This book lifted my spirits, challenged my complacency, fueled my imagination, and gave me a fresh perspective on my pursuit of Christ. Perhaps it was just the right book at the right time, but I believe it was more than this.

I picked up the book because of the recommendations by Eugene Peterson and Richard Foster on the back cover. Rarely has Peterson let me down and thus I took his word on this book -- and he was right. Miller masterfully and imaginatively paints a picture of the Christian life that is both ancient and fresh.

He begins by demonstrating that Christians are characterized by their hunger to know God and to plunge into deeper depths of love and obedience. However, this takes discipline. "We would like to appear to be like Jesus without the discipline of really being like him" (13). He thus calls us to a heavenly and inward life. "Life in Christ is the only life built from heaven earthward and from the inside outward" (224). This is not a one-time act, but a life-long pilgrimage. "We cannot give our entire lives to God at one time and have it done with for all time. We must surrender second by second" (47). It will take sacrifice as well. "Sacrifice that insists on 'time off' from its own requirements is little more than indulgence with a small religious habit" (149).

Miller's chapters on materialism and the tyranny of time are challenging and eye-opening. His chapter on the place of mystery in the Christian life is much needed in the church today. So much worship is lost because all mystery is explained away! Miller ends his book with a great section on the place of confession of sin and the role of guilt in the Christian life. For example, Miller writes, "Are Christians never to feel guilty? Is guilt never good? Yes, when it has the effect of bringing us to God, but it can also have the effect of obscuring God. Guilt is most worthless when we become so self-preoccupied that we can't see anything but our own selfish needs" (198).

In short, this book is full of unique and fresh insights that will make you long to live for God. The book both arouses spiritual hunger and simultaneously satisfies our hunger -- thus accomplishing its objective.

Miscellaneous Quotes from the Book:

How shall we break free this world except by thinking of the next? (37)

How exactly do we [grieve the Holy Spirit]? The key to understanding this is to remember that "grieve" is a love word. When we do not live up to the thing that God saves us to do, it's not that God gets mad us and becomes bent on some path of getting even. Instead, God hurts for us. (42)

The basis of real praying is longing after relationship. Real relationships never keep their eye on the clock. (54)

What are we doing by picking a suburban Christ for suburbanites? Or a grenade throwing Christ for liberation theologians?... Making Christ in our image avoids the painful work of being conformed to his. (72)

When anyone says to me, "I haven't confessed my sins in a long time," I know it's not because they have less sin than other people. The real problem is that they are self-excusing and have not conceived -- -- or maybe they just don't care -- -- that their sin is in the way of their relationship with God. Every healthy Christian hungers to confess because they take their relationship with God seriously. (180)

When we are unreasonable with our mates, it's a sin against God, not just against our mates... Don't write off your social sins as little mistakes in human relationships. (184)

Fenelon observed, "Discouragement is not the fruit of humility, but of pride." Those who are easily depressed are usually those who are confident they can handle anything, until the gaseous bubble of their confidence was pricked by their failure. Their pride had set them up for the fall. (206)

It was true that in the Victorian era people spoke quite openly about death but very guardedly about sex. But that was all at the end of the 19th century. Here the dawn of the 21st, we speak very openly about sex and very guardedly about death. It is as though we are ashamed of death. (215)