Henry
Cloud. Never Go Back: 10 Things You’ll Never Do Again. Secrets Things of God Series. New York: Howard Books/Simon and Schuster,
2014. xviii + 249 pp. $24.99 (hardcover).
Known
primarily for the Boundaries series and
How People Grow (his collaborations
with John Townsend), one may wonder what else Cloud has to offer. Cloud now finds himself a citizen of an authorial
stratosphere that also boasts John Maxwell, Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, Max
Lucado, James Dobson and Dallas Willard.
How many different ways can one author write about the same
subject? (One could claim that John
Ortberg and Timothy Keller could be on this list, although they vary what they
write about although they continue to churn books out at a dizzying
speed.) Each of the author listed above
have contributed significantly to our reading lists, and they books sell like
hotcakes at a monthly VFW breakfast.
However each of them, including Cloud, have come to a point where their
influence has become polarized—you either like them or you don’t like
them.
This,
then, is problematic for an author such as Cloud who typically deals with
psychological topics from a spiritual perspective, as he does in Never Go Back. A seminary-trained psychologist, Cloud has
never been afraid of hiding his faith nor has he ever backed down from
operating out of a faith-based approach to therapy. He talks about this in the preface as he
recounts a time of meeting with a television executive who was afraid that
Cloud was a closet religious fanatic. Cloud
reassured the executive (and the reader) that a person of faith can talk about
matters of psychology and culture without sounding like a nut job. This is an important realization because of
the theme that Cloud seeks to treat in this book.
The
volume is divided into two major sections, following a preface and
introduction. In the introduction, Cloud
sets forth his purpose in writing this particular volume. When I agreed to review this volume, I thought
it would be more along the lines of Boundaries—a
popular-level treatment on overfunctioning, a controlling nature or the addictive
personality. I was thus surprised when
Cloud revealed that this book is actually on repentance. I have always heard (and, thus, taught) that
we repent when we make a conscious change in our lives to walk in a different
direction (stop an addiction, leave an abusive relationship, ask forgiveness for
gossiping or cursing, etc.). Cloud
argues that part of being a successfully spiritual person is to practice repentance,
to realize things about our lives that are weighing us down or keeping us from
achieving our goals and deciding not to continue living that way (i.e., stop trying
to be someone you’re not just to please another or continue to use failed
processes to accomplish tasks). To Cloud,
this is what it means to “never go back.”
This
book is certainly written with individual readers in mind, although Cloud
argues that it is not to be considered “self-help” because there is no such
thing. We must allow God to work the
changes in our lives. However this will
be a valuable resource for preachers and teachers, counselors and spiritual
directors because it will help us guide those who come to us for counsel about
their spiritual lives. One of my biggest
critiques of sermons is what are we supposed to do with it. Don’t just preach on repentance; give
direction on how people can implement repentance. This book provides practical, spiritual applications
for how we can change our lives.
I really
enjoyed this book, and I would highly recommend it. If you were to read anything by Cloud, I would
heartily recommend this and Necessary
Endings. I think Never Go Back might actually be better
than Boundaries simply because he has
twenty more years of experience under his belt.
Rob
O’Lynn, ABD
Assistant
Professor of Preaching and Ministry
Kentucky
Christian University
Disclosure
of Material Connection: I received this book free from the Publisher and was
asked to review it. I was not required
to write a positive review. The opinions
I have expressed are my own. I am
disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part
255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in
Advertising.”
