For bestselling evangelical author Eldredge (Wild at Heart
), Christians are meant to inherit the kind of intimacy that Adam and Eve had with God in the Garden of Eden, but the belief that God only speaks through the Bible hinders a Christian's ability to experience that intimacy. Drawing from a year's worth of journaling about his “walk with God,” Eldredge models how talking to God is as easy as checking daily to ask, “What are you saying, Lord?” Sometimes when Eldredge queries God, God's response confounds him. For example, when God responds repeatedly with two words, “My love,” it takes an accident and a personal epiphany for Eldredge to understand that God wants him to “rebuild [his] personality based on [God's] love.” Through everyday life lessons, personal anecdotes and a lot of scripture, Eldredge shows how Christians can get into direct conversation with God, encouraging readers to ask for answers about anything and everything. Eldredge's story (as opposed to chapter) format is supposed to better help readers “to pause along the way at those points where God is speaking to you,” but it results in a lack of real organization and may make it difficult for readers to uncover an overarching theme in the course of a section. (Apr. 15)
