THOSE WHO WAIT:
Finding God in Disappointment,
Doubt and Delay
By Tanya Marlow
Malcolm Down Publishing. 215 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 1 910 786 864
Having suffered chronic, incapacitating ill health, Tanya Marlow brings authenticity to her handling of the experience of waiting. The depth of her thoughtful consideration, along with a sense of the years spent experiencing the reality of waiting, courses through the book. The question she poses is ‘What is the “Christian” way to wait?’
In the opening chapters, using some helpful exercises, she prompts us to consider ways in which all of us are waiting for something – for justice in the world; for the loneliness to pass; for our addiction to stop ruling us.
The book can be used in personal devotion or group discussions. The body of the book is divided into sections looking at four biblical characters – Sarah, Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary – each focusing on a different aspect of the experience of waiting. In short sections she retells a passage of Scripture in the style of a dramatic reading. Marlow has used research, detailed at the end of the book, but also her imagination in the telling. She describes having to make interpretative choices, in the knowledge that some might disagree with her – the stated intention is that her creative pieces will urge the reader back into the biblical text with fresh questions and insight. There are reflective questions, creative exercises and suggestions for prayer at the conclusion of each section. She provides six group study outlines, suggesting that her stories are read first and then the Bible opened together.
The treatment of the passages made me somewhat uncomfortable, if this were to be a habitual way to read the Bible. I am accustomed to teaching where authorial intent is the prime interpretative principle and I wasn’t sure that it was, in this case. The approach may be unfamiliar to many, but the humanity of the people that we read of in the pages of the Bible was made very real. I identified with them, I learnt how I can be more godly in my waiting and I was pointed to the faithfulness and kindness of the God that both they and we worship.
