Book Summary:
I had it all backwards. The main thing was not my love for God, but his love for me. And from that love I respond to God as one deeply flawed, yet loved. I’m not looking to prove my worth. I’m not searching for acceptance. I’m living out of the worth God already declares I have. I’m embracing his view of me and in the process discovering the person he created me to be.
In Eyes Wide Open, Jud Wilhite invites you to discover the real you. Not the you who pretends to be perfect to satisfy everyone’s expectations. Not the you who always feels guilty before God. Not the you who secretly feels God forgives everyone else but only tolerates you. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure. The real you, loved and forgiven by God, living out of your identity in Christ.
A travel guide through real spirituality from one incomplete person to another, Eyes Wide Open is a book of stories about following God in the messes of life, about broken pasts and our lifelong need for grace. It is a book about seeing ourselves and God with new eyes–eyes wide open to a God of love.
My Review:
Eyes Wide Open ended up containing more content than I expected. Not for the steeped in church doctrine crowd, but a solid little resource for brand new baby Christians or seekers. Similar in content to Purpose Driven Life but geared more toward those who don't quite know how all this Christian stuff is supposed to play out, Eyes Wide Open is full of anecdotal stories and examples from Jud Wilhite's life, town and various friends.
Written conversationally and with plenty of contemporary language and slang, it's lacking Christianese. It begins with the assurance that God loves us, to our new creatureship in Christ, to the assurance that we are designed to be unique beings with created purposes, to our response to all of this truth. This 180 page quick read would be a very good resource for a small fellowship group study/discussion and it would lend itself to a mentoring/discipling relationship. No discussion questions are presented but some could easily be put together. There are four sections and twenty-one chapters which could be adapted into a month long study with homework.
