The Guiding Light

Broken Together by Brenda S and Sarah S Anderson is a most delightful contemporary Christian novel and part of the Mosaic Collection.

The novel follows a family that are broken apart by a false accusation. We see that when we are broken, we need to rely on God to get us through. When we cannot stand in our own strength, we need to kneel and press into Him.

Prayer is vital. “I give my prayer muscles a workout every day.” Prayer needs to be exercised for it to grow. The longer we spend in prayer, the more intimate we will become with God. “She prayed as if Jesus sat right beside them.”

Sometimes it feels as if God isn’t listening. “God hadn’t listened to those prayers, why would He start listening now?” God is listening but He is waiting too. Sometimes we need to be broken apart before we can be put back together. “You’ve worn yourself thin… It’s time to get on your knees and let God do the fighting for you.” God fights our toughest battles. We just need to fully surrender to Him.

God can use all our situations for good for those who love Him. “Prison may have broken him, but God had pieced him together.” When we are down to nothing, God is up to something.

Walls are no barrier to God. “Prison walls couldn’t keep God away.” There is no pit so deep that God cannot be found sitting beside us. No one is ever too far from God. “ ‘I’m just a screw-up’… ‘Exactly the kind of man God uses for His good.’ “ God does some of His best work with broken vessels.

We need to be ware of the voices we listen to. “That little demon named Guilt kept whispering in her ear.” We need to listen to God’s life-affirming voice. “She’d worn that guilt like shackles.” God wants us to throw off the guilt that imprisons and to live abundantly free. Sometimes we are more free in the physical confines of prison than in the world outside where we have erected mental barriers. Break these walls down and live in freedom.

Brenda and Sarah Anderson have written a marvellous realistic tale that tackles the grittier areas of life. We see a life in prison and a family struggling. We witness the battles against alcohol and PTSD, and teens living in a world that falls short of God’s ideal. “How do you teach your children something is wrong when society had normalized it?”

The church should be a safe haven. “Her church was reminding her what being a Christian was all about.” Churches may also let us down. They are filled with imperfect people living in an imperfect world. When they reject and push us away, this is not the church functioning as Jesus intended. We do see a wonderful fellowship of believers who support the broken within the novel. Church is not a building, church is the people and church is wherever the people gather.

Broken Together was powerful. Broken Together was beautiful. Broken Together was a pure delight to witness flawed human beings journeying through life in the presence of God – trusting Him to guide them home.

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

JULIA WILSON