42 Seconds: Book Review

A special thanks to Tyndale HousePublishers for sending me a complimentary copy of Carl Medearis’ book, 42 Seconds.

Having conversations with people is a difficult task which is becoming even more challenging as the world moves to communicating through a screen opposed to the normal face-to-face interactions. Sometimes it is awkward and other times it can be tense, especially with the growing animosity in the world today towards Christianity. This general avoidance of “hard-topics” has caused many of us to fear speaking up when we know we should.

Nevertheless, the Great Commission is still our mission. We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are still commanded to make disciples wherever we are at in the world. This means that eventually we must “speak” the Gospel to people so that they will know the truth. However, one of the things that I love about this book is that Medearis looks at conversations in somewhat of a different light than we might normally expect.

You see, instead of him pushing us to somehow insert the Gospel message into every single conversation, Medearis challenges the reader to simply relax. That’s it. Relax. Do not try and force anything upon someone but use discernment. If the conversation opens itself up to you sharing the Gospel then, by all means, take advantage of the opportunity. However, do not feel guilty when your work conversations at the water cooler do not always result in you walking them through the Roman’s Road.

Sometimes people just need to talk about the “insignificant” things like the weather or sports or even the last customer they had to deal with. Medearis’ challenge to each one of us is to see, even those conversations, as significant. Why? The reason is because each one of those little conversations are leading up and adding to both a deeper and more influential relationship between you and the other person. Therefore, whether you talk with someone for forty-two seconds or forty-two minutes, endeavor to have a normal conversation with the other person because you never know where it might lead.