Book Review: Plan B

My latest Booksneeze book review is of Plan B by Pete Wilson. "Plan B" is what happens when the life that you have all planned out ("Plan A") doesn't pan out. Perhaps it's an abrupt departure from your planned life--a death, an illness, a divorce. Or perhaps it's a gradual drifting away from the life you dreamed of. At any rate, sooner or later we all face Plan B moments when what we wanted and what we actually have are two very different things.

Wilson uses many personal anecdotes from his life and the lives of those he knows to discuss Plan B moments. He deals with the question that is also the subtitle of the book: "What do you do when God doesn't show up the way you thought He would?" Wilson doesn't offer easy answers--truly, sometimes there are no easy answers for the tragedies we face. He does, however, encourage us to allow Plan B to be a catalyst toward the heart of God rather than something that pulls us away from Him.

Perhaps the chapter that I was most drawn to was the chapter on waiting on God. Having felt like I've been in a bit of a Plan B limbo for quite a while now, I tend to sit up and pay attention when I read passages and verses about waiting. I particularly liked this take on spiritual transformation:

"Spiritual transformation doesn't take place on Sunday when we get what we want. It takes place on Saturday while we're waiting. It's what is forged while we're waiting, hoping, trusting, even though we have yet to receive that for which we long." (pg. 188)

The book is an easy read and while I didn't come away feeling like I had had some earth-shattering revelation, I was grateful for the reminder that God DOES have a purpose for my life, even if it's not the life that I would have necessarily planned for myself.