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Review: Good Things: Seeing Your Life Through the Lens of God’s Favor by Kevin Gerald



Review: Good Things:  Seeing Your Life Through the Lens of God’s Favor
Kevin Gerald
Waterbrook Press
2015

Good Things by Kevin GeraldRight from the start the author hits his reader with the question, “What do you think God thinks about you?” (10)  Combine that with some polarized sunglasses and you are off and running through this book.  

This is a short, easy read that surveys seeing your life through the lens of God’s favor, borrowing his subtitle.  I say survey since each of his chapters could have been a feature length presentation.  Happily, he gives us enough to get the idea and go with it.  You could almost say he’s an optometrist of sorts, staying inside his metaphor.  He’s out to help his reader see the good things more clearly.  

One statement in particular stood out for me.  The authors says, “The actual challenge for us is not gaining God’s approval but rather accepting God’s approval.” (13)  That’s just the starting point since favor in most of our minds involves approval.  Gerald covers pessimism, optimism, Mondays and lots more.  However, he does not allow the topic to descend into a matter of mere positive thinking.  He’s too real and human for that one and knows we are too.  He’s aware that life is tough, bad things happen, and evil exists.  The vision correction he’s going for does not avoid the hard stuff and where the good things go in those really bad times.

Lots to mull over in this 200 pages of book.  It’s a starter book and one that could probably be read again in a while to look for the good things the reader can now see, and as reminder where to look for more.

I received an advanced reading copy from the publisher in exchange for a review.

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