Lois Lund’s book Faith in Action is extremely difficult to follow but seems aimed at inspiring people with mental illness to develop faith in God as a means for recovery.
Lund suffers from bipolar disorder and spent 30 years trying different methods for coping with her illness. Although she neglects to detail these methods, she shares that eventually with the right medications, prayer and faith in God she attained a level of peace. “Faith is the key to unlocking a stronghold on people,” she writes. It seems Lund believes mental illness can be treated both physically and spiritually. She repeatedly quotes that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, NKJV) and encourages others like her to seek medical help but also to have faith, believing that God can heal them.
While Lund’s motives seem noble, her flawed writing greatly detracts from her message of hope. Distracting problems with sentence structure, grammar and punctuation mar every page. Some sentences are one word; many are only fragments of disjointed thoughts. For example, she writes, “I used to watch TV commercials. our bipolar. schizophrenic, emotionally battered friends and some go to into a dark hole that takes time to get out of.” The book lacks structure and coherent progression.
Chapter titles only minimally match their content, and there is little cohesion between sentences within a single paragraph. For example, she talks about herself and her mother being overweight but having lots of energy, and then jumps to a completely unrelated topic. She states that her mother “went to exercise classes to lose weight. Dad gave her aluminum siding on the house. Mother went to teacher’s college…” Lund’s thoughts ramble, making this work nearly impossible to follow.
Lund undoubtedly has a heart for others like herself. With carefully guided revisions by a professional editor and writing coach, her message could emerge and benefit her target audience.
