The Title of My New Book

If you’ve ever driven the interstate through southern Wyoming, you’ll probably notice the billboards appearing at regular intervals touting the virtues of “Little America“, a motel/gas station/restaurant located midway on the long drive from Cheyenne to Salt Lake City.

The purpose of each billboard is clear: gradually build up anticipation for the destination until the moment when motorists approaching exit 68 inexorably find themselves drawn off the interstate and on to discover the wonders of Little America.

Now all we need to do is substitute “Little America” with “my new book” and “billboards” with “blog posts” and here we are.

In this article I provide the next billboard: the title.

Over the last nine months the title has changed several times, from the unwieldy Do you know where you’d go if you died tonight (the so-called “working title”) to the uninspired Finding Salvation with a few other stops in-between.

Then in early June my friend Bob (who had read the manuscript) suggested What’s So Confusing About Grace? And in a flash I knew I had at last found the title.

The allusion is obviously to Philip Yancey’s 1998 book What’s So Amazing About Grace?, a modern classic of big tent, grace-filled Christianity, i.e. the kind of Christianity that is in short supply these days (and most days, alas).

I was a big fan of Yancey’s book when it came out (still am too). Grace is amazing. But it is also confusing, way more confusing than you’d ever expect. And this book tells that story from the perspective of one individual’s forty year journey (that individual being me).

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