My Review of "Good Things"

Kevin Gerald's new book, Good Things: Seeing Your Life through the Lens of God's Favor, deals with some important questions: Does God want to bless you? Does God want to punish you? Do you have to earn God's favor? Is God on your side?

Gerald's goal, of course, is to challenge the way we answer those questions, and to base those responses on a rich Christian faith. Rather than seeing life as a hurdle, Gerald opens our vision to see the evidence of God's constant presence and extravagant goodness. God is not only good; God's goodness is expressed in a kindness toward us.

So at one level, Good Things is a rich, encouraging spiritual message. Only when we open our eyes to see where God is already at work in our lives, do we find our lives richly textured with graces that we often fail to appreciate.

At a deeper level, though, Good Things troubles me. I wonder if it only promotes a spiritually anemic message of "name-it-and-claim-it" theology. While Good Things is filled with a lot of heart-warming stories, I think it diminishes the message of the cross and discipleship to Jesus. There's not enough depth here to be a genuine spiritual treatment.

So, in the end, I was so disappointed.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

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