Innocence vs Experience

Someone They Can Trust by Colleen Scheid is a powerful Christian contemporary novel that consumed me.

There is such a lot to say about this story that it is hard to know where to begin. The story is about a church and the community including the leadership. We see that churches are made up of flawed individuals in need of a Savior. Churches are not places for the perfect (there is no such thing, only Jesus is perfect) but places where the lost, the hurt and the hopeful can find and follow Jesus. “ ‘God loves you’… ‘Why? I’m useless and selfish and a hot mess.’ “ God does His best work with broken vessels.

We see the huge theme of trust and a wider theme of innocence vs. experience. We trust those who are older, believing them to be wiser. It is wicked when those in power abuse their position.

We all have a past. Sometimes we have hurts in our past that we have pushed so far down, they are hidden, even from ourselves. God sees our hurts. He wants to transform us, not just for today, but for our past hurts and our future ones too. “A sense of God cleaning up her past, transforming what had been shameful… into spiritual encounters that healed.”

Everyone needs to have good influences in their lives. “Someone who could help him towards God rather than luring him away.” We all need someone to point us to Jesus. If we do not tell people about Him, who will?

Prayer is powerful. It can be as simple as “Silently prayed, Jesus, help me.” God hears our heart’s longing even when we cannot form the words.

Sometimes we are so busy doing things for Jesus, that we miss Him. “I’m too task-orientated and not listening to God very well.” We need to make time to be still and to find Jesus. He is in the silence. He is in the sunrise. He is in our hearts calling to us.

There is the heart-breaking topic of Alzheimer’s as we watch a character slip away little by little.

All the characters were delightfully drawn and realistic. They struggled with issues that are relevant to us today – pride, anger, envy and more. They were realistically flawed human beings striving to be a better version of themselves.

I thoroughly enjoyed Someone They Can Trust. It was a powerful, relevant read.

I received a free copy from the author. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.

JULIA WILSON