Glimpses Of An Invisible God For Teens

When I was thirteen and beginning to question the idea of Christian faith, my grandmother gifted me with this book. She wrote on the inside that it was chosen with love, and as such I can't bring myself to be too hard on it or give it a star rating; it's a treasured gift, even if I have issues with some of the content.

And I do mean some, not all. As a collection of single-page anecdotes about faith told through the lives of fictional teenagers, there's a lot to digest in this book. Some of the stories have messages which slightly contradict each other and some have troubling or alienating messages while others have good ones. Taken in as a whole, I think those contradictions provide good fuel for thought and a strong basis for young readers to ponder the differences and decide what they personally believe. However, it obviously does veer very strongly on the “believe in God, he is always there, He has a plan for you, and you should put all your trust in Him no matter what” side of things. I mean, it's a Christian book about strengthening faith; it's not exactly going to tell you to consider atheism or Buddhism etc. and that's not why people purchase it.

Some of the messages are just... dangerous, I suppose, to thrust in the hands of a confused or troubled teenager. A few made me feel alienated when I was a child, and reading back through it some make me uneasy with the messages being taught to young children going through hard times and puberty. For example:

* The story is told of a girl who's struggled with depression for most of her youth and feels like a freak for having therapists and anti-depressants. Eventually, she finds a magic cure-all in keeping a “blessings book” where she writes down all of her “blessings” and that is potrayed as what helps her to feel so much better by “dividing her sorrows.”

* In one story, a girl is blamed for something a peer did. We're never told what the thing was, so we have no way to know if it was major or minor - or even what repercussions it had on her life. She's slandered, but the moral is that God wouldn't want her to defend herself or stick up for herself or tell others that this girl did whatever it was instead of her. She's just supposed to swallow it down and put it all in God's hands. That one especially feels like a dangerous moral to give teenagers: don't defend yourself or let others know you aren't guilty, just take the blame quietly and hope it goes away.

* Another story tells how a girl struggling with attempts at weight loss manages to learn portion control and appetite management simply by praying before every meal. This gives the dangerous message that anyone who struggles with things in life just simply doesn't believe enough in the Christian God. Or, conversely, it could push those struggling away from their faith because they find that prayers aren't enough to fix their ingrained habits and make them lose weight.

* A couple of stories villainize sex and pornography as “ungodly” instead of showing the genuine risks of sex or the fact you should always balance things like self-pleasure with the rest of your life instead of letting it become an all the time thing (but then, the morality pushed is that it's just plain wrong).

* One story in particular talks about how a girl was bullied for believing in God (That's a thing? I was bullied in school for questioning faith, but okay...). At first, she was just taunted, but then some boy decided to beat her up - badly enough that other students referred to it as “trying to kill” her. Magically, seeing that one person went too far makes all the other bullies stop and begin looking up to her for “standing up for what she believes in.” The moral seems to be that she's in the right for putting herself at risk and that it'll always definitely work out in the end and not lead to permanent injury or death. In fact, the final line of that one is: “Are you willing to stand up for what you believe?” Maybe let's not teach young, impressionable teens that they should put their lives at risk for the sake of spreading their religion!

Not all of the stories are that worrisome, though. Some are just plain “person gets inspired by a scripture” or “person thinks about something from a sermon and feels inspired” - harmless cases of faith inspiring those who have it. Some offer lessons which apply far beyond just having faith (or not having faith) and instead help with real life struggles teens have, in fact. For example:

* In one story, a girl goes to the theater with friends but is very uncomfortable with the content of the movie. She finally excuses herself when it gets to be too uncomfortable for her, and one of her friends follows and says she was too afraid to leave alone. This is an amazing story about having the courage to extract oneself from things which make you uncomfortable and being an inspiration to friends who may not have the courage to speak up like you do.

* Another story tells of how someone jumped to the conclusion someone he knew was stealing from the register at work and therefore ignored and missed the obvious signs that the guy had a drug problem. As a result of demonizing instead of noticing those warning signs, he was unable to get help for the guy, who was busted dealing drugs and landed in jail. I found this one particularly compelling for the fact it outright says that people with drug issues need help rather than to be treated like villains.

* There's even one story which emphasizes the importance of being willing to have a difference of opinion on religion with an otherwise good friend. In the story, the Christian boy comes to an agreement with his friend that neither will hide what they believe but they also won't force their beliefs on each other. The Christian boy is a good friend, does good deeds, and ultimately - through his example of being a great person who's also Christian - makes his pal curious about perhaps developing faith himself. I love that it drives home the very important point that you'll never win over non-believers by trying to force them.

Overall, most of the stories are a bit heavy-handed with how they jump from a bad situation to “and then they found inspiration in God,” but there's absolutely nothing wrong with finding strength and comfort in something you believe. And there's certainly no harm done in being inspired to be a good person.

Reading the book took maybe thirty minutes, if that, because the stories are so succinct and easily digestible. And, of course, because this book was a gift from my grandma, it means a lot to me regardless of how I feel about some of the stories. Perhaps someone out there will gift it to one of their grandchildren and give them a precious memory to hold onto as well. Back when I was a young teen, I loved that one of the stories in the book had my name as the protagonist... and, yeah, even now I smile a little when I remember that's why my grandma gave it to me.