A Touching Memoir

Addie Zierman has written a type of memoir about her life growing up in the legalism of the Evangelical Church.  Her book is entitled, When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love and Starting Over.

Her book is broken into four sections,
Obsession
Disillusion
Rebellion
Redemption

It's the story about Addie's early love and the control he had over her and the wounds she encountered as she did everything she thought she was supposed to do as a young Christian.  She thought she was supposed to do and act in a certain way and if she didn't, for example, her first love made her do 10 push ups every time she was sarcastic, because Jesus was not sarcastic.

If I had to do push ups when I was sarcastic, nobody would be stronger than me.  Her story leads her to push the organized church away, to use alcohol and a coffee house to find what she thinks is community.  Ultimately, this is a story about a young woman with intuition.  She knows something is wrong, but doesn't believe she can act on what she believes is wrong.  There is power in her story, and we see glimmers of grace and hope as she appears to be moving forward in her faith, spirit, and heart. 

In some ways, it's also the story of what many Christians think they should be doing, following rules as opposed to living a life in which we stand out for Christ and make a real and tangible difference in the world.  Overall, this is a good book, an easy read, which many people, especially women, who grew up in the 1990's very well may relate to.

"I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review."