THE WOUNDED SPIRIT

THE WOUNDED SPIRIT by Frank Peretti

The Wounded Spirit by Frank Peretti is one of my Top Picks of the year.

As I sit down to write the post for this book, I am praying that the Lord will help me do it justice.

We are living in a time surrounded by people who have "wounded spirits." We are seeing the effects of that every day on the news. I believe it is due to a culture shift away from the Lord and a devaluing of His most precious creation, life.

If you are not familiar with Frank Peretti, it is worth your while to be. A popular, Christian author in the 80s-early 2000s, Peretti didn't tackle your run of the mill Christian romance. No, his genre was spiritual warfare, and it's the kind of stuff you don't read right before you go to bed! His most popular books are probably This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness, but then Peretti came out with two books that broke from his normal style. The first was entitled Tilly, and it tells the story of a Christian woman who has an abortion. Through a series of events she meets her aborted child. The theme is healing and forgiveness. It is seriously powerful. But, I'm not here to discuss Peretti's fictional works. I'm bringing to the table his second book that broke from his traditional works, a nonfiction book about his life entitled The Wounded Spirit.

Peretti's birth was not a normal, no-complications event. In the process, he was injured and left with a lasting deformity that kept him small in size and the butt end of many jokes and abuse in school - especially in gym class. This was before video games, but not before the start of "horror" movies. Peretti admits how he respected the monsters from movies that were deformed but were able to act out on their abusers, but coming from a Christian family, Peretti knew that was not a possibility. There really didn't seem to be any other options at that time, except to endure it. Until a breaking point happened. You'll have to read the book to know the rest of the story.

Peretti doesn't just leave it at his story though. Even after going through everything in school, he shares that at points he picked on other kids. Then he asks us to examine ourselves. Were you picked on in school? Can you still remember where you were and who did the picking? It only happened to me a couple of times, but I can remember it to this day! Did you pick on other kids? I'm not talking about teasing here. I'm talking about smash somebody under your heel and ground them into the ground type of picking. I have.

Do you want to know what prompted Peretti to share his story that he had never shared with others before? The Columbine shooting. Don't get me wrong, he in no way justifies what happened in that school, but the truth is we're forgetting to remember that each of us is created in the Image of God. Oh yes, there's a lot of actions and behaviors going on in our world that we do not agree with. We need to stand against the behavior and not forget that God's desire is for ALL to know him personally. People are VALUABLE! Read the book!

HEADS UP- Some of the abuse revolves around being abused in the groin area during showers after gym class. There is not explicit detail.