Vantage Point It seems to me that there are a lot of people who want to tell us how to live right. Even in this month’s issue, we share tips on how to be a better team player at work. People everywhere look to others for advice on how to live a better life. There are seemingly so many paths to living right, it can be downright confusing! If we were to conduct “person on the street” interviews at a busy intersection with random people during the course of a lunch hour, I’m con dent we would hear varied and diverse answers to the question, “Who is Jesus?” Perhaps some would say that Jesus was a “good man,” or a “historical prophet,” or even a “loving and compassionate person.” Others might be more dismissing or even ignorant of who the man, Jesus is. This month, we explore a book written by someone who believes in Jesus deeply and wants to reintroduce this Jesus to the rest of the world. Despite what you may or may not already know about Jesus, the author is convinced that when you strip away the veneer, the real Jesus is someone you’ll want to get to know – deeply. We believe that Jesus has the answers to life’s questions and provides true direction for how we ought to live. If you were to embark on a hike in the forest, you’d certainly want to carry with you a compass or ensure that you knew exactly how to nd your way. Jesus offers such direction for your life and we’d like to be able to talk to you about it. @rreardondc hen our daughter, Lauren, was younger, she enjoyed reading books in the “Who Was…?” series. You, know, Who Was Eleanor Roosevelt?, Who Was Anne Frank?, Who Was Harriet Tubman?, Who Was Queen Elizabeth?, etc. We learned a lot from those books. For instance, I wouldn’t have known that Eleanor Roosevelt lied to some nuns as a young girl if I hadn’t read it in the Who Was…? book on her life. My own life would be much less complete if I hadn’t read that at six years old, Ringo Starr had an appendicitis attack, (according to the Who Were The Beatles? book). It can be interesting, even enlightening to learn facts about famous people from books. But, at the end of the book, all we really know is facts about the lives of famous people. Nothing in the reader’s own life is transformed. Reading may be fundamental, but reading is not relationship. John Ortberg’s latest book is not a part of the Who Was…? series my daughter liked so much, (okay, I enjoyed them too). This is a work written by a man who knows a lot of facts about the famous person named Jesus. It’s clear early on, however, that Ortberg believes Jesus to be much more than just the sum of the known facts about His famous life, as impressive as those facts are. The subtitle immediately suggests that there is an answer to the question posed in the title, an answer which will require something of the reader. An alternate subtitle could have been; Wow! I Didn’t See That Coming! Now What Am I Going To Do With What I Know? (not as catchy, I know – that’s why they only let me review books). Ortberg is good at what he does. Any writer who mentions Jesus, Max von Sydow, the Apostle Paul, and Justin Bieber in the same paragraph, quotes G.K. Chesterton twice in the rst chapter, and gives The Salvation Army and William Booth a shout-out (page 43) is okay by me. His approach is not heavy handed. And, while his total trust in and devotion to Jesus leaps off of each page, I felt as though I was being invited into a conversation, as opposed to being indoctrinated into a dogma. It’s hard for me to imagine how someone une interested in Jesus or undecided about who He is uld would react to this book. Having said that, I would mrecommend reading this book yourself or recommending Who Is This Man? to a friend or family es. member who falls into either of those categories. er Here’s why. Jesus has had a lot of bad press over W Who Is The UNPREDICT ABLE Impac Im M T