REVIEW: REDISCOVER JESUS: AN INVITATION

Though religion is not a huge part of this blog, it does have a significant spot in my life. Like many trying to live a life of faith, I often find myself stumbling along the path I'd like to walk. It's easy to forget the basics and loose perspective on the things that should matter most to me. The world is a noisy place with lots of noisy people who want to impose their values upon you which can make things hard for Christians (really people of any faith). This is why I picked up REDISCOVER JESUS: AN INVITATION by Matthew Kelly. I'm not a huge connoisseur of faith-based self-help or even theology books, but they gave free copies of this one out at church so I took the invitation.

5/5 Short, simple, and frankly, not too preachy or pretentious, this honest and earnest examination of how to reground yourself in your faith was well worth the first as well as future readthroughs.
BEST AUDIENCE(S)

This book is definitely targeted towards people who are already actively trying to live out a life of faith or at least had some introduction to Christianity at one point. That's not to say those simply curious about it can't benefit from reading this, it's just not explicitly written to sell you on why you should believe in the Christian doctrine.


THE GOOD 

Matthew Kelly addresses the many pitfalls that people tend to fall into while living out a Christian life. There are lots of little mistakes that we all make that might not be sins, but do hurt our relationship with God. He handles it all with a light hand, never seeming judgmental or self-righteous about the points he makes. A lot of this is probably because its all worded in a way makes it feel like he is speaking from experience. Each chapter is very brief and ends with an organized list of things to add to your daily prayer/reflection. There's a lot of power in how simple it all is, not only because this makes the book more accessible, but also because it often feels like things are very complex and confusing when in truth not everything has to be.

THE BAD

There's really not any drawbacks I felt this book had. I know no book is ever perfect, but honestly,this one sets a clear mission at the onset, takes  it one one step at a time, with each chapter carefully building upon the last, and accomplishes the main goal in a way that doesn't come off as pretentious. At the end of the day, I couldn't have asked anything more than that.

CONCLUSION

While most Christians probably don't feel any immediate need to revitalize their faith, I think many will find themselves surprised by how much they could be doing better. I went in hoping it would provide a host of valuable insights and found myself still surprised by just how far I have to go in my spiritual journey. There's plenty to chew on here, a couple of different ways you can consume the books contents (a chapter a day, blow through it one sitting, etc.), and the author is modest and encouraging as he breaks down the things a good Christian should do to better themselves and strengthen their beliefs.

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