Review: No Easy Jesus: How the Toughest Choices Lead to the
Greatest Life
Jason Mitchell
Tyndale
2017
Mitchell approaches one of the saddest parts of church
life---boredom, disappointment, disillusionment and although he doesn’t use the
word, dechurching. He traces this
situation that describes many more than will admit it aloud to accepting a
belief in Jesus that had no relationship with life. The here and now stuff we experience every
day. He says of his own life that he
realized he had “settled for an ‘easy Jesus’…. a Jesus who didn’t ask to much
of me…the promise of eternal life in heaven but conveniently left me alone in
this life.” (23-24). After struggling with that revelation, he
concluded that, “Yes, we need to believe in order to have faith. But at some point our faith in Jesus must
blossom into faithfulness to Jesus if
we are interested in growing as followers
of Jesus.” (25) There’s the premise of this
book. The rest is the how-to stuff that
leads to a life anything but boring, disappointing or disillusioned.
I found the book engaging and easy to follow. His illustrations are not fluff
situations. They are the hard stuff that
will challenge and require more than a few platitudes. So, if you’re ready to move from the bored, etc. group into something that is real
this book might be one to read through.
Mitchell leads gently but firmly through his writing. No guilt trip stuff here. Simple, straightforward narrative that allows
the reader to decide what if anything he desires to include in his own life.
There have been many books lately that approach this
subject, but this one is just different enough to deserve some
consideration. Check it out and see what
you think.
I received this book from the publishers in return for a
review.
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