In Mark Batterson's latest book, Soul Print, he sets out to remind us that God has made each of us unique and that our uniqueness is a testament to God, our Creator. However, "Few people discover the God-given identity that makes them unlike anyone else."
Seems fine, at first. Not ground-breaking, but fine.
It didn't take me too many pages to start talking back to the book. "No, that isn't right." "Does he mean to say...?" "Did I accidentally pick up a pop psychology book?"
I hadn't even made it to Scene 1 in the book before I read things like, "God isn't going to ask, 'Why weren't you more like Billy Graham [...]? God is going to ask, 'Why weren't you more like you?'"
I don't know about that.
The book asserts that we need to find out who we are so that we can know who God is. It sounds fine, I suppose. But it doesn't have that satisfying ring of truth. 1 Corinthians 2:2 has Paul saying, "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." That's it. We never see Paul or Jesus or Moses or Noah looking back into their past memories so that they could find their soul print. They kept their eyes on the Lord.
When we walk closely with God, we become who He made us to be.
I did find the book easy-to-read and the author's writing style is engaging. Even when he delves into the question of whether Saul was dealing with a #1 or #2 (yeah, you read that right) when he was in the cave "relieving himself". I have to admit, I've never heard anyone get quite as deep into that passage.
I won't recommend this book to anyone. If someone asks me about it, I'll probably tell them that it isn't heresy, but it isn't going to help your walk with the Lord, either.
This review brought to you by me, the letter C and from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, who gave me the book for free in exchange for my book review.
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