The writing style is
informal. It isn’t Shakespeare, but it’s coherent and easy to understand, so I
have no complaints there.
Overall, the book can be
very encouraging, which actually surprised me. Truth be told, I am rather put
off by the whole bodybuilding/fitness world (although I myself do regularly
lift weights for health and strength). Having grown up in southern California,
I have been around it enough to see in it so much that is worth despising.
Pride, vanity, superficiality, self-absorption, a perverted idea on manliness
that focuses more on how loud you grunt than who you are in Christ, and
devoting way too much of people’s lives building up glory for oneself that is
fleeting. But in Lyon’s case, it was clear that he had a mission that wasn’t
just about himself. Seeing the fruits of his labor, and how so many have been
encouraged by his story, it seems to me that indeed God was behind him. Heck,
the fact that a man with MS and partially paralyzed leg could leg press 900
pounds alone is evidence of that much!
The (Mini) Elephant in
the Room - His Divorce
I don’t like the way his
divorce to his first wife was presented to us. I know I sound like a stickler,
but Lyons is a born-again Christian talking about Jesus and the period of his
life around where he got divorced. I’m not judging the world, but rather,
holding a believer to believer standards. Divorce is usually a sin. Therefore,
if one gets a divorce, one of two things I necessary: repentance, or a decent
justification. If it wasn’t a sin in a particular case, if your hands are
clean, explain why (decent justification). At least give us something so that
we can give you the benefit of the doubt. Or if it was wrong, then it’s not
enough to just say that it was a loveless marriage and that God’s forgiveness
is beyond understanding. The key element of repentance is turning away from wrongdoing.
It isn’t enough to say “eh, well, God forgives me.” There needs to be an
element of “I was wrong; if I could do it all over again I would have done it
differently.”
Unfortunately, Lyons
doesn’t really give us either repentance or a satisfactory explanation. When it
comes to his divorce, the overall message is “yeah, God does not condone
divorce, but our marriage was no longer working so whatever.” And ultimately,
he was the one who left! It’s not even like he was abandoned. He was
the one who called it off. And I get it, by the sound of it, she was a pretty
terrible mate, but we’re not like the rest of the world. We can’t just divorce
because we are unhappy! Lyons didn’t do enough to justify himself, and there
was no indication of real repentance. And this left a sour taste in my mouth
through parts of the book. In his second wife’s postscript, she made a point
about how when it gets difficult, they remember their vows and work through it.
The cynic in me just thought “like he did with his first wife?” And then the
rest of us have to clean up the mess by answering to the skeptics who point out
that professing Christians divorce at the same rate as unbelievers.
Now, to be fair to Lyons
as a person, this may just be a shortcoming in the narrative. He might just not
have explained his situation well. For all I know he really is repentant, or
his actions were justified. Maybe God considers his disease an extraordinary
circumstance that exempts him from the usual requirement to try to fix things.
If he were applying to be an elder of a church where I was an elder, I would
ask him about this in much greater depth, so I could understand the situation
and not wrongly judge him. I’m not necessarily saying that Lyons as a person
was definitely in the wrong. But this is a book review; I can only judge the
book on what’s in the book.
Again, I know I sound
judgmental, but this is a book by a Christian telling people about Jesus
through the story of a part of his life. I’m not bringing up something
unrelated to this in order to dis him. I probably wouldn’t even bring up this
element of his personal life if this were a commentary of Jude or something
like that. But this whole book is about his personal life! His divorce is
totally relevant to his story.
Conclusion
Although the divorce
element did leave a bit of a shadow on the book, it is still clear that David
Lyon’s experience has helped a lot of people, and it is an encouraging story.
Not gonna lie, it is rather full of Christian cliché’s (stuff about “His
timing, not mine” and stuff like that), but the core is strong enough to be an
overall good read.
Disclaimer
“Disclosure of Material
Connection: I received this book free from ACU Press/Leafwood Publishers as
part of their ACU Press Bookclub 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.”
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