"When People are Big and God is Small" by Edward T. Welch. A Review

 

Ed Welch needs little introduction for those who have read anything he wrote. Counselor, biblical scholar, and guide, Welch fires on all cylinders. "When People are Big and God is Small" is a prime example. It's an easy-to-read work that takes readers, level by level, to see how they fear others, and thus, hold others in awe; and yet don't fear God. The biblical model has been inverted, and turned inside out and upside down.


The book develops seven "steps" to aid readers in walking away from the fear of others, to being in greater and deeper awe of God. Welch works on these seven "steps" in thirteen chapters to give depth to each phase. He deals with our past habits, present reactions, and future directions. He takes on folk religion, popular self-help manuals, internal motivations, social mores, and more. It's written for teenagers and adults, and communicated in straightforward ways.


Though Welch is working more at helping people on a personal level, many of his concepts apply to even bigger situations. If we fear anything (making it big) we diminish the significance of fearing God in our lives (making him small in our hearts or perceptions). But as God told Isaiah, "For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread" (Isaiah 8:11-13).


Therefore, as an example, Welch writes, "Anything that erodes the fear of God will intensify the fear of Man" (79). That observation pertains not only to our individual situations, but has deep, biblical bearing on national and international aspects. What do you fear more? God or some human concocted conspiracy or manmade cabal? Oh yes, there is a depth to this book that many Christians facing 2023 need to dive into.


Most people will gain much from this work regarding their personal relationships and habits. But it has much to say for larger contexts as well. Pastors, parents, teens and twentysomethings need to snatch up a copy, work through it, and lift up their hearts in awe and adoration of the one who is far bigger than creation, corporations, or confederacies. I highly recommend "When People are and God is Small."

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