3 Stars out of 5
“As unnatural as it may feel, you and I are created to consciously surrender control of our lives—heart, mind, body, and spirit—to God.”
Laura Story has an interesting story that hooks you in the first chapter! Shortly after marriage and moving to Georgia to be a worship leader, her husband finds out he has a brain tumor that post-surgery leaves him not 100%. It is from then that Laura Story’s story continues to go in a direction she didn’t plan. After contemplating whether to have children, they have a daughter, then twins, and finally a child with a cleft lip (4 kids for those who are counting). On top of this, Laura is touring the country at times as a well-respected Christian artist. While this might not be the same as my story or your story, I believe we all go through a similar life story where we as humans try to plan our entire lives while God has other, and if you let him, better plans. The theme of this book, if you haven’t guessed from the title, is about surrendering to God. It’s a great theme and it’s a decent book, though could have been better executed.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to nitpick about spiritual or theological issues. My reason for the 3-star review is that I wished Laura could have dug a bit deeper in this book. I often found myself reading her words and thinking yes yes I already know this, I’ve already heard this before. Again, it’s a great message that is worth hearing over and over. But I felt this may have been (inadvertently?) geared towards either new Christians or those on the fence of faith. Those well rooted in the faith will probably find nothing new or life altering in this book.
So while I was hooked hearing about her story in the beginning, I found a lot of the material to be just okay. But I would recommend it to someone newer to the faith that is struggling with letting go of their own plans and looking to surrender to God’s will. Because I have seen firsthand the wonderful directions God can take you that you never imagined.
*I received this book free from Netgalley and publisher Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review.
