New Year's Reading

Huw Williams | 16:54, Wednesday 23 January 2013 | Turin, Italy

I like the way Andy Stanley writes. I seem to have spent a lot of time recently ranting to anyone who will listen about the poor quality of writing by a lot of contemporary Christian writers. Excellent theologians they may be, but that doesn't necessarily make one a good writer, and it seems as though the art of good writing is being sacrificed on the altar of information transfer. Anyway, that would be another rant.

Suffice to say – and for what my opinion is worth – I think Andy Stanley can write. I find I always want to read the next page, the next chapter. And he doesn't say the same thing ten times in ten chapters before giving us what his book is really about. I don't always agree with everything he says, but I feel like he respects me (and my time) as a reader.

"The Principle of the Path" is an excellent examination of how where we want to be in life is often at odds with the decisions we make in life. Stanley's thesis is simple – we think of the decisions we make in life as isolated events, but they are not – they are steps along a path which may very possibly be leading us to a destination far from where we want to be. Sounds obvious. Yes, I suppose it is when you think about it, but then again good communication does that, doesn't it? Sounds good, but is it biblical? Yes I think it is, Stanley calls our attention to a wealth of scripture which has been saying this all along, and he handles these texts very well. As I moved from slight sceptic to completely convinced, I found myself thinking "Yes, and there’s also this passage or that passage that you could have referred to as well!" (I'm sure he thought of them – there's only so much you can say in a short book.)

This book is an easy and a compelling read, but don't let that fool you – its message is profound and potentially life-changing. Recommended very highly.