Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Booking it with Becca

Book Review: A Miracle for Jen

Who is the author of suffering?  Is it Satan, as some would have us believe?  Or does God ordain suffering to accomplish His purposes?

Jen Barrick was a godly 15 year old girl with talent and beauty.  She was shy when it came to sharing the Gospel, but she prayed desperately for God to help her with boldness and desired to be used for His glory. 

A drunk driver hit her family's van head-on, on their way home from church one evening. The family should not have survived by all accounts.  Jen experienced massive head trauma and was in a coma for 5 weeks.  Unable to respond to questions she began to express her thoughts and they were ones that glorified her Heavenly Father.  Her first words were prayers and praise songs.  It seemed while she was doing all these things she was not even hurt.  She was completely healed.  However, that was not the case.   

 Miracle for Jen is a book about the power of prayer and letting God use weakness to accomplish His will.  Jen's mom, Linda Barrick, authored the book with the help of John Perry and she provides detailed insight into Jen's slow recovery from a brain injury.  The accident gave Jen a boldness to share her faith in public.  Jen will never physically be what she once was, she will never do cheer leading or play sports, but God has used her into as a vessel He is able to use. 

I was very enthralled in this book. I could not put it down.  It does get a little long.  After about page 200 it is like, okay we get it.  I skimmed most of the last 100 pages or so, because it was basically the same story over and over but in a different place and time. It got exhausting.

I particularly like Jen's journals prior to the accident which were full of prayers and praise to God.  They revealed what was hidden in her heart.  The accident caused what was in her heart to be spoken.  Most brain injury's come out angry, cursing at the world.  Jen never experienced any of that.  I wonder how I would react, what would my true inner thoughts be? 



1 comment:

  1. Sounds like an interesting book. Thanks for your thoughts and the review.

    BTW-I am holding 5 book giveaways at my site this week if you are interested in stopping over. Hope you have a great weekend!

    Diane :O)
    www.dianeestrella.com

    ReplyDelete