I love this book. How can you not love a book that acknowledges on the first page, “I haven’t always had friends.” Other than the fact that it’s written for men (which leaves me with the unfortunate, cowardly, potential escape route of saying, “Well, this ISN’T ABOUT WOMEN!”:), it’s an awesome book on why we need gospel community. Read this quote and — don’t raise your hand — but nod just a little if it nailed you the way it did me.
“Most of us are slow to recognize that we have lost the war against our besetting sin. We deceive ourselves about the progress of that war, taking false comfort in inconsequential successes, distracting ourselves with elaborate battle plans and issuing orders to internal forces we cannot control. Our losses continue to mount, affecting everyone around us, but we ignore them. We imagine that we are “fighting the good fight” against sin, but the battle is already lost. All that remains is the formality of surrender—and the opportunity, the wondrous alternative, of surrendering to God instead. Until we grasp the magnitude of our defeat, the prospect of surrendering to God is distasteful to us. We recoil at the thought of giving up, fearing a loss of our imagined liberty, and we frantically carry on our feeble resistance. But on that great and awful day when the inner defensive ring finally collapses, we fall toward God exhausted, and there to our inexpressible relief we find welcome instead of rebuke, dignity instead of shame, and life instead of death.”
