January 2008 RGBP book discussion

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Product Description

Throughout the past two decades, Renita J. Weems has been noted and praised for her writing, galvanizing national speaking, and pioneering scholarship in the field of Old Testament studies. Yet in the midst of her celebrated work, she was experiencing a profound spiritual crisis permeated by a hollow, painful silence that seemed, at times, to mark an irreparable rupture in her communication with God.

In this deeply affecting book, Weems addresses the believer's yearning for God through periods of inconstancy, vacillation, and disenchantment. Her own spiritual disquietude will be familiar to all who struggle to maintain faith while the details of daily life -- negotiating with children and spouses, caring for ailing parents, living up to professional expectations, developing hobbies, managing finances, and planning for the future -- compete for energy with one's relationship with God. In sharing her own strategies for redefining mundane rituals so that they contribute to reverence and devotion, Weems offers a beacon of light for all believers struggling to listen for God amidst the din of worldly demands and distractions.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #342311 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Amazon.com Review
When a preacher has a crisis of faith, the ramifications can be terrifying. How can you lead a congregation to God, when God has withdrawn His presence from you? A few years ago, Renita J. Weems, one of the nation's leading black women preachers, hit a spiritual brick wall that she describes in her stark, lyrical, and often amazing memoir, Listening for God: A Believer's Journey Through Silence and Doubt. The book is a collection of prayers, journal entries, and meditations that discuss her initial anger at God's absence in her life and her gradual willingness to "[accept] the silence as a new way of communicating with the divine and [learn] to perceive God in my life in new, amusing, laughable, glorious ways." In contrast to the many spiritual memoirs that relate new believers' intoxicating experience of divine intimacy, Listening for God (like C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed and Madeleine L'Engle's The Irrational Season) stands out as a careful and honest description of the spiritual desert in which many mature believers find themselves stranded, to their dismay and surprise. This book is further distinguished by Weems's frank observation that, as a wife and mother, she couldn't just up and meditate for an hour a day, or go on extended retreat. "If God was going to speak to me," Weems writes, "God would just have to do it amidst the clutter of family, the noise of pots and pans, the din of a hungry toddler screaming from the backseat during rush hour traffic, and the hassles of the workplace." God did, and Weems captures the divine noise with a near-perfect combination of wit, pleasure, and respect. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly
Bible scholar, ordained Methodist minister and author of Just a Sister Away, Weems found herself several years ago maneuvering through her own "spiritual breakdown." This account is an extrapolation of her inner struggle as she attempted to prove that "just because God is silent doesn't mean that God is absent." Weems believes it is necessary to refute the misconception that solitude and silence are necessary before one can hear God's voice. She invites God to speak to her "amidst the clutter of family, the noise of pots and pans, the din of a hungry toddler screaming from the backseat during rush hour traffic, and the hassles of the workplace." In four chapters, Weems addresses the mystery of silence and prayer, the mystery of ministry, the mystery of marriage and mothering, and the mystery of miracles. Each chapter contains several anecdotes, journal entries and musings about Weems's attempts to recover her spirituality, particularly via rituals and nurturing relationships. While Weems's account of "the long dry seasons" of her spiritual journey is deeply moving, the struggle between her faith and scholarly knowledge remains relatively unresolved at the end, which may discomfit insecure readers. But others will appreciate Weems's honest assessment that her love affair with God has never quite returned ("not really, not like before") and admire her determination to comfort others who feel that God has become more distant. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Popular African American preacher Weems offers a moving, zestful account of her own life and complex relationship with God, from the passion of early faith through the patient acceptance of love deepened by difficulty and mystery. Written with intelligence, conviction, humor, maturity, and wisdom, this book should have a broad appeal to readers of many persuasions, Christian and non-Christian alike. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Hope is what "Listening for God" offers...
As a writer and one who has an ongoing inner dialogue (often chaotic debate), this book arrived in my hands like an angel to the dying. For a number of years I've been 'on hold' regarding taking action on a number of projects, believing myself to be an imposter when I have so many questions and so much doubt. Ms Weems, in her honest sharing, has offered me a new perspective. With humor, teeth gritting honesty, and a trusting soul, Renita Weems shares her struggle and doubt, offering in the end a gift of love and wisdom. What a wonderful gift to those of us stumbling along the path. Thank you.

A wonderful validation of some of my own feelings.
A brilliantly written book with humor which kept me glued to the pages. I could not put it down. It was just so uplifting to hear that others are experiencing the same "lost feelings" I have felt. To have those feelings validated has made a profound difference in my understanding of our wonderful God and this journey we are on.

An on-time, right now, tell the truth book for believers!
Only the Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems-Espinosa could have written such a book with such gut-wrenching truth and honesty. Not every believer will experience all the levels of "silence" that she has been through but if you know God, there may be times when you will and I thank God that I ain't crazy enough to give up on God but to keep on believing, keep the faith, keep praying even when I think God is truly silent...He's not. I just started reading this book and I am overcome with the insight which she reveals and shares about the true and living God which I (we) serve. I enjoy the conversations that she shares during this silence-period (of God) with other people who question our faith and the why, the how, the what, that we believe...Her responses are so real into giving people what they want to hear about us but sometimes is not an indication at the time. This is a book that I know will be a reference and reminder whenever I think God is not listening, or not there for me, this book will remind me of His all listening ear and all seeing eye and Presence in my life at all times.