Book Review: Leaving Egypt

I posted this on Amazon, but figured I would post it here as well:

Over the years, Chuck DeGroat has studied and listened to many different voices and perspectives in the areas of theology and psychology—and how those two intersect in Christian Spirituality. He has done masterfully in navigating a path to clarity in describing a humble, honest relationship with God. Chuck does a superb job making his main point, and yet managing to know the variety of readers and what they’re thinking as they read.

It would be hard to summarize that main point, but if I could try: All Scripture is God’s gift to us, to help us get to know God and ourselves. As we read Scripture, Scripture reads us. In this way, Chuck takes the Exodus narrative and really unpacks it creatively and articulately as it relates to the way we live with God. He shows clearly, through the lens of his years of study and working with people in classroom, church, and counseling settings, how the story of Israel is so similar to our stories today. As a whole, the book is the beginning of a framework for understanding ourselves, coupled with a challenge to enter more fully and deeply into the story of our lives with God.

Two quotes that reflect basic points of the book:

--We compensate [in destructive ways] for the difficulties we experience early on in life. And we find ourselves living under the power of slavery rather than entering into the life God offers” (151).

--“This ancient story teaches us that freedom is truly difficult to embrace. Living into God’s liberating story for our life comes at a price. A wilderness awaits. But the wilderness is also where our lives begin to be redefined” (75).

Particularly helpful for me (once understanding the foundation of the first half of the book) was the chapter on the Beatitudes, where Chuck really hones in on the heart that Jesus is looking for. Talking about the cost of discipleship, Chuck says, “A life of messy spirituality, in other words, does not mean the freedom to cuss, to drink, and to dance just because you weren’t allowed to when you were a kid…Brokenness strips us of everything that is false in us, including the new personas we exchange for the older, rigid ones. It manifests not necessarily in a more raw or edgy ethos, but in humility” (211).

This book is helpful to a wide variety of readers from many backgrounds, including those who do not have a relationship with Jesus. Those who come from a very conservative Reformed background may take some issue with it, as well as those who adamantly reject modern therapeutic models. But the open-minded reader, willing and hungry to understand their lives and how pain and brokenness and suffering make sense in their walk with God, should find nourishing hope and connection in Leaving Egpyt.

You can read much more from Chuck at www.drchuckdegroat.com. And to my old friend—well done, brother, well done.