Skip to main content

Behind the Shades

Behind the Shades: Hope Beyond the Darkness



Behind the Shades: Hope Beyond the Darkness by Sheila Raye Charles
http://shop.voxdeipublishing.com/collections/frontpage/products/behind-the-shades

This new book, Behind the Shades, is the story of the famous singer Ray Charles’ daughter, Sheila Charles, and her tumultuous life getting caught up in drugs leading to her imprisonment.  Trying to win her father’s love, Sheila constantly yearned for her father’s attention amidst his busy career.  Through a combination of bad choices, having basically no father to care for her, Sheila tells of her time in prison and the way her and her mother looked at the enigmatic figure Ray for comfort.  Part of the book is Sheila’s inclusion of a manuscript her mother, Sandra Betts, had written about her time with Ray. 

The book points out the way that faith, including Sheila’s blossoming faith encouraged in prison through church can ignite a person’s calling.  From very early on, Sheila’s voice catapulted her onto the road of sure stardom.  Yet, through the ups and downs of life, including getting caught up in drugs, Sheila was not able to realize her singing career until she got out of prison.  With a sober mind and body alongside a restored relationship with her daughter, Sheila is on the right track to using her vocal talent to glorify God.  The book also describes how life in the prison was a battle of truth over lies.  There were many times where there was a sharp reaction to those who regularly attended worship and those who didn’t Sheila was not a person to segregate her life and cut off contact from those who didn’t attend worship.  She wanted others in prison to see the light that she had seen.  What struck me was how her thoughts on how meth messed people up to such an extent that they were given over to evil.  Sheila would also minister to these women by praying over them, casting out the evil spirit, and calling on the name of Jesus.  This type of spiritual warfare is not something I’ve seen but only have heard about.

The story of a life strangled by the sin of a father and the sinful choices of a daughter was evident throughout this book.  There were many times in the book that I found that Sheila divulged information concerning the devious deeds of her life that were unnecessary or unhelpful to the story.  Yet, I wonder if this kind of writing was a cathartic experience Sheila as she sought to be free from her past guilt and condemnation.  I hope that this book encourages other people who have no father or who wish they had a more present one to see that things can change with faith.  This was a hard book to read but one that needed to be written.  If you have an idealistic view of Ray Charles before reading this book, this book will take your view and smash it to pieces. 


Thanks to Cross Focused Reviews and Vox Dei Press for the review copy of this book in exchange for review.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saving Casper

Saving Casper: A Christian and an Atheist Talk about Why We Need to Change the Conversion Conversation by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Casper-Christian-Conversion-Conversation/dp/1414364881 Many readers will quickly know the authors of this book from their previous release Jim and Casper Go to Church.  Jim and Matt’s new book entitled Saving Casper focuses on the way we talk about conversion in the church and the devastating ways we have pushed away atheists and other non-believers by our posture.  Both Jim and Matt traversed the national landscape, meeting in churches and asking hard questions about faith, conversion, and life. The basic premise of the book and travel is laid out here in their words, “Part of what Casper and I are trying to achieve when we speak to a group of Christians is to help people move a little bit on their “judgment meter.”  This capacity, while intellectually and often theologically uncomfortable,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Essential Christian Doctrine

  Essential Christian Doctrine , General Editor John MacArthur Pastor John MacArthur has for years been teaching the Word of God in both pulpit ministry, books, and conferences with an aim to displaying God’s revelation to his listeners in a winsome and foundational manner.  This new book, Essential Christian Doctrine takes an entire life of teaching and preaching and encapsulates the main contours of the Christian faith for its readers.  John in a systematic way highlights the most necessary teachings from Scripture including God’s Word, the Trinity, while also including sections on Man and the Future. One of the most helpful ways the authors bring to light biblical truth and theology is the way in which they group together particular themes.  In the section on the Holy Spirit, instead of a complex discussion of personhood, word pictures of the Holy Spirit are introduced in a discernible and profitable manner.  The metaphors for the Holy Spirit include fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

God's Grace for All of Life

The Romance of Grace by Jim McNeely III To be honest, when I received this book in the mail I had visions of what it might be like with a title like, ‘The Romance of Grace.’  The emotional rollercoaster and one-sided perspective on how our emotions fuel our faith was my presumption about the book, but this was the furthest thing from the truth as I started reading.  The Romance of Grace by Pastor Jim McNeely III is a careful look at the movements of grace in the way God pursues us with his love and his desire to get us to love him back.  McNeely writes, “We are entering a cosmic romance with a passionate lover, and He is interested in our heart’s truest desire.  His deepest objective isn’t to make us more moral; it is to get us to love Him back.  Virtue is the fruit, not the root” (18).  Why is this helpful?  For one thing, beginning with God’s initiating grace frees us from starting out on the wrong foot in the way we tell the story and...
2 comments
Read more