Review: Broken Gods
You are gods."
Blasphemy? No, those mysterious words, spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of John and alluded to in Psalm 82, point to a holy longing deep in our hearts that tells each of us that we were created for more.
“Imagine that you were to wake up tomorrow to discover that, by some miracle, you had become a god overnight,” writes Dr. Gregory Popcak. “Not THE God—omnipresent, all-knowing, all-powerful—but a god in the classic sense. That is to say, you woke to find that you were perfect, immortal, utterly confident in who you are, where you were going in life, and how you were going to get there. It might seem ridiculous to consider at first, but allow yourself to imagine this truly miraculous transformation. What would it be like to live without fear? How would it feel to be completely at peace with yourself and the people in your life? Imagine what it would be like to be able to resolve—once and for all—the tension that currently exists between all your competing feelings, impulses, desires, and demands. What would change in your life as a result of your having become that sort of divinely actualized person?”
Bold questions are in need of bold answers. And in Broken Gods, a work that is both practical and inspirational, Dr. Greg explores what our deepest desires--and even our darkest desires-- tell us about our ultimate destiny and reveals a commonsense approach to fulfilling our true purpose in life.
In the beginning, Broken Gods was somewhat of an odd read. Not the what Gregory Popcak was saying was odd in itself, more like his delivery of his message was too circular for my liking. That being said, I ended enjoying this because I liked the new perspective that I gained on the seven longings of the human heart.
Okay, to be honest there were some awkward portions in this book. It was weird enough when my mom read us the Theology of the Body for Teens-talk about awkward. Yet, as uncomfortable as the final chapter was, well, more like a couple of the real stories contained in it, it was interesting because it did a great job of showing the true form of the human longing for communion (otherwise known as companionship/love/friendship). When you get down to it, this was one of the most important chapter sin the entire book.
When you sit back and think over everything this book covers you come to the realization that we humans have an excellent knack for getting things wrong. I'm serious! Our hearts know what we want and need, God, and yet we keep looking for happiness and fulfillment in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways. Yet, while that was something made even more obvious after reading Broken Gods, this book is actually quite joyful. It might sound true but that was the feeling this book left me with-one of joy because while we humans may get things wrong, there's always room to get back on the right road (also the fact that God never gives up on you; it's usually we who give up on Him).
There were just too many things about this book that struck my interest. Even so there were two things that made it a difficult read for me. The first being that it felt like most of the book was written for, well, not me. Or more precisely, not for me at this current stage in life. The second thing being that it took me half the book to really get into the author's writing style. It just took me a while to enjoy his writing as it was kinda dry.
Sometimes it takes time for me to get into the writing of new, to me, author's who are writing about faith. Since they all have their own way when it comes to getting their words out. So, while his writing did not exactly set fire to my reading, it slowly made me listen to what he was saying about the seven longings of the human heart. I guess you could say that while he's writing took some time to really pull me in, the contents of the book is what kept me reading.
Final Verdict: Broken Gods- The writing was okay; but the overall message of the book is definitely worth reading.
Broken Gods earns
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