As If

Many people who trust God still find it hard to believe he will actually do what he has promised. Gill Bentham, a life coach, writes for devoted Christians who are working toward a dream they sense God has placed in them, yet privately wonder whether he will bring it about, and whether he will do it through them. She asks readers where they stand among Doubting Thomas, King David and Mary.

Bentham argues that the questions believers ask themselves, whether "what if," "if only" or "even if," need not be dead ends. Setbacks and delays, she suggests, are part of a journey worth taking, and living as though a dream has already come true is a way of claiming it. Her teaching draws on the biblical figure Jacob, an extended metaphor of a slow canal cruise, and her own stories and observations.

The book examines how reason, emotion and will can mislead, what weakness, brokenness and loss can accomplish in a believer's life, and how to rest in assurance of one's worth, potential and calling. It is aimed at readers who are tired of thin spiritual slogans and formulaic success advice, and it is framed as an imaginative modern version of Pilgrim's Progress, written around the turn of the millennium.