Oh just read it!

So, there is this guy Jon Acuff, who I don’t know, but I read his blog so you know that makes us like BFFS and all. Anyway Jon writes about Stuff Christians Like. Only not always, I am sure he has made some “Christians” mad, mostly the Christians who don’t want to change anything, or question their faith and stuff, I know, I am, a times, one of those Christians. It’s a hard place to be. So anyway, other than he makes me look at my faith, push it to new levels, and forces me to seek God more, he is a great guy . . . like I said we are BFFs and all that.

Anyway one of his posts, which I cannot for the life of me recall which one, I read it right before or after I read the one about getting prideful over silly things, and some guy commented on how he was prideful over the fact that he was so humble, great comment dude! (Really this blog is funny!) Where was I? Oh yes, the post I want to talk about is how Christians get all crazy when they (erm me) find a book a great book. Christians are all like “This book changed my life!” And “This book is so great, I found GOD!” And half the time the book is not really all that great, it is just a book and stuff. Well I guess I have a lot of books that changed my life. . I love to read, and I will share my strange reading habits with anyone who is willing to listen and not judge too much.

So after I read his post and got to thinking about how sometimes I do force my views on people in the way of unwanted book reviews I made up my mind to try and stop that. Then I found “The most life changing book ever!” Oh yeah it is that great! And even the greatest part is that you can get it free!! At least as I am writing this at midnight on some random day you can get it free, but if you can’t for whatever reason go pay for it!

Oh the book title and what it is about? But I was not going to force my books on people anymore.

Who am I kidding?!

The book is called Imaginary Jesus. And before someone goes all “that just sounds wrong, and anti God” on me let me explain. I was like that at first; a little offended someone would title a book that! How dare they?! Um well sadly the name fit just fine, and it applies to most people. But you will not understand that fully until you read the book.

Okay so this guy Matt, I read his blog now too so we are like BFFs and all that good stuff right. He wrote this book and it is great. It’s about this guy who is eating at this hippy place with his Jesus, you know because this story is like sci-fi eats memoir. So anyway Pete comes up to this guy and tells him his Jesus is not real, then they get a talking donkey travel to the past, talk about Jesus, run into some more imaginary Jesus, then King James Jesus steals the donkey and says “Your ass is mine.” Then I called my mom to tell her to get this book because it’s great, and maybe telling her about the ass part was not the best part to share but it was great! I loved it.

Okay there is a lot more to the story but here is the thing to get out of it; we all have a picture of who Jesus is/was/will be/etc. And that picture is not always right; we should keep seeking out the real Jesus. We need to let go of some of our fake ideas that we forced onto God so he fits into our life, and push to know the real Jesus. In a Q&A with Matt he said he didn’t really think we can fully know the real Jesus in this life, but our goals should always be to move closer to God and the Real Jesus (something like that I don’t copy and paste stuff). The best part was how Matt shows what some of our imaginary Jesus are like. A favorite of mine, and others, is Magic 8 ball Jesus. We ask a question of Jesus and then just sit back and see what he tells us. Sometimes we get what we want and other times we are told “ask again later.” I think I like this one the best because I am also great friends with magic 8 ball Jesus. But there are more, and we all seem to have one or more in our lives . . . even people who are not Christian, even atheists.

I don’t think it is all bad having an imaginary Jesus, when I was little I would literally see Jesus in blue Hawaiian shorts and a surf board just begging the pastor to stop talking and let his people go outside to play! I was 8. He was my best friend. I think it was good for me. It helped me put a face to God, to understand a love that I didn’t before, and it was a stone to get me going up the right path to truly know Jesus. But once I was older I had to drop that idea of who Jesus is . . . okay he still keeps the blue shorts!

So, this book might not be for everyone. I have to be honest and say there were a few parts where I thought this book was going to go against everything I think is true, but it doesn’t. And it does not try and tell you what Jesus would think or say (at least not the real Jesus).

Because I am a Christian and this is what we do I am telling you “this is the best book ever! It changed my life!” And truly if nothing else it got me thinking about how I view Jesus. Even none Christians can think about that, the answer may shock you.



Oh and to set it right, I don’t really know Jon or Matt, I do read their blogs. I have not been paid, or asked to write this review, or post, or whatever.



Go check the guys out at Jon: http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike/

Matt: http://mikalatos.blogspot.com/