Several weeks ago, Thomas Nelson offered their blogger reviewers the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Max Lucado’s newest book, Fearless
I hate to cry.
Every person who told me that I just had to read this one or that invariably said that the book had brought them to tears.
Maybe it’s a personality flaw. I hope not. Maybe it’s a matter of not wanting to lose control. Possibly.
Whatever it is, the threat of tears has kept me away from his books for twenty years.
So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I agreed to read Fearless.
I now understand why Max Lucado is a best-selling author. I feel like this book was a prayer answered.
I am not a person who lives with constant worry and fear. I feel like my faith is pretty strong. What could this book offer me? Much more than I thought.
Whether or not we have a strong faith, not one of us is immune to one of Satan’s greatest weapons…fear. Even our Savior himself, Lucado points out, faced fear in the Garden of Gethsemane. If a person can turn on the nightly news and not feel at least a little uneasiness from what he hears, he must be made of stronger stuff than I am.
In the first chapter, he asks the question, “Can fear and happiness co-exist?”
Oversize and rude, fear is unwilling to share the heart with happiness. Happiness complies and leaves. Do you ever see the two together? Can one be happy and afraid at the same time? Clear thinking and afraid? Confident and afraid? Merciful and afraid? No. Fear is the big bully in the high school hallway: brash, loud, and unproductive. For all the noise fear makes and room it takes, fear does little good.
Fear never wrote a symphony or poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or a business. Courage did that. Faith did that. People who refused to consult or cower to their timidities did that. But fear itself? Fear herds us into a prison and slams the door.
The topic could hardly be more timely. Lucado addresses specific fears such as the fear of not mattering (Chp. 2), the fear for the safety of our children (Chp. 5) and the fear of global violence (Chp. 8). Most of the people I know are Christians and don’t live in constant terror of an on-coming disaster, but all of us must think of some of these things at certain times, and it is those little thoughts that can sometimes get to me. That is why I feel that reading this book at this time was such a blessing. Fear, even those little ones, stand in the way of accomplishing what God has put us here to do. We can not fear what is to come and live an abundant life…it just isn’t possible.
I love his writing style…very easy, like I am just sitting with him and having a conversation. The examples he gives to illustrate is points are right on target. There are some great quotes:
Jesus loves us too much to leave us in doubt about his grace. His “perfect love expels all fear” (1 John 4:18 NLT).
Nothing fosters courage like a clear grasp of grace.
Prudence wears a seat belt. Paranoia avoids cars.
And one that I thought was most insightful:
His face watermarks more Old Testament stories than you might imagine. Jesus is Noah, saving humanity from disaster; Abraham, the father of a new nation; Isaac, placed on the altar by his father; Joseph, sold for a bag of silver; Moses, calling slaves to freedom; Joshua, pointing out the promised land.
The illustration that he gave that touched my heart the most was this one from Chapter 4 entitled “Woe Be Gone”:
Jesus doesn’t condemn legitimate concern for responsibilities but rather the continuous mind-set that dismisses God’s presence…A friend saw an example of perpetual uneasiness in his six-year-old daughter. In her hurry to dress for school, she tied her shoelaces in a knot. She plopped down at the base of the stairs and lasered her thoughts on the tangled mess. The school bus was coming, and the minutes were ticking, and she gave no thought to the fact that her father was standing nearby, willing to help upon request. Her little hands began to shake, and tears began to drop. Finally, in an expression of total frustration, she dropped her forehead to her knees and sobbed.
That’s a child-sized portrait of destructive worry. A knot fixation to the point of anger and exasperation, oblivious to the presence of our Father, who stands nearby.
I may be the only one, but I’ve been that little girl. If you have, too, I think you will love this book. There is no, “Christians shouldn’t be afraid, and those who are have a weak faith” lecturing. Instead, there is a loving friend who encourages and reminds you of the great love the Father has for each of his children.
I will add that the one thing I did not like about the book was what amounted to the “Sinner’s Prayer” on page 38. After I read it, I went to Oak Hills’ website and found one of the most beautiful lessons on baptism that I have ever seen. A little confusing.
Fearless is available in bookstores nationwide today.
Encourage one another,
