This is truly a
book for this time in America. Robert Whitlow takes on the topic of racial
unrest, and sets it in the deep south where it has the deepest roots. He works
his plot around the shooting of an unarmed, black teenaged male by a white
policeman. Whitlow surrounds the story with strong, Christian characters on
either side of this legal drama. Right in the middle he places a young, black
female attorney who is part of the police officer’s defense council.
Whitlow deals
with the difficulty humans of any color have distinguishing between their idea
of how they view the world, and how they are truly seeing it through their
personal lens, a lens formed by personal experience, collective experience, the
media, and the depth of their relationship with the Author of love. He places
this hand in hand with the assumptions each person makes about how others see
them. Ultimately through the acts of love of mature saints, the reader comes to
realize the impact of seeing ourselves and others through God’s eyes.
Well-known pastor Chip Ingram would say we need an accurate view of God and an
accurate view of ourselves.
A Time to Stand would be a great book
club book, and provides thoughtful questions for discussion. It is also a great
book for individual reading and personal reflection. It is one of those stories
that can be enjoyed on a surface level for the entertaining, legal thriller that
it is, but begs not to be read on such a shallow level. It is a story that
won’t be forgotten once the covers are closed for the final time. While readers
will be reminded of Deshaun Hamlin and Luke Nelson as they watch the evening
news, I hope that A Time to Stand
will be a catalyst to taking a stand of their own, a stand for love,
forgiveness, reconciliation and unity.
I thank NetGalley
and Thomas Nelson for providing me with a copy of A Time to Stand in exchange for an honest review. I received no
monetary compensation for providing this review.
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