The Boy Who Changed the World by Andy Andrews

The message of this book is that “every little thing YOU do matters”, that “God made your life so important that every move you make, every action you take
matters. . . . Everything you do matters for everyone and for all time!” This book tells the story of Norman Borlaug, who “developed . . . special seeds that grew into super plants,” having been given that opportunity by Henry Wallace, who had been taught by George Washington Carver, who was adopted by Moses and Susan Carver. The book tells the story of how one life was affected by another in a chain of events resulting in Borlaug’s discoveries.

This book did a good job of narrating the impact of one life upon another. It made a very good point, until the last page, where hyperbole is used to say every single thing we do matters, which is not true. Not even every single thing in George Washington Carver’s life mattered. Some things did, certainly. It grossly exaggerates man’s importance to say every single thing we do matters.

I do not believe this book’s premise that “God made your life so important that every move you make . . . matters . . . to the people around you . . . for everyone and for all time” is biblical. I am hard pressed to think of a passage that supports this belief. Everything about us is important to God because we are precious to Him, but that does not translate into our importance to others.

The danger of this book is that it encourages one to be self-focused and self-centered, believing in one’s importance in an overblown way. It says nothing about needing God, relying on His power, or our responsibility to obey Him. I would not recommend this book.