If you follow along with my reading list, you know that I planned to read One Thousand Risks by Chad Johnson. It sounded like a great book about living with less fear because you have Jesus. It wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Lots of stuff about randomly approaching strangers and praying over their broken leg, or back pain, or whatever ailment they may have.

I’m not down on faith healing or anything. I think I serve an amazing God who can perform all kinds of incredible miracles, but this book was a bit focused on it. I feel like there can be a danger in promoting it all the time. Imagine you’re a person who has just been diagnosed with some sort of illness and you heard tale of a person who was praying over folks and then they found themselves healed. Man, that would get my hopes up for sure. Then, let’s say the guy prayed over my illness and I didn’t get better. What would that do to my feelings about how God cares about me. I think I might feel pretty let down.

Anyway, I’m just not keen on folks acting like prayers are going to save everyone from any ailment they have. It just doesn’t work that way. God isn’t a vending machine. Now, Chad sounds like a wonderful guy who has done and seen some amazing things. I just couldn’t get into the book. It didn’t speak to me. It might speak to you, but I just couldn’t get through it. I rarely intentionally put a book down, but I had to with this one.

In other news, I picked up Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman. It’s legit. It’s terrifying. It’s powerful. It’s exactly what I was looking for to dive into a deeper understanding of what a relationship with God should be. I’m enjoying it in the right way. Feeling convicted, and learning how much we can do when we’re properly aligned in God’s will for us. It’s not a self help book. It’s a book about understanding what it means to truly follow Jesus rather than just play by the “rules.”

I’m reading that one if you’d care to continue this reading list journey with me. It’s good. I’m almost done, so I’ll have a full write-up when I am. It’s hard to put down.