Book Review: Plan B

Plan B: What Do You Do When God Doesn't Show Up the Way You Thought He Would?
by Pete Wilson
Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010

So many books on Christianity put forth the (erroneous) idea that if you simply believe enough in God and pray enough, then life will be problem-free. "Plan B" is a much more honest look at life. Pete Wilson begins "Plan B" with an important question: "Do you remember the day you discovered your life wasn't going to turn out quite the way you thought?" Wilson deals with the messiness of life in this book - the painful parts, the shattered dreams. He goes on to state, "If you are like so many people I know, your shattered dreams may have left you wondering if God is still actively involved in your life. You may wonder if he even cares or if you're too broken and bruised to be healed by him. You probably wonder quite a lot about what to do next."

Wilson doesn't even pretend to have all the answers. After all, he is right there in the trenches with the rest of us. There is no one size fits all solution for healing and moving forward. People looking for one will be disappointed in this book. What Wilson does offer are Biblical stories and personal anecdotes to demonstrate that even in our darkest hour, we are not alone, and that God can always bring something good out of seemingly hopeless situations. Wilson encourages us to love and trust in the midst of the pain. I highly recommend this book to anyone going through a difficult time.

Here are a couple good quotes from this book:

"The thing is, God is God. He doesn't owe any of us anything. But he gives us everything, including himself. He does it in his own magnificent, mysterious, maddeningly unpredictable way. He does it in his own time, which sometimes takes way longer than we think it should. He does it with the big picture in mind, with little regard to the way we think it should go. And so often, instead of giving us what we think we deserve, instead of taking away our pain and frustration and confusion in our Plan Bs, he offers us the promise of his presence."

"We're called to be faithful to God even when it seems He hasn't been faithful to us. We're called to love him even when we feel abandoned. We're called to look for him even in the midst of the darkness. We're called to worship him even through our tears."