A breath of fresh air and a new look at living your life - Rated 
Oh no, not another self-help book. That was my initial fear when picking up this book - subtitled "there's a new way to live." I expected a 7 or 10 step plan to follow to get my life on track. The sort of plan that you can follow for a few days, maybe, and then you give up. Until you buy the next self-help book.
But I was completely wrong - this is the exact opposite. In fact, the first third of this book is describing why this emphasis within the Christian life is wrong and, ultimately, unworkable. Larry Crabb's central theme is that we have all become far too reliant on the "if I do A, then God will do B for me" mindset. We think that if we tithe God will bless us; if we try really hard to be excellent parents our children will grow up godly Christians; if we spend 20 minutes on our quiet time every morning we will become more spiritual. The pressure to live up to a standard is overwhelming, and if we ever fail then we blame ourselves for the consequences; equally if our life doesn't work out right we assume we've not prayed hard enough or done something else correctly. And our motivations here are entirely suspect - we're doing something for our own benefit, to make our lives better, to make people respect us; we are not doing it out of love for God and a desire to come nearer to him on his own terms.
However, this is the "Old Way", the Old Testament mindset. Jesus came to sweep that away as it wasn't working. We can never be good enough, never get everything right; Jesus' new way is different - Hebrew 7:19 "a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God." Becoming closer to God isn't about fulfilling a list of requirements, it's about coming to his fresh and with the understanding that we can't do anything to earn this nearness.
This book is very well written. Like most Christian books I have read recently there is considerable repetition of the central points (to drum them into our over-busy brains, no doubt) but the central point is so different from so many other books that it was worth the drumming!
There's an initial 6-page parable which I found rather odd and didn't add anything to the book for me, but once I started reading the main text I was hooked. I found myself agreeing with so much of what Larry Crabb said, and his examples were regularly taken from himself and his own life, warts and all, which gave it an immediacy and sense of truth that was refreshing. My only disappointment was the section on how to live the new life was harder to grasp - probably because it wasn't a 10-step plan of what to do, quite the reverse. But as a glimpse into a way of drawing closer to God without the baggage of our own performance it was a fascinating and helpful read.
Challenging stuff - Rated 
Not always theologically spot on, and with several amusing americanisms, this book is still worth the money - a powerful challenge to prioritise intimacy with God above any expectancy of blessings, confronting issues of integrity, appearances and guiding to the freedom of grace and mercy found only in that personal relationship.
Read this book! - Rated
This book is truly phenomenal. Every Christian should read it, as should anyone contemplating Christianity. I have read a number of Crabb's books and all have been very helpful. This one is 5 star.
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