O Me of Little Faith Review

Ok, so back in the third week of April I received my free advanced copy of Jason Boyett's O Me of Little Faith for the strict purpose of reading it and writing a review because I have such profound thoughts he had some extra books expressly for that purpose.

So I set out to reading it and got stuck in the first chapter where he talks about doubting that God works on a personal level in people's lives.

"I've heard someone tell a friend, 'I woke up in the middle of the night and thought of you, and it was definitely the Holy Spirit wanting me to pray for you right then and there.' I've heard a middle-aged woman say, 'It was totally a God thing that my flight go canceled, because I got to share my faith with the lady next to me. Talk about a divine appointment." (p 28 First paragraph)

He talks about this in a way that makes it seem that he doubts that those things happen for people. He does say, "That people talk this way is not what bothers me. The problem is that I can't describe my own faith that way." (p 29 First paragraph)

Unfortunately for me, he spends so much time and energy making points against this happening that I have a hard time believing that statement is true. I get the feel that he doesn't feel that the problem is him. That the problem is really other people who make these claims.

Stating, 'why does God need me to pray for something so badly that he has to wake me up anyway?' and 'If my flight gets canceled, perhaps it's just the result of a backlog of delayed flights thanks to a major storm somewhere.'

He goes on later in the chapter to say that maybe these people are just self-centered, 'especially if your divinely appointed evangelism is at the expense of a bunch of other people who just want to get home in time to tuck in their kids.'

(Directly following that sentence, he does sarcastically refer to himself as a 'soulless twit.')

In his words, he does say that the problem is with him, but at the same time, he spends a whole chapter on evidence that these claims are false. It just didn't set right with me, so much to the point that I had a very hard time going further into the book. (I did, by the way, finish the book, but I was unable to get rid of the negative feelings I got from the first chapter.)

I can see how people would feel the same way that he does. I can see how people can look at a canceled flight and say, "It was from a bad storm." And I can see how people would say that it is good that the lady shared the gospel with a stranger when her flight was canceled, but it wasn't a divine intervention, it was a single person exercising their free will and making a good choice to use her time to spread the Good News.

BUT.

There are stories in the Bible to back up the divine intervention story. What about the lost sheep and the lost coin parable.

And my biggest problem with doubting that God would do this, is that claiming that He WOULDN'T do this is saying that something is TOO SMALL for God to do.

And it's also assuming that we, as humans, should understand or agree with what God chooses. I don't have to understand why God would delay a whole flight just so ONE person can be saved. The Bible is full of verses telling us how special each of us is to God and why WOULDN'T He delay a flight so one of His lambs could find Him?




I bet you're thinking that after all of that time spent saying how I struggled with this chapter, I'm going to say not to read the book. And I'm going to say No Way.

You should read the book. I battled within myself about writing this review, because I thought that if I had a hard time with the book, then I couldn't honestly recommend it. But that's now true.

1. We are all different people and just because I had a hard time with a certain part, you may not, or it may actually BUILD you up. Things affect people differently. So read it.

2. This book really made me think about what I believe and why. Through the struggle with what Jason was saying, I grew even closer to God and His teachings and His character.

3. There is SO MUCH MORE (than what I talked about) in the book. Jason's writing style is great, his stories are hilarious, and he has some great view points on doubting that might be just what you need to hear to strengthen your own faith.