Book Review-Soul Print

Soul Print

By Mark Batterson

1/20/11

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review".

                                                                                          

"Discovering your divine destiny"  Batterson says,"We will find fulfillment
in doing what we were originally designed and ultimately destined to do."
Our past mistakes and successes build our character and make us who we are today.  Our disadvantages and disability can become our strongest assets if we develop compensatory skills.  He springs this thought off of David in 1 Samuel.  As David was a small boy with responsibility of keeping sheep, yet the skills he acquired in the fields are the skills God used to defeat Goliath.  Batterson points out David's defining moment of rejecting King Saul's armor and choosing stones for his sling instead.  Another defining moment in the life of David was keeping Goliath armor as a tangle symbol.  The book goes into integrity as a defining moment for David in 1 Samuel 24, where Davis chose to spare Saul's life. 

Chapter IV Alter Ego was my favorite.  Batterson bases this chapter on David in 2 Samuel 6., where David danced before the Lord.  Batterson writes, "No one likes to be embarrassed.  But there's nothing like embarrassment to free us from the burden of pretense.  If we want to know our soulprints, we need to embrace embarrassment.  That is we need to be willing to be stripped of the false things we find our identities in.  After all, it's far better to find our identity in Christ than in some image we laboriously buildup for the world to see.  And that is why we need to accept the awkwardness of doing God's will, for He will in turn clothe our embarrassing spiritual nakedness with His cloak of identity." Batterson closes with the thought that we can only find out who we are by being in the presence of God. 

I did enjoy reading this book.  It was a quick read for me.  There are thought provoking questions and Bible study layout at the end of the book, which are very helpful with reflection.  Batterson is able to work his personal experiences into the book, which are very insightful and helpful.  I do believe this is a "self-help" book with some theology and Scripture mixed in.  There is enough God and Bible to move a person from looking at themselves to God.  There were a few thoughts, I struggled with but overall I would recommend this book.  Especially to someone who was beginning to allow God to redeem their past for His glory.