What does it mean to provide for others, and to serve them well, while growing as a person? These are the main questions addressed in Justin Thomas’s BECOME A PROVIDER, a self-help guide that is very true to its title as it outlines steps meant to help readers become stronger, more reliable people, both for others and for their own growth. The main inspiration for this book, which is mainly intended for people interested in self-improvement from a Christian perspective, is Thomas’s late father, someone who he sees as a paragon of provision. After offering a formula of his own invention – that blessing others plus protecting them equals becoming a provider – Thomas lays out simple keys to completing it, and living out the life of a provider. In true coach fashion, he makes these keys bite-sized and accessible, offering readers pointed questions and tangible steps at the end of each chapter that can help them get to know themselves better and embark on this part of their life’s journey.
Throughout the book, Thomas addresses his own struggle to develop his sense of integrity and his orientation toward service. He writes about this process with conciseness, good humor, and vulnerability, which is refreshing, given the poignant subject matter. He is at his best when he gets to put together the pieces at the end of each chapter and create action steps for readers to follow; clearly, he is most in his element as such. That said, the parts of BECOME A PROVIDER that speak to Thomas’s father’s life, as well as the impact of his death, are moving and hard-hitting. He is painted in vivid strokes, both his light and dark sides, and readers get the opportunity to appreciate what he added and passed along to his family.
BECOME A PROVIDER never drifts into the typical sort of self-help rhetoric that promotes overachieving and following conventional wisdom as the means for creating a meaningful life. Several times, in fact, Thomas highlights the importance of boundaries: “To become providers,” he writes, “we need to be wise in discerning when to bless others and when to protect them. This helps us from experiencing exhaustion and burnout.” That’s also incredibly refreshing, and it provides even more scaffolding for the ideas he wants to share. Ultimately this book is just right for its specific intended audience – those of a more nondenominational Christian inclination who are either seeking the help of coaching services or a new pathway for developing themselves. However, those who do not necessarily relate to Christianity may still benefit from the very noble goals that Thomas encourages here, and may be able to use them to become a person of integrity and strength regardless of their faith or belief system.
Weaving spirituality into self-help, Justin Thomas has written a solid guide for a Christian audience with BECOME A PROVIDER, memorably and satisfyingly turning lessons from personal anecdotes into accessible, tangible actions for readers to take.
~Jennifer Weatherly for IndieReader