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PAPERBACK ARC.

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Maybe you’ve never asked the question out loud, but you’ve wondered. You do the things that look good on paper: read your Bible, pray, attend study groups and go to church on Sundays.

But you aren’t convinced you really know Him.

Angie Smith understands, because she had run circles around the same paths searching for Him, frustrated at her lack of progress. And she probably would have continued to do so had it not been for one realization that changed everything.

She wasn’t following God; she was trying to catch up with Him.

And without realizing it, you may be as well.

It’s a distinction that affects every aspect of our lives with Christ, and it begins with learning where we’ve relied more on man’s explanation of God than God Himself.

So many requirements, so many rules, and so much guilt where there is supposed to be freedom. It’s the reason you wonder if you’ve measured up, and the nagging voice that tells you you’re a failure as a Christian.

Three simple words changed everything for Angie, and she believes they can do the same for you.

Stop chasing God.

Started reading today.

So far, I am one chapter in and unimpressed. Of the thirty or so pages I've read, she's talked about herself for at least 25. I know she needs to set the scene but she's repeating herself over and over. Just get to the point instead of wandering off on tangents or winking at the reader with your "sarcasm" and cutesy asides.

Finished today.

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Stop chasing Him.

Angie Smith's book proposes that many Christians today are so caught up in chasing God, so busy with routines and rituals that they fail to appreciate that He is always with them, and that only when they stop drowning him out with guilt and self-imposed requirements will they finally be able to experience Him. It's a nice idea, and for many Christians it may be a very effective spur for growth. But for this reader, the book was little more than a wild goose chase.

There were a couple of key problems that I think prevented me from fully engaging with Smith's words, and I want to go over them in the hopes that it will help future readers determine whether Smith is a good match for them. The first and largest factor was that she writes in a very chatty, casual tone that is suitable for a blog about fashion or kittens, but I find it distracting for a book of this kind. Partly, this is because the sarcastic asides and strange little attempts at humor distract from her main focal point. Her chattiness also tended towards rambling, which again made it difficult to remain focused on the topic at hand. But the biggest issue with this blogger style was that it invited far too many confidences from the writer about her personal life. Don't get me wrong, I like personal testimonies as much as the next person! But when I read a twenty page chapter and between ten and fifteen pages are off-topic it's really hard to suss out the message hidden between the paragraphs.

Smith would often include long quotations from other Christian writers to supplement her text. She would neither cite the original speaker or provide context about their lives. (The names were footnoted in the back of the text, but it would have ben nice to know why the author selected that particular passage.) These inclusions were often sudden, and while the material was good, switching narrative styles for a paragraph or two with no explanation was jarring and distracting – especially since writers like C. S. Lewis and Alexander MacLaren have a much more formal style of writing than Ms. Smith.

I think the biggest problem is that I'm simply not a member of Smith's target audience. I mean, there were some good points, but they were buried under references to childhood in the 1980s and 90s and cheeky little asides assuring the reader that Smith, too, can be weird or distracted from her faith. Some women must embrace this casual style and find it relate-able, but I found it alienating and, ultimately, thought it kept the discussion rather shallow.

adding to my "New Releases" bookbox!

In spite of negative review, I am going to take this out of the New Releases bookbox. I have a problem already with the title, but I am interesting in trying decipher what this younger generation finds wrong with Christianity today.

I had a hard time understanding what the point of the book was and I tried hard to understand it up until the very end of the book. The author refers to chasing God as a bad thing but I think that the traditional idea of chasing God is actually a good thing. To want to have God a part of your life or to want to learn more about God by reading the Bible or to want to make decisions based on what you learn about the teachings of Jesus and the Bible in general, these are all good things.

But the author seems to think that chasing God is a bad thing and I couldn't understand what she meant by chasing God. Apparently, she was not raised in a Christian home so she did not know how to behave like a Christian so she was trying to behave correctly and use others as models. However, by the end of the book, she attempted to clarify this concept of chasing God as a bad thing. Well, we can't manipulate God and there is not much that we can do to reach God or feel close to Him or approved by Him. Salvation is by grace and God is always there to hear, etc. I guess but we need to have habits of prayer, contemplation, church attendance and living an authentic life as much as we can.

Now, I must admit that I am of a different generation than the author so I cannot understand what her difficulties were in not knowing how to behave or to relate to God. I grew up in the generation where everyone went to church. I don't find faith so bizarre a thing. Also, I grew up in a generation that is more sure of itself. We are not confused as to how to behave, even if we chose to behave badly. We own our behavior. We make choices. We deal with consequences.

I must admit that there were times when the author had a unique perspective and presented a Bible story in a unique way. There were a lot of humorous asides that could be a bit much. I would rather get to the heart of the matter, and I do prefer well-structure arguments particularly when a Biblical concept is presented.

This book was left in the Little Free Library.

It was released for the E-less release challenge.