Book Review for Plan B: What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you thought He would?

Have you ever made plans that fell apart last minute, so you settled for plan B? For some perhaps it is the perfect job interview with no offer. For others it may involve years of trying to conceive, to no avail. Maybe a new house loan or call loan fell through, or a marriage failed…or, well (you fill in the blank)~ all leading to executing a plan B. Pete Wilson, author of Plan B: What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you thought He would? shares Biblical examples with real life experiences of plan B realities. Moving beyond shattered hopes and dreams to staring life’s realities in the face is neither natural nor easy. In the Christian realm certain responses are expected to the curve balls life can throw, responses of optimism, hope and joy. Pete opens his message on Plan B: “No matter what has happened or how you feel, please know you’re not alone. Because here’s what I’m learning: everyone needs healing. Everyone.” (4) No matter your race or creed, job status, location, socioeconomic level; whether you are male or female, young or old, healthy or sick—you, me, everyone, everywhere, for all times, need hope and healing.

In a matter-of-fact, Scripturally based, down-to-earth style, Pete leads the reader to accept the loss of plan A and to effectively focus on the possibilities of Plan B. The key to plan B is “constant contact with the Creator…essential for transformation living”. (49) In our humanness we are capable of much with our own abilities; yet, when life falls down around us, leaving us helpless and, at times, hopeless, we must depend on our Creator to pull us up, then hold us up. “In this life, many of your questions will simply not have answers. But through it all God Himself will never change. This is why our faith must rest on his identity and not necessarily His activity”. (81)

Wilson goes on to say “He’s the God who is faithful. The God who keeps his promises. The God who with us every moment and is in the process of working all things or good. Even in our whiplash moment. Even when the bottom seems to be falling out and bad news sets our heads to spinning.
Even in the midst of a Plan B, you really have only one task, one calling.
And that is to do what you would do if you were confident God was with you”. (82)

The author continues to show the road map to a Plan B by examining topics including:
 Living in authentic community
 Giving to others and receiving blessings back
 Choosing to love in spite of the way you may feel

Pete wraps it up with these words: “Somehow, mysteriously, when we receive the love of Jesus into our lives through suffering when we decide to choose that love and share it, we keep suffering from having the last word in our lives”. (223)

If you are breathing, you need this book!
If you care about other people, you must share this book!

Plan B: What do you do when God doesn’t show up in the way you thought He would? is a book you likely will read time and again for reminders of where to turn, what to do, and how to proceed from plan A to plan B! An added bonus of this book is a section entitled “For Thought and Discussion”. This allows the book to also be done in a group setting for chapter reviews and discussion based on a set of questions for each chapter.

A powerful, compelling, informative and enlightening book released “for such a time as this”, when our world, with all the pain of war, natural disasters, violence and loss, needs the hope Pete Wilson brings to life in this book!


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”