THE REAL DEAL:
A life freed from the grip of addiction
By Rod Williams
Authentic. 180 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 780 781 211
Rod Williams tells his ‘warts and all’ life story of multiple addictions in a very compelling and readable way.
From the outset we are reminded that the horror and turmoil that gambling and drug abuse bring are no respecter of persons, nor upbringing. Rod had Christian parents and attended church regularly in his early years. We are also challenged by the persistence and prayerfulness of his parents and other Christians – his mother ends the book with ‘There is always hope’.
More of God, please
While the story rattles along down an ever increasingly slippery slope, I wonder whether the book has fallen foul of the tendency found in many a spoken testimony in churches up and down our land. Two thirds of the book is taken up with the grime, leaving only a third to focus on grace. Even then, the final third of the book speaks more about churches, organisations and people (all very helpful and used by God, I’m sure) than it does about God. The final six-page epilogue is the strongest part and I wonder if this content should have been the focus of a greater part of the story? Testimonies, written or spoken, should leave us marvelling at God’s amazing salvation, rather than the tragedy of human sin. ‘His story in my story’ is of greater importance than simply ‘my story’.
Real hope
That God can rescue and use those who have messed up – and messed up big time – is the wonder of the gospel. With Christ, no failure need be final. In that sense this is a helpful book for any who are questioning whether God would ever love them. Perhaps more importantly, it is a clarion call to those prodigal sons and daughters who believe that having rejected God all hope is gone. The Real Deal assures us that there is real hope; I would have liked more on the hope than the hype.
