A PATH OF DIVINE ENCOUNTERS

A catalog of religious experiences, informed by dogma, constitutes this debut memoir.

Need faith be a challenge? Not if God shows himself at every turn of one’s life. Meyer claims just such good fortune, and hopes readers can too. But how do they open themselves to grace? By relating her own miraculous encounters, Meyer’s energetic work is faintly analogous to the epic, and epically personal, spiritual growth in Augustine’s Confessions. But the latter book, written by one of the fathers of Christianity, owes its strength to the depth of Augustine’s doubt in the period before accepting Jesus. Meyer offers no such journey along the titular “path.” Each episode—written with a little more polish than a diary entry—describes a God directly, manifestly involved in every aspect of daily life. The author hears voices, recalls prophetic dreams, and even walks with angels. When she and her husband find prime seats in the pews of an overcrowded church service, she is sure God saved the places expressly for them. Who would think to doubt in such a reality? Unfortunately, without the element of doubt, the reader—in fact, all human experience—is forgotten. Meyer does not address the immemorial paradox of God’s omnipotent hand as coexistent with humankind’s free will. Her perspective does not involve questioning, and she makes no effort to reach out to those who accept this paradox and do not anticipate the same privilege of godly intercourse that she enjoys. Readers should not be surprised, then, by the exhortation to fill out written contracts, supplied by the author, binding them to lives devoted to this volume’s particular conception of the divine. Does Meyer expect readers to readily embrace this view, when the stakes—literal, personal encounters with God—are so high? It is admirable, even refreshing, that she answered the call to share her unique truth so earnestly. And her enthusiastic account provides many comforting assertions about a loving God (“He delights in our laughter. He wants to be in our everyday lives; and if somebody is not well, He is sorry for the pain”). But unvarnished evangelism doesn’t make for intriguing reading, and an obtuse approach diminishes this otherwise worthy investigation into how humans might relate to God.

A passionate Christian work that will likely only resonate with those who share the author’s zeal.