“When People are Big and God is Small” Book Review
“When People are Big and God is Small” by Ed Welch is a book about fear, specifically it is a book about the fear of man. I first read this book during a time in my life when there were some pretty big people and unbeknownst to me God had become very small in my thinking. Dr. Welch served as a powerful antidote to the fear of man in my life at that time and continues to remind me of the temptation for me to fear man today. This is my second reading of this book and it has proven itself to be a tremendous blessing yet again.
Welch’s big idea in this book is that the fear of man is a controlling factor in every person’s life that needs to be overcome by the fear of God. Welch writes:
Scripture gives three basic reasons why we fear other people, and we will look at each one of them in turn.
- We fear people because they can expose and humiliate us.
- We fear people because they can reject, ridicule, or despise us.
- We fear people because they can attack, oppress, or threaten us.
These three reasons have one thing in common: they see people as “bigger” (that is, more powerful and significant) than God, and, out of the fear that creates in us, we give other people the power and right to tell us what to feel, think, and do.
I read this book over the course of the last 3 months alongside of the youth staff, which afforded me the opportunity of really thinking through what Welch was saying. Time and time again I found practical situations come up where I had to decide whether I would choose to fear man or fear God. In short, this is a paradigm shifting book that teaches how to overcome the fear of man with the fear of God.
My only criticism of “When People are Big and God is Small” is the length of the book. While the book only weighs in at 239 pages, I frequently got the impression that what Welch was saying could have been said in a shorter way. Even with that fault, this is a great read. If you have ever struggled with wanting other people to think highly of you (and who of us hasn’t), this is a great book to consider. I highly recommend it.
April 27 2009 04:00 am | Blog