Thanks to the recent "get one free with any purchase" deal that Borders bookstore was offering, I snagged three audiobooks on CD for free along with my daily cup of coffee. One of those books, and the first I've listened to so far, is
Reposition Yourself by Bishop T.D. Jakes. I'm about 25% of the way through it, and wanted to give my initial impressions of it.
First, I know from my own googling around that Bishop Jakes is often accused of spreading "Christianity Lite" or materialist Christianity. I can understand that, since he does emphasize a lot of wordly concerns. But I also think that this is a necessary part to approaching the audience he targets: that is, an audience that is either drowning in worldly concerns or that feels defeated by them.
That brings me to my second early impression. In the opening segments of the book, Bishop Jakes stages an "intervention" into your life, voicing the concerns of different aspects of a person's personality -- the dreamy side, the spiritual side, the detail-oriented managing side, etc. I found this part of the book to be almost unbearable, to the point that I nearly ditched the book entirely. Whoever Bishop Jakes is talking to in this part of the book, it's somebody
far away from me! These personality traits that are speaking out are speaking to problems that don't weigh me down -- like a lack of motivation for getting out of bed in the morning. I
love my life, though it is full of ups and downs and does plenty to piss me off from time to time. I don't feel these highly critical voices are speaking about my own life, though I know my life and my approach to it are far from perfect. I ended up skipping these parts after listening to the first few minutes of the "intervention." Sorry, Bishop, but I don't feel as bogged down or hopeless as the audience you wrote that chapter for.
Having said all that, the book is pretty inspiring so far. I am actually pretty happy that it is "Christianity Lite," since I am not a Christian and don't feel much benefit from preaching or overly-detailed scriptural analysis. I respect Christianity and find great inspiration in Jesus, as well as many things from the Bible. But I am happy that Bishop Jakes keeps this book conversational and inspirational in an over-arching kind of way.
So, my tentative verdict at this point is that the book is inspiring and very accessible. No matter how good your life is, there's always room for fine-tuning your relationship to it. And sometimes you need a good kick in the pants to put your gears in motion, to "stop talking and start walking," as T.D. Jakes says.
