{"id":54,"date":"2010-02-03T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/02\/whats-up-with-the-turtles.html"},"modified":"2010-02-03T07:05:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T07:05:00","slug":"whats-up-with-the-turtles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/02\/whats-up-with-the-turtles.html","title":{"rendered":"What’s Up with the Turtles?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those of you <\/span>who are interested in such things, here’s the back cover copy for O Me of Little Faith<\/span>:<\/p>\n

————-<\/p>\n

True Confessions<\/span><\/p>\n

I am a Christian.<\/span> <\/p>\n

I have been a Christian for most of my life. But there are times\u2014an uncomfortable frequency of times, to be honest\u2014when I’m not entirely sure I believe in God.<\/span> <\/p>\n

There. I said it.<\/span><\/p>\n

From this unconventional profession of faith, Jason Boyett sets off on a journey down a sometimes painful, often hilarious, always honest road of inquisition, searching for a God who occasionally seems to disappear.<\/p>\n

An earnest seeker who clings to faith even as he explores the hiddenness of God, Boyett asks uncomfortable questions — the questions many of us have but dare not say aloud. His willingness to ask these questions have made him immune to over-spiritualized church talk, suspicious of public prayers, and annoyed by too-certain believers who seem to get “personal promptings from Jesus and detailed directions about even the most trivial aspects of their lives.” (Boyett has his doubts.)<\/p>\n

Written for doubters by a doubter, this is not a tidy, 5-step solution for fixing spiritual uncertainty. Nor is it a cynical, anti-religious screed. Instead, it\u2019s a hopeful, confessional exploration of the relationship between faith and doubt. It\u2019s a book loaded with grace, encouragement, humor, and — for what it\u2019s worth — an inordinate number of references to turtles and French daredevils.<\/p>\n

————-<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That’s right: turtles and French daredevils.<\/p>\n

Seriously, the second chapter of the book is pretty much built around turtles as a metaphor for faith. So I have a contest idea. If you can identify what role turtles play in this metaphor — guess the symbolism, the illustration, the object lesson, the literary allusion, or otherwise figure it out — then I’ll send you a free signed copy of Pocket Guide to the Bible<\/span><\/a>. (If you already have PGTTB, I’ll send you something else.)<\/p>\n

Leave your guesses in the comments. The contest closes at 9 am tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 4), at which time I’ll reveal the answer.<\/p>\n

If you have already read the chapter in question, or if I have told you about the turtles, then you are excluded from this contest, cheater.<\/p>\n

Predict away, friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of you who are interested in such things, here’s the back cover copy for O Me of Little Faith: ————- True Confessions I am a Christian. I have been a Christian for most of my life. But there are times\u2014an uncomfortable frequency of times, to be honest\u2014when I’m not entirely sure I believe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contest","category-shameless-self-promotion"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's Up with the Turtles? - O Me of Little Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/02\/whats-up-with-the-turtles.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What's Up with the Turtles? - O Me of Little Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For those of you who are interested in such things, here’s the back cover copy for O Me of Little Faith: ————- True Confessions I am a Christian. 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