Disappointed with Robison's God of All Creation

It has been several weeks since I have finished James Robison’s God of All Creation.  If there was one word to describe how I feel about this book I think it would be ambivalent.  Robison’s uses his pet dachshund and other wildlife as his lens for how we can live Godly lives or at least attempts to show life lessons that can be learned through animals.  

Waterbrook Multnomah provides me with books free in exchange for fair and honest reviews and this is one of those books.  I chose this book to review frankly because I thought there was a strong possibility that I might really like it—I have really disliked the recent books that I have received from Waterbrook and it is much more fun to write a positive review than it is a negative one.  Moreover, despite not owning any pets of my own I have many friends who have dogs and cats and I was hoping that this would be a good book to recommend to them.  Sadly, this did not turn out to be the case.

I did manage to break the string of disliking books from Waterbrook.  There were things I liked about this book which were pretty balanced with the things that I disliked hence my ambivalence.  I would first like to share three quotes/stories from the book that I found either convicting and/or applicable to my life.  Then I will share a few things that I did not like.

Robison writes “It’s easy to say that we believe the Bible, but sometimes it seems difficult to live by it.  Which raises the question: What do we really believe?” (Pg. 84).  I think Robison is being a bit too gentle here actually.  If we say we believe something and then do not actually live it out in our daily lives I think there is a word for that.  That word is hypocrite.  Moreover, all of us at some point in our life, regrettably, will say one thing and do another.  Paul was no stranger to this and writes about it in Romans 7.  Robison gets it on acting out what you believe.

Perhaps the best corollary to animals and lessons regarding God is Robison’s comparison about rattlesnakes and sin.  Most people will generally be more scared of a large rattlesnake than a baby rattlesnake, but it is the babies that are more dangerous because they are quicker to bite and they do not always have control of how much venom they inject when biting.  Robison writes “Sin is like that too. People tend to look at the ‘big’ ones, such as murder, adultery, or theft, and ignore the ‘small’ ones, such as pride, bitterness, or envy.  This tolerance of the ‘small snakes’ leads to a lot of pain.  Just because something isn’t out in the open or punishable by law doesn’t mean it can’t destroy a life.  To the contrary, the sins that tend to go unnoticed can be the most poisonous to our souls” (Pg. 102).

Finally, Robison shares a story about some neighbors that would feed feral cats by placing food outside but do nothing more.  “They treated them as unwelcome guests, putting out a token dish, but not taking in the animals as their own…Christians can treat God like a stray.  Like our neighbors with the feral cats, we may give God a token gift when it’s convenient but never invite Him in.  Sure, let God visit, but stay?  Not a chance.  That requires giving up some things, taking on responsibility, and admitting ownership in the relationship.  But God is not looking for a place to visit; He is looking for a place to live.”  

Within Christianity today it is troubling to me that so much interpretation of Scripture is simplistic.  Don’t get me wrong, I am a believer that keeping things simple is a good practice.  However, there is also a danger with always opting for the simple answer or interpretation to things, particularly Scripture.  I have read the following observation in two books the past year.  There are three stages when it comes to faith: orientation, disorientation and reorientation.  Many of us enter the orientation stage of faith and remain there for the entirety of our faith journey.  Why?  Because we are too uncomfortable or scared to enter the disorientation phase.  Frankly, I believe these people lack authentic faith. I call their faith shallow because they are not willing to allow their faith to be tested—they see the status-quo interpretation of scripture and accept it blindly, without embracing the tension; a tension that while frustrating will ultimately lead to growth.  If this remaining in the orientation stage is what is meant by keeping things simple then I believe that is where the benefits of keeping things simple cease to exist.  I believe that Robison has lived his life and faith stuck in the orientation phase.

For example, Robison shares the quote from John 9:1-3: “Why was this man born blind?  Was it because of his own sins or his parent’s sins?  It was not because of his sins or his parent’s sins.  This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” And has this to say about it: “This is not to say that suffering is always the result of someone’s sin” (Pg. 51-52).  In an orientation paradigm one sees that suffering can be something that God does to someone merely so that his glory can be revealed and it ends there.  This passage for me is a great example of disorientation.  I literally have a problem with a God that needs to cause someone to suffer in order to demonstrate his glory—this passage creates questions for me.  Jesus does not say that “God caused this…” but, “This happened so…”  Did God cause it?  If so, why?  Why is anyone born blind at all?  How do our parents sins cause us suffering?  Do our  parents sins cause us suffering?  How do our own sins cause us suffering?—for me this is a disorienting piece of Scripture.  I believe that God desires and wants us to seek him—I believe Jesus spoke in parables and never answered a yes-and-no question with “Yes” or “No” during his entire ministry because he knows that growth comes through disorientation.

Another example is Robison’s classic interpretation of the Parable of the Talents found in Matthew 25:14-18—the classic interpretation that so well fits our capitalistic culture where the master is seen as God and praises those that have a good return on their investment while chastising the servant that buries his talent.  There is an alternative interpretation to this parable that Robison does not even consider—perhaps he has never heard it but it goes like this: the Master is the oppressive Roman Empire and the servant that hides the talent is Christ who is rejected by the system. 

Obviously these two interpretations are diametrical to one another.  And the two interpretations definitely create disorientation.  My faith is more or less in the state of disorientation.  Honestly, it is a really difficult stage to be in but it does not end there.  I also believe that bits and pieces of my faith are beginning to reorient themselves and I must say that it is the light at the end of the tunnel.  It is in the reorientation that we begin get to see slivers of light, that are Jesus, shine through—it is where we really get to know what it means to love and serve Jesus.