Soul Detox

I have just completed reading the latest work by pastor and author Craig Groeschel entitled Soul Detox (subtitled "Clean Living in a Contaminated World"). This book focused on how to face and overcome the sinful "toxins" that we as Christians are faced with on a daily basis. Things like:

• Toxic behaviors - self deception and sinful lifestyles of those in our world.
  
• Toxic emotions - envy, self-hate, anger, fear, anxiety.
  
• Toxic influences - materialism, unhealthy lifestyles of people close to us, "religion" and legalism.
  

While I enjoyed this book and Groeschel's down-to-earth approach, too often it takes an all too predictable path. While he is very astute in describing the various toxins that Christians face in their daily lives, his solutions are the stuff of the completely benign self-help, Christian-lite bookshelf. Step 1: Identify the bad behaviors, the troubling emotions, the problematic influences. Step 2: Just stop being bad or troubled or problematic.

Poof, you are now cured! I am not quite sure how this approach is supposed to work in my life. Having made it into my fifth decade, I carry with me a lot of deeply rooted emotional baggage that just can't be driven out or set aside with a couple of pithy sayings and a funny anecdote.

Now, I realize that my statements here seem quite negative and are tinged with a healthy layer of frustration. But my frustration is not with the author, but more with myself for not being able to get past many of the toxins that afflict my life. However, I would still aver that this book was worth my time in that it made me think and evaluate and reason with myself, it had value in giving me some improved perspective, and led me into some important conversations through prayer. I know several others out there have read this book as well. I would be interested in hearing your opinions.