When I do something good, am I doing it for pure motives, or am I doing it to impress others or attempt to “earn favour” with God? That is the type of question which Pete Gall keeps asking himself in his autobiographical book My Beautiful Idol. The book tells the story of how Gall left his job with an advertising agency and subsequently worked with a rehabilitation agency, a community centre, a home for developmentally disabled men, and a business which employed ex-convicts.
In reading the book, it is hard to avoid alternating between on the one hand admiration for the author’s raw honesty and the level of scrutiny to which he subjects his own motives, and on the other hand distaste for the way in which the author descends into a paralysis of cynicism and self-doubt. The “idol” from which the author is constantly fleeing is the idolatry of setting himself up in God’s place.
The writing style is reminiscent of Donald Miller. The book is engaging and well written, although sometimes the author provides too much cringe-inducing detail for my liking. It will be helpful in encouraging readers to spend greater efforts questioning their own motives so that they can discover a greater level of humility, in a world in which the most superficial explanation is often accepted without question.