Bad Boy of the Bible

A conversation with pastor and best-selling author Max Lucado about anxiety, imperfection and his new book, God Never Gives Up on You: What Jacob's Story Teaches Us About Grace, Mercy and God's Relentless Love

- EDWARD GRINNAN

Edward Grinnan: Why Jacob? If there was ever a person you might want to skip over…

Max Lucado: For the very reason you said. We want to skip over him. He is not like his grandfather Abraham. He’s certainly not like his son Joseph. I love Jacob because he reminds me of me. I have some pastor colleagues who’ve always got their act together. They’re never late on deadlines. They’re never battling temptation. They’re like a Joseph or a Daniel. Me, I’m a Jacob. You don’t have to remind me of my failures. The temptations of life still come after me. So I find the story of Jacob entertaining and inspiring.

Edward: There’s a great line in one chapter that faith in God is the greatest antidote to anxiety. How do you deal with anxiety?

Max: Remember the movie Jaws? It’s about a great white shark creating havoc at a beach town on the New England coast. There’s a fisherman who has a boat. There’s a police chief. And then there’s a third character on the boat, a marine biologist. It’s the policeman who first sees the shark. He turns and says to the fisherman, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

What if they had been on an ocean liner? They might have taken pictures of the shark. On a bigger vessel, they would not have had the fear. Anxiety comes because we perceive ourselves to be on a small vessel. Yes, the water is full of sharks. We’ve got bank closures, financial issues, moral issues, a crazy political climate. But we’re on the USS