Close Enough to Hear God Breathe by: Greg Paul

The story of the book, Close Enough to Hear God Breathe by Greg Paul is one of redemption.  Not really the one time redemption that Christians commonly refer to in Christ, but the kind of redemption that continues to happen throughout our lives.  Paul divides his book into five sections:  The Heart of the Matter, Creation, The Fall, Redemption, and Consummation.  His stories are centered around personal anecdotes from his life in ministry as well as from his personal life.  Stories of love, loss, and redemption.

The story that Greg Paul tells in this book is one that is very familiar with Christian books of substitution theologies and personal salvation.  There were some stories and ideas in the book that I could really connect with, and there were others that I could not reach past the theological statements of ‘everything happens for a reason’ to find their redemptive qualities.  Paul often speaks of his own family and people he encounters through his ministry to illustrate his stories.  Often, he offers up a problem, his old thought process, an enlightening personal redemption story, and then a new thought process.  While none of this is necessarily wrong, it becomes predictable and repetitive throughout the book.  I had really wanted to try and like this book but just couldn’t bring myself to.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.