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Book Review: Men firing through all of life - Al Stewart |
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Men – here’s a pop quiz you can take. It will only take a minute. 1. Is your hair on top starting to get a bit thin, but at the same time your nose hair is growing wilder than an Amazonian jungle?
2. When you get socks or underpants as presents, are you’re actually happy to receive them?...
3. Do you spend so much time on your weekend driving your kids to their sporting events, that you’re considering taking a fuel tax out of their pocket money.
4. Do you think most modern music is rubbish and ‘remix’ is just another way of murdering an old classic by doubling the speed and adding in a drum machine?
5. When you have a run on the footy field and are gasping for life-giving breath, do you console yourself with the delusion – “I’m not as fast as those young blokes but hey, at least I can play smarter”?
If you answer ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, there’s a good chance you’re approaching or right in the thick of ‘middle-age’. And if that’s you I thoroughly recommend to you Al Stewart’s book, ‘Men – Firing Through All of Life’. It’s a book for blokes who want to think a bit deeply about issues and struggles of middle-age. As well as the funny stuff, Al Stewart talks realistically about the serious issues that us blokes so often have to face up to: boredom with work, disappointment with your sex life, concern for the well-being of elderly parents, and loneliness. Any of these sound familiar to you?
What’s great about Al Stewart’s book is that he speaks about issues that are often experienced but go unspoken by most blokes. But Al hasn’t written this book so that we can all have a big moan together - he offers solutions. What Al Stewart does is take the reader on a trip through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. With the recognition that everyday can be like ‘ground hog day’, this book had to be written by a middle-age guy don’t you think! And what we see is that Ecclesiastes points to the way forward - ‘Fear God’. And Al Stewart shows us that it’s the life and death of the man Jesus that allows us to respond rightly to God and so have meaning and purpose in life.
From what I observe even in the Christian church, there are many dead-end paths that men take in their quest to rise above what they see as middle age monotony – pornography, adultery, plain simple selfishness. For a dose of excitement how easily is it for us men to medicate ourselves on a constant diet of TV watching and DVDs! And in his book Al Stewart talks about all this, but then shows how a life transformed by Jesus Christ makes all the difference.
What I really appreciate about this book is that it doesn’t go down the path of being all triumphant and full of American jingoism. There’s no call to ‘find the warrior within’ or anything like that. It’s a book that’s realistic about what middle-age is like with all its responsibilities and obligations. But its book that explains so well how being a follower of Jesus brings a revolution to your approach as a father, husband, friend, in fact to all relationships. As the book shows, middle-age doesn’t have to be all about the disappointment of missed opportunities. Middle Age can be about displaying wisdom and responding to life with profound purpose and satisfaction.
Why I like this book? Bottom Line - because it’s very readable, honest, funny, practical, and reminds me why following Jesus is revolutionary and simply the best way to live. It’s written for the Christian man but equally for any bloke who’s open to the big questions of life. What more could you ask for!
Men,Firing Through all of Life, Al Stewart. Blue Bottle Books, 2007. Reviewed by Garnet Swann .
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