Life Is_________ Review

Life is___ is Judah Smith’s follow-up to his debut book Jesus is____ and again it is a play on the ‘fill in the blank’ whereby he starts the conversation with a blank beside what life is all about but through the course of the book proceeds to offer his suggestion to what life is all about (spoiler – it’s all about God!). This book is split into 4 main themes, each of which is broken into 4 shorter sub chapters which make it very suitable for reading in short chunks.
He starts off by looking at how life is to be loved and to love, starting with an emphasis on how God lavishes his love on us and insists on running towards us even when we run away. He looks at how illogical it is that God would love us, and how Jesus bore the punishment for our sins out of love and how it is only God’s love that can sustain us.
The next section is all about trusting God in every moment, and offers a good rebuke to the prosperity theology that trusting God means life will be all sunshine and bliss. Judah reminds us that Jesus doesn’t promise a life without pain or trouble but rather a better way to live with the assurance that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He looks at the story of the disciples facing the storm in the boat and reminds us that even with Jesus in the boat storms happen, but that being drenched is very different to being drowned. He reminds us to keep praising God when we are wet, for He never lets us sink.
He then looks at how life is about having peace with God, and finally covers how life is to enjoy God.
Judah has a very distinctive writing style were he mixes bible passages, anecdotes from his life, a good dose of humour and deep theological truths into a very easy to read but yet challenging book that will both be accessible to newer believers and yet also has enough depth to be a worthwhile read for more mature Christians, particularly aimed at the under 30 age group, and is a good book to get to work through with a youth fellowship group.
NB I got a free ebook edition from BookLook Thomas Nelson in return for a review.My review did not have to be positive