Leroy Hubbert. Inspirational Explosion from Deep Within: God’s Anointed Touch. Xlibris, 2014. See here to buy the book.
Leroy Hubbert served in the U.S. Air Force and was in the military
for 22 years. This book contains some of his life story and
experiences, his spiritual Facebook statuses, his poetry, his
interactions with Scriptures, his prayers, and his visions.
His spiritual Facebook statuses were like aphorisms, only they were
longer. Reading them was like reading Confucius or the Tao Te Ching,
only they are from an evangelical Christian perspective. They are
statements that require some thought and meditation to digest.
His poetry was all right. The stanzas had four lines. The first two
lines rhymed with each other, and the last two lines rhymed with each
other. Or they almost rhymed. It took talent to write those poems, but
the rhythm was not always consistent, which was a distraction.
The interactions with Scriptures, the prayers, and the narrations of
Hubbert’s visions could have used an editor. A lot of times, they read
like my translations of ancient Greek in classes: awkward. They also
had typos and misspellings, and the sentences were long.
The parts of the book about Hubbert’s life story and experiences were
good in terms of their content, in that Hubbert talked about his
spiritual struggles and his joys. Hubbert communicates with honesty,
but the narrative style could have used some work. It ran into the
problems that I mentioned above, plus it could have been more vivid and
compelling.
In terms of the spiritual substance of the book, Hubbert says a lot
of things that other Christians have said, about waiting on God, God’s
plan for our lives, how trials produce character, and the importance of
forgiveness. Hubbert’s application of these principles to his own
journey is respectable. His point that forgiveness is turning over
people and situations to God has been said by Christians before, but it
resonated with me as I read Hubbert’s book. There were times when
Hubbert shared a fairly deep concept, as when he said that praising God
“brings understanding to why we have been called” (page 173).
The book is all right and may help people (it probably has already),
but, as I said, it could use some editing—-or at least parts of it
could.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. My review is honest.