This book starts with a cheetah story.

The cheetah has been tamed. unwilded. trained.

The story is of Glennon Doyle’s un-training, re-wilding, un-leashing, un-taming and the permission for each of us to do the same.

It feels like a fast-paced write – like she had so much to say she had to get it out quickly and boldly. So many great things to quote, but as a no longer “Christian” this passage hit home:

“I don’t know if I call myself a Christian anymore. That label suggests certainty, and I have none. It suggests the desire to convert others, and that’s the last thing I want to do. It suggests exclusive belonging, and I’m not sure I belong anywhere anymore. Part of me wants to peel that label off, set it down, and try to meet each person soul to soul, without any layers between us.

But I find myself unable to let go fully, because to wash my hands of the Jesus story is to abandon something beautiful to money-hungry hijackers. It would be like surrendering the concept of beauty to the fashion industry or the magic of sexuality to internet porn dealers. I want beauty, I want sex, I want faith. I just don’t want the hijackers’ commodified, poisonous versions. Nor do I want to identify myself with hijackers.

So I will say this: I remain compelled by the Jesus story. Not as history meant to reveal what happened long ago, but as poetry meant to illuminate a revolutionary idea powerful enough to heal and free humanity now.” p 243

This, really, is liberation theology. Read Richard Rohr for more on that.

I give this 4.5/5 stars for inspiration and exploration of new possibilities, some things I needed in the pandemic. Unleash the cheetahs: we can do hard things.