Love Focused by Bob and Judy Hughes
Hughes, Bob and Judy. Love Focused: Living Life to the Fullest. Laguna Hills: Crossroads Publishing, 2008. 228 pp. $15.99. Purchase at Amazon at significantly reduced prices.
Introduction
Bob Hughes practiced as a marriage and family therapist for thirty years. He is now a consultant to families, church leaders and individuals. His wife, Judy, once worked in public relations as well as a correspondence assistant for Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family). They have been married for 30+ years and work together with Love Focused Ministries.
Summary
Part one details our struggle with the invisible problem stemming from the Fall. Part two, by far the largest section of the book, offers six chapters on how we identify the problem. The third part gives us God’s solution; i.e., love. The fourth part gives the application of the Love Focused Living that Bob and Judy espouse in their ministry.
Review
While they do a great job of mapping out the book in the first section and offering their insight into identifying the problem, I struggled at times to agree with the foundation they laid. It is hard to argue against their statement that “the purpose of our behavior is always to accomplish our goal,” (7) but it just does not sit well. It seems as though this statement is necessitated by their goal of living a love-focused life and therefore must be posited as the means to that end.
When they discuss the consequences of the Fall, they hardly discuss sin other than its practical consequence. Rather, they look to our neediness and how “understanding our neediness is vital to understanding how and why we do things.” They conclude that we “are far more valuable than we could ever imagine because we were bought with the blood of the Son of God” (29). What about those who do not call on the name of Christ? Do they not have any value? Our value is not because Christ died for us but because we were all (saved and unsaved) created in the image of God (the Imago Dei).
I mention these two points because even though they focus somewhat on God throughout the book, the majority of their foundation is man-centered. They look at how God meets our needs and how we must refocus our behavior. Even the mention of sin is more a cursory look at one consequence of the Fall (th0ugh not the “practical consequence”) rather than the only reason why we struggle to focus on God in love.
The negative having been stated, I still found much that was good about this book. They tackle many areas of sin (though not stated as such) like perfectionism and legalism (two -isms that many Christians battle) and explain that it is God’s grace (that is, a Philip Yancy understanding of grace) that makes it possible to overcome the problems in our life.
They offer eight items that are necessary for a love focused model of growth. Some of those include accepting the truth that we do not have control and trusting and submitting to the Holy Spirit. Yes, we do have value to God though it is not because Christ died for us. Yes, we are commanded to love God and neighbor (Mt. 22: 37-39) and therefore we ought to live a love focused life. Yes, it is God’s grace that enables us to do anything at all. I am just concerned that Love Focus is more about man and his choices than the power of the gospel in the life of the believer.
Recommendation
Because of their integrational approach to counseling, as well as their man-centered foundation, I would cautiously recommend this book to church leaders and those in need of counsel. I think Jay Adam’s How to Help People Change
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