I recently read a book by my favorite author and pastor, Max Lucado,
titled “You’ll Get Through This.”
The cover is here.
The book “You’ll Get Through This.” tells the story of Joseph and how he overcame his challenges.
Although the contents of the book may seem obvious in some ways, Lucado’s thoughts are well-articulated and offer comfort to readers.
The story Lucado wanted to convey is clear.
It is a story that comforts and encourages people facing difficulties,
using characters from the Bible.
However, the intensity of pain and depth of difficulty vary from person to person,
making hasty consolation rather harmful.
This book offers a different approach to consolation.
When going through hardships,
people around us often suggest that it is because we did not pray enough or lack grace.
Lucado’s book approaches this differently, asking the question:
“What should we do when hardships come?”
This is a different question from “How can we solve our hardships?”
which is often heard in church.
The book asks the question:
What if you did your best like Joseph and ended up in prison?
This is a question that many of us can relate to.
Life is full of variables, making it difficult to control outcomes.
Lucado encourages readers to think of their hardships as a test,
where God sees tomorrow’s needs and uses our current situation to shape us.
Lucado advises readers to change their prayer from asking “Why me?” to “For what purpose?”
He believes that God works to transform evil into good,
and the book provides a graph showing the journey from evil to God to good.
However, there is a risk of offering an obvious consolation if not approached carefully.
Readers may feel disconnected from the examples in the book or feel
that it doesn’t apply to their specific difficulties.
Nonetheless, the book provides comfort to those facing challenges
and encourages readers to see their hardships as an opportunity for growth.