I have very much enjoyed all the books I’ve read by Jeff Lucas. He’s a British Christian writer who pastors a church in the United States. He also travels regularly, and is quite transatlantic in his views. He’s a good friend of Adrian Plass, and shares some of his tendencies to both deprecating humour, and an excellent way with words.
I was given ‘Specks and Planks’ for Christmas, having learned that this was Jeff Lucas’s newest book. I was slightly surprised to realise how very recently it had been written, as the prologue and introduction reference the Coronavirus pandemic. Not that the book touches on it too much, but it’s taken as a background to much of the writing. Some of the anecdotes mention Covid patients, some refer to how life in lockdown or isolation is rather different from what we’re used to.
The book is a collection of 34 short chapters, each one containing an anecdote and relevant thoughts. None of them is more than three or four pages long, so I decided to read two or three of them each day over the past couple of weeks.
The title is based on Jesus’ command to his disciples to avoid taking specks out of their neighbours’ eyes while ignoring the planks in their own. This unusual metaphor has been discussed and unpacked by many theologians over the millennia; perhaps the planks refer to judgmentalism, not just the way we tend to point the finger at (or become irritated by) negative traits in others which are our own faults.
However Jeff Lucas doesn’t try to explain what this might mean in any detail. He just takes it as the broad theme to the book - that of learning more about himself through his actions, foibles and mistakes. He paints himself as a somewhat bumbling, often confused chap, delving into his strongly enthusiastic and evangelistic past for some of the stories.
In the pages of this book we meet a dedicated nurse, a legalistic church member who later lost his faith, a friend and his mother who welcomed the young Jeff Lucas on holidays… and many more individuals. They’re highlighted briefly, coming to life in my mind, and each story is followed by a gentle lesson, or thought, or prod to the conscience.
As with most books of this kind, it’s hard to remember many details after I’ve put it down for the day, but I hope that the stories and their following thoughts have made their way into my subconscious. And it’s certainly a book I hope to read again, in a few years’ time.
Excellent writing, with an honesty that might shock some believers (or non-believers, for that matter) who think that everything should be perfect, or at least that people should not admit to their faults. But the focus is on being kind, on assuming the best, and on seeing Jesus in even the most unlovable of people.
Very highly recommended.
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