THE LIFE THAT CHANGED MY DAY
By Hilary Price
Authentic Lifestyle. 171 pages (plus study guide). £6.99
ISBN 1 85078 549 X
This is not my type of book. I would never have read it had I not been asked to review it. I had never heard of the writer, and - shocking confession - I usually read men. This is principally a book for women, anyway, and I suspected it would want to give a touchy-feely message to bruised emotions, and a message that says, 'Life's jolly hard for us women, but Jesus can bring back your smile'.
But here and now, like Nebuchadnezzar, I eat grass. This book is compassionate, challenging, Christ-centred, imaginative and written in a way that makes the writer seem like a friend.
Hilary Price has built her thoughts around the account of Jesus's meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well, and she skilfully turns our attention from the woman and her problems, emptiness and sins, to Jesus - who is Lover and Lord. She also uses tales and experiences from her own life story which are frequently touching and help us to relate to the message she is giving.
The subtitle of the book is 'Turning dead religion into a living reality' and I feel sure it would help those who do Christian things without having the joy that Jesus gives; it ends with a prayer of commitment. But it would give great help, too, to Christian women struggling with the pressures and disappointments of today's world, the failures and mistakes of their own lives, and their own doubts and self-doubts. The blurb on the back describes this book as 'sensible theology combined with heart-warming prose and I agree. Hilary Price points us to Jesus whose living water is the one thing we all need. My new resolution: read women writers too.
James Dudley-Smith,
minister of Holy Cross Church, Hove
