Review: God's Story, Your Story

Max Lucado's latest, God's Story, Your Story: When His Becomes Yours, focuses on one of the typical problems Christians face: seeing our lives from God's perspective. We all want to know what is going on in the story of our lives, what big picture God is painting. Lucado says we can.

According to Lucado, when we focus on making God's story our own, instead of the other way around, everything becomes clearer. "Your story indwells Gods," he writes. "Above and around us God directs a grander saga." He reminds us that we are a part of this story, and remembering the real Author of our tale can give us a renewed hope that all things truly do work together for good of those that love God.

While Lucado's theme carries a lot of truth, his treatment of the ideas is fluffy, on the level of a pep talk that skims the surface of encouragement and motivation but never quite dives in deeply. Each chapter reads like a survey of a different aspect of the theme, and some of the anecdotes that make the book interesting seem disconnected from the topics. While reading, I kept remembering other lesser-known writers who have explored this theme more deeply and said the same things in a fresher way.

Lucado's style is as engaging as ever, and his mastery of the surprising sentence continues to delight, but the content of this book tastes more like an appetizer than a full meal. Readers interested in exploring this theme further should be encouraged to keep looking.