I could not put this book down. I felt an almost immediate attraction to the main character attracted as in she was relatable to my own experience. Not only that, the idea that she went to couples therapy with God seemed silly but interesting at the same time. My only problems: Rudy’s role, Susan’s interpretation of God, Jesus as wimpy and the idea of God leaving her. Even after talking about it, I don’t see what role he really played. I agreed he was a good kind of counselor, one that listened and gave his opinion with the option to take it with a grain of salt. But, he couldn’t hear God speak in Susan, and even if she told him, it just feels strange. I would guess he would be mediating between them. Just seems odd.
As for Susan’s interpretations of the trinity, God is sarcastic, and Jesus is “wimpy”. I didn’t see Jesus as wimpy from what I read, I pictured Him like I do in real life. Gentle, strong, and loving. Not that God isn’t also like that, but Jesus was sent down to save us from sin, and to be a guide, sharing and showing God’s grace. Then again I am not Susan. I just really didn’t like the sarcastic God. I mean, sure, He has sarcasm because we got all His qualities (but not divine qualities), but I never took Him to be that sarcastic. But then again, as we discussed in the book club, people with troublesome fathers tend to associate their qualities with God. Her father cussed and thought down on himself and his situation. It made living for Susan hard. What I also don’t understand is why God “left” her. I get that He wasn’t happy with the choices she made, and how she saw Him and His Son. But it’s just weird.
I know He leaves us, but He doesn’t actually leave us. And if He does, I feel like it is not that long. I can’t help thinking that even though she wanted Him to say, not to be rude, but she didn’t desire it hard enough. I also would think that her opinion of Him, though I may not be God or Jesus, seemed like a silly reason to leave her. . I know there have been days I haven’t heard His voice, but it was for my own good. God can do all, but we have work to do as well. That is why He doesn’t do everything for us. If He didn’t, we wouldn’t learn our lesson. Life would be easy, and we wouldn’t need Him after a while.
But what drew me to this book was not only interested in her journey, but how much alike we where, despite the differences in our situations. I noticed this during our book club. We both have not liked who we were. We both were looking for a church that didn’t condemn, feels like home and that was spiritually uplifting. We both like to act. We both felt relationships with men would boost our confidence. We both have had disease ruin our lives. It was a positive and negative experience for me. Negative because I had come to a realization of what I didn’t like with myself and struggle with. It was positive because I knew what I needed to change. It, like Susan, has been a long and rough road. Unfortunately I feel I haven’t gotten far. I just recently sunk into Depression, which for so long I have been trying to avoid. I never saw myself as pretty, I sometimes still think I’m fat. True I didn’t become bulimic like she did, but it was comforting to know I wasn’t alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment