Invention
Think Different; Break Free From the Culture Hell Bent on Holding You Back
It’s practical teaching, biblically based, and relatable for anybody.
The subtitle on Justin Camp’s Invention may seem a little contrary at first: breaking free from a “culture hell bent on holding you back” would mean you strive for success in life, right? Well, yeah, in a manner of speaking; the success Camp speaks of is not in the worldly sense, but in the sense of living a fulfilling life serving God and being the person God created you to be.
Camp has designed Invention as a step-by-step guide for men to remake their lives, to draw them away from the societal pulls toward greed, the empty pursuits of wealth and notoriety, and substance abuse, and toward God. Camp pins this Christian discipleship book around the stories of well-known inventors—Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, and more—to illustrate various aspects of the ultimate “inventor,” God, and to lead men through the concepts of reinventing a life.
He includes patent drawings with the inventor stories, to which he also adds an imagined narrative of a day in each inventor’s life, a little poetic license to help bring each one to life. He includes questions to meditate on in each of the eight chapters, and a couple of appendices to offer more of a workbook for moving forward and making change. Call this one about 75 percent reading and 25 percent “doing.”
Camp’s language is very clean and easy to follow. Just straight-up talk, frank and honest. There is liberal use of scripture and biblical examples. A strain of humility runs throughout, punctuated by parenthetical statements like “(I did.)” when discussing some negative behavior, for example. Camp presents specific messages of our modern culture that he debunks as lies, messages such as “Look out for you” or “Make a name for yourself.”
Yes, this is a book geared toward men, as was Camp’s earlier devotional book, WiRE. But this is not all gender-specific—there’s no emphasis on any assumed male role in the family or society, for instance. It’s practical teaching, biblically based, and relatable for anybody.
Reviewed by
Billie Rae Bates
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
