I’m trying a new project. I’ve become a book reviewer for Thomas Nelson. It’s a pretty sweet deal – they send me free copies of their books, and I review them and post them here for all of my readers. And then, hopefully, you love some of their books too and go out and buy them. Genius I tell you.

Fearless by Max Lucado is a book about…well, conquering fear (in case you couldn’t tell by the little snorkeler squirrel diving off the dock. He’s being fearless…ahhh, I see what you did there.)

In summary, I am going to give you what Thomas Nelson describes the book to be, because in general, I think they do a pretty good job of covering all the major bases.

Each sunrise seems to bring fresh reasons for fear.

They’re talking layoffs at work, slowdowns in the economy, flare-ups in the Middle East, turnovers at headquarters, downturns in the housing market, upswings in global warming. The plague of our day, terrorism, begins with the word terror. Fear, it seems, has taken up a hundred-year lease on the building next door and set up shop. Oversized and rude, fear herds us into a prison of unlocked doors. Wouldn’t it be great to walk out?

Imagine your life, wholly untouched by angst. What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, or doubt, what would remain? Envision a day, just one day, where you could trust more and fear less.

Can you imagine your life without fear?

Ok. If I hear that little description one more time, I am going to barf. In doing research for this book, I saw Q&As, 60 second commercials, promos…you name it. And they ALL had exactly the same script. “downturns in the housing market, upswings in global warming…” And here is the part that really gets me:

“The plague of our day, terrorism, begins with the word terror.” …Really!? I thought they called it terrorism because it was filled with glee.

Sarcasm aside, the book is flat. There was nothing that lept off the page to make me think, “Wow, I really love this! This is going to change my life.” Rather, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that someone out there in a publishing house had the brilliant idea of writing a book about fear because the economy has tanked and people are experiencing a lot of different emotions. “Hey guys, I have an idea on how to make a couple bucks out of this whole economic crisis!”

I suppose the subject appeals, we would live different lives if we really trusted God and didn’t feed into fear. But I just couldn’t help but feel like the delivery was canned. Like, “Trust God when you’re struggling with … fill in the blank”.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there are people out there that might get a thing or two of out it. But for me let’s just say, I’m glad I didn’t pay for it.

Sorry Thomas Nelson, I wish our first book review together would have been a hit. Let’s try for next time.