BEYOND THE CLOUDS:
Coping with pain and disillusionment
By Laurence Singlehurst
Hodder & Stoughton
174 pages. £5.99
ISBN 0 340 78528 4
In the first chapter, Laurence Singlehurst sets out with searing honesty the experience their family had with their son Justyn. The author was a well-known Christian leader, director of Youth With A Mission, England, and found himself having to deal with the increasingly uncontrollable behaviour of his son.
A number of factors caused this to erupt at this particular time in their lives, one of the main ones being Justyn's finally being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Justyn's own account is given in an appendix.
Out of this experience the author seeks to explore some principles which he hopes will help his readers in times of pain and disillusionment. He shares many of his own experiences and that of others, applying biblical passages to the situation.
It's when he comes to discuss the character and nature of God, to have 'right thinking about God' that Laurence Singlehurst loses the truth of Scripture. He quotes Bishop John Taylor in his desire to stress human freedom. In so doing, the bishop, and therefore the author, present God as powerlessly watching humans in 'a disaster and frustration of his (God's) will for life and fulfilment'. The biblical revelation of God is very different and, I would suggest, when grasped by the Christian, better able to sustain and deliver him/her from pain and disillusionment.
