Seriously, God? Really – Seriously?

Jenny Smith wrote Seriously God as a way to tell her family’s story. After building the stereotypical American home and career, Jenny and her family experienced a home foreclosure and job loss combined with high gas and grocery prices that twisted the family budget hopelessly out of shape. The title and the message of this book arose from Jenny’s heart-felt prayer.

“Seriously? Really? We’ve been doing everything right, and this is how life is ending up?  Seriously God?”

The turmoil in the author’s life is the genesis of this book, and she relates the path she walked to lessons she learned from a small garden in the backyard, and from lessons from Jesus’ life, both of came into clearer focus only as a result of her journey.

Jenny focuses on the “I Am” statements which Jesus made during the final year of his ministry. She paints the picture of his life, the setting in which he spoke, and makes the context come alive for the reader. Even though I’ve read the gospels for decades, Jenny’s scholarship brought to life details with which I was unfamiliar. For example, Jesus stood and declared “I am the Bread of Life” shortly after his first feeding of the multitude, and in the midst of a crowd that had been following him because of the free meal. Were they just looking for bread and fish? Jesus wanted to give them more. Were they enthralled with the itinerant preacher because of the things they received from him? Jesus expected more.

From her personal story throughout the book, Jenny seems to say that she learned through the trials that Jesus wanted to give her family . . .  and expected from her personally . . . more. He had more for her than a comfortable, financially stable and prosperous life, and like Job, not until the stability and comfort were taken away could Jenny gain a clear vision of what “more” looked like.

I recommend Jenny’s book highly. Her storytelling and biblical research are both excellent. At the end of each chapter, she includes discussion questions so this book could also be used as the basis for a small group study and discussion.