A Review of Louie Giglio’s “The Comeback”
On the Comeback Trail
Have you been in a spirit ditch and looked for a way out? Well, I know I have. That’s why when The Comeback came onto my scene, I immediately reached out for it. I wanted to know exactly how God might be working in my life to order a complete turnaround. The answer basically takes a whole book to unravel. There’s a lot going on with God’s comebacks, and you’re basically on His plan, not yours. (Which again ties into that whole Step Three experience talked about in an earlier review.)
If you’re a fan of good Christian comeback stories, you’re going to find these in spades. Of course, the ultimate comeback story is Jesus being resurrected (which takes up the whole final chapter of this book). Now, I’m not exactly a whole fan of that Jesus died for your sins and was resurrected to pay the wages of sin thing. Giglio is. However, by the time I got to reviewing this book, I pretty much began to see this element of my faith as being conversational. It’s like, “I don’t believe that’s why Jesus died”. Giglio cites Paul in saying that if you don’t believe that, you’re still living in sin. Me? “I’m not sure I believe in the concept of sin, per se, either.” I’m not sure what Giglio’s comeback (sorry, pun) for that would be, but I basically found myself respecting his opinion, even if it differed from my own.
If anything’s to be said about The Comeback, as much as it is an uplifting book, is that it is not meant to be really read quickly. I found myself silently contemplating the message of the book. Essentially, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done or where you are in life, you’re bound for a comeback if you’re down and out. That’s a great message to take to the suicide watch ward. However, even Giglio notes that sometimes a comeback is not in the making. You might lose an arm. You’re never getting that arm back. It’s not ripe for a comeback.
This is the only part of the book where I felt that things wavered a bit. Giglio’s response is that Jesus is enough. Well, I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but, for some people, they may not be ready for Jesus yet. And even if they are, they may go through a hard season of doubting and misplacing their faith. It’s easy to get that way. So I kind of found some of the things in Giglio’s book to be too pat — though he certainly tries hard to be all inclusive of all things you could conceivably try to come back from, so that’s a good thing.
Still, getting back to that Step Three bit, I did like the message about turning things over to the will of God (or Jesus, whichever you prefer). Giglio ties this back to the Bible, the whole Peter denying Jesus three times thing, but Jesus comes back in resurrected form to teach him where to find fish — in doing so, that it’s not about him (Peter), but about Him:
“Peter .. tried to do things his way. He’d denied Jesus. He’d fished all night and caught nothing. But Jesus was teaching this same truth to Peter all over again. Jesus was saying, ‘You went out and did your thing, but that didn’t work. Yet if I just speak one word and point my finger in one direction, and you follow me and my timing and my ways and put the net down where I say put the net down, then look — the net is full of fish.’ News flash: this is our same invitation today.”
As someone trying to make a conscious decision to turn things over to God, I found this to be a rather enlightening read that I could apply to my own life. For instance, I work freelance with one client writing blog posts. I wrote one recently, and it wasn’t up to my usual standards. Try as I might, I just was too tired to write anything decent. I did my best, but it wasn’t good enough. I think by the end, I’d just turned this one over to God (and my client).
You know what? That client still wants to work with me. It’s just a small speed bump on a longer road. I did all I could, and then turned the problem over to God. God took care of it. So you can be rest assured that what you read about in this book is applicable and useful for your day-to-day life. Whether it be your work life or romantic life, there are little nuggets of wisdom in The Comeback.
Overall, I was quite taken by the book. Giglio has a personable, conversational writing style — even if it does get a bit preachy (and why am I complaining as this is a Christian book?). Reading his words is like having a decent talk with a friend — a friend you might not see eye to eye with, granted — in a coffee shop. Giglio is quite chatty, and I liked his illustrations. Normally, I’d cringe at the “miracle cure from cancer” story, but, this time, I didn’t. I don’t know if that’s a sign of spiritual maturation or not, or maybe just the fact that the story personifies the ultimate turning your life over to God story, but it was good to hear it, regardless.
If you’re down in the depths of despair, and are wondering how you’re going to make it through and come out on the other side a champion, this book is a must read. I’m not saying it’ll cure your depression or whatever malady you suffer from, but it will show you how God works, even if you think He might be working against you. There are kernels of knowledge to be read in The Comeback, and if that’s what you need, this book’s for you.
Louie Giglio’s The Comeback: It’s Not Too Late and You’re Never Too Far was published by Thomas Nelson in paperback (softcover) on January 3, 2017.
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