Lost in the Middle - Book Review

It has taken me several months, but I have finally finished reading Paul Tripp's latest book Lost in the Middle. Tripp does a marveolous job of explaining what it feels like to enter this phase of life. He understands that “the struggles of midlife are a window to deeper, more fundamental struggles”. He identifies common themes that mark the road through midlife such as an awareness of mortality, the increasing tally of regrets and the loss of dreams once held dear. Instead of simply identifying these markers, he leads the reader through a biblically informed interpretation of these challenging situations. The real life stories that are woven into each chapter make this book so engaging and makes the advice dispensed in the book more memorable and applicable. I think “Lost in the Middle” has valuable lessons for readers of all ages. Many of the examples may be more applicable for those in midlife but the insightful interpretation of these life experiences and the biblically informed advice are lessons for a lifetime. I love how Tripp defines midlife near the end of the book. . .

Midlife is a crescendo. The music of redemption has been playing in your life for a long time, and even though you didn't know it, it was moving toward this passage. Perhaps you have been lulled to sleep a bit by its familiar themes, unaware that the music was beginning to build. Now you are in the middle of God's redemptive symphony, and the drums are
beginning to roll, the cymbals are starting to crash, and the
instruments are beginning to blare. This crescendo of redemption needs everything that has gone before it in order to build to this moment. You are in redemption's front row and you are experiencing its music at its most powerful. You are hearing the rolling timpani of God's love, the crashing cymbals of his grace, and the blaring trumpets of his rescue.
The music isn't a dirge; it is alive and celebratory. You are in the middle of a crescendo of redemption, and all that has come before has been necessary to get you to this powerful moment of divine grace.

Don't shut your ears to the music. Stop and hear. Your life is not over. You are not imprisoned in your past. This moment of pain is actually a moment of redemptive crescendo, and it is meant to make you hunger for the final crescendo that will roll on for all of eternity. Let the music of redemption get your attention more than the sounds of your regret. Let the song of God's grace command your ears more than your cries of disappointment. Let the crescendo of God's love overwhelm the sad music of your fear. Stop and hear redemption's symphony as it comes to a powerful crescendo right in the middle of your own story.

No one captures this crescendo of God's grace better than
Paul does in his letter to the Ephesians: For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and
established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:14-20) - pgs. 345-347