Book Review: "Wrecked" by Jeff Goins

I met Jeff Goins last Sep­tem­ber at the STORY Con­fer­ence in Chicago. I had been fol­low­ing his blog for awhile and as we talked, I found I liked him more and more. Being two young guys in min­istry who also love to write–we had a lot to chat about. Thus a cyber-friendship became a real-life friend­ship, and as they say, the rest is his­tory. I’ve con­tin­ued to appre­ci­ate and learn a ton from him since.

Jeff just released his first print book this week, titled: Wrecked: When A Bro­ken World Slams Into Your Com­fort­able Life.

The cover has the image of an upside-down tur­tle (which I love)–a great pic­ture that cap­tures the dis­ori­ent­ing feel­ing attached to encoun­ter­ing the bro­ken­ness of the world firsthand. Jeff’s job gives him a unique per­spec­tive with a lot of insight into this issue–he helps tell sto­ries for mis­sion­ar­ies for Adven­tures In Mis­sions, a large mis­sion orga­ni­za­tion based in Georgia.

Draw­ing on his own per­sonal sto­ries of encoun­ter­ing bro­ken­ness in the world both abroad and here in the states, as well as sto­ries of friends and mis­sion­ar­ies, he relates exceed­ingly well to the ten­sion so many young Chris­tians feel when they first get their world turned upside down. When they take that first mis­sion trip and see their first glimpse of true poverty.

But it is not your typ­i­cal, “Get out there and do some­thing mean­ing­ful!” Chris­t­ian book. It cer­tainly has ele­ments of pur­pose, mean­ing, and sacrifice–which I appre­ci­ate and applaud. But my favorite part of the book is the humil­ity and the depth of insight it shows.

Jeff does not say “You’re wast­ing your life unless you do _____!” Instead, with a lot of wis­dom and grace, he points out some dif­fi­cult truths:

• That in order to find your life, you have to lose it.
• That los­ing your life for the sake of God and oth­ers may not look like what you think.
• That it may very well be less glam­orous than you’d hoped for, less cool than some of the sto­ries you hear.
• That it will require not only ongo­ing sac­ri­fice, but ongo­ing commitment.
• That though com­mit­ment feels like the plague for much of our generation–it is an extra­or­di­nary gift that brings so much mean­ing to life.
• That it won’t always be easy, but it will be good. In fact, the best. Because God only gives good gifts.

One of my favorite quotes from the book was the following:

“The thing you try to avoid the most is often the rem­edy for your own self-centeredness.”
Ouch, Jeff.

This book is well-written, thought-provoking and insight­ful. I would encour­age you to check it out, and if you do so before tomor­row, you can get some free stuff from Jeff.

I raise my glass to you, Jeff. Here’s to many more words and books flow­ing out of that mind of yours!