"Glimmers of Grace" (Kathryn Butler, MD)

TITLE: Glimmers of Grace: A Doctor's Reflections on Faith, Suffering, and the Goodness of God
AUTHOR: Kathryn Butler, MD
PUBLISHER: Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishers, 2021, (224 pages).

Faith and Fear; Hope or Despair; Health or Sickness; Life and Death. These are the daily issues that plague hospitals all over the world. As a critical care surgeon who sees patients experiencing struggles of life and death, author Kathryn Butler has seen a wide spectrum of human ups and downs.  As a Christian, she has also questioned why God had allowed people to go through pain and suffering. Where is God in all of these? What happens when one does not see the promises of God fulfilled in their lives? How do we locate our feelings in the field of grace? This is what this book is about. Seeing God's grace in the midst of medical calamities. Written in three parts, Part One shows us how medical situations could challenge our faith. Part Two looks to the Bible for insights into who God is and how we can find comfort in God. Part Three moves forward to show us how to live with hope based on the Resurrection Promise. 

Butler shares many stories about the amazing grace in the hospital room. She sees how a dying man was able to hang on to his very last breath until his wife arrives. She marvels at how one Christian by the name of David continues to minister to his Church members in spite of his health condition. She remembers a strong and independent friend who just needed prayer even in the midst of discouragement. She notices how the best of medical sciences cannot measure up to the miracle of God's design. God heals from the inside out and the outside in when humans can only apply a band-aid. Each chapter comes with reflections about various medical situations and assurances from the Bible. Readers can sense quickly that the author needs the assurances herself too. Recognizing the limits of science and medicine propels her to embrace the mystery of God's assurance and eternal comfort. Science might define life as a beating and death as flatlining. Faith enables one to go beyond these parameters into the mysteries of the afterlife.

This is Butler's second book. Her first, "Between Life and Death" deals with practical guidance where she writes more from the perspective of medical research and science. In contrast, she writes this book more from the angle of "testimony and devotion" focusing on care and reflections on God's grace along the journey of life. Feeling a need to link science and humanity, she believes that healing and comfort must come down to a warm compassionate level rather than heady science and cold data. She also laments that faith perspectives have often been cast aside deliberately as if faith and medicine are mutually exclusive. With her medical background and a conviction about the necessity of faith as a channel of hope, Butler shows us that faith and modern medicine are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they not only complement each other, but they also guide the patient through the journey of pain, of healing, and of hope.

Recently, there has been a spate of medical dramas on TV. Many of them tend to be sensational in order to maintain viewers' attention. Sometimes, the scenes seem too dramatic to be true. This book however is different from what we watch on TV. The stories are real. The struggles are true. The marriage of faith and science is practical and possible. The best doctors in the world may not save patients in their worst conditions. Only God can heal totally and perfectly. The hospital can sometimes be seen as the final battleground between life and death. If that is so, why exclude God? Butler gives us a fresh look from the scenes inside the hospital as a Christian doctor. Even though she confesses herself as a "nominal Christian," her reflections show that she is a seeker, a growing child of God. She wrestles with human suffering and like Jacob, will not let go until she sees glimpses of grace. Readers are privileged to watch how the scenes play out, and at the end of it all, see the way God helps her maintain sanity and belief that things will get better eventually. This book is her personal psalm.

For readers, or for anyone going through a difficult time dealing with health issues either personally or loved ones, this book brings us back down to earth. Faith cannot be limited to just healing miracles. There is the miracle of enlightenment, of insight, of deeper relationships, of humanity, of faith, hope, and love. Sometimes, it takes a health issue to usher us into the more important things in life. Having seen the many human struggles in hospital beds, Butler not only shows us the utter brokenness of this world, she reminds us that we are not masters of our own lives. There is only one Master, and that is our Creator. Just knowing that there is a loving God at the end of our journeys, ready to embrace us is reason enough not to fear death but to know life everlasting. Butler gives us a book that enables us to stay in the present but yet long for a better future with Jesus.

Rating: 4.25 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.