Author: Pete Gall
paperback: 300 Pages

"I left a good job and pursued 'downward mobility' and a variety of really noble-sounding endeavors...I made bad choices. I fought bad assumptions. I experienced guilt. I sought to trust grace while working extra hard not to have to trust grace. I saw where my parents and the culture I'd grown up in were wrong. I saw better ways. I fell in love in ridiculous ways. I hurt people in ways that lie somewhere between monstrous and just plain stupid. Along the way I served people at great expense to myself. I made a worthy contribution in a few places and in a few lives. But mostly what I did was chase a variety of beautiful idols." One man's struggles as he seeks God as well as hides from him. In a quest to be successful-in a lucrative job at an advertising agency, in ministry work, even in his relationships-Gall turns these into idols he can keep in his soul's back pocket, conveniently pulling them out whenever he feels vulnerable, defenseless and unloved. (Sound familiar?) Idols are good for two things: making us feel important and making us feel loved. But the idols keep crashing-even when he turns to his own Christian faith to construct an identity that will give him the life he craves. Through sublime and wretched, ego-building and humbling, humorous and painful experiences, Gall acknowledges the messiness of living, the importance of validating the truth, and the unscripted nature of experiencing a God who is involved in all of life. There really is a difference between pursuing "holy hero status" and discovering the unpredictable and uncontrollable love of God.