Everything Is (Not) Fine

Reviewed by:

G. Connor Salter, Professional Writing alumnus from Taylor University, Upland, IN.

Title:

Everything Is (Not) Fine: Finding Strength When Life Gets Annoyingly Difficult

Author:

Katie Schnack

Publisher:

Intervarsity Press

http://InterVarsity Press

Publication Date:

September 26, 2023

Format:

Paperback

Length:

192 pages

OVERVIEW

We know the Bible tells us to expect troubles in this life, but it’s an easy thing to forget. Until tough times happen like a worldwide pandemic. And while some things change after a few years, some struggles remain. Katie Schnack has had to live out this truth every day since having a child with a medical condition. She talks about the hard and amusing obstacles that have come with lifelong challenges and everyday struggles. She also discusses the people who have helped her along the way and the coping and healing strategies she has learned.

Schnack’s previous book, The Gap Decade, combined practical and humorous discussions about the struggles that twenty-somethings deal with. Everything Is (Not) Fine is, in many ways, a direct sequel. Topically, it’s about the pandemic and about being a parent whose child has special medical needs. More broadly, it’s about the struggles that come with being a thirty-something: a little more settled, grappling with the complications this new phrase provides.

Schnack alludes a few times to the curious problems that come with dealing with these problems as a Millennial. She jokes about the nineties Christian culture she grew up, and sometimes it seems that her discussions about the struggles are partly about the struggle of realizing how many expectations that period created. Growing up in a prosperous decade can make it especially hard to adjust when hard times arrive.

However, even if this is especially a book for Millennials, Schnack makes her ideas big enough for readers across different ages. Her self-deprecating humor is funny regardless of the reader’s age. The moments where she shifts to discussing bigger questions resemble Donald Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz, which was essentially a book for young Gen Xers. Her style is clearer than Miller but she mines the same “it’s okay to ask questions I didn’t ask in Sunday School” territory, the same realization that God has grace even as we struggle to understand what’s happening.

Her discussion about solutions feels a little more timebound but still useful. Time will tell how her descriptions of the pandemic age. However, much of what she says about what people did to make life endurable in its dark days is perennial advice about coping and relaxation strategies. Her words about finding joy in very simple ways are especially helpful.

Once in a while, there are rough edges. There is one chapter where she discusses sending a complaint letter to a nurse who behaved irresponsibly which feels just a little underdeveloped. She makes excellent points, but there could perhaps be more direction on how to determine the line between admitting you were wronged, vocalizing that you were wronged, and confronting the person who wronged you. Even so, this chapter makes good points and is well-written.

Another refreshing, humorous, relatable book on living the Christian life when it gets complicated.

ASSESSMENT

Rating (1 to 5 stars):

4.5 out of 5 stars

Suggested Audience:

Young Christians learning how to navigate life.

Christian Impact:

Schnack uses relatable language to discuss seeking God in hard times, and the paradoxical ways in which he makes himself known during struggles.

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