DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS
Finding Treasure in the Messiness of Life.
By Cathy Madavan
Authentic Media. 218 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 1 778 078 131
Digging for Diamonds is written by Cathy Madavan, a speaker with the Care For the Family team and regular columnist for Liberti magazine. Cathy is part of the Spring Harvest planning team and the book is endorsed by Rob Parsons and Diane Louise Jordan.
The strapline for the book is ‘Finding Treasure in the Messiness of Life’. The theme of diamonds runs through the whole book and there are chapter headings that reflect this. The book focusses on four areas of the Christian life: Identity – Valuable, Unique, Created; Strength – Flawed, Connected, Resilient; Character – Hidden, Authentic, Lavish; Purpose – Inherited, Multi-faceted, Transformed. Each chapter is anecdotal rather than expository and there are little ‘gems’ of truth next to the diamond logo: for example, under the chapter ‘Valuable’ there is a picture of a diamond with the caption ‘Expressing to others how valuable they are to us and to God is really not a hard thing to do.’
Each chapter has a ‘Digging Deeper’ section of further thoughts on the theme and a written prayer. At the end of the chapter entitled ‘Hidden’ the ‘Digging Deeper’ section suggests: ‘Have you ever seen a volcano or thought about how deep our planet is as we live on its surface? Do a quick internet search to discover more about where diamonds are formed.’ Typically there are around seven questions, examining the reader’s personal life and beliefs as well as those questions relating to the topic of diamonds.
Spiritual analogies
The qualities and features of diamonds are used to draw spiritual analogies throughout the entire book. The style of writing is very chatty, with lots of personal illustrations and sometimes uses humour to emphasise a point. Personally speaking, the constant reference to diamonds began to get in the way of the spiritual discussion by the end of the book and this is not the style of book I would choose for myself. However, it is consistently practical in its application and points the reader to many helpful scriptures that speak of the believer’s true worth and identity in Christ.
