Book Review: The Reason

Book Info

The Reason: How I Discovered a Life Worth Living (Revelations of a Rock Princess) 

by Lacey Sturm 

Summary (from back of book)

The day Lacey Sturm planned to kill herself was the day her old life ended. As an atheist who hated Christians, she thought church was a place for hypocrites, fakers, and simpletons. After a screaming match with her grandmother, she ended up in the back of a sanctuary, hating everyone in the room. But what happened in that room is The Reason she is alive today.

With raw vulnerability, this hard rock princess tells her story of physical abuse, depression, suicidal struggles, and more – and her ultimate salvation. She asks the hard questions – Why am I here? Why am I empty? Why should I go on living? – showing that beyond the temporary highs and the soul-crushing lows is a reason each of us exists and a purpose for our lives.

Background of Author

You may recognize the name Lacey Sturm or maybe her face from a music video you saw one time on Vh1’s Top 20. That’s because she was formerly the lead singer for Christian rock group Flyleaf (All Around Me, I’m So Sick, Fully Alive, etc.) Now, she writes books, speaks, and has a solo music career. She is also a wife and mom.

Why This Book?

One thing that led me to reviewing this book is because of how powerful it was for me. She’s real. This was the first “Christian Lifestyle” book I read that made me cry because I felt understood. In 200 pages, Lacey puts into words things I’ve gone through but never knew how to describe. It was comforting to know that I’m not alone in my struggles, and her powerful language brought alive the things she’s experienced that I can’t relate to. She takes things I have heard for years, and with her descriptions she makes them fresh and provides a different perspective. It is hard to be so vulnerable, but Sturm writes about her past experiences with insights seasoned by time; these allow her to use her own story as a launchpad to teach readers about what she has learned from her shortcomings and successes alike.

Important Aspects

The book is set up as a list of “Reasons” – The Reason I Wanted to Scream, The Reason I’m Alive, The Reason I Sing, e.g. These reasons take readers through different stages in her life that help shape who she became up to the point of her suicide plan. Then the focus shifts to how that plan was foiled and how her reasons for living changed as her worldview did. She doesn’t try to gloss over the parts of her story that are uncomfortable. She talks about very relevant topics that still haunt the youth of today – depression, suicidal ideation, feelings of belonging in sadness, abandonment, toxic relationships, and more. It is important to note that Lacey was a teenager in the 1990s, which is where many of these issues became manifested in the public eye through grunge culture. All these factors work together to place Sturm in a position of authority to write about these difficult topics.

Many people dislike(d) Flyleaf and their contemporaries (Skillet, Thousand Foot Krutch, Disciple, etc.) for their style of ministry; largely criticized is their refusal to exclusively play Christian venues and tours. Critics cite playing alongside secular bands as an agenda to gain mainstream attention and airtime on secular radio. However, such bands often use such venues as an opportunity to reach their secular audience, and often the other bands playing, with the gospel. The thought process behind this type of ministry is discussed briefly in this book, but I do not think that all of Sturm’s specific reasoning is entirely sound. This opinion is based upon my experience with such situations, and some of her thoughts do not prove to be true, at least in what I’ve witnessed, which, admittedly, is very limited. Interestingly, Brian Welch (“Head” from Korn), who has recently professed to be a Christian, wrote the foreword to this book.

Quotes

“I strive to rest in the fact that I am made for a purpose… when we live unafraid we live in the light of love.” (pg 27)

“But darkness stops short of resolution. It’s deceptive. You can’t see all that lurks within darkness. The things that inhabit darkness live there because you can’t see them; that way they can deceive you, pervert you, and ultimately destroy you from the inside out.” (pg 55)

“I had wanted something – anything – to change so badly I was willing to die over it. But I couldn’t imagine anything different than what I had known.” (pg 123)

Conclusion

Read this book to understand things about yourself you never knew. Read it to learn about the internal struggles of today’s youth. Read it to comprehend the ministry of many of today’s Christian music artists. The way it is written brings to life the fascinating, and no doubt providential, testimony of how a girl who didn’t want to live anymore became a woman empowering others to find reasons that their life is one worth living.