This Is Awkward

How Life's Uncomfortable Moments Open the Door to Intimacy and Connection

By: Sammy Rhodes

Narrated by: Webb Wilder

Don’t waste your awkwardness.

The most difficult subjects in our lives are also the ones that we find most uncomfortable to talk about: divorce, body image, sexuality, pornography, or depression. Our awkward silence reveals the gap that exists between what we are and what we know we should be. But God loves those awkward moments, Sammy Rhodes argues, because they are precisely where we find connection with God and one another.

In This Is Awkward, Rhodes talks directly, honestly, hilariously about the most painfully uncomfortable subjects in our lives. In chapters like “Parents Are a Gift (You Can’t Return Them)” and “The Porn in My Side,” he boldly goes where most of us fear to tread, revealing that we can be liberated by the embrace of a God who knows the most shameful things about us and loves us all the same. Because nothing is too awkward for God.

This was awkward lived up to its name

I am a true introvert and found myself laughing out loud to Sammy's descriptions of introverts and how to survive. He has a gift of telling stories and bringing truth to hard subjects. I enjoyed being awkward with Sammy Rhodes in this book my only wish is that he would have read it himself. I think that would have made this book much better to have his own voice telling his stories.

An Amazingly Brutally Honest Book

What did you like best about this story?

This book is well worth the read. Sammy reveals more about his struggles in this book than probably any other Christian book I've ever read, and that's what makes this book shine. He puts it all out there and I think it can only lead others struggling with the same issues towards healing. This is a book we should all read. The church is in need of this kind of refreshing honesty.

Any additional comments?

I will mention, however, that this book is a bit all over the place. I don't necessarily catch the theme, even in ties to the title. Each chapter kind of stands on its own. This doesn't make it a bad book by any means though. And while I like the pop culture references, they happen so often that some of them feel made for the sake of being made.