Pete Wilson’s Plan B tries to answer the question What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you thought He would? The book goes though common struggles that people face when they go through circumstances they would never choose for themselves i.e. Plan B’s. Wilson draws from examples from members of his churches and characters from the bible. The nice thing about the bible examples is they point out struggles in Abraham, Joseph, David, and Jesus’ lives that are sometimes overlooked in Sunday school settings. Some of the real life examples like that of a young mother giving birth to a still born baby or his own families struggle through a miscarriage have potential to pull on the reader’s heart strings.
The writing is easy to read, clear, and straight forward. It doesn’t take very many pages to become engaged in the book. Wilson does well outlining human struggle when life doesn’t go according to plan. He makes it easy for the readers to feel the depth of struggle, but the book fails to offer a tangible hope. That’s not to say that the book doesn’t mention hope, but while the struggle is described on an emotional level the hope is described in intellectual terms. It’s easy to get the feeling that as soon as life looks optimistic the ball is going to drop again. You get the idea that life will be good one day when you die o bye and bye, but you will only be disappointed if you hope for more in this world. The only thing Wilson does a great job of is reminding the reader that God is with you even when you don’t feel like He is. Maybe that in of itself is the hope.
Since the book is easy to get into, I’m trying to think of a occastion in which I would recommend picking up this book. I honestly can’t think of one. If you are struggling, I would fear that you might walk away thinking life will never get better. If you are well, you might be tempted to fear life falling apart. Maybe if you are miserable and want company this book will serve some value since it at least tries to offer hope. Personally, I would just skip this book and pick up the Bible.
