Book Review: Max on Life

Max Lucado
Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 2010
229 pages

Who is he? What is he? A writer? A pastor? Will the real Max Lucado please stand up?

In Max on Life, Writer Max Lucado merges seamlessly with Pastor Max Lucado. Lucado is most well-known as an author. His books have blessed multitudes around the world for decades. He has a way with words. Lucado is also a pastor. He has a way with people. His fans out number his critics by far because he speaks to the hearts of real people with words that move and encourage and challenge.

Max on Life is a collection of 172 essays fielding questions on marriage, sex, forgiveness, assurance of salvation, heaven, hell, angels, prayer, affliction, worship, bad habits and more. Many of the questions you've had are answered in this book. Lucado doesn't preach, he pastors; teaching with authority, kindness and respect.

As a daddy to a special needs little girl, here's a question Lucado answers that hits close to home for me:

116. Our little boy suffers with a crippling disease. It breaks my heart to see him suffer physical pain. But it hurts even more when he suffers pain from rejection and hurtful words from children. Sometimes I can barely breathe because my heart hurts so much. How can I keep his suffering in perspective?

Here's an excerpt from Lucado's answer:

God himself is a father. What parental emotion has he not felt? Are you separated from your child? So was God. Is someone mistreating your child? They mocked and bullied his...

You have to get the book to read the rest of Lucado's answer on page 157.

Each essay is about a page long. You can read the book like a devotional in small chunks, or you can sit in your favorite chair and read and think and process for an hour or so at a time. You'll be both built-up and encouraged as you do.

It's my prediction that this book will be grabbed off the shelf often and thumbed through as a referenced by the whole family.