Thanks to Joy over at Thoughts of Joy, I had the opportunity to read a very riveting book this weekend. Actually, I read it yesterday. From beginning to end. The book that found me on my front porch most of the day, sipping ice tea and reading while it rained cats and dogs, was The Only Road North by Erik Mirandette.

This book left me with a variety of different emotions to sort through. As a parent, I was horrified that he left the comfort and security of living in the United States to trek through Africa with his brother and their friends. As a Christian, I was amazed at his honesty when faced with a world without hope and a tragedy so unbearable that you question God with every breath you take. As a person, one who has been afraid of her own shadow for her entire life, I was encouraged by his ability to step beyond fear and pursue the dreams that God has given him.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

” My story is not what the newspapers made it out to be. It is much bigger than a ten-minute slot on the evening news, something reported with little thought or concern and just as quickly forgotten. My story is bigger than me. It is bigger than any one of us. My story is of our wildest dreams coming true and our most godless fears and horrors being realized. It is of love and hate, life and death, brotherhood and utter solitude, faith and doubt.

The last thing this world needs is another self-help or feel-good-faith book, seven simple steps to whatever. Just the thought makes my stomach turn. The truth is that life is far too complex to be put in a box, labeled, and have the appropriate manual attached. I wonder, have those people who seem to have all the answers ever really experienced hardship or grief, true joy, or adventure? Have they ever really lived? For those of us who venture outside the cookie-cutter lives that many settle for, a superficial plastic faith with the corresponding instruction booklet will do nothing. When we take that brave step from the comfortable mainstream into the unknown, we quickly discover that we are all just travelers on a journey trying to find our way.”

Although I viewed much of this book as being part of the foolishness and idealism of youth, I can’t help but wonder how different my life would have been if I had been permitted to leave the ‘comfortable mainstream’ and join the Peace Corps all those years ago…when I was young and foolish. Or should I say, young and able to listen to my dreams more clearly.

If you are interested in this book…be the first one to comment with “I want this book” and I will mail it to you. Again, this offer is limited to Canada and the United States.