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Many people who claim to have had a spiritual experience often talk about “answering the call” or being receptive to God and his message. In this autobiography, the author retells the major events of his life, from growing up in the California projects before the civil rights era to serving in Vietnam and returning home to find his place. Early on, he reveals a vision he received pushing him toward military service but kept hidden from others for fear of being ostracized. On top of this, he continued to live his life in a secular, worldly fashion, believing that before he could give to others and serve, his needs had to be addressed first. And given the general attitudes and racial tensions at this time and beyond, there was much he felt was deserved in order to balance the scales.
Settling into government work and family life, the author kept feeling the intervention of God in his life and entrusted his future to him. Despite the surprising ways this journey would go, he continued to arrive safely where he was meant to be. Eventually, this led to service in a local church, and then finally, seminary after working through the demons of his troubling past. Finally feeling fully ready and receptive to the Word of God, Reverend Cole found a path in his life that fulfilled him through good times and bad. He now shares that journey and its major steps in this book, which paints a vivid picture of the surprising ways life moves and the benefits of a strong spiritual relationship with God.
The down-to-earth nature of the writing in this book and certainly the stories that comprise it keep the core messages from coming from a place of unreachable loftiness. Framed in recent history and in places where many Americans at least have an image in their head of what to expect, small details vividly bring scenes of family tensions and unthinkable combat situations into the same focus and demand the reader’s attention. By following each step in the author’s journey from boyhood to the present, the authenticity of his message rings true. Readers know his successes and failures, and they have an established trust and rapport, all in time for the most important takeaways to be shared and contemplated.
Even in frustrating, difficult moments, the perspective of the author is one that shows how situations mold us into the people we are, which then enables us to act to change a situation. One of the earliest moments of the book details how spending time around his uncles and their varying characters had an effect on him, and how he learned a lot from that situation both about the kind of man he wanted to be but also what he didn’t want to become. That theme of changing identity, goals, and priorities carries throughout the narrative and drives home the idea that it is never too late to steer our lives in the direction we want to be moving in. Like a good sermon, this work is about sharing a common experience or similar ways of dealing with obstacles, and it makes its biggest impact by keeping the audience and author on the same rung rather than having him talk down from a position of authority.