In The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson reaches deep into an ancient Jewish Book of Legends to extract the story of Honi, an eccentric sage who lived outside the walls of Jerusalem just prior to the birth of Jesus. Batterson introduces Honi after his homeland has experienced a year-long drought. He weaves a rich tapestry of hyperbole in which Honi boldy draws a circle, steps inside and begins to pray. First, his prayers result in a tiny sprinkle of rain, then a torrent and finally a gentle shower.

If this were an American Epic, Honi would return home a hero - and so he does in Batterson’s tale. Although Batterson casually mentions that Honi’s return does not quite result in Disney-esque perfection, he seems disinclined to expand on that part of the story the same way he did with Honi’s great miracle.

And therein lies the rub.

The Circle Maker is one more of what I like to call “Christian rah-rah” books, which are to me quite similar to fad diet books. Yes, they may produce some relatively spectacular results at first, but those results usually come at a far higher cost than we realize. Not only are they unsustainable, but if you do sustain them, they can cause incredible damage in the long run. Like so many “prosperity gospel” books, The Circle Maker chooses to focus on the miracle - or how to achieve success - without ever exploring the costs of success. Which are often quite high.

In today’s podcast I talk about how God is not fooled. There are many things man does that he likes to claim are for the glory of God that really aren’t. The problem is, you can achieve success regardless of your motivation but achieving success for yourself will always come at a much higher cost than what we genuinely do for God. God is not deceived and God is not mocked. God always knows exactly why we are really doing what we are doing and who it is really for.

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