Book Review: MORE Direction

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More Direction Book Review

MORE>Direction by Ruth and Ayo Afolabi is published by IVP in the UK (for whom I presently work!) It’s the fourth volume in the little series of more books, which try to help young busy millennial disciples make more space for God in their life. I’m a huge fan of the series. 

MORE>Direction is about finding your calling and purpose in life. This excellent little book starts with a very clear call to slow down. This is a counter cultural way of doing a book about discernment. And I think it makes it a very timely and helpful read – not just for millennials. A key part of this stopping, illustrated by constant Bible references and stories from the authors lives, is the idea of turning back to God: “The Bible is full of examples of people travelling back to God. The question is: in our society and our situations today can we beat our natural information is to plough on, and turn back sooner than we otherwise might?“ This is certainly a challenge I need to hear and a lesson that is taking me a while to learn.

The word direction in the title comes from the Christian ultimate hope: “As Christians, we all share the same ultimate direction. Any other decisions we make during our time on earth must be made with this ultimate direction in mind”. The Afolabis Route the discussion of direction and calling in the big idea of creation found in Genesis, and a particular way that we as individuals are created. I thought that the authors balanced divine sovereign and human responsibility well. For example at the end of the chapter on trusting God they write, “God’s call is an exciting invitation to an adventure, and one where we don’t have to take all the responsibility of being in the driving seat”. Amen!

I had very few quibbles with this book. My main quibble was actually regarding the way that there is so much Bible in the book! There are a number of double page spreads where a passage of scripture is printed in large type. My understanding is that this is to pause the reader to slow them down and make them stop in every day life and be confronted with the word of God. I appreciate the effort but personally found it quite distracting and disruptive of the flow of what was an otherwise very helpful and readable book. The other concern I had was a slightly dispassionate memory of one of the authors going to a Benny Hinn event. This is sort of thrown in as an anecdote yet not really explained upon or expanded and then moved on. I wonder if it could have been left out! But these are minor quibbles in what I genuinely think is a really helpful little book on direction, calling and understanding the way that God is in control of our lives.

So would I recommend this book? Absolutely. I think the core market of Christians in their 20s and 30s will find some really helpful stuff here. I also think that their pastors parents friends and relatives would benefit from reading this book, and others in the more series. You can find my reviews of the other books in the more series below, and I look forward to seeing what happens next with these authors and this concept.

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