Customer Reviews

My Beautiful Idol

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
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My Beautiful Idol is a funny, sad, uplifting, enlightening, and sometimes cringe inducing look into the life of a regular "Christian" guy. Although filled with extraordinary stories, somehow you can't help but find yourself identifying with both his inflated insecurities and wry observations on Christian culture writ large.

A quotable work - definitely worth a read.

I have a standard human package of fears & doubts, including some that wake me up at night! But you won't find me telling others about those little gremlins . . . no way! Then I read Pete Gall's how-to manual in self-exposure! He offers a pathway to freedom that must be close to what a twelve-step program offers an alcoholic. He talks about flawed and failed religion, yet without ever tossing God out in the process. He hits adolescent doubts and adult idols with the spotlight of stark honesty. When the lights are bright enough it all looks silly and I found myself laughing at things that never seemed funny before. When I finished I realized that this book shares courage. It's rare and real. And it's a must read for anyone else who wakes up to whispering gremlins at 3 AM!

Even though I'm a sucker for memoirs, I'm also kind of skeptical of Christian memoirs from the past couple years. My tendency is to assume they are all just attempts to emulate Donald Miller and to make a buck off the memoir craze. So part of me almost didn't want to like My Beautiful Idol. But I did enjoy it - it's a good book. And even though it is a good story and an enjoyable read, that's not really what won me over. Ultimately this is a book I can recommend because it really made me think, and that's perhaps the most important element I look for in a book.

In the preface Gall sums up his book as "a story about how I'm a butt, and have been for some time now." And then "the catch" - "I was also exactly the sort of Christian people tend to refer to as a hero." The book follows Gall's pursuit of "downward mobility" and tracks his various attempts at ministry, relationships, and finding meaning and significance in life. Gall's theme throughout is that all of these experiences were ultimately a chasing after "a variety of beautiful idols," and "the version of myself I've sought to create." All of this talk about idols is what really got me thinking.

Gall spends a lot of time in his book describing how he created idols of what it looks like to be "a great man of God" or to really make a difference in the world. Through stories from his experiences he does a lot to deconstruct the popular ideas of what it means to be a "successful" Christian or a faithful follower of Jesus. His experiences in ministry also lead to quite critical conclusions regarding typical understandings of what it means to serve God and serve others. As you might have guessed, all of this really caused me to reflect on my own life and desires to be a follower of Jesus. Have I simply created a bunch of idols? Am I worshiping a bunch of self-created ideas of what it means, or might mean, to follow Jesus? I don't know. But these are good things to think about.

In summary, if you are looking for an enjoyable and thought provoking read, and if you enjoy memoirs, then I definitely recommend "My Beautiful Idol." While at times it is a little disjointed (what memoir isn't?), and even though I wasn't particularly happy with the conclusion, ultimately this is a thoughtful book exploring and deconstructing ideas of what it means to be a follower of Jesus in today's world.

This is one of those books I have in my yearly rotation. I love how Pete doesn't hold back in his writing. You got to read this book.

A true story told about a difficult struggle toward God's open arms. The point is not the gushy hug, but about the pain and paths to get there, to truly want to be in His arms, and to appreciate the road on the way. Good work Pete, I'm proud of you.

I had never read a memoir of any kind before, so I really didn't know what to expect. All I can say is, you know you're in for a ride when the author quotes his wife in the preface as saying, "You know, you were kind of a butt."

This is really the story of a young man who is a Christ-follower, and has been willing to let us in to see his innermost thoughts and feelings about striving to live the life. There are a lot of painful and embarrassing moments to be found, and in reality most of us could probably relate--we just don't want to admit it. Let's face it, the lives of most Christ-followers are much more internally messy than we ever let on--even to the point where we lie to ourselves and convince ourselves we've got it all figured out, but we probably couldn't be further from the truth.

Gall's journey is rife with pain and lies. Pain from the very stuff of life and how it all fits together, or rather doesn't fit together, and lies that he told himself and others and lies he believed to be truths. There is great philosophical insight to be found when viewing the idols so many of us place before our relationship with God. We're not talking about your typical OT type of idols, nor the idols so many of us think about in modern culture (stars and the like), but rather the idols we make for ourselves to stroke our own ego. Other idols are to be found within the walls of our Christian sub-culture as well. Do we worship the REAL Jesus, or a pale reflection of Him that we have conceived on our own and made into our idol?

There's this crab metaphor running through the entire memoir. Without giving away the whole thing, essentially we are the crabs, and we spend our entire lives running around to find the best way to camouflage ourselves from those things in life that are out to hurt us. In a conversation with a cab driver, Gall says, "I want him to argue against me, to try to see me, to let me know if my camouflage is really working. Or better yet, I want him to show me a way to live that doesn't require the camouflage. The truth is that I'm so desperate to be myself--but still adequate and loved--that I'm willing to look for clues anywhere."

The entire book is a story of deconstruction-reconstruction-deconstruction. A life lived where, every time he feels he has arrived at a plateau of holiness, he finds that he has yet again been entirely off track and that the Jesus he thought he was following was yet another self-conceived idol. I found that we're all something like this on the inside, but we're just too slickly holy to admit it to ourselves.

An early thought in the book is one that seems to be the theme of Gall's walk with God over the course of many years, a pattern that ruthlessly repeated itself over and over. He says, "I know, deep down, that the truth of my success is that God let me walk with my idol until I could see it well enough to put it down and head in the other direction." In the end, Gall learns that having an idol is really all about self. You can manipulate an idol to feed your ego, but no so God.

What you will not find by the end of the read is a man who tries to sell you a bill of goods that he's figured this whole "Christian life" thing out. After the final words, you get a sense of having peeked into the life of a man who recognizes clearly what has gone on before, and will strive to live the future life out in the light of revealed truth. But, that each day will be filled with the same challenges as every day before.

I was highly encouraged by a story of true brokenness and true redemption. Here is a life of a man who became increasingly aware of his own standing before God. It is a humbling thing to learn you are not as holy as you thought you were, try to work it all out on your own, and then find that you can't do it on your own. it is just as humbling to look upon a life that has had so many similar thoughts and feelings, if not events, and see the love that God has in abundance, no matter how off track the life has gotten.

There's a great line of thought that comes from a conversation with a friend where he is told, "You will do works because you are a follower of Jesus, but as soon as you turn it around and start looking to do things to define your Christianity, to impress God or to enjoy the control, you stop following Jesus and instead head out after marching orders of your own invention. Jesus said that the yoke he would give us was easy and the burden light. He pulls the weight beside you, carrying what you cannot. He protects you. You do not have to fear the attacks that may come, because he will be there. The foolishness of the Gospel is the foolishness of being naked in a world that believes it can protect itself if it covers itself."

In the end, this is a life that is left in tatters, in need of salvage. This is exactly where God wants him to be.

Stylistically, I've never read anything like this before. It's written in a first-person, there-in-the-moment style rather than as a recollection. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this book, even the embarrassingly painful parts. What I found most painful was not Gall's pain, but my own in recollecting the times in my life where I made (and still make) the exact same mistakes. This book will challenge you be broken and to tear down the idols in your own life that you've erected for your own self-worth and ego building.

I highly recommend this book to every sincere follower of Christ.

Pete Gall has penned a thoughtful challenge to mainstream Christian living - but not in a way that condemns anyone. Instead, he shows through his own foibles and failures what it means to to come to grips with our own addictions - even when the addiction is to living a modern, "helpful," enlightened Christian life.

My Beautiful Idol is engaging, funny and ultimately uplifting. Highly recommended.

This is a book that so many will identify with. Those who know God, those who question God and those who don't care to know God yet.
I am so thankful I was able to be in the mind of another person's struggle with faith...and experience his walk through it all...
Amazing message, amazing story, a beautiful book for everyone.

I love this book. I intended to read it slowly over the course of a 3 week trip overseas. I finished it before I hit the ground at my first stop. I couldn't put it down.

Gall's ideals,struggles & writing all resonate with me. I finished the book encouraged by his honest searching & honest living.

If you like Brennan Manning, Annie Dillard, John Irving, & yes Don Miller & Anne Lamott then Gall may be another writer to help you on your journey.

This is one of the most honest and transparent books I have ever read. It was awesome to see the journey, the challenges, the triumphs, and the ability to be ok with uncertainty, all come together in this great book.
I saw so much of myself in this book, and I loved seeing where I made some better choices, played it safer (rarely a good thing), or completely missed the mark as to what the future could hold.
I hope you will pick up this quick read, and immerse yourself in thinking outside normal christian doctrine.
God bless you all.