Are you ready? Because I have a lot of things to say about this book. Overall, I very much love the message of it. The trend in Christianity used to be that if you weren't selling all your possessions and moving to Africa to take care of the orphans, you were horrible and terrible and selfish and didn't have enough faith. That always bothered me for a multitude of reasons. This book glorifies a "small" and ordinary life spent serving God and how to embrace it. This is right up my alley and I'm all over it. Awesome. High five, Emily, and two thumbs up.
However. Emily writes with that trendy, Ann Voskampy, flowery, ethereal, mystical kind of writing style and let me be the first to say that I CANNOT STAND IT. She gets lost inside her own metaphors at times, and I kept finding myself wanting to pull her back down to earth and tell her to cut the crap and get to the point already. The bench metaphor and the kingdom of God being one inch above the ground thing did NOT work for me. I couldn't grasp it, couldn't connect with it. It was weird, and it felt like she was beating a dead horse. Speaking of beating a dead horse with metaphors, she spent almost a whole page saying things like "Tuesday is the day that wears sensible shoes, Tuesday wears reading glasses, Tuesday is not the day for a party but the day we send out invitations," etc. My eyes glazed over. We get it, Emily. A lot of this book felt over-explained, and yet a lot of paragraphs were nothing more than pithy one-liners strung together that didn't make a whole lot of sense. I just wish she wrote this book a little more straightforward, because there were parts (the fog, searching for clarity) that met me right where I am in life and that I LOVED. The sappy writing came off as cheesy and corny, and I think it ultimately took away from the message of the book. Not to mention, she quoted from some people and Bible translations with wonky-at-best theology. Great idea, subpar execution.