Product Description:

Admit it: you want to be cool.

Cool is a destination: everyone else has arrived, but we can't seem to catch up. Cool is a security blanket: we wear it ragged and hide beneath its tatters. Cool is a coping mechanism: we're all leaning on it, and it keeps breaking down on us.

Sooner or later, we all count ourselves among the uncool: in those moments when everybody gets the joke but us, when the new kid's swagger leaves us self-conscious, when our friends invite us to do what we swore we'd never do.

In those moments God sees us and calls us blessed.

In Blessed Are the Uncool Paul Grant deconstructs the cultural phenomenon of cool, an ever-elusive, exclusionary act of perpetual rebellion for rebellion's sake. A life spent chasing after cool is exposed for the fickle, fruitless and ultimately inauthentic life that it is.

In its place God offers us the beloved community: where exclusion is replaced with love, rebellion is redeemed with hope, and all our elusive longings are answered with faith that in Christ, God is reconciling this uncool world to himself.

My review:

I read this book in small segments. It's a lot of meat to digest. The subtitle of Blessed are the Uncool is "Living Authentically in a World of Show." It describes the gist of the book very well. No one likes fake people, yet we as Christians all struggle with being authentic. We've grown up in a society that loves cool and being uncool is not something any of us strives for. But the author makes an excellent point as he digs up the origin of "cool." Somehow in the process of protecting our own hearts we have distanced ourselves from the hearts of others, and in effect, often distance ourselves from the Lord as well.

Sometimes all it takes is a little playground teasing and we learn to be cool to cope, but at the expense of true relationships. Being a Christian shouldn't be about being "cool" according to Paul Grant, because the crux of being "cool" separates us from one another, and that isn't God's will for the church. The author delves into a variety of subjects to support his belief. I have to say I agree with him and have struggle myself with the whole "cool" image.

This book is about being real. It's about loving people where they hurt most. Most of all it's not redundant (I dislike non-fiction books that repeat the same theme on every page.) I highly recommend Blessed are the Uncool for all people (not just teens) who want to break out of that self-protective attitude and be real with the body of Christ.

Blessed are the Uncool was published by Inter-varsity Press and released in Nov. 2006