booktastic

“As drastic as it may appear, God will actually allow a person to experience hell on earth, in hopes of awakening his faith. A holy love makes the tough choice to release the child to the consequence of his actions.” - Max Lucado, p. 42

Max Lucado wrote this book, For the Tough Times, for people experiencing any kind of tough time, from having general anxiety about money to grieving over a loved one.

This is a very short book - 79 pages, and the print isn’t tiny, while the pages are - so while Mr. Lucado tackles a very complex topic, he really doesn’t have the room to do more than scratch the surface. He tackles grief, revenge, suffering, worrying - but each of those topics would be enough for a book in themselves. He dissects a few Bible quotes (”Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far,”) making sure to put the distinctly Protestant spin on them (”What Paul is saying here is that the moment he departs or dies, that very moment he is with the Christ.” [p.75] Completely at odds with the Catholic notion of Purgatory of course… and not really supported by the scripture he quoted since it just says he wants to be with Christ, not that he’s immediately going to be with him), makes a point about the subject, (for instance, on Revenge, “Would you like some peace? Then quit giving your neighbor such a hassle,” and yes, that is a real quote from this book,) and then moves swiftly on to the next subject.

This book may be appropriate for somebody who is worried about money, or anxious about the environment, or abstract things like war and suffering. It may even be a good introduction book for somebody who has never, ever contemplated the deeper religious meanings of things like suffering and pain - who is not actually experiencing deep suffering and pain at the time.

However, I wouldn’t even think of giving this book to someone who had lost a spouse or a child - you know, deep pain. If I had just lost Mr. Hall, I would find the tone of this book lightweight and flippant - if not a trifle insulting. (”Cheer up, stupid. God loves you.”) Times of deep pain that deserve a more serious, in-depth discussion of pain and suffering. C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed, Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, or parts of Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain. I would especially not give this book to someone who someone in deep suffering who was new to the concepts expressed in this book, because I don’t think it would be an appropriate introduction.

Okay, this may seem kind of harsh. I’ve told you what I wouldn’t do with this book and what it isn’t. But, really, what this book is is a brief discussion of a few subjects related to anxiety and suffering; I don’t think this book was intended to be an in-depth treatise on the subject of suffering, or else it would have probably been a bit more than seventy pages long.

So, again: if you know someone who is in real pain, please, give them a more serious book. I think this would be a decent, lightweight book to give to someone who was experiencing mild anxiety about life, or worrying about a concerning abstract concept.  — Mrs. Hall

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