Are you ready to figure out your life's calling? Tired of feeling confused about the utter perplexity that is involved in figuring out your life? If you answer yes and are ready for a ten step, fail-proof guide to a self assured, worry free understanding of your calling... then this book may confuse you.
Smart and breezy, challenging yet refreshing; Matthew Paul Turner has, in my opinion, hit a home run on his newest book entitled, Hokey Pokey: Curious People Finding What Life is All About. Turner, an author and contributor to more than 14 books in a five year span, has quickly established himself as a humorous and sometimes 'edgy' social commentator in the world of Christian culture. However, a phenomenon is occurring to where the commentary is decreasing and his self professed identity as a storyteller is taking shape. This book is the newest in that evolution.
Question: How would a writer go about the difficult task of tackling such a loaded subject like discovering personal calling?
In Hokey Pokey, Turner attempts to enrich us not with piles of scripture, theological reference, acronyms or a twelve step process. Instead, he has stories. Lots and lots of stories, including conversations and interviews with ordinary people (with the exception of Turner's idol, Amy Grant and a brief stint with Kirk Cameron) who have encountered God's calling in many different ways. The book is written conversationally, detouring only to ask the readers questions for reflection. The book is intentional in not providing "all the answers", but rather gives you the lives of several 'curious' people as food for thought in several different facets of calling. In the book, you will meet people, young and old, rich and homeless, happy and broken, who each have a lesson hidden in thier experience. Not to mention that the author shares a sizable piece of the pie with his experiences as well. The formula for this peice of writing is simply from life itself and everyone who shares it with us.
I found this book to be a refreshing journey, as it sets you up to be personally invested. From the start, I sensed that this was not a one stop excursion; rather that this would be a series of 'aha' moments that would need to be revisited. I felt involved and I felt that this book-with all it's personal stories- was directed towards me. These stories somehow became my own as I could identify with the struggles, while at the same time feel utterly challenged by it all. The stories feel like pieces in a puzzle asking where you fit in this picture. From subjects about waiting on God to confronting the sometimes hard truth about ourselves, this book is an overall good conversation about calling. I will say, though, that the conversation driven medium is a bit disarming, as I have been so used to the 'how-to' format in Christian writing. Halfway through this book, I began to get it and now appreciate a Christian author that just 'writes'.
Not to spoil, but this book does not have all the answers. But it will stick with you long after all the pages have been turned. I have finished the book, but strangely enough, the conversation seems to continue.
