"Just Do Something" - Book Review

Recently I read Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. His thesis is that God's will for our lives is to be holy. His divine plan for our lives is not something we should be searching out. Rather we ought to be focused on living a Godly life, seeking first His kingdom and righteousness. This quote summarizes DeYoung's point:

God's will for your life is not very complicated. Obviously, living a Christlike life is hard work, and what following Jesus entails is not clear in every situation. But as an overarching principle, the will of God for your life is pretty straightforward: be holy like Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God. (61-61) 

DeYoung begins the book by looking at the amount of decision making our generation has to make and compares it with other generations. He explains how this, combined with a misconstrued understanding of God's will for our lives, creates "directionally challenged" Christians. We often sit on our hands waiting for God to show us what to do rather then go out and just doing something with our lives. He explains that God is more interested in us living holy lives rather then following his plan. Ultimately, what we do is a part of God's plan in the first place so we ought to stop worrying about it. 

Wisdom plays an important part in this. DeYoung isn't advocating running out and doing something foolish. DeYoung explains that it is by having wisdom we make decisions, both small and large. He suggests that we look to the scriptures, good friends/mentors and whether doors open as ways to deciding what to do with ourselves. 

DeYoung mentions Jerry Sittser's book, God's Will as a way of Life, which I found to be very helpful in this area. It's also along the lines of Francis Schaefer's book True Spirituality. 

My Thoughts 

I found DeYoung's book readable and enjoyable. It was also short. DeYoung makes a great point of explaining that the key to making good decisions in life is by having wisdom, not having the will of God. Really, it's a bit ridiculous to say that you know the will of God for future things. God hasn't revealed the immediate future to us. I found this point to be enlightening and helpful. We often find ourselves asking, "is this the will of God" when strictly speaking we cannot know. 

It may appear that DeYoung is coming across as flippant and is advocating just doing anything under the sun. He isn't, and really hammers the point across that we do need to make good decisions in our lives, but it takes wisdom to do this, not the secret knoweldge of God's will. 

It was good for me to read this book at this time in my life. I am coming to a major crossroad. Right now God is teaching me to be patient. This book was helpful because it helped quiet my worry of not knowing what God wants to do with my life. 

I encourage people my ages, college students and early 20s people to read this book. I think you will find this helpful as I did.