Immediately I began to wonder, how can someone read the claims in my book alongside of the claims in Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling and say they are both wonderful? They say two completely different things about how God speaks to us and conveys Christ to us.

I recently heard of yet another field experiment demonstrating how easily a stranger at the park can lure an unsuspecting child. Even though parents felt confident in their discussions about not talking to strangers, and especially not to follow them anywhere no matter what, the old, “I’ve lost my puppy, will you help me find him” ditty still works like a charm. These faux abduction investigations reveal the inadequacies of the whole “stranger danger” message. The problem is that predators are very friendly; they don’t look like the monsters that their parents make them out to be. What child wouldn’t want to help a smiley guy with a picture find man’s best friend?

There seems to be a similar scenario going on in the world of “Christian” books. I’m sure pastors are thrilled when they have congregants who love to read. But what are they reading, and how are they processing the material?

The other day I was in the middle of a workout when the phone rang. I glance over to notice that it is my grandma. Better get that. As I push the pause button and catch my breath to answer, grandma is spilling praise over the phone to me about my newly released book. Of course my grandmother is going to be biased, but it was encouraging nonetheless. Just as I was getting excited about using my book to have deeper theological discussion with my sweet grandma, she drops a bomb: “However, I haven’t finished your book yet because I’ve also been reading another fantastic book called, Jesus Calling. Have you heard of it?” Why yes, yes I have.

Immediately I began to wonder, how can someone read the claims in my book alongside of the claims in Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling and say they are both wonderful? They say two completely different things about how God speaks to us and conveys Christ to us. I wondered how you could faithfully attend a Southern Baptist church for most of eighty-four years and not have the discernment skills to see when the sufficiency of Scripture and authority of God’s Word is threatened.

Meanwhile, as I’m still talking, I hear a text message come in. When I get off the phone, I check to see I received a message from my mother-in-law who is a Roman Catholic. She wanted to encourage me that her friend from church was so “blown away” by my book that she was buying copies for her daughters to read. As I was happy to hear that, again I was perplexed. It seems like reading without discernment isn’t only a problem for Protestants. How could a devout Roman Catholic, who brings communion to the shut-ins, love what I had to say about things like justification, the church, and the means of grace? I thought of the irony of being interrupted from a physical fitness workout to be reminded of the need for theological fitness.

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