Book Review
Oseloka Obaze*
Saturday, 2 December 2006
Rita Ihekwaba
Walking In the Spirit -A Christian Companion
(ISBN: 159526-643-7; Llumina Christian Books, Coral Springs, Florida, USA, p.132, Price $19.95 HC)
Available at: Walking in the Spirit - Rita Ihekwaba
Necessity may be the mother of invention, but adversity tends to lead to utter resignation or alternatively, to positive reorientation, which in most instances include profound spiritual reawakening. Rita Ihekwaba’s Walking In the Spirit, quite unlike other books of the same genre, is not designed to proselytize. It is not doctrinal and not about crusading either. Yet, it has the capacity to capture the attention of those who are freethinking, some who are beyond being impressionable and even those who might consider its extensive quotations from the Bible dour and tedious. And here is a non-religious premise on which to approach this book. As the author notes, “The plethora of anger, hatred and vengeance in the world today directly juxtaposes the dearth of peace among individuals, cities and nations.” This is a reality everyone ought to be able to relate to.
But what is in it for the Christians? The author stresses that “We Christians need to seek and pursue peace at all costs, even when we are made to look like fools or treated despicably. We must be ready and willing to play or even be the fool for the sake of Christ, to give glory to God, submitting to one another in the fear of God.”
Walking In the Spirit is a collection of twelve spiritual essays written in homily form and directed at Christians. It will, however, be equally insightful for a non-Christian reader, since it is essentially meant to convey unequivocal messages to Christian persons facing everyday challenges about the sanctity of their relations with God, His unfettered love, understanding and compassion for their difficulties. What is key, is that such universal challenges do not confront Christians alone. Hence, it would be apropos for anyone who believes in a Supreme Being, no matter how IT is defined or identified. But if there is one underlying value of this work, it is the lessons and encouragement in human perseverance, which it presents throughout. Such lessons can be self-binding if adhered to.
Considering the polarized nature of contemporary Christianity, this book is also for all comers -- the Evangelical, Pentecostal and even the fundamentalists. Yes, the Christian fundamentalist! The “Born Again” can hardly be excluded. One existing reality that lends credence and value to this book, is the fact some choose to view the Bible merely as a complex set of history and nothing more. Thankfully, Walking In the Spirit simplifies it all; the facts, the dogma and the application of the biblical ground rules to everyday living regardless of religious identities. To place the kernel of the book in its proper perspective, it responds in many ways to the “What Will Jesus Do? question”
Ihekwaba’s book is an important addition to whatever may already exist out there. If for nothing else, then, because it is personalized to enable an individual to find his or her niche or undergo the rediscovery of oneself in the web of challenges presented and to understand how humanity has grappled with them from time immemorial. This is quite vital in an era when people of faith have been extremely shaken up by various institutional crises and especially by witnessing those who believe, preach and teach religion trip up publicly, as if to confirm that they are extremely human and mere mortals like the rest of us.
Whether considered historical or biblical, the spiritual values propagated in this book in such a simple but elegant manner and the challenges it grapples with, all have contemporary resonance. Contemplate these questions for instance:
Have you looked at your children without knowing how to fix them the next meal or where to find a roof to place over their heads? Have you walked the street in extreme destitution without knowing a soul who could help you? Have you held a loved one in your arms as he or she took his of her last breath? Have you stood falsely accused and vilified before people who had once respected you? Each of these crises is real as that of Job, at the moment it is being experienced.
Perhaps, some will consider these set of questions even more foreboding:
Have you ever found yourself desolate and without hope? Have you run to your bosom friends or your brothers for help or comfort only to have them turn their backs on you or shut the door in your face or laugh behind your back? Have you experienced heart-rending pain from circumstances like ill health, death of a loved one, unemployment, separation, addiction, poverty, disappointment, betrayals, loneliness, slander? Have you experienced so much suffering that you felt your will shattered and your spirituality thrown into disorder? […] Have you been brought to a point in your life where you feel despondent, weak, helpless, confused, HOPELESS? To a point where you ask God the timeless question “Why? Oh, why?’
Walking In the Spirit touches sufficiently on every facet of life to lay to rest the scientific revisionist mantra, which led some apostates to suggest that those who believe in God are deluded and irrational or that religion is harmful. This fact should be of some interest, no matter how rudimentary, to believers and non-believers alike.
Fundamentally and aside from the obvious, there is something psychological and beyond the educational about this book. Essentially, it reminds the reader of the vulnerabilities and mortality of the human being. But more importantly, it sketches with Biblical examples how humans have over time interfaced with God and grappled with challenges, especially when their prayers have gone unanswered; when our world is ripped apart by personal conflicts and when God says no to our supplications. Various strands that run through this book have one thing in common -- they are all intrinsically personal. They encompass prayer and the scientific power of prayer; adversity, rejection and denial and above all, the mystery of suffering and how to overcome it.
All things considered, the gut issue in this book has been a perennial question: Why would a Good and Loving God Allow Suffering? Ihekwaba devotes the entire Chapter 3 and the life of Job in responding convincingly to this question. But there is more. She clearly shows that one can use the opportunity presented by suffering, even when all else fails, to affirm abiding faith in God and to help others.
Walking In the Spirit is about unconditional love of God and His Infinite Mercies and eternal promise of salvation. Skillfully but with equal simplicity, Ihekwaba has treaded passages from both the Old and New Testaments as she shares with others without timidity, shame, or self-righteousness, her “painful personal and often embarrassing” yet value-laden “human experiences” that may well be for some, the long desired Epiphany. Certainly, as history has recorded and as Ihekwaba attests in the beginning of Chapter 10, “Our Christian walk is not an easy one. It is one that is filled with constant struggles against the temptations, attacks and treachery of the devil.”
In the last chapter titled “The Christmas Gift”, Ihekwaba tackles the diminution and neutering of Christmas with crass commercialization. She bemoans how “Christians sit back and allow the world to increasingly teach our children to equate Christmas with the gift-giving season of Santa Claus and not with the holiness of the gift we have from God in the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ”.
It is unlikely that this book will ever resolve the time-honored dilemma of why some prayers are answered and others not. But it will surely offer succor to any reader who at any time may have felt that they have hit the lowest point in their lives – those moments of utter despondency, rejection and suffering. In that sense, while this is a book that will not cure ailments, it will certainly heal many souls, personalities, and those with a disenfranchised sense of being and self worth. Walking In the Spirit is an interesting, deeply rejuvenating foray into Bible study and Christian values. It would certainly make a good Christmas present.
------------
Mr. Oseloka Obaze, an aspiring writer, is a founding member of the Kwenu.com Book Review Forum, which is dedicated to the promotion of books with Igbo and Afrocentric themes. He is also a supporting Member of the African Writers Endowment (AWE). From 1999 to 2005 he served on the editorial board of INYEAKA, the journal of Songhai Charities, Inc., a New Jersey community-based charity founded and run by Nigerians based in New York Tri-state area in the United States, first as its founding Publisher and later as the Editor-At-Large. He is also on the editorial board of The Amaka Gazette, the journal of the Christ the King College, Onitsha Alumni Association in America. His collection of poems, “Regarscent Past: A Collection of Poems” was among the top three finalists in the poetry category in the African Writers Endowment Publishing Grant Program for 2004. His novel, “Happy Eulogy” will be published in the spring of 2007. He reviews books and arts strictly as a hobby. © Copyright December 2, 2006.