Title: Come, Climb Toward God: Are You Hungry for God?
Author: Marianna W. Albritton
Publisher: Brilliant Books Literary
ISBN: 978-1641336963
Pages: 40
Genre: Memoir / Self-Help
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Hollywood Book Reviews
Christian writer and teacher Marianna W. Albritton recalls her personal “climb” to greater understanding in this combined manual and memoir.
Come, Climb Toward God: Are You Hungry for God opens with an elaborate metaphor as the author attempts to climb a ladder to reach a beautiful golden apple. She thinks of the ladder as a “facilitator of spiritual growth” which can assist us in attaining a goal for which we may be hungering. She states that she was seeking a subject for a Bible study group she was to lead, and the image of the ladder became a powerful illustration of the spiritual journey, upwards, sometimes through clouds, trusting in the ladder’s strength, comparable to God’s loving watchfulness.
Her book progresses through the steps that will need to be taken on this journey, beginning with seeking Jesus. She recalls leading a women’s retreat where a person of a different race was to attend; that woman’s sudden, immediate experience of being saved became a high point for the gathering. Such acceptance should be followed, author Marianna W. Albritton assures her readers, by other equally significant steps: recognizing Jesus’s lordship; His power and control over our lives; hearing and acting on God’s call to service; experiencing the “crucifixion of the self” as a way of relinquishing the old life and entering the new; being resurrected as someone with special gifts to offer; and appreciating the “call to rest,” perhaps letting go of tasks too difficult to accomplish to one’s best abilities. The final result will be the step of abiding in Christ, a lifelong commitment of attachment to Jesus.
Albritton draws on her own experiences in depicting each new faith step for her readers, seeing the trek as both a climb to be accomplished and a hunger to be satisfied. As a young Christian wanting to do her part, she had to overcome fears and self-doubt to participate in church activities but was led by God’s grace to find her calling as an enthusiastic Sunday School teacher. That role progressed to leading weekend retreats.
Her writing skills were developed as she worked as an editor of her church magazine. In this brief but helpful manual, she continually encourages her readers to persevere in their own upward progression, certain that, as happened to her, their hunger for spiritual awakening will lead to valuable lessons and blessings that can be shared with others along the way.