Book Review: Plan B by Pete Wilson

Plan B by Pete Wilson

What do you do when life falls apart? When your deepest desires are unfulfilled or your heart is buried in despair, what can you do? What can you say? When your life plans crumble before each step, how do you find God’s will? And when a friend is dealing with these questions and issues, how can you support and encourage them without offering the typical Christianese answers?

Pete Wilson receives five stars from me on identifying the issues—the loss and grief that life can sometimes cripple our faith, the struggle of growth between pain and faith, etc. But the book itself, like much of our modern Christian sub-culture, left me rolling my eyes.

I am loath to give any writer a poor review—especially one like Wilson, who so obviously sees the needs of people and desires to walk them through the process of simply surviving. I felt several times that what I loved about Wilson was his acknowledgement that sometimes words—even words spoken by those of faith—can be not only unnecessary, but unhelpful.

But it was in that light that I also disliked this book. One moment Wilson is telling us about a moment when his words failed him and his faith; the next, he is repeating those words that can sound not only empty but judgmental toward someone who is struggling: “Don’t be afraid,” and “Trust in God,” and expressions of that nature.

Maybe I read the book from the wrong perspective. Maybe my expectations for this book were unfair. Or maybe—and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit—this is nothing more than a case of me not liking a book. As I said, I really don’t want to give Wilson a poor review, and I hope this review won’t keep anyone from reading the book. Perhaps it is exactly what some need to hear; just…not me.

For more information about this book, please visit the Thomas Nelson product page for Plan B.

Disclosure: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program.