, it's a collection of stories. I don't read many collections for the reason that I get frustrated when I begin a new chapter and it's like starting an entirely new book. Had I known this was a collection of stories, I probably would not have sought it out to read. But I did, and I found myself flipping through chapter that jumped from Memphis to Africa to Montana and back.

The reason that made all this possible: grace is everywhere, in everything. It's hard to critique a book with that underlying principle, because it feels like I'm trying to say something bad about grace. I love grace. Big fan. Without it, I would be up the proverbial river. Thanks be to God for grace, every minute of every day.

But this book didn't really talk about grace directly. It was a collection of stories that served to illustrate how grace appears in our lives. There are probably some great sermon illustrations in here, but I don't feel like I learned anything. I don't feel like I have some new understanding of grace. I don't know any more about the historical views on grace. All I know is that if you go on safari you'll likely encounter a situation which can be attributed to grace. Well, if the theory is correct that grace is everywhere, in everything, then that sure is true. But I'm not sure I needed to read this book to discover that.

Anyway, it's a book filled with interesting stories. Most of them are enjoyable.