Book Review -The In-Between by Jeff Goins
I received an audio book of “The In-Between” through Christian Audio, a courtesy of Cross Focused Media. This was my first experience of listening to a book and to my own surprise I greatly enjoyed it. Jeff Goins narrates his own book. His voice is quite pleasant and I found the pace to be well balanced in rhythm. However, I was disappointed that I was not eligible to receive a book as well, given that I’m a Canadian resident.
Jeff Goins has definitely many important things to bring to our awareness and he does so in his new book, The In-Between. Important things such as appreciating the moments that shape our lives while we are in those in-between times. We all have these moments. They form us, make us who we are. Those “in-between” times help us in learning to appreciate those moments as part of life lessons.
I especially loved chapter 2 which was about the family and learning to enjoy them. As Goins explains through stories of his personal life, he himself learned the importance of family and the sentiment of knowing that there’s nothing like going back home. Somehow home will always be “home”, a place where most of us were loved.
In this book, you will read stories about how Jeff Goins lived some of his In-between moments. Which lead him to appreciate more deeply the reality and the intensity of those times that shaped his life. One thing I can say is that Goins is a good story teller! He takes great care of giving us all the details, descriptions and explanations as to the events he describes. We can virtually imagine the scenes.
Yet after listening to his whole book I was left with a sense of emptiness. It took me a while to put the finger on it but I finally understood. I felt like I wasn’t completely satisfied, like I had not eaten enough you know! I wanted more… this wasn’t satisfying my soul spiritually. Maybe I was expecting more profound theology, maybe I had preconceived ideas or expectations, I don’t quite know. This was a book written by an author under a Christian label. Now, Jeff Goins does mention God and many times I might add. Still, I had this sentiment of being unfulfilled as if much more could have been written biblically on many subjects that the author addressed.
This is the kind of book that anyone could read and no one would take offense to it because quite frankly, it’s just friendly. Is that bad? No! I guess that when I finish reading a book from a Christian author and I’m left with this spiritual emptiness, I’m thinking that it could have been written by someone in the secular world just as well. I’m just wondering why it’s under a Christian label? Shouldn’t it be different? I mean, really different. Shouldn’t it stand out more than those in the secular world, or at least be bold and spiritually based on a couple of verses of the Bible?
An example is chapter 5 where he talks about his marriage. This for me would have been the perfect illustration to talk about Christ and how we as Christians can glorify God through our marriages. But not a word, no where to be seen or heard of. The main focus was on not having a perfect story but on having one that endures. Which is perfectly okay. Once again, I’m thinking, how about adding that it’s only through Christ that God is glorified in marriage? That it is only possible because he is the one who sustains us and keeps us together through our love for one another because he loved us first. Personally, I believe that this could of been added with biblical verses to sustain his point and would of added much more foundation theologically to his book.
Despite that, I did enjoy listening to it because in a sense it was encouraging and refreshing to see the In-between moments of our lives in this perspective, as Goins delivers. According to Goins, life is waiting and in the waiting we become!
I do believe it’s worth reading but if your looking for solid theology, this is definitely not the book your looking for. This would be the book to read and enjoy on the beach or on hot summer leisure days when you might just want to read something light.
*I have received a free copy of the Audio book from Cross Focused Media. However I am under no obligation to write a positive review. These are entirely my own personal opinions and thoughts expressed according to my own discernment.
Centré sur Dieu! 