The critically acclaimed author of Crossing Myself tells the next chapter of his personal story as he reflects on issues of discernment, discipleship, and vocation that should matter to everyone.
How can you live faithfully when you’re not quite sure where life is taking you? How do you find joy and purpose in the midst of the uncertain, the unfinished, the uneasy? Inspired and comforted by Thomas Merton’s famous prayer that begins, “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going,” award-winning writer and teacher Greg Garrett looks back at his own recent journey and tells stories from his life that will speak to anyone who has ever felt that sense of being lost along the way. Deeply honest and fully engaging, these reflections on discernment, discipleship, relationship, and vocation will inspire readers to reflect on their own journeys and discover surprising ways that God may be moving in their own lives.
“Once you've decided that you're going to live--no mean feat for some of us--how do you figure out what you're supposed to do with that life?”
How can you live faithfully when you’re not quite sure where life is taking you? How do you find joy and purpose in the midst of the uncertain, the unfinished, the uneasy? Inspired and comforted by Thomas Merton’s famous prayer that begins, “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going” award-winning writer and teacher Greg Garrett looks back at his own recent journey and tells stories that will speak to anyone who has ever felt lost along the way. In this follow-up to his critically acclaimed memoir Crossing Myself, he proves himself a provocative, engaging, and truly helpful companion on the often meandering, sometimes confusing path of discipleship. His reflections on family, relationship, faith, and vocation will inspire you to reflect on your own journeys and discover how God might be working in their own life.
About the Author
Greg Garrett is the critically-acclaimed author of the novels Free Bird, Cycling, and Shame, the memoir Crossing Myself, and nonfiction books on faith, culture, and narrative including The Gospel according to Hollywood,Holy Superheroes, The Gospel Reloaded (with Chris Seay), Stories from the Edge: A Theology of Grief, and We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2. He has written essays, articles, reviews, and lessons for national and regional print and web publications and is a primary writer for the Scripture project The Voice. An award-winning professor of English at Baylor University, Greg is also a frequent speaker, workshop and retreat leader, and media guest, having been featured on NPR, BBC Radio, and Sirius Radio’s The Bob Edwards Show.
Product Details
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (September 1, 2009)
Greg Garrett is the author of over a dozen critically-acclaimed books of fiction, memoir, translation, and criticism. His debut novel Free Bird was chosen by Publishers' Weekly and the Denver Rocky Mountain News as one of the top fiction debuts of 2002, and many have been moved by his autobiographical writing on depression and faith, Crossing Myself and No Idea, but he is probably best known for his books on religion, politics, and culture. These works include One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter, We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2, Stories from the Edge: A Theology of Grief, Holy Superheroes!, The Gospel According to Hollywood, and The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix (with Chris Seay). His newest book is The Other Jesus, a personal work of theology examining how to be a thoughtful and faithful follower of Jesus in the 21st Century. You may have heard (or read) him talking about religion, politics, and culture in the media. His work has been covered by The New Yorker, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, BBC Radio, National Public Radio, CBS Radio, msnbc.com, The Bob Edwards Show, The National Review, Commonweal, and many other broadcast, print, and web venues.
Greg writes a weekly column on religion and politics, Faithful Citizenship, for Patheos (http://patheos.com), blogs on religion and culture for The Thoughtful Christian (http://blog.thethoughtfulchristian.com) and blogs for the Christian Century (http://theotherjesus.com). In addition to his ongoing work in fiction, he is currently doing thinking, research, and writing for book projects on post-9/11 literature and culture, American religion and politics, and Christian wisdom traditions. Greg is an award-winning Professor of English at Baylor University, Writer in Residence at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest and at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Wales, and a licensed lay preacher based at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas.
He lives in Austin with his two sons, Jake and Chandler. His heroes include Martin Luther King, Barbara Jordan, Henry David Thoreau, Robert F. Kennedy, Desmond Tutu, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. His favorite authors include Lee Smith, Walker Percy, Graham Greene, Nick Hornby, Barbara Brown Taylor (are you really still reading this?), Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Merton, Rowan Williams, and Anne Lamott. His favorite color is blue (No, yellow!), he plays Taylor GS-7, Fender Stratocaster, and Epiphone Casino guitars, and he likes both green and red chile on his blue corn enchiladas.
This review is from: No Idea: Entrusting Your Journey to a God Who Knows (Paperback)
Greg Garrett is an author I've recently discovered. After reading Shame, his latest fiction offering, I was smitten with his writing style. Shame was very introspective and full of deep emotional streams and after reading No Idea, I see the connection between Garrett's fiction and non-fiction...deep introspective thoughts and emotional pools.
In No Idea, Garrett picks up his spiritual journey after his first acclaimed memoir, Crossing Myself, which I have not read. Garrett writes about spiritual topics that are both common to anyone who has wrestled with God or religious man and common reasons for people who grow disillusioned with the church.
Sometimes poignant, and sometimes slow-moving, this narrative follows Garrett's journey from the tail end of depression to seminary. Spiritual memoir junkies or Garrett fans will probably want to look further into this one.
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This review is from: No Idea: Entrusting Your Journey to a God Who Knows (Paperback)
No Idea by Greg Garrett is a striking study on learning to entrust your life to God. Garrett has a moving history of depression and failed marriages, so he has been through the dark nights of the soul. When an author has suffered the way Garrett has says that his life only improved after turning it over to God, it has the kind of power that authors with less colorful lives aren't able of invoking. Through a shortened version of his life story, he gives readers solid evidence and Scripture they can count on to get them through the valleys. I loved Garrett's humorous, mildly self-deprecating voice. It gave the book a certain immediacy and relevance.
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This review is from: No Idea: Entrusting Your Journey to a God Who Knows (Paperback)
I said of Greg's earlier book, Crossing Myself, that it feeds my soul. This is more soul food. Greg has a real gift for sharing himself with his readers. His gift of himself keeps on giving by providing the reader with new insights and openness to seeing God at work in their own lives.
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