Brief Review: O Me of Little Faith – Jason Boyett [Vol. 3, #20]

A Brief Review of

O Me of Little Faith: True Confessions of a Spiritual WeaklingBy Jason Boyett Paperback: Zondervan, 2010. Buy now: [ ChristianBook.com ]

Reviewed by Adam Ellis.

Confession:  I am a faithful doubter…or a doubting believer (if you prefer).  For me, faith and doubt are like eternal dance partners.  It seems to me that “faith” is more closely related to words like “trust”, “confidence”, “hope”, “commitment”, and has less to do with words like “certainty” or “convinced”.  I can’t turn off the questions.  I don’t generally find most books on apologetics all that helpful.  I resonate with the man who cried out to Jesus “Lord, I do believe.  Help my unbelief”.  On the other hand, not everyone is like me.  I’ve found that some people aren’t given to such incessant questioning, and that the things that are issues for me don’t seem to be issues for them.

      So here’s the problem:  Jason Boyett has written a beautiful, hopeful, gut-wrenchingly honest book for people like me.  I can’t even begin to tell you how refreshingly helpful it was, and how much life it breathed back into my faith.  But, at the same time, I realize (as Boyett seems to) that for people who aren’t like me, this book could be devastating.  He doesn’t shy away from hard questions, and he doesn’t answer them.  He doesn’t defend the status-quo.  He doesn’t whitewash problems.  He makes no attempt to win any debates.  He speaks with poignant honesty as one who is deeply committed to hope.  In the tradition of Kierkegaard, Boyett seems to have little use for “proofs” but rather seems to mean for his book to function as a sort of confessional invitation to a journey of hopeful commitment.  It also functions as a safe space for all of us faithful doubters…a ray of hope that says “you’re not crazy, and you’re not alone.” I can’t recommend this book to every Christian I know.  However, I know that  I will, without hesitation direct my fellow doubting believers to this beacon of hope.  It is a well of living water that I will return to again and again.

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