When one is an asthmatic, the first thing one learns to do is to identify allergens and stay away from them.

One afternoon at Borders, I came across a book entitled "When I Don't Desire God" by John Piper. Here, I thought to myself, is a book that at seems to radiate some little pomise of hitting home in me. I browsed through the contents and made an effort to read the first few sentences of the book. Just three sentences into the foreword, part of me wanted to purchase the book.

In the end though, I walked out of Borders with a copy of Ballet for Dummies instead of John Piper's pack of words. Somewhere between the stacks and the counter, the allergic reaction I've developed to words like joy, God, faith, and grace set in and I dropped the book.

Ironically enough, the subtitle for that book is "How to Fight for Joy".