NOTE: Today on Writer Unboxed, my cyberfriend and colleague, Dr. Michael Palmer, and I discuss medical detail in fiction. Check it out.I've been participating in the Thomas Nelson Book Review program for a while now, receiving books of my choosing in return for posting a review of them on my blog and a book-seller's site of my choosing. Let me be clear. The publisher puts no pressure on reviewers to post anything other than an honest opinion. If you don't believe this, check out some of my previous reviews.
This opportunity to review the latest book by Max Lucado seemed too good to miss. I have to confess that I might have been the only person among my acquaintances who had never read one of Lucado's books. It's not because they don't come highly recommended, because they do. I've even met the man--briefly--when he was signing books here in Dallas at the Christian Book Expo, and I was impressed. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, I'd never read his work until I picked up Fearless. And it was an eye-opener.
In this book, two years in the writing, Lucado deals with the thing that's all around us nowadays: fear. The book examines Jesus' statements about fear and encourages us to take heart in difficult times. I opened it, expecting another saccharine "everything is going to be all right" book. Instead, I found a work that addresses common situations and sources of fear by showing how Jesus addressed them, interspersed with vignettes and examples that brought things down to a personal level.
I was especially taken with Lucado's chapter on Fear of Overwhelming Challenges (There's A Dragon In My Closet) and Fear Of Life's Final Moments (Scared To Death). I finished every chapter expecting that he'd run out of situations to address, only to find yet another that spoke to my heart and my current needs.
My recommendation: read this book! Buy it if you can, borrow it if you can't. Pass it on to your family and friends. There's enough fear to go around nowadays. This book is a great antidote.
5 comments:
Thanks for the review. The first Max Lucado book I read was earlier this year. It was His Name is Jesus (also read to review for Thomas Nelson). It totally blew me away and I was so thankful for the opportunity to read it. I highly recommended it, so I am happy to see that Lucado has put out another moving book that seems to have captured some interest.
This is the second good review I've read on this book. Since fear has been an overriding issue in my own life (some of which I've dealt with, some which continues to crop up!) I'm thinking I might need to read this one.
Thanks for the review, Richard. I've been a Lucado fan throughout. C.S. Lewis said that Scripture is a stream in which an elephant could drown or a child could play safely. Max Lucado has been splashing around my debth a long time.
I definitely need this book! Thanks for the review!
This is the second good review I've read on this book. Since fear has been an overriding issue in my own life (some of which I've dealt with, some which continues to crop up!) I'm thinking I might need to read this one.
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