I always thought my wife was a peaceful person, but in the last few years, ever since she got her Kindle, she addresses Amazon Gatling gun-like as she downloads dozens of books. I never would have selected The Runaway Pastor’s Wife to read without her urging. Although the book is fiction, it holds an incredible number of truths, which are varied enough to entertain any reader. The book tells of the hard lives pastors’ wives may have, wrongdoing within churches, lessons to be learned by in-laws, ever present temptations, the omnipresence of God, and the book even leaves room for a good mystery. What else could one want?
David McGregor, an Oklahoma State baseball star, becomes a pastor and marries Ann Franklin. During their first year of marriage, they adopt Max, a baby several months old, of unknown parentage. Over the years, David and Ann add two biological children to their family. Ann’s plate becomes too full with Bible studies, teaching Sunday School, other church ministries, taking care of her own three kids and a husband whom she seldom communicates with because of conventions and nightly meetings he must attend along with other expectations of his congregation. “The church owned David McGregor. And he allowed them to do so” (Page 14).
Ann decides her only hope of being at peace with herself and God is to flee from all of her problems without telling anybody where she is going. Thus, she takes off from her home in Florida to a friend’s empty cabin in Colorado.
Little did Ann know what the Lord had in store for her during her several days in the cabin. She did meet several locals there, all of whom were very kind to her. One of my favorite people was Doc Wilkins, who was a major part of the story in Colorado. Probably I liked Doc the most because he reminded me of the older, kind Doc Adams who appeared in the western television show Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975.
To add to the excitement, trouble begins brewing in the church by way of gossip. One of the church leaders, who is also a high school teacher of Max, not only hassles Max in school, but tries to get his dad, the pastor, to resign from the church once word is out that Ann has left the family. This was done without knowing any of the circumstances of her leaving.
Things worse than this happen in the church today. Many years ago, it was my responsibility to take minutes at a congregational meeting held to vote on a new pastor who was approved by the church leadership. The meeting got so contentious that after it was over, some of the church leaders came to me to assure I did not include all of the conversations in the minutes. Obviously, I knew to summarize much of the meeting by saying: “After much discussion…” At the meeting, a highly educated man became so upset about the fact that the man being voted on to become pastor didn’t have enough letters (degrees) after his name, that the man had a heart attack.
To muddy the waters, some of the other characters in the book are Darlene, Ann’s mother, who is self-absorbed and continues to compound the problem while seeking attention. There is a very wealthy politician who will get his way no matter what actions he has to take to accomplish his goal. Finally, there is a former friend of Ann’s whom she has not seen for years.
If you think I gave away too much of this book, I beg to differ with you. You have only seen the tip of the iceberg of this fast moving story that has as many twists and turns as a game of Candy Land!
Book Beat book review is contributed by Jeff Hall, Honey Brook.
