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AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

Review

AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

When Kyle Idleman, a teaching pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, asked a bookstore clerk where the self-help section was located, he was suddenly on the receiving end of a funny stare. He was sure the employee was looking him over to assess where he most needed some self-help. Funny though the story is, Idleman reports that a recent article notes there are at least 45,000 self-help books in print today. No matter what you need help with, you’re sure to find at least a few books to help you, well, self-help.

"Idleman has done it again by offering his readers a fresh and crisply written work that moves their hearts and minds out of neutral and into forward motion."

Idleman notes that because everyone knows something is wrong, we’re quick to jump on the six steps to fixing it. He wants to make one thing clear from the very outset: AHA is not a self-help book. In fact, “This journey begins with a rejection of your self’s offer to help.” Instead of self-help, we will be asking God for help, supernatural help that comes when a person experiences that AHA moment. It can happen anytime, anywhere. Even here, right now.

In three-part harmony, Idleman breaks his eye-opening resource into three distinct sections where he discusses the 1-2-3 step process of his AHA formula.

  • Part 1: Sudden Awakening --- when you come to your senses; you are in the middle of a desperate moment; and you have a startling realization.
  • Part 2: Brutal Honesty --- when you start talking to yourself; you might try denying it; or you may attempt to project it by not taking personal responsibility; or you may even minimize it.
  • Part 3: Immediate Action --- it’s time to get up; rejecting passivity; procrastinating by putting it off; defeatism by giving up; the final AHA (and final reckoning).

Idleman shares some funny and not-so-funny stories of people who can be defined by each of these various segments found within the AHA process. Some folks have their AHA moment of realization, in which they recognize they’ve been wrong, make changes, and start growing strong toward what God wants them to become. Others experience the first part of the AHA moment but fall apart somewhere along the line in the brutally honest process, or fail to take immediate action and then wind up right where they started before their AHA moment.

Each chapter is full of lively and sometimes harrowing examples of real folks who messed up, made good, and then remade their lives. Idleman does a terrific job of supplying lots and lots of hope along with his strong admonition to heed God’s call to a holy life. In a world where morals and Godly values are slip sliding away, this book is exactly the kind of boost the church needs. Idleman has done it again by offering his readers a fresh and crisply written work that moves their hearts and minds out of neutral and into forward motion.

Reviewed by Michele Howe on March 24, 2014

AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything
by Kyle Idleman