Book Review: Tables in the Wilderness {BookLook Bloggers}

Tables in the Wilderness by Preston Yancey
ISBN: 9780310338826
Paperback, ARC, 240 pages
Publisher: Zondervan, Inc.
Retail: $19.99

About the book (from the back cover): In Tables in the Wilderness Preston Yancey arrived at Baylor University in the autumn of 2008 with his life figured out: he was Southern Baptist, conservative, had a beautiful girlfriend he would soon propose to, had spent the summer living in Southeast Asia as a missionary, and planned to study political science.
Then God slowly allowed Preston's secure world to fall apart until every piece of what he thought was true was lost: his church, his life of study, his political leanings, his girlfriend, his best friend...and his God.
It was the loss of God in the midst of all the godly things that changed Preston forever. One day he heard [him] say, "It's going to be about trust with you," and then [he] was silent- and he still hasn't spoken. At least, not in the ways Preston used to think were the only ways [he] spoke. No pillars of fire, no clouds, just a bit of whisper in the wind.
Now, Preston is a patchwork of Anglican spirituality and Baptist sensibility, with a mother who has been in chronic neurological pain for thirteen years and father still devoted to Southern Baptist ministry who reads saints' lives on the side. He shares his story of coming to terms with a God who is bigger than the one he thought he was worshipping- the [one] of common faith, the [one] who makes tables in the wilderness, the [one] who is bigger than narrow understandings of his will, his desire, his plan- the [one] who is so big, that everything must be his.

About the author: Preston Yancey is a lifelong Texan-raised Southern Baptist who fell in love with reading the saints, crossing himself, and high church spirituality. He now makes his home within the Angelican tradition. He is a writer, painter, baker, and speaker. An alumnus of Baylor University, Preston completed a masters in theology from St. Andrews University in Scotland before returning to the States. He and his wife, Hilary, currently live in Waco, Texas, where Hilary is a Ph.D candidate in philosophy at Baylor.

My thoughts:
Um. I don't know much about the Anglican tradition but I do know about Baptists. I also know what it feels like when we don't think God is listening. That's why I chose this book to review. I am disappointed.
The subtitle is "A memoir of God found, lost, and found again," but it's not really that at all. It is more along the lines of "What I found to make things acceptable to me along my way- tossing what I didn't like and picking up things I did- oh, and yes, it caused me turmoil in the meantime." There could be a sequel to this book telling how "God" was lost and found again. Because this is my review and not a continuation of the author of the book being reviewed, there will undoubtedly be disagreements on that. Yancey is too caught up on the here-and-now, physical, show-it-to-me. Why else would a Baptist need to cross themselves? Why else would a Baptist lean towards Mary when thinking about praying? Is this part of the Anglican "spirituality"? He recites prayer after prayer from prayer books in the hopes of getting somewhere. What good does reciting vain repetitions do? (Matthew 6:7; 15:9)
My review there reads a little harsh but his book is harsh. He has real emotion poured into it. It is not an empty book. But the focus is wrong. It is not about finding God, it's about Yancey finding himself in a place he can feel comfortable with. He goes through all the things in his life, possibly starting with his mother's chronic illness, that cause him to doubt, to question, to turn this way and that, looking for answers. He looks in the wrong places, as he himself admits often.
When he meets his future wife, Hilary, then things start to get better. Not right away, but slowly. This and other things, he takes as God "speaking" again to him. I see it as his filling the void with the here-and-now, the physical.
This review has been somewhat difficult because this is a person's life that is being put out there to the world. Yancey feels so sure of his steps and his path; so sure that God has set the tables in the wilderness for him. Who am I to disagree? I see many inconsistencies with his theology (but admittedly I am not theological scholar, thankfully). The book was hard to read; choppily written and so centered on self, but I don't know how else he could have written it. And it has so many false doctrines.

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