Also by this author: You Are Never Alone: Trust in the Miracle of God's Presence and Power, Begin Again: A Journey of Restoration and Renewal Awaits You, Where'd My Giggle Go?, 3:16: The Numbers of Hope
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There’s something about a Max Lucado book that just feels comforting. Over the decades, Max has cultivated a warm, charming style of writing that is engaging, easy to read, and personable. Reading Lucado feels like having a conversation on a front porch during a cool evening with a hot drink. Max doesn’t shy away from difficult topics—he’s folksy but he’s not superficial. There’s a simplicity and authenticity to his writing that’s too real to be manufactured even as he gets marketed and publicized as a behemoth in the Christian publishing industry. Never Give Up is one more brilliant piece of pastoral exhortation from Max.
Never Give Up uses the story of Joseph as its launching point, relating Joseph’s riches-to-rags-to-riches-once-again story as a reflecting point for Lucado’s exhortation to resilience. Lucado writes that we should never give up because “Deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to Mardi Gras: bold, brassy, and everywhere.” That doesn’t mean that deliverance keeps us from trials, or removes us from them when they get harder than we expect, but that God is with us through those times and its in his strength that we can persevere. And it is vital that we do so. Max writes: “You carry something of God within you, something noble and holy, something the world needs.” And knowing that gives you reason and purpose to endure the tough times and trust God to overcome evil.
Each of Never Give Up’s ten chapters is about twelve pages long. Quick, easy, and impactful. The perfect way to start your day, or end it, or for ten minutes within the margins of life. Each chapter also ends with a series of reflective questions. It’s not enough that you read this story about Joseph. Lucado wants you to understand and apply it to your life. He wants you to see that you’re not alone in the struggle. While Never Give Up is encouraging and exhortative, it’s not just Max standing at the top of the pit shouting down “C’mon, you can do it! I believe in you!” Max actually offers the tools—the questions, the perspectives, the strategies, the lifeline to a God who can seem far off—to pull you out.
Now I will say that you’ve read a lot of Lucado, most of what he says here has been said elsewhere. Max is nothing if not consistent. His theology and his message haven’t changed. And when you’ve read well over a hundred books, there’s going to be some repetition. Never Give Up is largely adapted and updated from Max’s 2013 book You’ll Get Through This. So if you’ve got that one on the shelf already, there’s probably not much a need to pick this one up. But just because a message is getting repeated doesn’t mean it isn’t necessary.
This is a necessary message for this day and time. Life’s hard. It’s hard to know where God is amidst the pain. It’s difficult to know if this pain has a purpose. With the warmth of a fatherly hug, Lucado draws in his readers close and encourages them to rely on God and Never Give Up.