EXERCISE YOUR FAITH

A writer provides practical and spiritual advice for Christian men.

This latest work by Winters addresses what he perceives as a lack in the market of Christian inspiration literature: books written specifically for men. To that audience, he offers a volume “about higher-level common sense and making good choices” that ranges across a very broad spectrum of topics and challenges confronting men in the 21st century. This often finds the author directly at odds with some of the new century’s more slipshod or relativist tendencies, perhaps most centrally the fad of people referring to “my truth.” As Winters points out, people can have their own opinions, viewpoints, and prejudices, but they can’t have their own truth, particularly in the religious context of this book. “Personal truth over-emphasizes the importance of our viewpoint,” the author writes. “It encourages people to place themselves and their feelings above God and his revealed word to us.” He cautions younger readers against the complacency that tends to come with youth, the idea that they have forever to figure out their life’s purpose. Using portions of his own personal story, Winters deftly details how he wasted large amounts of his 20s and early 30s making these kinds of assumptions. “Never giving up is the secret to beating Father Time,” he writes. “You just might look up and find you’ve been doing great stuff for 40 years.” The nature of what that great stuff might be is another of the engaging guide’s areas of focus, discussing the changing nature of men’s relationships to their jobs and co-workers. In the predictable fashion of many faith manuals, Winters asserts that “chasing after the almighty dollar eventually ends in failure,” instead urging his readers to consider that “God created work for each of us to have a part in taking care of the world.” The author’s Christian readers will find a great deal of valuable and clearly stated life lessons in these pages.

Forcefully straightforward and worthy advice about what is important to men facing the modern world.