Fearless by Max Lucado (Book Review)

Title: Fearless
Author: Max Lucado
Publisher: Thomas Nelson

First sentence: You would have liked my brother.

My thoughts: This was a hard-to-put down book. It was very easy to read and very easy for me to see myself in a lot of the pages.

Max Lucado tackles the subject of fear and how the promise of Christ should release us from these fears. The chapters range from fear of not being able to protect your children (as a mom, I know this is a fear I struggle with almost daily!), fear of not mattering (probably why I started blogging when I quit working - the need to feel I matter to someone, somewhere!) to the big fear of dying. I would bet that 100% of my readers have dealt with fear on some level. I did not realize that there were so many references in the Bible as to why we should not fear. Deep down I know that God has my back - he has my life planned out - and as long as I continue to go to Him with faith, then I should not have anything to fear. Unfortunately it is just not that easy.

I have a huge fear of flying. Now, I wasn't always that way, and it didn't come about due to 9/11. It came about when I had children. I think the real reason isn't that I am afraid of flying, but that I am afraid of dying. Who would take care of my children? How much of their lives would I be missing out on if I was not here? Would they miss me? Do any of these things sound familiar to anyone? As Mr. Lucado puts it:

"But this one {dream} stands out because it resonates with a deep desire that you might share: a desire to face death unafraid. To die without fright or fight. . . perhaps with a smile." (p116)

And in answer to this fear he presents this verse:

"Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am" (John 14:1-3 NLT, Fearless p117)

Now, it's not that I didn't already know this verse - it happens to be one of my favorites as I can remember singing it in church growing up. But he explains it - back in Jesus' time - to "prepare a place for you" was the groom's promise to his bride. So Jesus is actually celebrating a funeral as we would celebrate a wedding - as he is our groom and will be waiting for us. I don't know about you, but this puts the verse in an entirely different perspective for me.

In everyday language he goes on in this manner, pretty much breaking down the walls of all of our fears. As he puts it - what if we responded to threats with faith instead of fear - what if we slapped fear down as quickly as we would slap a mosquito? How differently would we be living our lives if we lived without fear, but instead with faith? It is easy to get caught up in the day to day worries, but how much happier would we be if we knew we had a Father who was going to catch us if we fell. Gives you something to think about. I know it did me.

Fearless
Publisher/Publication Date: Thomas Nelson, Sept 8, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8499-2139-1
224 pages