Take Courage

Book Review: God In My Everything

“God In My Everything” by Ken Shigematsu

I wanted to read this book because of the promotional information about it. It was published by Zondervan in 2013. The book is broken up in five main parts. Then come the Afterword; Appendix; Acknowledgments and Notes. This may just be me but I prefer footnotes to endnotes. I like to be able to look at the reference while on the same page. The book is documented well though I would not read many of the books referenced.

In the appendix the author, Ken Shigematsu, gives his and various other people’s rules for life. These are personal and each person should have rules or values that they live by. They could also be classified disciplines for life.

Now for the book there were parts of it that I liked and found interesting for example Chapter 4: Sabbath. I would agree with Ken that everyone needs to understand the concept and practice of Sabbath rest. Some parts of it though were a stretch and I found myself disagreeing with him.

In Chapter 8: Sex and Spirituality there was the mix of agreeing and disagreeing with Ken. There need to be boundaries for married people. They can easily fall prey to temptation and sin. There was not enough space spent on this area and too much space given to monks and celibacy.

The book presented an odd mix to me as I read it. Borrowing a line from the book; “moving forward by looking backward” I will go back to Chapter 1: Monks, Samurai, and the Christian Life. Here is where my interest started and stopped. There was less information given to the Samurai than to the Monks. Then throughout the book the monks and their lifestyle rules seemed to be the test mark for what was said. There is much more to learn from Bushido also.

One of my biggest concerns with the book is the amount of time given to monks, priests and mystics. This book seems to be more of a spirituality led by emotion than spirituality led by Scripture. I cannot argue with someone’s feelings or experiences. I wish Ken much joy and spiritual fruit in his life.

Overall I would not recommend this book to others unless they were very mature in their faith. I received this book for free from www.crossfocusedreviews.com.