Book Review: Stuff Christians Like (dotnet)

You know that feeling you get when you are on the inside of an ‘inside joke’.  You know those stupid references to situations that happened on some road trip or outing with friends.  Usually it’s just a stupid word or catch phrase that outside of its context makes absolutely zero sense, but people who were there will still shout it out 2 years later and everyone that knows what is going on will laugh and remember, but everyone else who wasn’t a part of that group will just look at you funny and think you’re weird.  DIDDLY IN THE MIDDLY, BINGO BANGO BONGO!  Yup, I just threw one out there, now this blog post just go awkward… anyway.  That exact situation is what Stuff Christians Like book by author/blogger/humorist Jon Acuff is.  It’s like reading 250 odd pages of inside jokes that most us Christians get, and laugh at because we’ve experienced it.

Reading through his book, is like someone has been in my head for all 28 years of my life, writing down everything I thought, experienced and have pondered about Christianity.  It’s really kind of a surreal experience that only a small subset of people will get.  This book isn’t for everyone, but for those who it is for, will laugh, cry(from laughing so hard) and say to themselves, yup Jon you nailed that.  Cause you know what?  I’ve Booty, God, Booty’d before, I’ve had the internal conversation about how do I break up with my small group, and I’ve used the words Missional Postmodern Relevance in a sentence before.  In the end though, the best part of Jon’s satire is that he usually ends it with a nugget of truth.  Like in an O’Henry bar, where the comedy is the chocolaty goodness but you know you just bought the bar because of the nugget on the inside.  I continue to read Jon because he’s funny, but mainly because he lands on some truth that I needed to hear or be reaffirmed of.

I recommend you read his blog, don’t skip serious Wednesday, and support the guy by picking up his book.  It’s only $10 and makes perfect reading material for those moments when you need to not take yourself so seriously and have a good laugh.  Oh and since purchasing the book, my life has been 100x more spiritual and I’ve become independently wealthy… just saying.