Book Review - Trust, Hope, Pray: Encouragement for the Task of Waiting

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In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit to being a friend of Trisha Priebe; well, in so far as those relationships from college go. But we are Facebook friends, and I’ve been anticipating this book, Trust, Hope, Pray, since I first read her status update nearly two years ago about sleeping with a book contract under her pillow.

Co-authored with her husband Luke, Trust, Hope, Pray first took shape in their personal journals while they were waiting for an international adoption to be finalized. As they sought spiritual guidance for their long, often frustrating journey, they realized that not much Christian literature is devoted to the task of waiting on God. Trisha, who works in publishing, and Luke, who is finishing his M.Div. from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary (and who together admittedly have a “book budget bigger than their grocery bill”), felt God leading them to contribute to the conversation through their own experience.

Trust, hope, pray, wait

The book is comprised of 365 page-length entries that explore what it is to trust, hope, pray, and wait. Each entry begins with a verse on one of those themes and includes the Priebe’s reflections and experiences, as well as quotes from notable Christian authors and hymn writers. In this sense, the book is designed as devotional literature and is not intended to be read in one continuous flow.

I began Trust, Hope, Pray nearly a year after my own family had been in a holding pattern of sorts and immediately recognized the wisdom of structuring the book in this way. When you are enduring a difficult season of waiting, your spirit very easily becomes worn out, overwhelmed, and exhausted. In such seasons, the last thing you are able to read is an extensive theological analysis of waiting. In these times, what you need most are daily, quiet, simple reminders of what you already know: God is in control, He loves you, and you must continue to trust Him.

And the Priebes offer just that.

Even though the book grew out of their own process of waiting for an adoption to be finalized and while there are allusions to their trials, they are never so direct that someone dealing with an entirely different trial would feel alienated from the comfort they offer. Personally, I would have loved to have read a more detailed account of their adoption story, but perhaps that will some day find its way into another book contract under Trisha’s pillow.

New directions

Still one of the more interesting things about Trust, Hope, Pray isn’t necessarily the content—though that is worthwhile—but what it represents. Trust, Hope, Pray is among the first book-length literary offerings from the “young fundamentalists.” And while there is nothing particularly distinguishing in the text itself, there is something notable about who they choose to quote. And how they do it.

The opening pages of the book pair a recommendation from Michael P.V. Barrett of the Free Presbyterian Church with one from Justin Taylor, the conservative evangelical blogger and managing editor of the ESV Study Bible. The forward is written by Dave Doran, and in the introduction, the Priebes quote from Paul David Tripp. Interspersed throughout the entries are quotes from Mark Minnick, Alan Cairns, Sam Horn, John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, and Kevin DeYoung. And these are accompanied by quotes from notables of Christianity past – Spurgeon, Tozer, Mueller, Lloyd-Jones, Wesley, Lewis, and Augustine to name a few.

I found this significant in two respects. First, it shows that the baton has passed in fundamentalism, that young fundamentalists view the baby boomer generation of Minnick, Barrett, and Doran as the elder statesmen and do not look to the leaders from previous generations. And secondly, like many young fundamentalists, the Priebes feel no need to distance themselves from the very individuals they quote. Gone are the ubiquitous disclaimers and qualifications. They quote Minnick, Horn, and Barrett with the same ease that they quote Piper, Mahaney, and Tripp and as easily as they quote Spurgeon, Tozer, and Wesley. This represents the general direction among younger fundamentalists to be less concerned with ecclesiastical divides as with finding commonality around the truth.

The rest of the story

Trust, Hope, Pray was completed and released before the Priebes reached the end of their own waiting process and they finish the book with this question: “What about the stories that do not have a happy ending?” In many ways, this is fitting because the rest of us who read it are not guaranteed that our waiting will end when we close this book either. But as they have all along, the Priebes remind us that so much of what God is accomplishing happens during the waiting and that no matter what, God will “do what is best on our behalf” (p. 363).

Within months of the book’s release, however, they finally received word that they could travel oversees and soon were united with the son they had so long loved but had yet to meet. In many ways, this too mirrors the lessons driven home throughout the book; for if they had not endured their own extensive period of waiting, we would not have been able to benefit from their insights. Ultimately then, as the Priebes tell us, we must learn to trust our sovereign God, hope in His love for us, and pray that in all things He would be glorified.

Update: To read an author interview on Hannah’s blog, click here.

Discussion

My point, however, is that the unwillingness to hold to the ecclesiastical distinctions is a failure to appreciate what fundamentalism is and consequently leads to a rejection of fundamentalism as such. No fundamentalism without contention.
Hannah’s point (as I understood it)… somewhere up the thread.. was that if we are contentious (whether in the form of quotation disclaimers or just generally) about brothers over minor differences, our over all potency in contending for the faith is diminished—somewhat along the lines of the boy who cried wolf.

My experience growing up fundamentalist was that the pastors in the churches we attended (some GARBC, some not) were usually focused on bringing the demands of the biblical text to bear on our lives. I don’t remember much quotation or disclaimer, either one. But preaching isn’t the same activity as writing books.

But during those years, I heard plenty of other preachers in school chapel or visiting evangelists etc. who were very much focused on Who Cannot Be Trusted and Who Is Headed in the Wrong Direction, etc. Much more so when I went to college, because the BJU chapel pulpit and “Preacher boys” classes featured way too much of that sort of thing.

But I don’t remember there ever being a time in my life when I thought a quotation in a book needed a disclaimer. I grant that there could be circumstances where it’s a good idea, and I’ve probably done it myself in some paper or essay or whatever… knowing it would be important to the audience.

In a piece of writing you can usually tell how the writer is using the material being quoted and that speaks well enough. It’s not about randomly quoting people because, as Don put it, we happen to agree, but choosing material where a truth is particularly well expressed.

(Or, depending on the nature of the writing, choosing material where what we are arguing for/against is particularly well expressed.)

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Other than Scripture itself, I assume a disclaimer whenever anyone is quoted. It is unfortunate that this doesn’t go without saying, but in an intellectually and spiritually lazy society, more pastors are handing out binkies and bottles than steak knives.

I clicked to read the discussion to glean what I could about waiting on God day after day (since I expect a brief waiting period while aspects of my future are decided), and the discussion has centered on something incidental to the book’s topic.

It’s why I’ve largely dropped out of SI discussions unless I think either I or the other participants can actually benefit from the discussion.

Musing on 1 Timothy 1, I think one distinguishing factor between the “endless genealogies” discussions and worthwhile Christian dialectic is whether or not anyone’s actually benefiting. Do we think discussing this question here, for the umpteenth time, is going to help anyone? Maybe I’m too pessimistic, but I don’t think so.

Anyway, Hannah, it’s good to read your reflections. Praying for you and Nathan and family. The catch of endurance training is it can’t be learned quickly, and brilliance or theological insight or spiritual giftedness is no help. There is no one but God to rely on, which is the way He likes it.

Michael Osborne
Philadelphia, PA

… almost never stick closely to the general topic of the book. There are a couple of reasons for that:

1) If the book is fairly new, few have read it yet

2) The general topic of the book is, well, general… and tends to not be all that interesting in itself. It’s how the book develops the topic that gets interesting.

3) The thread is properly about the review and not just about the book.

In this case, Hannah drew some attention to an item of importance to fundamentalists in particular… and one worth talking about, too, since what we believe about it impacts what we read, how we read it, what we encourage others to read, the relationships between writers and other writers, our concept of separation … as well as the obvious “what is the future of the fundamentalist identity?” question.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

This is an honest question: was it that you didn’t hear many disclaimers because you didn’t hear people outside your own circles being quoted often?
Good question……I really had to go back and try to remember that. In the past GARBC, there was a lot of quoting each other…..For many years, GARBC conferences only had GARBC pastors and “approved” school presidents and mission executives preaching at their conferences. I do remember alot of quoting of more well known GARBC leaders (Ketcham, and etc…..). At the same time, in the 1980’s and early 1990’s I remember GARBC preachers freely quoting from popular evangelical leaders such as Chuck Swindoll, Warren Wiersbe, John MacArthur, and Joe Stowell Jr. without any disclaimers.

Other than Scripture itself, I assume a disclaimer whenever anyone is quoted. It is unfortunate that this doesn’t go without saying, but in an intellectually and spiritually lazy society, more pastors are handing out binkies and bottles than steak knives.
 :bigsmile: